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  • MIL-OSI USA: Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore, Rhode Island State Archives Open New Exhibit on State Institutions in Rhode Island History

    Source: US State of Rhode Island

    PROVIDENCE, RI � Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore and the Rhode Island State Archives today announced the opening of a new State Archives exhibit, A Good for the Public: Public Social Welfare in Rhode Island.

    The exhibit explores the physical spaces State institutions occupied and offers insight into the experiences of the Rhode Islanders who relied on these services. From the “Dark Days of Social Welfare,” to the advent of improved oversight and patient care, the records of the State Archives help tell part of this complex story.

    The exhibit includes artifacts and records spanning correctional facilities, children’s homes, schools for individuals with disabilities, and public welfare commissions. In addition to State Archives records, the exhibit features physical artifacts on loan from The Public Archaeology Lab, Inc. and the State of Rhode Island.

    The exhibit is free and open to the public during State Archives business hours, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and will be displayed until December 2025. Appointments are not required.

    The State Archives is home to more than 10 million letters, photographs, and important state documents that form a permanent, tangible record of Rhode Island’s rich history. Visitors to the Archives can access vital records, census data, historical manuscripts and documents, and more. Many artifacts and documents have also been digitized and are available in the State Archives online catalog at https://catalog.sos.ri.gov/ and Digital Archives. To learn more about the State Archives, visit https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/state-archives.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Frank Elderson: What good supervision looks like

    Source: European Central Bank

    Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the 24th Annual International Conference on Policy Challenges for the Financial Sector

    Washington DC, 12 June 2025

    It’s a pleasure to be here with you today. The theme of this conference – harnessing regulatory standards to empower supervision – is not only timely, but also central to how we think about the future of prudential oversight. Across jurisdictions, supervisors are rethinking how best to align regulation and supervision: making them more targeted, more agile in addressing today’s risk landscape and more efficient, all while remaining effective and credible.

    At the same time, a broader debate is emerging – about whether supervisory authorities have taken on too much, whether the expectations placed on banks have grown too great, and whether more restraint might now be warranted. This debate touches on core questions about the scope, the approach and the limits of supervision.

    In this context, it is worth taking a step back and revisiting some of the foundational principles that shape how we think about our role. The principles that are well established in the work of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are widely adopted by supervisors around the world.

    It is with these principles that I would like to begin.

    Widely held views on the proper scope of supervision

    Good supervision begins with clarity about our role.

    There is broad consensus – and rightly so – that banking supervision must remain anchored in a clear and limited mandate. Supervisors are not political actors. It is not their task to advance broader social or environmental objectives or, for that matter, any political goals unrelated to financial stability.

    They are not there to take control of banks or to substitute their judgement for that of banks’ senior management.

    They are not there to steer credit towards or away from any particular sectors or customers based on political or social preferences.

    They are not there to police business models based on popularity or public sentiment.

    Supervisors’ responsibility is to ensure that the institutions they oversee remain safe and sound so they can support the real economy in both good and bad times.

    This means that the supervisory function must remain focused. Its role is to assess whether banks have sufficient capital and liquidity, whether they are adequately identifying and managing material financial and non-financial risks, and whether they have the capacity to absorb losses and continue to remain resilient under a range of scenarios

    And we must recognise the limits of supervision[1]. A well-functioning financial system also crucially hinges on market discipline where Investors and creditors must bear the consequences of risk decisions, for instance through bail-in. If supervision were expected to prevent all failures, it could become overly intrusive, unduly conservative and ultimately ineffective.

    These principles – a clear mandate, focus and institutional discipline – are widely accepted as the foundation of prudential oversight. They serve as guard rails against overreach and politicisation.

    What banking failures have taught us about risk boundaries

    The principles I just outlined are generally accepted. They form the bedrock of modern prudential supervision. But what we are seeing today is the tendency of some to interpret those principles narrowly – to argue that supervision must confine itself strictly to balance sheet metrics and refrain from probing deeper into the qualitative foundations of a bank’s risk profile.

    Such an approach would run counter to the direction supervisors have taken, with good reason, in the years since the global financial crisis. Such a constrained view of supervision risks making the banking system less safe, not more. It could elevate form over substance, delay intervention until consequences have materialized, and dismiss the early warning signs that rarely appear in quantitative metrics alone.

    In truth, the supervisory community has spent the past 15 years broadening its field of vision, from a narrow lens focused on capital and liquidity to a wide-angle view that encompasses a broader concept of resilience. This broadening of vision was not a coincidence – it was developed based on the painful lessons of past crises.[2] We have learned – often the hard way – that safety and soundness cannot be assured by compliance with minimum capital requirements alone. We have seen that institutions can meet all formal thresholds while concealing deep-seated governance failures, weak risk cultures and flawed assumptions about their operating environment. Failures are often rooted in unresolved qualitative weaknesses, such as poor governance and flawed business models, that go unaddressed until too late, despite compliance with capital and liquidity requirements.[3]

    As a result, supervisory effectiveness has come to increasingly depend on the ability to identify and address these underlying drivers of risk. These insights have not led to a broadening of the supervisory mandate, but to a more focused understanding of how that mandate must be exercised in practice. Where risk arises – whether in capital and liquidity, governance or internal control functions – it falls squarely within the scope of prudential oversight.

    What safety and soundness actually require

    To take safety and soundness seriously is to recognise that resilience depends on more than capital ratios or liquidity buffers. Over the past decades, after carefully looking at the root causes of various banking crises, supervisors have adopted a broader view on banks’ resilience beyond financial metrics. Governance and risk culture, operational resilience and structural risk drivers such as climate-related risks now form an indispensable component of the Basel Core Principles for effective banking supervision – the gold standard of supervisory practice around the globe.[4] The Core Principles are a playbook that supervisors across the world follow when adopting and assessing their own supervisory rules.

    Governance and risk culture

    Let me start with governance. Supervisory experience consistently shows that weaknesses in governance and risk management are not secondary concerns – they are among the most common root causes of prudential failures.

    Although Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers, Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse failed for different reasons, they shared a common underlying weakness: fundamental failures in internal governance, risk culture and risk management.[5] Time and again, it is governance failures that allow underlying risks to build up unchecked until they manifest in capital and liquidity. In that sense, weak governance is often the earliest and most reliable warning sign that an institution is heading for trouble.

    The conclusion is clear: governance, risk culture and sound risk management are not peripheral issues. They are at the core of prudential oversight. They affect the quality of strategic decisions, the timeliness of remediation and, ultimately, the soundness of banks.[6] Weakening supervisory attention to governance would mean overlooking a key driver of both success and failure. As governance is often the root cause, it is neither effective nor efficient to focus only on the symptoms of risk while ignoring what lies beneath.

    Operational resilience

    The same goes for operational resilience: in an environment marked by rising cyber threats and technology disruptions, financial strength alone is no longer sufficient to ensure that banks can continue serving their customers without interruption.

    Recent episodes have made this clear. For example, Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) – a Dutch bank owned by a Russian parent – was not under stress due to capital or liquidity issues. But when international sanctions were imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ATB abruptly lost access to its IT systems, which were run by third-party providers. Lacking sufficient contingency arrangements, it could no longer operate. Despite being financially sound, the bank was forced to shut down – a stark illustration of how operational fragility can lead to failure.

    Encouragingly, supervisory frameworks have responded accordingly. Operational resilience and cyber risks are now at the heart of the work of the Basel Committee, the FSB and many supervisors around the globe.[7]Operational resilience is also a priority area for European banking supervision. For instance, the ECB is conducting targeted reviews of banks’ cyber risk preparedness, outsourcing governance and operational continuity planning. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which became applicable in the EU earlier this year, will help further boost operational resilience as it provides a robust framework that requires banks to foster a culture of continuous IT and cyber risk management.[8]

    Structural risk drivers

    Certain external risk drivers have a direct impact on the traditional risk categories in the prudential framework. Two such drivers – climate and nature-related risks and geopolitical risks – have therefore become increasingly relevant to banking supervision around the world. But they are not new categories of risk. Rather, they are risk drivers, operating through established channels – credit, market, operational, liquidity, legal and reputational – and influencing the scale, distribution and dynamics of risks on banks’ balance sheets.[9]

    Thanks largely to the pioneering work of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), climate-related risks now feature prominently in the work programmes of major international standard-setting bodies such as the Basel Committee, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures and the FSB. The NGFS has now grown to 145 central banks and supervisors from around the world who all acknowledge that climate-related risks are a relevant driver of financial risk and therefore fall squarely within the mandate of supervisors.[10]

    Physical risks such as extreme weather events like floods, droughts and forest and city fires can damage companies’ production facilities and people’s homes. This can affect loan repayment capacity which, in turn, can lead to higher credit risk for the bank that provided the loan. Transition risks – driven by changes in regulation, technology or market preferences – can result in stranded assets and expose banks to litigation or reputational harm.[11]

    We can already see the effects of the twin climate and nature crises: think about the devastating fires in Los Angeles leading to damages estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars. Remember the floods in the Spanish region of Valencia resulting in around €17 billion worth of damage or the heavy rains in Slovenia that washed away 16% of the country’s GDP.

    So when I see devastating floods like those in Slovenia or Spain, or wildfires like those in Los Angeles as a supervisor I see risk increasing. As a supervisor I see collateral being washed away or going up in flames.

    So, crucially, climate and nature-related risks are not a policy objective for supervision. They are a risk driver that influences the scale and shape of exposures across all major risk categories in the Basel framework. Ignoring them would mean failing to account for a material determinant of financial soundness. Ignoring them, therefore, would be a very political thing to do.

    Another example of a structural driver of traditional risk categories are geopolitical events. Their probability distribution is not straightforward due to a lack of historical data, and they often interact with existing vulnerabilities in ways that defy linear stress assumptions. Consequently, European Banking Supervision has taken steps to make sure are resilient to these risks[12].

    Global guidance on effective supervision: the role of the IMF and the Basel Committee

    Much of what we now consider to be established supervisory practice has been shaped by the consistent contributions of institutions like the IMF and the Basel Committee. Their work has helped clarify the foundations of effective supervision and provided the analytical tools to respond to evolving risk environments. The IMF and the World Bank have played a critical role in advancing supervisory thinking and practice in both developed and developing economies. Through their Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), they have provided policymakers in these countries with structured, comparative evaluations of supervisory frameworks and, perhaps more importantly, concrete recommendations to improve the effectiveness of their regulatory and supervisory frameworks. These assessments offer a rare combination of technical depth, candour and cross-jurisdictional perspective. FSAPs challenge complacency, encourage alignment with international standards and good practices, and highlight structural gaps that may not be visible from within.

    More specifically, in the context of the EU, the IMF played a pivotal role during the euro area crisis by identifying the most pressing institutional and governance shortcomings that needed to be fixed. Ultimately, the creation of the banking union, with a common resolution framework and a single supervisor, addressed many of the deficiencies that IMF reports had clearly identified. Crucially, the IMF’s credibility, grounded in the rigour of its analysis, helped galvanise the political will needed to act – strengthening both Europe’s financial architecture and the European project as a whole.

    The second euro area FSAP is currently being concluded. We look forward to engaging with the IMF’s assessment of banking supervision in the euro area and its recommendations for further improving our practices. The first euro area FSAP, which was completed in 2018, resulted in a number of important recommendations in areas such as the governance of European banking supervision, the harmonisation of national legislation and the supervision of liquidity risk. These recommendations helped raise the bar in terms of how we supervise European banks.

    In recent years, the IMF’s work on supervisory culture and effectiveness – including the paper “Good Supervision: Lessons from the Field”[13] – has further improved our understanding of what makes supervision work in practice. It underscores the importance of a clear mandate, operational independence, timely intervention, and sound internal governance within supervisory authorities themselves. What makes this work particularly valuable is that it draws on the IMF’s experience across a wide range of jurisdictions, bringing together practical lessons from different supervisory contexts.

    Together, the IMF and the Basel Committee have provided both external discipline and internal structure. They have helped ensure that supervisory frameworks evolve in a way that is coherent, risk-sensitive and globally aligned. In doing so, they have contributed significantly to the stability and credibility of the post-crisis supervisory landscape.

    Five pillars of good supervision

    It is now widely accepted that supervision must consider a wider range of risk factors – including governance, operational resilience and structural risk drivers. This has been the consensus for some time, and recent events have only reinforced it. But with this broader scope comes a responsibility to maintain operational discipline. Supervision must remain risk-focused, calibrated and effective.

    In this context, a growing international consensus around five core supervisory pillars has emerged. These pillars provide a practical foundation for supervision that is both risk-sensitive and institutionally grounded.

    1. Risk-based and forward-looking

    Supervision must focus on the risks that matter most. That means identifying vulnerabilities before they materialise and assessing whether banks can remain resilient under adverse but plausible scenarios.

    This includes risk areas that may be sensitive in some jurisdictions. Climate and nature-related financial risks, for instance, should be assessed not because of their policy implications, but because they are material drivers of credit, market, operational, legal and other types of risk. Concealing them will not make them disappear. And ignoring them will not make them less of a threat. Risk-based supervision therefore does not differentiate between risks on the basis of political tides. It addresses material risks to make sure that banks remain safe and sound.

    2. Judgement-based and engaged

    Effective supervision relies not just on facts, figures and fundamentals, but also on professional judgement applied with independence. Supervisors must be close enough to understand the bank’s risk environment yet far enough to challenge management assumptions where needed.

    This involves connecting data points across silos, probing for root causes rather than symptoms, and escalating issues promptly when risk management responses fall short. Supervision is not passive monitoring – it is active, structured and engaged oversight, compelling banks to improve where necessary.

    3. Independent and accountable

    Supervisors must be operationally independent in order to challenge the banks they oversee – including on sensitive or strategic issues. Independence must be matched by accountability. This means being transparent about the reasons for decisions, open to scrutiny and prepared to explain both action and inaction.

    It also means learning from times when intervention was insufficient or too slow. The credibility of the supervisory function depends on public trust, and that trust rests on a clear sense of institutional responsibility: the willingness to own decisions, acknowledge missteps and continuously improve the way the supervisory mandate is fulfilled.

    4. Calibrated and consistent

    Supervision must be tailored to the size, complexity and risk profile of the bank – but with consistent expectations across the system. Smaller banks are subject to less frequent scrutiny, but not to lower prudential standards.

    Consistency also means applying expectations in a comparable way over time and across supervisory teams and jurisdictions.

    5. Action-oriented and enforceable

    Supervision must lead to change where change is needed. Supervisors need not only the analytical capacity to detect risk, but also the powers, ability and willingness to act to make sure that findings are addressed in a timely manner. The turmoil of March 2023 underscored the cost of delay when known weaknesses remain unresolved.

    A structured escalation framework is essential. Supervisors must define proportionate and time-bound remediation paths – and be prepared to move from moral suasion to enforcement with formal, legally binding requirements when necessary. For example, in our experience within European banking supervision, supervisors often identify issues that banks themselves recognise and address promptly. In such cases, moral suasion works well, and the matter is resolved quickly and constructively. But there are times when moral suasion alone is not enough – or only proves effective because banks are aware that supervisors also have more intrusive tools available.

    Legal risk must be assessed, but must not be used as an excuse for inaction. Supervisory decisions must be defensible – and where challenged, they must be upheld or clarified through institutional processes and where annulled due to a different judicial interpretation of the law, lessons are drawn from that experience. A functioning enforcement culture is essential for timely remediation and systemic resilience. Supervisors should not shy away from using all the tools at their disposal – even the more severe tools – if necessary.[14]

    Taken together, these five pillars provide a coherent model for effective supervision in a complex and fast-changing financial environment. They enable supervisors to address the full range of material risks while maintaining predictability and institutional discipline.

    This is not about expanding the supervisory mandate. It is about delivering on the mandate in a way that reflects the realities of modern banking and the expectations of those we serve.

    Supervision and simplification

    The theme of this conference – harnessing regulatory standards to empower supervision – captures a central challenge for all supervisory authorities: how to ensure that regulation and supervision work in concert, not at cross purposes. Across the supervisory community, there is growing momentum to simplify regulatory and supervisory processes. This reflects both external expectations – including calls to reduce the administrative burden – and internal recognition that supervisory efficiency is essential to credibility.

    At the ECB, we are actively working to make our own supervisory processes more targeted, streamlined and risk-focused.[15] Simplifying supervisory processes is not only compatible with effective supervision – it is a precondition for sustained effectiveness in a more complex and resource-constrained environment.

    At the same time, simplification needs to be understood in its proper context. A more efficient supervisory process does not imply a higher tolerance for unresolved risk. It does not mean overlooking persistent deficiencies, delaying action or avoiding the use of intrusive tools when they are warranted. Risk-based supervision requires prioritisation – but prioritisation must not become passivity.

    To that end, the ECB is taking practical steps to make supervision more efficient and focused. We have streamlined our core processes so that supervisors can concentrate on the most important issues and give banks clearer, earlier guidance.[16]

    But simplification must not mean reduced vigilance. It requires a supervisory mindset that empowers individuals to exercise judgement, to make decisions and to feel confident in doing so. When risks are identified and remediation is slow or insufficient, supervisors must be prepared to act in a timely manner, using the full range of tools available.

    Simplification and strong supervision are not contradictory. In a changing political and financial environment, maintaining the right balance between them will be critical. When properly aligned, they enable a supervisory model that is both efficient and effective – capable of adapting to new risks, while upholding public confidence in the stability of the system.

    Conclusion

    Let me conclude.

    Over the past two decades, supervision has adopted a more comprehensive view of banks’ resilience. This progress has not been accidental. It has been driven by the experience – at times costly and painful – that financial resilience alone does not reduce the likelihood of banks failing. Prudential oversight must therefore also cover the structural and behavioural factors that affect banks’ resilience.

    Today, that progress is being questioned. Some argue that supervision has adopted a too broad view. That the best course of action would be to narrow the scope, defer more to market incentives and lighten supervisory intervention. These arguments often invoke restraint – but in practice, they risk taking us back to a model that proved insufficient.

    The task now is not to do more for the sake of doing more. Nor is it to step back in the name of simplicity. The task is to act decisively and proportionately on the risks that matter. To maintain a supervisory approach that is clear, consistent and enforceable. And to ensure that simplification leads to sharper focus – not diminished resolve.

    Let us therefore ensure we do not allow the lessons of past crises to disappear in the rear-view mirror.

    Let us resist the temptation to lower the guardrails, thinking that “this time will be different”, the phrase so poignantly coined in Reinhart and Rogoff’s “Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”.[17]

    Let us, for once, avoid such folly and sidestep that all-too-attractive trap.

    Thank you for your attention.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Leader of Multi-State Polydrug Trafficking Organization Sentenced to Nearly Two Decades in Prison for Drug Conspiracy, Illegal Possession of Firearms, and Money Laundering

    Source: US FBI

    BOSTON – A Lawrence man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for leading a large-scale drug trafficking organization that distributed fentanyl, fentanyl analogue and cocaine.

    Joseph Correa, 35, was sentenced by on Friday, June 6, 2025, by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley to 18 years in prison and five years of supervised release. In November 2024, Correa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and other controlled substances; possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

    Correa was a target of a long-term investigation into a network of fentanyl and cocaine distributors based in and around Lawrence. The investigation showed that Correa obtained fentanyl from local suppliers, and that he and co-defendants and brothers Jose Martinez and Luis Martinez regularly traveled to Puerto Rico to purchase wholesale quantities of cocaine, which they mailed to addresses in New England for redistribution in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Correa employed co-defendants, as well as an uncharged co-conspirator, to store and process drugs at their residences and to distribute drugs on his behalf. Correa was regularly intercepted over court-authorized wiretaps discussing distribution of fentanyl and cocaine and obtaining, possessing and using firearms. He and co-defendant Mayi Rosario conspired to launder drug proceeds via various financial transactions and purchases. During the course of the investigation, fluorofentanyl, fentanyl, cocaine and drug proceeds were seized from Correa and his associates and from packages mailed by or for Correa. On Dec. 15, 2021, Correa was arrested in Caguas, Puerto Rico. At the time of his arrest, Correa was holding a loaded firearm that had a Glock slide and a privately manufactured grip, and that had been converted into a fully automatic weapon.

    In May 2024, Jose Martinez was sentenced to 90 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release. In February 2025, Luis Martinez was sentenced to five years in prison and four years of supervised release. In August 2024, Rosario was sentenced to 30 months in prison, to be followed by one year of home detention and 26 months of supervised release.

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England; and Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Lawrence Police Department; U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Massachusetts State Police; Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Essex County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine Ferguson and J. Mackenzie Duane of the Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.

    This operation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Justice Department Files Lawsuit to Stop New York’s Unlawful “Protect Our Courts Act” from Obstructing Immigration Enforcement

    Source: United States Attorneys General 10

    WASHINGTON – On Thursday, the United States filed a complaint against the State of New York, challenging state policies that blocked immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses. Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield. This law and accompanying polices violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because they obstruct the execution of federal immigration authorities.

    “Lawless sanctuary city policies are the root cause of the violence that Americans have seen in California, and New York State is similarly employing sanctuary city policies to prevent illegal aliens from apprehension,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law.”

    New York’s law comes after Executive Order 10866, Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border, which directs the Department of Homeland of Security to issue guidelines for the safe and effective enforcement of immigration laws around the country, specifically at or near courthouses. As is true in all types of law enforcement, conducting an arrest at or near a courthouse often reduced the risk of flight and potential safety risks to the public, law enforcement officers, and targets themselves due to the enhanced security screenings in place at courthouses. New York’s law runs counter to common sense and endangers communities by eliminating safe places for law enforcement officers to act.

    As explained in the complaint, filed by newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, “Through these enactments, New York obstructs federal law enforcement and facilitates the evasion of federal law by dangerous criminals, notwithstanding federal agents’ statutory mandate to detain and remove illegal aliens.”

    This is the latest in several lawsuits the Department of Justice has filed challenging state interference with immigration enforcement. In May, the Department sued several New Jersey cities who had enacted sanctuary policies.

    Read the full complaint HERE.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The big Musk v Trump break-up: what the polls say about who the public thinks won

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex

    Many people thought that the close relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk would end badly, since they both have the hubris that comes from success and power. One is arguably the most powerful politician in the world and the other the richest man.

    That said, most people were not prepared for the rapid breakdown in their relationship and the slanging match that took place after Musk spectacularly fell out with the US president. This was magnified by the fact that both have their own influential social media sites (X and Truth Social) and so the divorce was very, very public.

    More recently Musk has rowed back on the comments he made about Trump after leaving his role as a “special government employee” of the administration, and says he went “too far”. But Trump might have a long memory for grievances, so it remains to be seen if the relationship can be patched up.

    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.

    What do the American people think? The chart below shows the percentage of respondents with favourable and unfavourable opinions of Trump and Musk in the most recent US Economist/YouGov poll completed on June 9 after the row blew up.

    It is clear that the most people think that Trump won the contest, giving him a favourability gap (% favourable minus % unfavourable) of minus 10% compared with Musk’s gap of minus 23%.

    What Americans think of Trump and Musk after their row:


    Author’s graph based on Economist polling., CC BY-SA

    The demographics of these favourability judgements are particularly interesting. After the row, around 49% of men thought favourably of Trump, compared with 38% of women, continuing a trend that shows more male than female support for the president. But the gender gap for Musk is even wider with 43% men and only 27% women having a favourable view of the billionaire, making the gap 11% for Trump and 16% for Musk.

    Another interesting demographic is age. Some 35% of 18-to-29 year olds favour Trump (the lowest number of any age group), compared with 30% who favour Musk. The equivalent figures for the over 65s are 45% favouring Trump and 37% Musk. The age divide is wide, with young Americans disliking both more than older Americans, but it is not as wide as the gender gap.

    The income figures and attitudes to both are surprising. A total of 38% of those with incomes less than US$50,000 (£36,700) a year favour Trump, compared with 51% of those with incomes between US$50,000 and US$100,000. The surprise is that only 42% of those with incomes greater than US$100,000 favour Trump, making affluent Americans closer to the low-income group than to the middle-income group in attitudes to the president.

    The equivalent figures for Musk are 32% favourable in the US$50,000 group, 39% in the US$50,000 to US$100,000 group and 36% in the US$100,000+ group, which gives a similar picture.

    If we look at the voting record of the survey respondents in the presidential elections last year, 86% of Trump voters still have a favourable view of him, compared with only 5% of Harris voters. In comparison 67% of Republican voters are favourable to Musk, compared with 10% of Democrats. Equally, 81% of Conservatives favour Trump compared with 67% who favour Musk.

    Looking at the overall picture Musk is the loser in the row as far as the American public are concerned, and this may in part explain his apparent contrition.

    The price of Tesla shares (US$) since the presidential election:


    Author’s graph based on data from Yahoo finance., CC BY

    Overall though, Trump has been gradually losing support on his job approval since the election and the polling shows that 43% of respondents approve and 52% disapprove of his performance as president.

    We don’t have equivalent figures for Musk, but if we take the stock market price of Tesla shares as a guide to his approval ratings this has declined rapidly over time as the chart shows. On December 17 last year the price was US$480 (£353) per share, compared with US$332 per share on June 11 2025. This represents a fall of about 30%. The dramatic dip at the end of the series is an indicator of how markets have reacted to the spat between them.

    Following his public break-up with Trump, Musk’s other major company, Space X, is also likely to face fallout. It is a private company and so does not have a share price, but it is heavily dependent on contracts from the US government to keep going. It seems likely that the flow of contracts for space projects is likely to dry up following the row with Trump, as the president has suggested.

    Overall, Musk has paid a heavy price for becoming such a visible Trump supporter and subsequently falling out with him. And, so far, the public appears to be on Trump’s side.

    Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC.

    – ref. The big Musk v Trump break-up: what the polls say about who the public thinks won – https://theconversation.com/the-big-musk-v-trump-break-up-what-the-polls-say-about-who-the-public-thinks-won-258841

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Video: UK How can we protect young people online? | Inside Lords Questions

    Source: United Kingdom UK House of Lords (video statements)

    Did you catch our latest highlight from Lords questions?

    Members pressed the government on its plans to protect young people from online harms. In this new episode of Inside Lords Questions, we catch up with Baroness Berger to hear why she raised the issue and what action she wants to see the government take to better protect young people online.

    Watch the question in full, hear questions from other Lords members on the topic and see how the government responded https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5BJ9_WbZEY

    Look out for future episodes of Inside Lords Questions where we’ll speak to different members about the questions they raise to government. Catch up on previous episodes https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLilBYVf0P9abs7iH2ILMKNy1zWa5xHFB5

    Lords questions takes place every sitting Monday to Thursday, and gives members a chance to check and challenge government decisions and actions. We share a highlight from Lords questions every week on our YouTube channel. Check out the playlist to watch other highlights from the chamber https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLilBYVf0P9aZoiEwSE6UPEONWXhEkqmdc

    Catch-up on House of Lords business:

    Watch live events: https://parliamentlive.tv/Lords
    Read the latest news: https://www.parliament.uk/lords/

    Stay up to date with the House of Lords on social media:

    • X: https://twitter.com/UKHouseofLords
    • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/houseoflords.parliament.uk
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    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: North Prospect regeneration earns honours at regional awards

    Source: City of Plymouth

    (l-r) Nick Nackson, Executive Director of Business Services and Development at PCH; Neil Mawson, Housing Delivery Mananger; Carly Francis, Area Planning Manager and Paul Barnard, Service Director for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure collect the awards

    A bold regeneration project in Plymouth has been crowned Best Project at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) South West Awards for Planning Excellence — and has also taken home the coveted Overall Best in Region title.

    Delivered in partnership between Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) and the Council, the transformational regeneration of North Prospect, the largest scheme of its kind in the South West, began in 2012 and has completely reshaped the area.

    Over the course of the project, nearly 800 homes in poor condition were demolished and replaced with more than 1,100 high-quality, energy-efficient homes.

    The new neighbourhood offers a better variety of house types, sizes, and tenures, creating a more inclusive and sustainable community.

    Councillor Chris Penberthy, Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities at Plymouth City Council, said: “This award is a testament to the vision, dedication, and hard work of everyone involved in the North Prospect regeneration.

    “It’s not just about bricks and mortar — it’s about creating a thriving, inclusive community where people are proud to live.
    “We’re thrilled to see this project recognised at a regional level and excited to see it go forward to the national stage.”

    In total, the project has delivered 491 new homes for affordable and social rent, and 195 homes for shared ownership, creating a total of 686 affordable homes—exceeding the 605 socially rented homes previously in the area.

    In addition, PCH refurbished a further 300 social rented homes, ensuring that existing residents also benefited from the improvements.

    The project’s success is a testament to the power of collaboration and long-term vision in urban planning. It now advances to the national RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence, with finalists to be announced in October.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Cabinet assures nation of the monitoring of new COVID variant

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Thursday, June 12, 2025

    Cabinet has assured South Africans that government, through the Department of Health, is closely monitoring the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, known as Nimbus or NB.1.8.1.

    “Cabinet calls on all citizens to ensure good hygiene practices, including avoiding unnecessary hand shaking, washing hands with soap, covering the mouth when coughing, using a mask when one has flu and staying home when one is not feeling well,” Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Thursday, in Cape Town.

    This as the virus is associated with a rise in cases in certain regions of Asia.

    “During the COVID-19 pandemic, we demonstrated that through these simple measures we could reduce the spread of respiratory illness.”

    The Minister was briefing members of the media on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, 11 June 2025.

    According to Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South Africa has robust surveillance systems that is managed by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

    READ | SA closely monitoring new COVID variant spreading across Asia

    The NICD manages a comprehensive sentinel surveillance programme that systematically tests for key respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and RSV. Currently, data show very low SARS-CoV-2 activity. –SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Security: West Columbia Man Indicted for Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — A federal grand jury in Greenville returned a 10-count indictment against Robert John May III, 38, of West Columbia, for distributing child sexual abuse material.*

    According to court documents and statements made in court, in April 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber-tip from the social messaging app Kik. Kik flagged several videos from the username “joebidennnn69” as containing child sexual abuse. Investigators connected the account to the home IP address and mobile device of May and identified at least 10 videos depicting child sexual abuse that were shared from the account.

    May faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison with a minimum of five years, a fine of $250,000, and a term of at least five years of supervised release to follow any term of imprisonment.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

    The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Matthews and Dean Secor are prosecuting the case with Austin M. Berry of the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section.

    All charges in the indictment are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    ###

    * The term “child pornography” is currently used in federal statutes and is defined as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a person less than 18 years old. While this phrase still appears in federal law, “child sexual abuse material” is preferred, as it better reflects the abuse that is depicted in the images and videos and the resulting trauma to the child. The Associated Press Stylebook also discourages the use of the phrase “child pornography.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Drone Industry Applauds AUVSI Advancing U.S. Leadership in Drones Operations Putting Spotlight on Drone Stocks

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    PALM BEACH, Fla., June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media Group News Commentary – Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) applauded executive orders advancing U.S. leadership in drones on what they called an historic day for advanced aviation. AUVSI represents leaders from more than 60 countries across industry, government, and academia in the defense, civil and commercial sectors. AUVSI has long advocated for many of these reforms through active engagement with the White House, public comments, Congressional testimony, and federal agency engagement. An outpouring of support from AUVSI member companies highlights the strong industry consensus on the Executive Orders and their significance for the future of autonomous aviation. Active Companies in the markets today include ZenaTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSE American: UMAC), AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), RTX Corporation (NYSE: RTX).

    Example of the key provisions of the AUVSI executive orders include: BVLOS Expansion and Drone Integration Acceleration: Directs the FAA to enable routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations for commercial and public safety missions, and to accelerate development, testing, and scaling of U.S. drone technologies, including advanced air mobility and autonomous systems. — Updated UAS Integration Roadmap: Calls for the FAA to publish a revised roadmap for the integration of civil UAS into the National Airspace System, reflecting updated capabilities and timelines. — Domestic Drone Industrial Base Strengthening: Prioritizes U.S.-manufactured UAS in federal procurement, promotes their export, and takes steps to protect critical drone technologies from foreign exploitation. — Supporting the Warfighter and Airspace Access: Improves access to high-performance, U.S.-made drones for military use and streamlines airspace and spectrum access to better support national security missions. — Detection and Tracking Authorities & Grants: Authorizes federal agencies to use existing legal authorities to detect, track, and identify drones and drone signals; and allows state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) agencies to access grant programs for related detection technologies.

    ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA) ZenaDrone to File Patent and Accelerate Deployment of Counter-UAS Technology on the ZenaDrone 1000 in Response to US Executive Order – ZenaTech, Inc. (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) (“ZenaTech”), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, today announces its subsidiary ZenaDrone’s intent to file a patent and accelerate the deployment of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (Counter-UAS) technology, to be mounted on the company’s flagship ZenaDrone 1000 drone platform in response to a new executive order policy directive. Counter-UAS technology refers to tools or systems that can detect, track, or mitigate unauthorized or dangerous drones to protect people, property, and airspace.

    ZenaDrone’s technology for this was originally designed last year but was placed on hold as the company prioritized other commercial and defense applications. However, the recent policy directive on Counter-UAS contained in the June 6th, 2025, White House Executive Order, ‘Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty’, has clarified the urgency and importance of bringing effective drone defense solutions to market. In response, ZenaDrone is accelerating development and commercialization efforts to meet growing domestic and international demand.

    “We developed our Counter-UAS system with future threats in mind, and the Executive Order has made it clear that the time to act is now,” said Dr. Shaun Passley, CEO of ZenaTech. “Integrating this technology into the ZenaDrone 1000 positions us to meet urgent security needs with a smart, autonomous aerial defense platform and be seen as a provider of safe, trusted, and mission-ready solutions.”

    The company will immediately expand its engineering and defense teams to fast-track R&D, testing, and deployment. The enhanced ZenaDrone 1000 will feature real-time threat detection and neutralization capabilities, making it a viable solution for military, homeland security, and critical infrastructure protection operations.

    The recent executive order, one of two historic policy directives announced on June 6th, 2025, provides a boost to US drone companies by driving demand for counter-UAS technologies, setting needed federal standards for secure airspace integration, and prioritizing US-made systems over foreign alternatives.

    The ZenaDrone 1000 is an AI multifunction autonomous drone that is a 12X7-foot rotary-wing octocopter design—built for commercial applications including surveillance, inspection and precision agriculture, as well as for defense. It features a patented foldable-wing design, can carry up to a 40 kg or 88 lbs of payload, and can fly for up to an hour before recharging on its docking station. It can be equipped with a variety of thermal imaging, LiDAR, or multispectral sensors to enable real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), border patrol, and other defense applications.   Continued… Read this full release by visiting: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-zena/

    Other recent developments in the markets include:

    Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSE American: UMAC), a U.S.-based manufacturer of drones and NDAA-compliant components, recently announced it has signed a lease for a 17,000-square-foot drone motor production facility in Orlando, Florida. The factory will significantly expand the company’s domestic manufacturing capabilities. Motor deliveries from this facility are scheduled to begin in September 2025.

    The facility is designed to support the production of high-performance brushless motors for First-Person View (FPV) and commercial drones. Initially, it will focus on three core motor sizes: 2207, 2807, and 3220. In-house winding capabilities will support both standard and custom KV ratings and hybrid workcells will allow for both high-volume and small-batch production. The space is located near the company’s existing headquarters and is an expansion of Unusual Machines’ Orlando campus. The proximity to Rotor Riot’s technical team and pilot community allows for rapid product feedback and alignment with end-user needs. The production system is designed to eventual scale to monthly production volumes exceeding 50,000 motors.

    AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) recently announced that it will report its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2025, which ended April 30, 2025, after the market closes on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. Management will host a conference call and live audio webcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time that same day to discuss the results. The call will be led by Wahid Nawabi, AV’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer; Kevin P. McDonnell, executive vice president and chief financial officer; and Denise Pacioni, director, investor relations.

    Investors may access the conference call by registering through the following link up to 10 minutes before the event begins:

    Conference Call Details:

    Date: June 24, 2025

    Time: 4:30 p.m. ET | 1:30 p.m. PT | 2:30 p.m. MT | 3:30 p.m. CT

    Participant registration URL: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BI7c8f067ba6664132925fef2e6130428b

    Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), a technology company in defense, national security and global markets, announced recently that it was awarded a task order under the Command and Control System-Consolidated (CCS-C) Sustainment and Resiliency (C-SAR) contract with the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) to support ground system capabilities for Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications (SATCOM) (ESS). The ESS system will provide the survivable and endurable satellite communications capability for the Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications (NC3) mission in all operational environments.

    First, the task order will begin to lay the CCS-C infrastructure groundwork to eventually support an out-of-band (OOB) ESS telemetry, tracking, and command capability as part of the larger SSC Military Communications & Positioning, Navigation and Timing Program Executive Office (PEO) mission. Second, it will create the necessary infrastructure to link the ground system solutions as required for operations. Third, through a pair of study efforts, it will facilitate the development of a road map for implementation of ESS Mission Unique Software and CCS-C micro-services implementation. Finally, the effort will facilitate a prototyping effort to allow CCS-C users to utilize new enterprise architecture.

    Raytheon, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, was recently awarded a $646 million contract to continue producing AN/SPY-6(V) radars for the U.S. Navy. This is the fourth option exercised from the March 2022 hardware, production and sustainment contract that is valued up to $3 billion over five years.

    Under this contract, the U.S. Navy will receive four additional radars, increasing the total amount of radars under contract for procurement to 42.

    “SPY-6 enables the U.S. Navy to see further than they’ve ever seen before, providing sailors with more time to respond to detected threats,” said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon. “This latest contract builds on our decades of experience and technical expertise in developing modular, scalable, and highly maintainable radars.”

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    DISCLAIMER: FN Media Group LLC (FNM), which owns and operates FinancialNewsMedia.com and MarketNewsUpdates.com, is a third party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated in any manner with any company mentioned herein. FNM and its affiliated companies are a news dissemination solutions provider and are NOT a registered broker/dealer/analyst/adviser, holds no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security. FNM’s market updates, news alerts and corporate profiles are NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities. The material in this release is intended to be strictly informational and is NEVER to be construed or interpreted as research material. All readers are strongly urged to perform research and due diligence on their own and consult a licensed financial professional before considering any level of investing in stocks. All material included herein is republished content and details which were previously disseminated by the companies mentioned in this release. FNM is not liable for any investment decisions by its readers or subscribers. Investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment when investing in stocks. For current services performed FNM has been compensated fifty one hundred dollars for news coverage of the current press releases issued by ZenaTech, Inc. by the Company. FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.

    This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. “Forward-looking statements” describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as “may”, “future”, “plan” or “planned”, “will” or “should”, “expected,” “anticipates”, “draft”, “eventually” or “projected”. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company’s annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and FNM undertakes no obligation to update such statements.

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    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: [Editorial: Youth Month Testimonials] Samsung Education-Focused CSR Programmes Making A Positive Difference in the Lives of South African Youth

    Source: Samsung

    Samsung’s education-focused, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes strive to promote innovation and empower youth through technology; with the ultimate aim of addressing societal issues.
     
    These programmes offer support to underprivileged youth and aim to cultivate creative thinking while also providing critical skills training needed by the local economy. By doing so, Samsung is creating opportunities for young people to make a positive impact on their communities and society. Samsung spoke to some of the beneficiaries from its education-focused initiatives that are driven through technology and this is what they had to say:
     
    Siyabonga ‘Siya” Mojalefa Tshabalala originally from Qwaqwa in the Free State was part of the 2022 Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) programme in partnership with Central University of Technology (CUT). SIC is a global initiative that upskills youth aged 18-25 in future technologies to enhance their employability while focusing on AI, IoT, Big Data and Coding. Siya explained: “ Through this SIC programme – I gained hands-on experience through paper coding, peer programming and projects and these skills have helped me to solve real-world problems. The programme also taught me some important soft skills that are required in work environments, these included communication, critical thinking, problem solving skills and ability to collaborate with others.”
     

     
    Another beneficiary, 26 year old Mulalo Ndou, did her undergrad in Mathematical Science and majored in Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). She also completed her honours in Risk Analysis (Cum-laude) at the University of the Free State (UFS).
     
    According to Mulalo, Samsung’s bursary fund was her light at the end of the tunnel. Mulalo received funding from Samsung when she needed it to complete her last year of studies. “I lost the funding I had for my studies in my final year and had to go back home, but Samsung came through for me, she said. “This bursary fund paid for my annual fees and accommodation in my final year and postgraduate studies. It also provided me with a monthly meal and living stipend as well as an allowance for a laptop.”
     

     
    After Mulalo finished her postgrad, Samsung provided her with an internship opportunity. “When the internship period was over, Samsung gave me a full-time position as a Process Improvement Data Analyst/Reporting Specialist am very grateful to the individuals at Samsung who helped me to be successful in my role,” she added. In an effort to pay it forward, Mulalo also works as a volunteer at Rising Females in STEM, as she is also a Rising Female in Technology and Mathematics.
     
    Mulalo said that she has always wanted to be one of the mentors in the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow (SFT) programme. “This SFT opportunity came at the right time and has been an amazing experience. I am learning something new each day from the participating learners and most importantly, how to become a great mentor.”
     
    Nzumbululo Todani, an 18 year old learner from Mbilwi Secondary in Thohoyandou, Limpopo. Nzumbululo is one of the beneficiaries from the SFT contest that challenges students to use STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills to solve real-world problems in their respective, local communities. His participation in the SFT competition has proved to be invaluable – he attributes his academic achievements in 2024 to his experience in the programme. Nzumbululo was awarded the top learner in the province for the 2024 NSC examinations with an average aggregate of 97%. Also, he was awarded for obtaining 300/300 in two gateway subjects: Physical Science and Geography.
     

     
    “When I participated in the contest, I assumed the role of team co-ordinator, managing and planning the daily landscape of the project and doing quality control on the prototype as well as all papers written and the final presentation. The competition left me with invaluable communication, leadership, planning, evaluation and time management skills.”
     
    Thoriso Rangata is a 32 year male entrepreneur and the owner of KTO Digital – a Business Process Automation, Software Development Services and Background Screening Software as a Service (SaaS) solution provider. He currently stays in Johannesburg but is originally from Limpopo and is one of the beneficiaries of the Samsung EEIP Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Thoriso became part of the programme when he responded to a public call for applications. At the time, his business needed support so that they could meet the company’s growth objectives.”

    Since being part of the EEIP programme, Thoriso won the Nedbank Business of the Year Award in 2022. His company also launched their own product and received accreditation for the business as a credit bureau in 2022.
     
    “The other direct benefits that we received from being part of the programme included: Grant Funding, Asset Financing and Continuous Business Mentorship that our business needed in order for us to move forward, Thoriso added. “We strongly believe that the skills we acquired from this EEIP programme, which included Business regulatory governance structures and strategic business growth approaches/methods – have contributed to the success of our business to date.”
     
    Through these education-focused CSR programmes that are driven by technology, Samsung is actively promoting the transfer of critical skills as well as both employment and entrepreneurship opportunities that are needed by the country’s youth and the local economy.
     
    The testimonials from the youth that participated in Samsung’s programmes mentioned above, are a clear indication of the impact the company is making in South Africa. By continuing to fund such programmes, Samsung is working towards winning the fight against youth unemployment, inequality and poverty in the country;  through job creation and the development of a skilled workforce.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Senator Tammy Tyrrell on wild days in Tasmania

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    Tasmanian politics has been thrown into chaos after a Labor motion of no confidence forced Premier Jeremy Rockliff to either resign or call for a new election. The premier opted for the latter, with Tasmanians to vote on July 19, only something over a year into the four-year term.

    In Tasmania, Australia’s smallest state in terms of both size and population, local issues dominate. Labor homed in on economic mismanagement.

    But there is controversy over the Macquarie Point Hobart AFL stadium (which the major parties support) as well as the state’s important salmon industry, which saw a lot of attention federally in the lead-up to the last election.

    To talk all things Tasmanian, we’re joined by Independent Tasmanian Senator Tammy Tyrrell. She was elected in 2022 under the banner of the Jacqui Lambie Network a former member of the party but left last year. We talk about the state election, as well as federal issues and the new Senate.

    Tyrrell laments Tasmanians’ being made to vote again so soon,

    I was out and about on the northwest coast of Tasmania all day yesterday and everybody was like, what the heck is going on? They don’t want to go to an election, the people of Tasmania, they want the parliament to actually be grown ups and sort it out amongst themselves.

    The budget in Tasmania is in a shambles and we’re so far in the red that we can’t see any way out of it. But really? There’s no way that the Labor [party] is going to form government unless they form a minority government and no Tasmanian will support a Labor-Greens government again in a hurry. But I really think that the Liberal government should have elevated somebody else from within to be the leader, to be the premier.

    On her former boss Jacqui Lambie whose party has now collapsed, Tyrrell says it’s because of the kind of person she is,

    [In] the federal election, Jacqui focused outside of Tasmania. She focused on expanding the network. And it didn’t work for her because she didn’t campaign enough here in Tasmania.

    It’s a shame that she’s not supporting the candidate that is still sitting with her under the network. […] I think she should have stuck by Andrew Jenner and supported him through this [Tasmanian] election because he has shown loyalty to her and he has stuck it through thick and thin. So I believe he should be able to run back under the banner.

    Jacqui is a strong person and the network had every chance to be a strong network, but Jacqui [is] not really a team player. She’s more of a single athlete because she’s so determined and strong of her opinion and it’s hard to take a group forward when you’ve got such a strong force that does not communicate sideways very well. She is a strong human being and I still believe in Jacqui but it makes it hard for her to have a team.

    On the salmon farming industry, while Tyrrell voices her support, she agrees that environmental concerns do matter,

    I support any industry that puts jobs and money into small rural and regional communities in Tasmania. I agree that they need to be as eco and as green friendly as possible and I know that the salmon industry is doing things to be clean and as green as possible. But I also believe that we need to look after the people who live and work in Tasmania.

    We can’t sacrifice an industry completely just to satisfy the people that don’t like the salmon industry. I will always support the people of Tasmania and encourage industry and business to be as eco-friendly as possible, which is why we’re encouraging as many biofuels and eco-green fuel companies as possible to come to Tasmania, and thrive here.

    On reports that the Nationals approached her to join their party. Tyrell says while she didn’t seriously consider it, she took it as a “compliment”,

    It was a big compliment though. The Nats represent rural and regional Australia beautifully, by speaking their voice and for them to see that I am representing the people of Tasmania in a good light. It was a huge compliment to be approached to join them. But I’d already been in a relationship and I’m quite happy being a single divorcee.

    It’s amazing being an independent, it means that I can say and do what my community wants me to in their voice without having to agree to broad-sweeping politics or legislative ideas that I don’t agree with fundamentally.

    Michelle Grattan 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. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Senator Tammy Tyrrell on wild days in Tasmania – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-senator-tammy-tyrrell-on-wild-days-in-tasmania-258802

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Egypt: African Development Bank to provide $184.1 million for Africa’s largest solar energy and battery storage project


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    The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a financing package of up to $184.1 million to support the development of the Obelisk 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic project and 200MWh battery energy storage system in Egypt, which will be Africa’s largest solar power plant.

    Located in Qena Governorate in southern Egypt, the project entails the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a photovoltaic power plant with an integrated battery energy storage system. The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company will be the sole off-taker under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement.

    The project’s total cost is estimated at more than $590 million. The Bank Group’s financing package includes $125.5 million of ordinary resources, as well as concessional funding from Bank Group-managed Special Funds the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa  (SEFA) worth $20 million, and the Canada-African Development Bank Climate Fund ($18.6 million), a partnership of the Bank Group and the Government of Canada. A further $20 million will come from the Climate Investment Funds’ Clean Technology Fund, with additional financing to be mobilized from a consortium of development finance institutions.

    Under Egypt’s Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy (NWFE) platform, Obelisk has been granted a Golden License by the government, which recognizes it as a strategic initiative that will contribute to addressing Egypt’s energy constraints and advancing its energy transition.

    Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, said “the Obelisk solar project is another important milestone for Egypt under the energy pillar of the NWFE program which has since its launch in November 2022 at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh delivered 4.2 GW of privately financed renewable energy investments, worth about $4 billion, with the support of partners such as the Africa Development Bank.  The goal of NWFE’s energy pillar is to add 10 GW of renewable energy capacity with investments of approximately $10 billion, and phase out 5 GW of fossil fuel power generation by 2030.”

    The project, expected to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2026, will generate an estimated 2,772 gigawatt-hours of clean, reliable, and affordable energy annually to the national grid. The battery energy storage system will help meet peak evening demand with renewable power while also mitigating the variability of solar power generation. The project is expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by approximately one million tons and create about 4,000 jobs during construction and 50 permanent jobs during operation, with a special focus on women and youth employment.

    “Obelisk is another landmark development under NWFE that leverages on Egypt’s and the African Development Bank’s leadership as well as commitment to harnessing the country’s renewable energy to enhance the resilience of the country’s energy supply to meet its fast-growing energy demand sustainably,” said Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth.  “This project also contributes to Egypt’s ambition of producing 42 percent of its power generation capacity from renewable energy sources by 2030 while spurring economic growth and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,”

     Ambassador of Canada to the Arab Republic of Egypt Ulric Shannon said: “Canada is proud to support solar energy development in Egypt. This initiative is a meaningful step toward enhancing energy security and stability, with direct benefits for the Egyptian people. We are pleased to collaborate with the African Development Bank and other partners in supporting Egypt’s transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.”

    The Obelisk Solar Project aligns with the African Development Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, its New Deal on Energy for Africa, and its Country Strategy Paper for Egypt as well as SEFA’s strategic framework which aims to accelerate African countries energy transition by increasing the share of renewables and catalyzing commercial capital mobilization in the power sector. The project also advances Egypt’s commitment to achieve 42 percent generation capacity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

    “This project exploits the abundant renewable energy potential in Africa and demonstrates how strong partnerships and innovative solutions contribute to balancing three core objectives in the energy sector, namely energy security, affordability, and sustainable economic development,” said Wale Shonibare, Director of Energy Financial Solutions, Policy, and Regulation at the African Development Bank. “It has high potential for replicability across the continent.”

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

    Media Contact:
    Olufemi Terry
    Communication and External Relations Department
    o.terry@afdb.org

    Technical Contact:
    James Otto
    Senior Investment Officer
    Energy Financial Solution and Policy Regulations Department
    j.otto@afdb.org

    About the African Development Bank Group:
    The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 41 African countries with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Canada’s $80 Billion Defence Modernization Package Signals Strategic Shift—Draganfly Positioned for Rapid Growth with Integration of DND-Specified Radio Systems

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Toronto, ON , June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a decisive move to fortify Canada’s national security capabilities, Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced an $80 billion long-term defence investment package focused on technological modernization, domestic industrial capacity, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). This landmark announcement, inclusive of robust support for drone development and Canadian manufacturing, marks a generational shift in federal defence procurement strategy.

    Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO) (CSE: DPRO) (FSE: 3U8), an award-winning, industry-leading drone solutions and systems developer. Draganfly is positioned to contribute to objectives within the Our North Strong and Free (ONSAF) defence policy expansion. Draganfly’s interoperable and multi-mission family of UAS platforms is strategically aligned with stated DND priorities such as “Expanding and Enhancing Existing and Emerging Military Capabilities” related to border security and Arctic sovereignty. Demonstrating this adaptability, Draganfly confirms the successful integration and demonstration of a Department of National Defence (DND)-specified radio communications system into its flagship drone platforms, in addition to several other communication system integrations to support interoperability with existing assets. These integrations help prime the company for eligibility in upcoming federal UAS procurements that emphasize secure, interoperable, and sovereign systems.

    Draganfly, with multiple R&D and Manufacturing sites in Canada, is one of the world’s longest standing commercial UAS manufacturers. The capacity for expansion of domestic production, in combination with long standing strategic relationships that Draganfly holds with various related technologies providers across various Five Eyes regions uniquely positions Draganfly as a technology integrator and solutions provider.

    This week’s developments signal a major policy realignment by Ottawa, anchoring defence spending to strategic domestic priorities such as resilient supply chains, sovereign manufacturing, and interoperability with NATO and Five Eyes partners. The emphasis on drone capabilities and homeland industrial content is particularly relevant in an era marked by asymmetric threats and hybrid warfare.

    Prime Minister Carney’s announcement effectively maps a multi-year demand curve for Canadian aerospace, cybersecure communications, and autonomous systems providers. Analysts anticipate that a minimum of 20% of the $80B envelope will be earmarked for next-generation battlefield technologies, with drones expected to account for a significant share of this investment.

    Draganfly’s ability to support existing architecture and protocols while providing the ability to rapidly test and adopt emerging technologies with domestic manufacturing and engineering expertise is poised to support these pillars of the Defence Modernization package. Adoption of Draganfly product for testing and use by Canadian and US Military Customers and Prime Contractors through 2024 and 2025, validates its platforms for critical applications such as reconnaissance, force protection, and logistics resupply. This positions Draganfly as one of the few Canadian OEMs and Supply Chain Managers capable of delivering mission-ready systems that meet both tactical requirements and industrial policy criteria.

    Strategic Implications for Capital Markets and Domestic Industry

    • Domestic Preference: The federal focus on Canadian manufacturing aligns with the Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) policy, making domestically-integrated platforms poised to win procurement bids.
    • Supply Chain Security: In an age of escalating global tensions, Canada is reducing reliance on foreign critical components. Draganfly’s control over its own airframe and avionics IP gives it a defensible advantage.
    • Dual-Use Upside: Beyond military contracts, the integrated communication system enhances the company’s value proposition in emergency response, disaster relief, and public safety markets.
    • Revenue Catalysts: Analysts expect RFIs and RFPs for defence-grade drones to accelerate in the second half of 2025, with contract awards potentially materializing as early as Q1 2026. Draganfly’s early compliance could provide a first-mover advantage.

    About Draganfly

    Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO; CSE: DPRO; FSE: 3U8) is the creator of quality, cutting-edge drone solutions, software, and AI systems that revolutionize how organizations can do business and serve their stakeholders. Recognized as being at the forefront of technology for over 25 years, Draganfly is an award-winning industry leader serving the public safety, agriculture, industrial inspections, security, mapping, and surveying markets. Draganfly is a company driven by passion, ingenuity, and the need to provide efficient solutions and first-class services to its customers around the world with the goal of saving time, money, and lives.

    NASDAQ (DPRO)
    CSE (DPRO)
    FSE (3U8)

    Media Contact:
    Erika Racicot
    Email: media@draganfly.com

    Company Contact:
    Email: info@draganfly.com

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This release contains certain “forward looking statements” and certain “forward-looking ‎‎‎‎information” as ‎‎‎‎defined under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements ‎‎‎‎and information can ‎‎‎‎generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ‎‎‎‎‎“may”, “will”, “expect”, “intend”, ‎‎‎‎‎“estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “plans” or similar ‎‎‎‎terminology. Forward-looking statements ‎‎‎‎and information are based on forecasts of future ‎‎‎‎results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and ‎‎‎‎assumptions that, while believed by ‎‎‎‎management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant ‎‎‎‎business, economic and ‎‎‎‎competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements ‎‎‎‎include, but are not ‎‎‎‎limited to, statements with respect to Draganfly’s interoperable and multi-mission family of UAS platforms being strategically aligned with stated DND priorities such as “Expanding and Enhancing Existing and Emerging Military Capabilities” related to border security and Arctic sovereignty as well as the statement regarding analysts’ anticipation that a minimum of 20% of the $80B envelope will be earmarked for next-generation battlefield technologies, with drones expected to account for a significant share of this investment. Forward-‎‎‎‎looking statements and information are subject to various ‎known ‎‎and unknown risks and ‎‎‎‎‎uncertainties, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to ‎control or ‎‎predict, that ‎‎‎‎may cause ‎the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be ‎materially ‎‎different ‎‎‎‎from those ‎expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions ‎about ‎‎such ‎‎‎‎risks, uncertainties ‎and other factors set out here in, including but not limited to: the potential ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎impact of epidemics, ‎pandemics or other public health crises, including the ‎COVID-19 pandemic, on the Company’s business, operations and financial ‎‎‎‎condition; the ‎‎‎successful integration of ‎technology; the inherent risks involved in the general ‎‎‎‎securities markets; ‎‎‎uncertainties relating to the ‎availability and costs of financing needed in the ‎‎‎‎future; the inherent ‎‎‎uncertainty of cost estimates; the ‎potential for unexpected costs and ‎‎‎‎expenses, currency ‎‎‎fluctuations; regulatory restrictions; and liability, ‎competition, loss of key ‎‎‎‎employees and other related risks ‎‎‎and uncertainties disclosed under the ‎heading “Risk Factors“ ‎‎‎‎in the Company’s most recent filings filed ‎‎‎with securities regulators in Canada on ‎the SEDAR ‎‎‎‎website at www.sedar.com and with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on EDGAR through the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes ‎‎‎no obligation to update forward-‎looking ‎‎‎‎information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-‎‎‎looking information represents ‎‎‎‎‎managements’ best judgment based on information currently available. ‎‎‎No forward-looking ‎‎‎‎statement ‎can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. ‎‎‎Accordingly, readers ‎‎‎‎are advised not to ‎place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or ‎‎‎information.‎

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: DIMO Japan Launches To Strengthen Car Connectivity with Regional Automakers

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    DIMO to assist automakers in accelerating connected experiences ranging from AI and diagnostics to gamification

    Japan offers one of the world’s most advanced automotive markets, producing about 10% of all vehicles, and is a critical geography for enterprise adoption of car connectivity

    NEW YORK and TOKYO, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DIMO, in partnership with HAKUHODO KEY3, today announced the establishment of the joint venture DIMO Japan. The initiative aims to expedite partnerships with key automakers in the region, helping them to deliver cutting-edge connected vehicle experiences to meet consumer demands and revenue potential.

    DIMO Japan is being launched in response to a clear need to scale and improve connectivity interfacing and infrastructure for drivers, automakers, and service providers. Automakers have invested heavily in connected vehicles in recent years; however, data infrastructure stands out as one of the critical challenges facing the sector, particularly regarding how data is connected, stored, and shared. In addition, as data privacy regulation is tightening across key markets, developing such infrastructure in-house is growing increasingly unpredictable and costly.

    With DIMO’s solution, regional automakers can manage data storage, user privacy policies, consent management, and data APIs on their own infrastructure – solving key pain points around privacy concerns and high development costs. These DIMO differentiators will lower the barrier to entry for enterprises and developers seeking to deploy advanced features such as real-time diagnostics, usage-based insurance, and location-based digital experiences, which consumers are increasingly demanding to enhance their driving experience.

    Through this joint venture, DIMO is expanding its industry-leading platform to one of the world’s top automotive markets, as Japan currently produces close to 10% of all vehicles worldwide, including from top automaker Toyota. In addition, the connected and software-defined vehicles (SDV) market is projected to grow from over $200 billion in 2024 to over $1 trillion by 2030, making it imperative for Japanese automotive brands to put in place advanced connectivity infrastructure that is secure, private, and hospitable to both in-house and third-party development. DIMO Japan is committed to supporting automakers to realize the revenue potential tied to connectivity.

    DIMO Japan is led by CEO Ryo Hayashi, who began his career in the telecommunications industry and has since gained extensive experience launching new businesses across a variety of sectors, including the internet and automotive industries. He has held executive positions at both domestic and international companies, including IDOM, viagogo, and Nextag.

    “Japan remains an integral part of the global market, with key automakers, Tier 1 suppliers and mobility innovators all concentrated in the country. However, progress still needs to be made in scaling connectivity for locally-produced vehicles and offering next-generation software services to drivers of those vehicles,” remarked Mr. Hayashi. “Our immediate focus is to expand the DIMO platform and allow local companies to integrate with it, as well as lowering the infrastructure hurdles for automakers, service partners and third-party developers to build and innovate through DIMO.”

    DIMO’s expansion into the Japanese market is the next step in the company’s growth trajectory and mission to build a global platform facilitating the use of connected-car features and applications. Over 180,000 vehicles are currently connected to DIMO.

    “We hear from automakers about the demand for their data, we hear from users about their desire for new connected products and services, and we hear from enterprises about their interest in building new experiences like smart city projects, AI agents, and gamification,” said Alex Rawitz, Co-Founder of DIMO. “DIMO Japan will provide the infrastructure necessary to make these experiences possible.”

    To facilitate the establishment of DIMO Japan, the DIMO Foundation is holding a community vote on June 16th, 2025 to approve a contribution of $500,000 USDT and 4,000,000 DIMO tokens, subject to milestone-based disbursements and lockup schedules, in exchange for up to 33% equity ownership in the entity.

    To learn more about DIMO Japan, please visit: https://dimojapan.com/

    About DIMO

    DIMO is transforming vehicle ownership by putting drivers in control of their data. Its privacy-first, AI-integrated platform connects drivers, automakers, and developers to accelerate connected vehicle innovation while ensuring drivers retain full ownership of their information. Through the DIMO Mobile app, drivers gain real-time insights to improve vehicle performance, maximize savings on maintenance, and access a growing suite of marketplace applications while earning rewards in DIMO tokens. It was founded in 2021 by automotive and fintech veterans from ConsenSys, Vroom, GM, Volkswagen, Aeris, and Chainalysis. Please visit us on X and LinkedIn.

    About HAKUHODO KEY3

    HAKUHODO KEY3 is a web3 business production company founded in December 2022 by Hakuhodo Inc. and Sota Watanabe, CEO of Startale Labs Japan. With a focus on “consumer-driven thinking” and “creativity,” they aim to create world-first web3 services. By collaborating with their partner companies, they are committed to building a society where more people can seamlessly participate in the web3 ecosystem.

    Media Contacts:
    Diana Bost/Ryan Dicovitsky
    Dukas Linden Public Relations
    DIMO@DLPR.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/79a3edb2-6dd8-48cf-92d6-e88d2095b8b3

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Bullish on Drone Stocks as Recent Executive Orders Focuses on Strengthening U.S. Leadership for Drone Operations

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    PALM BEACH, Fla., June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FN Media Group News Commentary – On Friday, June 6, the White House issued two sweeping executive orders focused on strengthening U.S. leadership in uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS, or drones). These actions aim to streamline rulemaking for enabling regulations, fortify domestic supply chains and promote manufacturing, advance security measures, and align federal operations with emerging aviation technologies. The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) applauds the Administration’s commitment to advancing drone integration through timely, coordinated federal action. These Executive Orders mark a significant step toward reducing regulatory uncertainty, accelerating innovation and manufacturing, and reinforcing U.S. competitiveness in the global autonomy race. AUVSI envisions a future where uncrewed systems, robotics, and autonomous technologies are seamlessly integrated to solve critical challenges resulting in lasting safety and societal benefits, economic growth, and enhanced national security. AUVSI represents leaders from more than 60 countries across industry, government, and academia in the defense, civil and commercial sectors. Our strength is in our community, which gathers in-person and online to share new ideas, promote effective policy, advocate for the value of autonomous technology, and spark new partnerships. Active Companies in the markets today include ZenaTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ONDS), Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO), AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE: UAVS).

    The AUVSI article added: “Today is a historic day for the drone industry in the United States. The White House Executive Orders issued today showcase that drones are critical to American economic strength, national security, and global leadership” said Michael Robbins, AUVSI’s President & CEO. “AUVSI commends the Trump Administration for advancing policies that will ensure U.S. leadership in drone innovation, security, operations, and manufacturing. As we have long advocated, innovation and security must advance in lockstep, and President Trump got that right with these Executive Orders. By prioritizing long-overdue drone enabling rules and much needed security reforms, the Administration is accelerating the safe and responsible growth of the drone industry at a pivotal moment.”

    ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA) ZenaDrone to File Patent and Accelerate Deployment of Counter-UAS Technology on the ZenaDrone 1000 in Response to US Executive Order – ZenaTech, Inc. (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) (“ZenaTech”), a technology company specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, today announces its subsidiary ZenaDrone’s intent to file a patent and accelerate the deployment of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (Counter-UAS) technology, to be mounted on the company’s flagship ZenaDrone 1000 drone platform in response to a new executive order policy directive. Counter-UAS technology refers to tools or systems that can detect, track, or mitigate unauthorized or dangerous drones to protect people, property, and airspace.

    ZenaDrone’s technology for this was originally designed last year but was placed on hold as the company prioritized other commercial and defense applications. However, the recent policy directive on Counter-UAS contained in the June 6th, 2025, White House Executive Order, ‘Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty’, has clarified the urgency and importance of bringing effective drone defense solutions to market. In response, ZenaDrone is accelerating development and commercialization efforts to meet growing domestic and international demand.

    “We developed our Counter-UAS system with future threats in mind, and the Executive Order has made it clear that the time to act is now,” said Dr. Shaun Passley, CEO of ZenaTech. “Integrating this technology into the ZenaDrone 1000 positions us to meet urgent security needs with a smart, autonomous aerial defense platform and be seen as a provider of safe, trusted, and mission-ready solutions.”

    The company will immediately expand its engineering and defense teams to fast-track R&D, testing, and deployment. The enhanced ZenaDrone 1000 will feature real-time threat detection and neutralization capabilities, making it a viable solution for military, homeland security, and critical infrastructure protection operations.

    The recent executive order, one of two historic policy directives announced on June 6th, 2025, provides a boost to US drone companies by driving demand for counter-UAS technologies, setting needed federal standards for secure airspace integration, and prioritizing US-made systems over foreign alternatives.

    The ZenaDrone 1000 is an AI multifunction autonomous drone that is a 12X7-foot rotary-wing octocopter design—built for commercial applications including surveillance, inspection and precision agriculture, as well as for defense. It features a patented foldable-wing design, can carry up to a 40 kg or 88 lbs of payload, and can fly for up to an hour before recharging on its docking station. It can be equipped with a variety of thermal imaging, LiDAR, or multispectral sensors to enable real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), border patrol, and other defense applications. Continued… Read this full release by visiting: https://www.financialnewsmedia.com/news-zena/

    Other recent developments in the markets include:

    Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS), a leading provider of private industrial wireless networks and commercial drone and automated data solutions through its Ondas Networks and Ondas Autonomous Systems business units, recently announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of (i) 27,200,000 shares of its common stock, which includes 4,800,000 shares of common stock sold pursuant to the exercise in full by the underwriter of their over-allotment option, and (ii) in lieu of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase up to 9,600,000 shares of its common stock, at an exercise price of $0.0001 per share. Ondas estimates net proceeds from the offering to be approximately $42.8 million, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, and excluding any proceeds that may be received from the exercise of the pre-funded warrants.

    Ondas intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including funding capital expenditures and providing working capital. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acted as the sole underwriter for the offering. Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc., Lake Street Capital Markets, LLC and Northland Capital Markets served as financial advisors to Ondas. Akerman LLP served as legal counsel to Ondas and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. served as legal counsel to the underwriter.

    Draganfly Inc. (NASDAQ: DPRO) (CSE: DPRO), a drone solutions, and systems developer, recently announced the pricing of its public offering (the “Offering”) of 5,500,000 units, with each unit consisting of one common share and one warrant to purchase one common share. Each unit is to be sold at a public offering price of US$2.50, for gross proceeds of approximately US$13.75 million, before deducting placement agent discounts and offering expenses. The warrants will have an exercise price of CA$5.0768 (or US$3.71) per share, are exercisable immediately and will expire five years following the date of issuance.

    Maxim Group LLC is acting as sole placement agent for the Offering. Draganfly currently intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for general corporate purposes, including to fund its capabilities to meet demand for its new products including growth initiatives and/or for working capital requirements including the continuing development and marketing of the Company’s core products, potential acquisitions and research and development. The Offering is expected to close on or about June 12, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

    AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (NYSE: UAVS), a leading provider of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), sensors, and software solutions for commercial and government use, recently announced the Company participated in a second high-level, invitation only policy discussion with the White House, hosted by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This most recent engagement was centered on the proposed FAA Rule Part 108, which will define the regulatory framework for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations across the United States. AgEagle CEO Bill Irby joined industry peers from uAvionix, BRINC, Kelly Hills, and Pierce Aerospace in presenting key insights on how enactment of Part 108 will remove significant operational barriers, drive capital investment, and unlock next-generation drone technologies that enhance both commercial and public sector applications.

    “This follow-up invitation by OIRA reaffirms the strategic importance of expanding BVLOS operations for the domestic drone industry,” commented Irby. “We were honored to continue our engagement with the White House and contribute our perspective on how thoughtful and timely rulemaking can accelerate innovation, improve safety and compliance, and strengthen the U.S. position as a global leader in drone technology. Of particular value was the discussion of how streamlined regulation will allow broader deployment of autonomous data solutions and open the door for increased economic activity.”

    Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), a drone technology company integrating robotic hardware and software for military, government, and commercial operations, recently issued a statement of support for a series of executive orders from the White House that advance U.S. leadership in uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and reinforce the resilience of America’s domestic industrial base.

    The executive actions are expected to remove regulatory barriers and modernize federal approval processes to prioritize U.S.-manufactured drones. Additional provisions include expanded detection and mitigation authority, and streamlined regulations to accelerate the deployment of UAS across federal and commercial sectors.

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    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Chris Hedges: The last days of Gaza

    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. –

    The genocide is almost complete. When it is concluded it will have exposed the moral bankruptcy of Western civilisation, writes Chris Hedges.

    ANALYSIS: By Chris Hedges

    This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide.

    It will be over soon. Weeks. At most.

    Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets.

    They lack clean water, medicine and food. They have reached a point of collapse. Sick. Injured. Terrified. Humiliated. Abandoned. Destitute. Starving. Hopeless.

    In the last pages of this horror story, Israel is sadistically baiting starving Palestinians with promises of food, luring them to the narrow and congested nine-mile ribbon of land that borders Egypt. Israel and its cynically named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), allegedly funded by Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the Mossad, is weaponising starvation.

    It is enticing Palestinians to southern Gaza the way the Nazis enticed starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to board trains to the death camps. The goal is not to feed the Palestinians. No one seriously argues there is enough food or aid hubs. The goal is to cram Palestinians into heavily guarded compounds and deport them.

    What comes next? I long ago stopped trying to predict the future. Fate has a way of surprising us. But there will be a final humanitarian explosion in Gaza’s human slaughterhouse. We see it with the surging crowds of Palestinians fighting to get a food parcel, which has resulted in Israeli and US private contractors shooting dead at least 130 and wounding over seven hundred others in the first eight days of aid distribution.

    We see it with Benjamin Netanyahu’s arming ISIS-linked gangs in Gaza that loot food supplies. Israel, which has eliminated hundreds of employees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), doctors, journalists, civil servants and police in targeted assassinations, has orchestrated the implosion of civil society.

    I suspect Israel will facilitate a breach in the fence along the Egyptian border. Desperate Palestinians will stampede into the Egyptian Sinai. Maybe it will end some other way. But it will end soon. There is not much more Palestinians can take.

    We — full participants in this genocide — will have achieved our demented goal of emptying Gaza and expanding Greater Israel. We will bring down the curtain on the live-streamed genocide. We will have mocked the ubiquitous university programmes of Holocaust studies, designed, it turns out, not to equip us to end genocides, but deify Israel as an eternal victim licensed to carry out mass slaughter.

    The mantra of never again is a joke. The understanding that when we have the capacity to halt genocide and we do not, we are culpable, does not apply to us. Genocide is public policy. Endorsed and sustained by our two ruling parties.

    There is nothing left to say. Maybe that is the point. To render us speechless. Who does not feel paralyzed? And maybe, that too, is the point. To paralyse us. Who is not traumatised? And maybe that too was planned. Nothing we do, it seems, can halt the killing. We feel defenceless. We feel helpless. Genocide as spectacle.

    I have stopped looking at the images. The rows of little shrouded bodies. The decapitated men and women. Families burned alive in their tents. The children who have lost limbs or are paralyzed. The chalky death masks of those pulled from under the rubble. The wails of grief. The emaciated faces. I can’t.

    This genocide will haunt us. It will echo down history with the force of a tsunami. It will divide us forever. There is no going back.

    Palestinians under the rubble in 2023 after Israeli airstrike of homes in the Gaza Strip. Image: Ashraf Amra /United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East/ Wikimedia Commons /CC BY-SA 4.0

    And how will we remember? By not remembering.

    Once it is over, all those who supported it, all those who ignored it, all those who did nothing, will rewrite history, including their personal history. It was hard to find anyone who admitted to being a Nazi in post-war Germany, or a member of the Klu Klux Klan once segregation in the southern United States ended.

    A nation of innocents. Victims even. It will be the same. We like to think we would have saved Anne Frank. The truth is different. The truth is, crippled by fear, nearly all of us will only save ourselves, even at the expense of others. But that is a truth that is hard to face. That is the real lesson of the Holocaust. Better it be erased.

    In his book One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad writes:

    “Should a drone vaporize some nameless soul on the other side of the planet, who among us wants to make a fuss? What if it turns out they were a terrorist?

    “What if the default accusation proves true, and we by implication be labeled terrorist sympathisers, ostracised, yelled at? It is generally the case that people are most zealously motivated by the worst plausible thing that could happen to them.

    “For some, the worst plausible thing might be the ending of their bloodline in a missile strike. Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed. For others, the worst plausible thing is being yelled at.”

    You can see my interview with El Akkad here.

    You cannot decimate a people, carry out saturation bombing over 20 months to obliterate their homes, villages and cities, massacre tens of thousands of innocent people, set up a siege to ensure mass starvation, drive them from land where they have lived for centuries and not expect blowback.

    The genocide will end. The response to the reign of state terror will begin. If you think it won’t you know nothing about human nature or history. The killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington and the attack against supporters of Israel at a protest in Boulder, Colorado, are only the start.

    Chaim Engel, who took part in the uprising at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp in Poland, described how, armed with a knife, he attacked a guard in the camp.

    “It’s not a decision,” Engel explained years later. “You just react, instinctively you react to that, and I figured, ‘Let us to do, and go and do it.’ And I went.

    “I went with the man in the office and we killed this German. With every jab, I said, ‘That is for my father, for my mother, for all these people, all the Jews you killed.’”

    The Sobibor extermination camp gate in the spring of 1943. The pine branches, braided into the fence to make it difficult to see in from the outside. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

    Does anyone expect Palestinians to act differently? How are they to react when Europe and the United States, who hold themselves up as the vanguards of civilisation, backed a genocide that butchered their parents, their children, their communities, occupied their land and blasted their cities and homes into rubble? How can they not hate those who did this to them?

    What message has this genocide imparted not only to Palestinians, but to all in the Global South?

    It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless. You deserve to be killed, starved and dispossessed. You should be erased from the face of the earth.

    “To preserve the values of the civilised world, it is necessary to set fire to a library,” El Akkad writes:

    “To blow up a mosque. To incinerate olive trees. To dress up in the lingerie of women who fled and then take pictures.

    “To level universities. To loot jewelry, art, food. Banks. To arrest children for picking vegetables. To shoot children for throwing stones.

    “To parade the captured in their underwear. To break a man’s teeth and shove a toilet brush in his mouth. To let combat dogs loose on a man with Down syndrome and then leave him to die.
    “Otherwise, the uncivilised world might win.”

    There are people I have known for years who I will never speak to again. They know what is happening. Who does not know? They will not risk alienating their colleagues, being smeared as an antisemite, jeopardising their status, being reprimanded or losing their jobs.

    They do not risk death, the way Palestinians do. They risk tarnishing the pathetic monuments of status and wealth they spent their lives constructing. Idols.

    They bow down before these idols. They worship these idols. They are enslaved by them.

    At the feet of these idols lie tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians.

    Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and NPR.  He is the host of show The Chris Hedges Report. This article was first published in Scheerpost.

    This article was first published on Café Pacific.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI China: 110,000th China-Europe freight train exits China

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    HOHHOT, June 12 — The 110,000th China-Europe freight train exited China via northern Inner Mongolia’s Erenhot Port, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, on Thursday.

    The train, loaded with 55 containers of home appliances, worth nearly 20 million yuan (about 2.79 million U.S. dollars), departed Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province on Tuesday. The train’s departure marks a major milestone in the high-quality development of the China-Europe freight train service.

    The train is expected to reach its destination in Moscow, Russia, in about two weeks, according to the port.

    As the only port of entry and exit on the middle corridor of the China-Europe freight train service, Erenhot Port now operates 73 China-Europe freight train routes. It connects China with over 70 hub stations in more than 10 countries and regions, including Germany, Poland and Russia.

    The port has operated over 19,000 China-Europe freight trains since 2013. In the first five months of this year, the port handled 1,489 inbound and outbound China-Europe freight trains, transporting nearly 1.9 million tonnes, or 168,800 TEUs of goods, representing year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent, 8.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

    “With the regular operation of the China-Europe freight train service, the transportation time for our products to reach Europe has been shortened from 45 days to 15 days, and the logistics cost per tonne has been cut by approximately 600 yuan, laying a solid foundation for the development of the local agricultural product industry,” said Cui Xuesong, deputy manager of an international logistics park management committee located over 300 km from the port.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Federal R&D funding boosts productivity for the whole economy − making big cuts to such government spending unwise

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Andrew Fieldhouse, Visiting Assistant Professor of Finance, Texas A&M University

    Research can make everyone better off.
     Emilija Manevska/Moment via Getty Images

    Large cuts to government-funded research and development can endanger American innovation – and the vital productivity gains it supports.

    The Trump administration has already canceled at least US$1.8 billion in research grants previously awarded by the National Institutes of Health, which supports biomedical and health research. Its preliminary budget request for the 2026 fiscal year proposed slashing federal funding for scientific and health research, cutting the NIH budget by another $18 billion – nearly a 40% reduction. The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the basic scientific research conducted at universities, would see its budget slashed by $5 billion – cutting it by more than half.

    Research and development spending might strike you as an unnecessary expense for the government. Perhaps you see it as something universities or private companies should instead be paying for themselves. But as research I’ve conducted shows, if the government were to abandon its long-standing practice of investing in R&D, it would significantly slow the pace of U.S. innovation and economic growth.

    I’m an economist at Texas A&M University. For the past five years, I’ve been studying the long-term economic benefits of government-funded R&D with Karel Mertens, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We have found that government R&D spending on everything from the Apollo space program to the Human Genome Project has fueled innovation. We also found that federal R&D spending has played a significant role in boosting U.S. productivity and spurring economic growth over the past 75 years.

    Measuring productivity

    Productivity rises when economic growth is caused by technological progress and know-how, rather than workers putting in more hours or employers using more equipment and machinery. Economists believe that higher productivity fuels economic growth and raises living standards over the long run.

    U.S. productivity growth fell by half, from an average of roughly 2% a year in the 1950s and 1960s to about 1%, starting in the early 1970s. This deceleration eerily coincides with a big decline in government R&D spending, which peaked at over 1.8% of gross domestic product in the mid-1960s. Government R&D spending has declined since then and has fallen by half – to below 0.9% of GDP – today.

    Government R&D spending encompasses all innovative work the government directly pays for, regardless of who does it. Private companies and universities conduct a lot of this work, as do national labs and federal agencies, like the NIH.

    Correlation is not causation. But in a Dallas Fed working paper released in November 2024, my co-author and I identified a strong causal link between government R&D spending and U.S. productivity growth. We estimated that government R&D spending consistently accounted for more than 20% of all U.S. productivity growth since World War II. And a decline in that spending after the 1960s can account for nearly one-fourth of the deceleration in productivity since then.

    These significant productivity gains came from R&D investments by federal agencies that are not focused on national defense. Examples include the NIH’s support for biomedical research, the Department of Energy’s funding for physics and energy research, and NASA’s spending on aeronautics and space exploration technologies.

    Not all productivity growth is driven by government R&D. Economists think public investment in physical infrastructure, such as construction of the interstate highway system starting in the Eisenhower administration, also spurred productivity growth. And U.S. productivity growth briefly accelerated during the information technology boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which we do not attribute to government R&D investment.

    More R than D

    We have found that government R&D investment is more effective than private R&D spending at driving productivity, likely because the private sector tends to spend much more on the development side of R&D, while the public sector tends to emphasize research.

    Economists believe the private sector will naturally underinvest in more fundamental research because it is harder to patent and profit from this work. We think our higher estimated returns on nondefense R&D reflect greater productivity benefits from fundamental research, which generates more widely shared knowledge, than from private sector spending on development.

    Like the private sector, the Department of Defense spends much more on development – of weapons and military technology – than on fundamental research. We found only inconclusive evidence on the returns on military R&D.

    R&D work funded by the Defense Department also tends to initially be classified and kept secret from geopolitical rivals, such as the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. As a result, gains for the whole economy from that source of innovation could take longer to materialize than the 15-year time frame we have studied.

    Research takes not just time but money, and the government is now cutting that funding.
    Nitat Termmee/Moment via Getty Images

    Role of Congress

    The high returns on nondefense R&D that we estimated suggest that Congress has historically underinvested in these areas. For instance, the productivity gains from nondefense R&D are at least 10 times higher than those from government investments in highways, bridges and other kinds of physical infrastructure. The government has also invested far more in physical infrastructure than R&D over the past 75 years. Increasing R&D investment would take advantage of these higher returns and gradually reduce them because of diminishing marginal returns to additional investment.

    So why is the government not spending substantially more on R&D?

    One argument sometimes heard against federal R&D spending is that it displaces, or “crowds out,” R&D spending the private sector would otherwise undertake. For instance, the administration’s budget request proposed reducing or eliminating NASA space technology programs it deemed “better suited to private sector research and development.”

    But my colleague and I have found that government spending on R&D complements private investment. An additional dollar of government nondefense R&D spending causes the private sector to increase its R&D spending by an additional 20 cents. So we expect budget cuts to the NIH, NSF and NASA to actually reduce R&D spending by companies, which is also bad for economic growth.

    Federal R&D spending is also often on the chopping block whenever Congress focuses on deficit reduction. In part, that likely reflects the gradual nature of the economic benefits from government-funded R&D, which are at odds with the country’s four-year electoral cycles.

    Similarly, the benefits from NIH spending on biomedical research are usually less visible than government spending on Medicare or Medicaid, which are health insurance programs for those 65 years and older and those with low incomes or disabilities. But Medicare or Medicaid help Americans buy prescription drugs and medical devices that were invented with the help of NIH-funded research.

    Even if the benefits of government R&D are slow to materialize or are harder to see than those from other government programs, our research suggests that the U.S. economy will be less innovative and productive – and Americans will be worse off for it – if Congress agrees to deep cuts to science and research funding.

    The views expressed in the Dallas Fed working paper are the views of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.

    Andrew Fieldhouse 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. Federal R&D funding boosts productivity for the whole economy − making big cuts to such government spending unwise – https://theconversation.com/federal-randd-funding-boosts-productivity-for-the-whole-economy-making-big-cuts-to-such-government-spending-unwise-255823

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Energy Star, on the Trump administration’s target list, has a long history of helping consumers’ wallets and the planet

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Magali A. Delmas, Professor of Management, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles

    The blue Energy Star label is widely recognized across the U.S. Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

    Since the early 1990s, the small blue Energy Star label has appeared on millions of household appliances, electronics and even buildings across the United States. But as the Trump administration considers terminating some or all of the program, it is worth a look at what exactly this government-backed label means, and why it has become one of the most recognizable environmental certifications in the country.

    Energy Star was launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 and later expanded in partnership with the Department of Energy with a simple goal: making it easier for consumers and businesses to choose energy-efficient products, helping them reduce energy use and save money, without sacrificing quality or performance.

    As a scholar of energy conservation, I have studied the Energy Star program’s development and public impact, including how it has shaped consumer behavior and environmental outcomes.

    According to the EPA, it has saved consumers an average of US$15 billion a year on energy costs since its inception, a massive return on a program that costs taxpayers an estimated $32 million a year.

    How Energy Star works

    When you see an Energy Star label on a product, it means that product has met strict energy efficiency standards set by the EPA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, which tests how much energy appliances use. The federal agencies also consult with product manufacturers, utilities and others to figure out how best to improve products and determine how cost-effective changes might be.

    Products that earn the Energy Star certification typically use significantly less energy than standard models, often between 10% and 50% less. The energy – and financial – savings can add up quickly, especially when homes or buildings have multiple Energy Star appliances and systems.

    Energy Star itself does not manufacture or sell products. Instead, it acts as a trusted third-party certifier, providing consumers and businesses with reliable information and clear labeling. It also offers information to help people estimate energy savings and compare long-term costs, making it easier to identify high-performing, cost-effective options. Manufacturers participating in Energy Star seek to improve their environmental reputation and increase their market share, giving them a strong incentive to meet the program’s efficiency criteria.

    Today, the label appears on refrigerators, dishwashers, laptops, commercial buildings and even newly built homes. The government says people in more than 90% of American households recognize the label.

    Energy Star-certified appliances include upright freezers, clothes washers and many other types of home equipment, which use between 10% and 50% less energy than uncertified items.
    AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel

    People don’t always choose efficient products

    Energy Star seeks to tackle a wide range of problems that can result in people deciding not to buy energy-efficient products.

    One problem is that efficient models often come with higher up-front costs. While efficient models save money over time, that higher purchase price can discourage buyers. Energy Star helps counter this problem by clearly showing how much money can be saved on energy costs over the lifetime of the product – as compared with noncertified products – and by offering rebates that reduce the initial expense.

    Another problem involves what economists call “split incentives.” A landlord might not want to pay a higher price up front for energy-efficient appliances if the tenants are the ones who will save money on the utility bills. And renters may not want to spend a lot of money on appliances or equipment in a place they do not own. Energy Star tries to bridge this divide by promoting whole-building certifications, which encourage landlords to invest in their buildings’ energy efficiency with the goal of making their properties more attractive to tenants.

    The countless varieties of refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners and other items on the market can also create confusion. Consumers who just look at manufacturers’ promotional material may find it very hard to determine which appliances truly deliver better energy efficiency. The Energy Star label makes this comparison easier: If the label is there, it is among the most efficient choices available.

    And consumers are often skeptical of manufacturers’ claims – especially when it comes to new technologies or environmental promises. Energy Star’s status as a program backed by the government, rather than a private company, gives it a level of independence and credibility that many other labels lack. People know the certification is based on science, not sales tactics.

    Lastly, Energy Star helps overcome the problem that many people are not aware of how much energy their appliances consume, or how those choices contribute to climate change. By connecting everyday products to larger environmental outcomes, Energy Star helps consumers understand the effects of their decisions, without needing to become energy experts.

    The program delivers real results

    Since its inception, more than 800,000 appliance models have earned Energy Star certification based on the criteria for their type of product.

    The same principles that make the label valuable for consumer appliances – independent certification, clear metrics and a focus on results – have proved equally effective in real estate. Nearly 45,000 commercial buildings and industrial plants have earned certification. And there have been more than 2.5 million Energy Star-certified homes and apartments built in the U.S.

    In 2023 alone, over 190,000 new homes and apartments were certified, representing more than 12% of all new residential construction nationwide.

    Energy Star-certified homes are designed to be at least 10% more energy efficient than those built to standard building codes, with more insulation and windows and lights that are energy-efficient, as well as appliances. These enhancements can translate to better quality, comfort and long-term cost savings for homeowners.

    Commercial buildings, which account for about 18% of total U.S. energy use, have also benefited substantially. Research I was involved in found that certified commercial buildings use an average of 19% less energy than their noncertified counterparts.

    Computers can sleep, too – not just cats. Both types conserve energy.
    Markus Scholz/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Why government leadership matters

    Energy Star’s status as a government-led label contributes to its credibility as a more neutral and science-based source of information than commercial labels.

    Energy Star’s government connections also bring scale: By requiring federal purchases to have Energy Star certifications, the federal government can influence manufacturers. For example, a federal executive order in 1993 required government agencies to purchase only computers that had been Energy Star-certified, which required them to have energy-saving sleep functions.

    In response, manufacturers began including the feature so they could sell their products to the government. Consumers soon came to expect the sleep feature on all computers.

    A quiet success story in energy and climate

    Energy Star does not grab headlines. It does not rely on regulation or mandates. Yet it has quietly become one of the most effective tools the U.S. has for improving energy efficiency across homes, offices and public buildings.

    That said, the program is not without its limitations. Some critics have pointed out that not all certified products consistently perform at the highest efficiency levels. Other critics note that the benefits of Energy Star are more accessible to wealthier consumers who can afford up-front investments, even with available rebates. And the EPA itself has, at times, struggled to manage the certification process and update standards in line with the latest technological advances.

    At a time when energy costs and climate concerns are rising, Energy Star stands out as a rare example of a practical, nonpartisan program that delivers real benefits. It helps individuals, businesses and communities save money, lower emissions and take part in a more sustainable future – one smart decision at a time.

    Magali Delmas received funding from the US EPA in 2002 for research on Environmental Management Strategies and Corporate Performance.

    – ref. Energy Star, on the Trump administration’s target list, has a long history of helping consumers’ wallets and the planet – https://theconversation.com/energy-star-on-the-trump-administrations-target-list-has-a-long-history-of-helping-consumers-wallets-and-the-planet-258152

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How a new bus line in Philadelphia is defying post-pandemic transit trends

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Julene Paul, Assistant Professor of Planning, University of Texas at Arlington

    The 49 bus connects the Strawberry Mansion, Grays Ferry and University City neighborhoods. Courtesy of SEPTA

    When the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority launched the 49 bus route in Philadelphia in early 2019, those who most benefited were older adults and people who already ride the bus – and not commuters who were persuaded to ditch their cars for public transportation, according to our new research.

    Some of the largest benefits of Route 49 came in saved time and fewer transfers for existing users of other transit routes.

    We are a professor of city planning and a professor of statistics and data science who recently published a study on Route 49, SEPTA’s newest local bus service, in the peer-reviewed journal Transportation Research Record.

    Route 49 launched in early 2019 and was the first local bus service that SEPTA added to its system in nearly a decade. It connects two residential Philadelphia neighborhoods – Strawberry Mansion in North Philadelphia and Grays Ferry in South Philadelphia – with the job-rich University City area in West Philadelphia.

    Public transit agencies often try to court “choice” riders – people who have a reasonable chance of choosing to either drive or use public transportation for a given trip, and who tend to be higher income.

    SEPTA, however, didn’t necessarily focus on choice riders with the design of Route 49. But planners at the agency did tell us during our data collection that many commuters to University City don’t take public transit.

    We found that early riders of Route 49 tended to be previous transit riders who seldom drove before the line’s launch. They took other SEPTA buses, or did not make that trip.

    Riders ages 65 and older, who are less likely to be commuters, were even more likely to have simply switched bus routes to make the same trip they regularly made before the new service line began.

    Why it matters

    While ridership on most SEPTA routes has declined in the post-pandemic era, Route 49 is one of the only Philly bus or train lines to see ridership growth. It had the largest post-COVID rebound of any bus line in SEPTA’s network.

    For new bus and rail lines to be financially sustainable, they must attract enough riders. The fares those riders pay allow agencies to run services more regularly and have the line be cost effective.

    While it’s always difficult to attract new riders, the past few years have been especially challenging for U.S. transit agencies. National transit ridership remains only about 80% of what it was when the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020.

    Getting people back onto buses and trains will require agencies to understand what attracts people to new transit lines. If public transit agencies want to recapture ridership and echo the success of bus services like Route 49, it may be best for them to talk to current users rather than potential public transit converts.

    How we do our work

    To understand how new riders used Route 49, we boarded Route 49 buses throughout the route and conducted in-person surveys with over 350 riders in early 2019. We wanted to capture feedback and data from users of the service shortly after it was launched.

    In addition to asking riders what they used Route 49 for and how they took the same trip before its launch, we recorded characteristics such as age, income and gender.

    What’s next

    Drawing on our 2019 survey data, we plan to explore how new Route 49 riders learned about the transit line and decided to begin riding the new service. Did they hear about it from agency flyers or websites? From seeing new bus lines on the road, or from friends discussing it? Analyzing these answers can help transit agencies enhance access for all travelers.

    The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

    Read more of our stories about Philadelphia.

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

    – ref. How a new bus line in Philadelphia is defying post-pandemic transit trends – https://theconversation.com/how-a-new-bus-line-in-philadelphia-is-defying-post-pandemic-transit-trends-256064

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: From Washington’s burned letters to Trump’s missing transcripts, partial presidential records limit people’s full understanding of history

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Shannon Bow O’Brien, Associate Professor of Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin

    The presidential Resolute Desk at the White House on Feb. 12, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    President Donald Trump’s second term as president will surely go down in history, though of course, just six months into his four-year term, much of this story has yet to be written.

    But it is already clear that most Americans will not be able to read exactly what Trump has said, as they have with previous presidents, during his current term in the White House.

    The White House has removed the official transcripts of Trump’s public remarks from its government website, NBC News reported in May 2025, replacing the written transcripts with select videos and audio of Trump’s public appearances.

    White House officials told NBC News that this switch should help people get a fuller, more consistent and accurate sense of Trump by watching and listening to him, rather than reading what he says verbatim at official events.

    Government stenographers are also still recording and transcribing all of Trump’s remarks, though these are no longer being published on the White House’s website or elsewhere. It is not clear where or how those transcriptions are being saved.

    For years, translators, reporters, students, historians and presidential scholars like me have used official presidential transcripts to understand a president’s exact words and track government decisions. Without these written transcripts, it becomes harder to get the full story of exactly what the president has done or said.

    President Donald Trump, joined by members of his cabinet, delivers a statement on natural disaster preparedness in the Oval Office at the White House on June 10, 2025.
    Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    A partial history

    A nation’s history is etched in its records. The preservation of official proceedings provides the bedrock for understanding a country’s past and navigating its future.

    A growing chorus of historians, public officials and transparency advocates is raising alarms about how the Trump administration is curating and potentially manipulating the government’s records and actions.

    The White House’s recent decision to not share official, written transcripts of what the president has said is not the first time this issue has emerged under Trump.

    As I wrote in 2021, the first Trump administration did not consistently submit the transcripts of the president’s political rally speeches to the National Archives, as was the custom with previous presidents. The National Archives is an independent government agency within the executive branch that preserves the nation’s historical records.

    This official recordkeeping is important, and it’s more than a tradition – it’s a legal obligation. A law called the Presidential Records Act of 1978 says that everything a president does in office – from making speeches to writing emails – belongs to the public.

    This includes not just formal speeches, but also public remarks and oral exchanges, which are traditionally included in a compilation of presidential documents.

    My examination of this compilation for 2025 appears to show a gap in such records from mid-April 2025 onward. While the transcript of Trump’s full remarks when speaking with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was published on this government site on April 18, for example, publicly available documents from May only include a checklist of White House press releases, a digest of White House announcements and a list of acts that the president signed into law.

    In the absence of complete official records from government sources, external, independent organizations that also monitor the presidency, like The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have become crucial repositories.

    The American Presidency Project diligently logs and, when transcripts are unavailable, provides video of public presidential messaging, striving to create as complete a record as possible for all curious viewers and readers.

    Workers secure scaffolding on the side of the National Archives building in Washington on April 2, 2025.
    Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

    Washington’s letters up in flames

    The fight over keeping an honest record of presidents is a problem that comes up again and again in American history.

    Perhaps the most powerful example of losing historical records comes from the country’s very first president, George Washington. He knew he was setting an example for all future presidents and kept very careful records. He wanted to leave a complete story of his life and his work for the future.

    But there is very little of it left.

    After Washington died, his wife, Martha, burned most of the letters they wrote to each other to keep their lives private.

    Washington left his official papers to his nephew, Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington. But Bushrod gave many of them to Chief Justice John Marshall, who was writing a book about the president. The papers were not treated carefully, and many were damaged. To make matters worse, Bushrod would often tear off scraps of Washington’s writings and give them to people as souvenirs.

    The result is that Americans have an incomplete picture of their first president. What now exists is a weaker version of the real story, created more by what other people did than by what Washington himself had planned.

    Memories fade, and people are not around forever.

    The main way that the U.S. can preserve its story is through accurate records. The current arguments over saving transcripts and official papers are about more than just rules. They are about the future. The records that Trump and other presidents leave behind will decide if people in the future see them as they really were, or just how they wanted others to view them.

    Shannon Bow O’Brien 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. From Washington’s burned letters to Trump’s missing transcripts, partial presidential records limit people’s full understanding of history – https://theconversation.com/from-washingtons-burned-letters-to-trumps-missing-transcripts-partial-presidential-records-limit-peoples-full-understanding-of-history-258275

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Wraps coming off new Wolverhampton City Learning Quarter college campus

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    The majority of the building’s exterior is now exposed for all to see as contractor McLaughlin & Harvey continue to remove the protective covering and scaffolding to unveil the distinctive terracotta coloured cladding.

    Construction works are ongoing on the state of the art facility, which forms part of phase 2 of Wolverhampton Council’s masterplan to boost skills and employment.

    Situated around the Old Hall Street and St George’s Parade area, incorporating a site on the corner of Garrick Street and Bilston Street where the former Faces nightclub building once stood, the development is also utilising the existing Metro One building – it will open to City of Wolverhampton College students in the autumn.

    Alongside improvements to the neighbouring Adult Education Wolverhampton and Central Library facilities, the £61 million scheme – supported by Government funding – will establish new educational provision that will enhance skills and employment outcomes for residents across the city and wider region.

    It will offer A Levels in a range of subjects and vocational qualifications in art, design and photography, business and management, catering and hospitality, computing and digital, creative media, games design and e-sports, hair and beauty, health and social care, music technology, performing arts, and science.

    Prospective students can find out more about what will be on offer at the new campus at the college’s Open Day this Saturday (14 June), at its existing Wellington Road and Paget Road campuses, between 10am and 2pm. Book your place at Open Events | 14 June 2025 | City of Wolverhampton College.

    Construction on phase 1 of the City Learning Quarter masterplan – a new £8.1 million Advanced Technology and Automotive Centre at the college’s Wellington Road campus – has been completed and opened to students in September 2024.

    Councillor Chris Burden, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for City Development, Jobs and Skills, said: “As we get the first look at the exterior finish of the new City Learning Quarter there is no doubt it is going to provide an inspirational setting for students and staff.

    “It will also act as a focal point in the city centre, increasing footfall to support neighbouring businesses, especially with its excellent connectivity to rail, bus, tram and cycle routes.

    “The City Learning Quarter has been a long held ambition of the council to drive education and skills in the city and it will unlock opportunities for the people of Wolverhampton and beyond.”

    Warinder Juss MP, Wolverhampton West, said: “The development of the City Learning Quarter provides exciting opportunities to not only the students of the college, but also to help with the regeneration of the city centre.”

    Paul Davies, Director of Finance at the college, said: “The unveiling of the new City Learning Quarter campus is a major milestone for the college and for education in Wolverhampton. It’s the result of years of planning and investment, and it’s exciting to see the vision becoming a reality.

    “Relocating from our long standing Paget Road site to this purpose built, centrally located campus will allow us to deliver a modern, high quality learning experience that has greater accessibility through public transport links. The new facilities will not only benefit our staff, students and apprentices, but also play a key role in supporting skills development and economic growth across the wider region.”

    The exciting City Learning Quarter proposals were initially supported by investment from the council with a further £49 million coming through UK Government funding, plus additional government grants and contributions from the college and council.

    It will pave the way for City of Wolverhampton College to move from its 1960s Paget Road site, which has been identified as land to build much needed housing.

    The college forecasts that over a 10 year period approximately 45,000 people will benefit from learning at the City Learning Quarter and around 7,500 apprenticeships will be started.

    Its central location and close proximity to the new £150 million transport interchange will make it easily accessible. It will also boast environmental benefits in line with council’s climate emergency agenda.
     

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Denis Manturov congratulated Russians on their national holiday

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    Congratulations from Denis Manturov on Russia Day!

    Dear compatriots!

    I congratulate you on Russia Day – one of the most important national holidays in our country.

    This day symbolizes national unity, strength of spirit and the aspiration of Russian citizens for a fair, peaceful and dignified future. It unites all who sincerely love their homeland, are proud of its centuries-old history, cultural heritage and achievements.

    Today, in the context of serious challenges and changes, it is especially important to remember: the stable and prosperous future of our country depends on the joint efforts of all Russians, mutual respect and responsibility.

    Patriotism, readiness to defend the Motherland and concern for its fate are important features of our national character, passed down through generations. These are the qualities that helped our ancestors accomplish great feats and continue to live in everyone who serves, works and acts for the good of Russia today.

    I wish you and your loved ones happiness, health, peace and prosperity!

    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 –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: 2025 European Heritage Awards winners announced

    Source: European Union 2

    European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef, congratulated all the 2025 laureates:

    Europe stands as a global cultural powerhouse. It is our duty and responsibility to ensure future generations can experience the richness and diversity of our heritage. The European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards not only reflect how cultural heritage is deeply valued in Europe, but they also celebrate and honour this legacy and the ongoing efforts of cultural professionals and volunteers working across the continent to safeguard and promote it. By advancing inclusivity, fostering solidarity, promoting international cooperation, and encouraging intergenerational dialogue, they embody the very essence of our European values. Congratulations to the winners for their outstanding achievements and essential contributions.

    Awards ceremony at the European Cultural Heritage Summit

    The Grand Prix laureates and the Public Choice Award winner – each receiving €10 000 – will be announced during the ceremony taking place at the iconic Art Deco building Flagey in Brussels on 13 October, during the European Cultural Heritage Summit 2025.

    About the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards

    The European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards have been running since 2002. They were set up by the European Commission, and are run by Europa Nostra. The action is co-funded under the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. 

    For 23 years, the Awards have been a key tool to recognise and promote the multiple values of cultural and natural heritage for Europe’s society, economy and environment.

    Three of this year’s winners come from countries that are not associated to Creative Europe, namely the Holy See, Moldova, and the United Kingdom. As they cannot benefit from the EU’s programme, they are honoured by Europa Nostra with a separate ‘Europa Nostra Award’ instead.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI: Turbo Energy Granted Patent for Innovative System Enabling Seamless Storage Integration and Expansion of Photovoltaic Installations

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VALENCIA, Spain, June 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Turbo Energy S.A. (Nasdaq: TURB) (“Turbo Energy” or the “Company”), a global provider of leading-edge, AI-optimized solar energy storage technologies and solutions, today announced that it has been granted a new patent for its innovative system designed to integrate energy storage and expand photovoltaic generation in upstream installations. The patented system provides a unique method for enhancing energy efficiency and flexibility in self-consumption solar power systems—particularly those configured to prevent surplus energy from being injected into the electrical grid.

    The patent, (#iP202430282) issued by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, covers Turbo Energy’s proprietary system and procedure that enable the addition of energy storage (retrofit) and/or new photovoltaic panels (repowering) to existing installations without requiring complex retrofitting or integration with legacy components. This breakthrough technology ensures that excess photovoltaic energy can be stored and utilized at times of reduced solar generation, significantly optimizing energy usage and minimizing reliance on the external power grid. 

    Unlike conventional systems that regulate or limit generation to prevent grid discharge, Turbo Energy’s patented solution introduces a novel “compensation value” concept. This maintains a predefined minimum grid consumption level, effectively bypassing the limitations of zero-injection configurations. As a result, the system maximizes surplus energy capture and storage during peak production hours and enables seamless scalability of solar infrastructure.

    “This patent represents a major leap forward in distributed energy innovation,” stated Mariano Soria, CEO of Turbo Energy. “Our novel solution empowers solar energy users to take full control of their energy production and storage capabilities, overcoming a critical technical barrier that has long restricted the growth and efficiency of self-consumption systems. We are very proud to continue leading through technological and engineering innovation, underpinned by our goal of powering a more sustainable and intelligent energy future for our customers across the globe.”

    The newly patented technology is already incorporated into Turbo Energy’s next generation of energy management solutions, marketed as SUNBOX Home for residential applications, SUNBOX Industry for commercial and industrial applications and SUNBOX Utility for utility-scale projects.

    About Turbo Energy, S.A.

    Founded in 2013, Turbo Energy is a globally recognized pioneer of proprietary solar energy storage technologies and solutions managed through Artificial Intelligence. Turbo Energy’s elegant all-in-one and scalable, modular energy storage systems empower residential, commercial and industrial users expanding across Europe, North America and South America to materially reduce dependence on traditional energy sources, helping to lower electricity costs, provide peak shaving and uninterruptible power supply and realize a more sustainable, energy-efficient future. A testament to the Company’s commitment to innovation and industry disruption, Turbo Energy’s introduction of its flagship SUNBOX represents one of the world’s first high performance, competitively priced, all-in-one home solar energy storage systems, which also incorporates patented EV charging capability and powerful AI processes to optimize solar energy management.  Turbo Energy is a proud subsidiary of publicly traded Umbrella Global Energy, S.A., a vertically integrated, global collective of solar energy-focused companies.  For more information, please visit www.turbo-e.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    Statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects, as well as any other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of the business of the Company, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control, including the risks described in our registration statements and annual report under the heading “Risk Factors” as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof, and Turbo Energy, S.A. specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    For more information, please contact:
    At Turbo Energy, S.A.                                                         
    Dodi Handy, Director of Communications                 
    Phone: 407-960-4636                                                
    Email: dodihandy@turbo-e.com  

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: AI tools collect and store data about you from all your devices – here’s how to be aware of what you’re revealing

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Christopher Ramezan, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity, West Virginia University

    AI tools gather information about you from many types of devices, including smartphones. Prostock-Studio/Getty Images

    Like it or not, artificial intelligence has become part of daily life. Many devices – including electric razors and toothbrushes – have become “AI-powered,” using machine learning algorithms to track how a person uses the device, how the device is working in real time, and provide feedback. From asking questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot to monitoring a daily fitness routine with a smartwatch, many people use an AI system or tool every day.

    While AI tools and technologies can make life easier, they also raise important questions about data privacy. These systems often collect large amounts of data, sometimes without people even realizing their data is being collected. The information can then be used to identify personal habits and preferences, and even predict future behaviors by drawing inferences from the aggregated data.

    As an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University, I study how emerging technologies and various types of AI systems manage personal data and how we can build more secure, privacy-preserving systems for the future.

    Generative AI software uses large amounts of training data to create new content such as text or images. Predictive AI uses data to forecast outcomes based on past behavior, such as how likely you are to hit your daily step goal, or what movies you may want to watch. Both types can be used to gather information about you.

    How AI tools collect data

    Generative AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini collect all the information users type into a chat box. Every question, response and prompt that users enter is recorded, stored and analyzed to improve the AI model.

    OpenAI’s privacy policy informs users that “we may use content you provide us to improve our Services, for example to train the models that power ChatGPT.” Even though OpenAI allows you to opt out of content use for model training, it still collects and retains your personal data. Although some companies promise that they anonymize this data, meaning they store it without naming the person who provided it, there is always a risk of data being reidentified.

    ChatGPT stores and analyzes everything you type into a prompt screen.
    Screenshot by Christopher Ramezan, CC BY-ND

    Predictive AI

    Beyond generative AI assistants, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok continuously gather data on their users to train predictive AI models. Every post, photo, video, like, share and comment, including the amount of time people spend looking at each of these, is collected as data points that are used to build digital data profiles for each person who uses the service.

    The profiles can be used to refine the social media platform’s AI recommender systems. They can also be sold to data brokers, who sell a person’s data to other companies to, for instance, help develop targeted advertisements that align with that person’s interests.

    Many social media companies also track users across websites and applications by putting cookies and embedded tracking pixels on their computers. Cookies are small files that store information about who you are and what you clicked on while browsing a website.

    One of the most common uses of cookies is in digital shopping carts: When you place an item in your cart, leave the website and return later, the item will still be in your cart because the cookie stored that information. Tracking pixels are invisible images or snippets of code embedded in websites that notify companies of your activity when you visit their page. This helps them track your behavior across the internet.

    This is why users often see or hear advertisements that are related to their browsing and shopping habits on many of the unrelated websites they browse, and even when they are using different devices, including computers, phones and smart speakers. One study found that some websites can store over 300 tracking cookies on your computer or mobile phone.

    Here’s how websites you browse can track you using cookies or tracking pixels.

    Data privacy controls – and limitations

    Like generative AI platforms, social media platforms offer privacy settings and opt-outs, but these give people limited control over how their personal data is aggregated and monetized. As media theorist Douglas Rushkoff argued in 2011, if the service is free, you are the product.

    Many tools that include AI don’t require a person to take any direct action for the tool to collect data about that person. Smart devices such as home speakers, fitness trackers and watches continually gather information through biometric sensors, voice recognition and location tracking. Smart home speakers continually listen for the command to activate or “wake up” the device. As the device is listening for this word, it picks up all the conversations happening around it, even though it does not seem to be active.

    Some companies claim that voice data is only stored when the wake word – what you say to wake up the device – is detected. However, people have raised concerns about accidental recordings, especially because these devices are often connected to cloud services, which allow voice data to be stored, synced and shared across multiple devices such as your phone, smart speaker and tablet.

    If the company allows, it’s also possible for this data to be accessed by third parties, such as advertisers, data analytics firms or a law enforcement agency with a warrant.

    Privacy rollbacks

    This potential for third-party access also applies to smartwatches and fitness trackers, which monitor health metrics and user activity patterns. Companies that produce wearable fitness devices are not considered “covered entities” and so are not bound by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. This means that they are legally allowed to sell health- and location-related data collected from their users.

    Concerns about HIPAA data arose in 2018, when Strava, a fitness company released a global heat map of user’s exercise routes. In doing so, it accidentally revealed sensitive military locations across the globe through highlighting the exercise routes of military personnel.

    Smart speakers can collect information even when they’re sleeping.
    recep-bg/Getty Images

    The Trump administration has tapped Palantir, a company that specializes in using AI for data analytics, to collate and analyze data about Americans. Meanwhile, Palantir has announced a partnership with a company that runs self-checkout systems.

    Such partnerships can expand corporate and government reach into everyday consumer behavior. This one could be used to create detailed personal profiles on Americans by linking their consumer habits with other personal data. This raises concerns about increased surveillance and loss of anonymity. It could allow citizens to be tracked and analyzed across multiple aspects of their lives without their knowledge or consent.

    Some smart device companies are also rolling back privacy protections instead of strengthening them. Amazon recently announced that starting on March 28, 2025, all voice recordings from Amazon Echo devices would be sent to Amazon’s cloud by default, and users will no longer have the option to turn this function off. This is different from previous settings, which allowed users to limit private data collection.

    Changes like these raise concerns about how much control consumers have over their own data when using smart devices. Many privacy experts consider cloud storage of voice recordings a form of data collection, especially when used to improve algorithms or build user profiles, which has implications for data privacy laws designed to protect online privacy.

    Implications for data privacy

    All of this brings up serious privacy concerns for people and governments on how AI tools collect, store, use and transmit data. The biggest concern is transparency. People don’t know what data is being collected, how the data is being used, and who has access to that data.

    Companies tend to use complicated privacy policies filled with technical jargon to make it difficult for people to understand the terms of a service that they agree to. People also tend not to read terms of service documents. One study found that people averaged 73 seconds reading a terms of service document that had an average read time of 29-32 minutes.

    Data collected by AI tools may initially reside with a company that you trust, but can easily be sold and given to a company that you don’t trust.

    AI tools, the companies in charge of them and the companies that have access to the data they collect can also be subject to cyberattacks and data breaches that can reveal sensitive personal information. These attacks can by carried out by cybercriminals who are in it for the money, or by so-called advanced persistent threats, which are typically nation/state- sponsored attackers who gain access to networks and systems and remain there undetected, collecting information and personal data to eventually cause disruption or harm.

    While laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act aim to safeguard user data, AI development and use have often outpaced the legislative process. The laws are still catching up on AI and data privacy. For now, you should assume any AI-powered device or platform is collecting data on your inputs, behaviors and patterns.

    Using AI tools

    Although AI tools collect people’s data, and the way this accumulation of data affects people’s data privacy is concerning, the tools can also be useful. AI-powered applications can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable insights.

    But it’s crucial to approach these tools with awareness and caution.

    When using a generative AI platform that gives you answers to questions you type in a prompt, don’t include any personally identifiable information, including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers or home addresses. At the workplace, don’t include trade secrets or classified information. In general, don’t put anything into a prompt that you wouldn’t feel comfortable revealing to the public or seeing on a billboard. Remember, once you hit enter on the prompt, you’ve lost control of that information.

    Remember that devices which are turned on are always listening – even if they’re asleep. If you use smart home or embedded devices, turn them off when you need to have a private conversation. A device that’s asleep looks inactive, but it is still powered on and listening for a wake word or signal. Unplugging a device or removing its batteries is a good way of making sure the device is truly off.

    Finally, be aware of the terms of service and data collection policies of the devices and platforms that you are using. You might be surprised by what you’ve already agreed to.

    This article is part of a series on data privacy that explores who collects your data, what and how they collect, who sells and buys your data, what they all do with it, and what you can do about it.

    Previous articles in the series:

    How illicit markets fueled by data breaches sell your personal information to criminals

    Christopher Ramezan receives funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

    – ref. AI tools collect and store data about you from all your devices – here’s how to be aware of what you’re revealing – https://theconversation.com/ai-tools-collect-and-store-data-about-you-from-all-your-devices-heres-how-to-be-aware-of-what-youre-revealing-251693

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: AI literacy: What it is, what it isn’t, who needs it and why it’s hard to define

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daniel S. Schiff, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Purdue University

    AI literacy is a lot more than simply knowing how to prompt an AI chatbot. DNY59/E+ via Getty Images

    It is “the policy of the United States to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans,” reads an executive order President Donald Trump issued on April 23, 2025. The executive order, titled Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth, signals that advancing AI literacy is now an official national priority.

    This raises a series of important questions: What exactly is AI literacy, who needs it, and how do you go about building it thoughtfully and responsibly?

    The implications of AI literacy, or lack thereof, are far-reaching. They extend beyond national ambitions to remain “a global leader in this technological revolution” or even prepare an “AI-skilled workforce,” as the executive order states. Without basic literacy, citizens and consumers are not well equipped to understand the algorithmic platforms and decisions that affect so many domains of their lives: government services, privacy, lending, health care, news recommendations and more. And the lack of AI literacy risks ceding important aspects of society’s future to a handful of multinational companies.

    How, then, can institutions help people understand and use – or resist – AI as individuals, workers, parents, innovators, job seekers, students, employers and citizens? We are a policy scientist and two educational researchers who study AI literacy, and we explore these issues in our research.

    What AI literacy is and isn’t

    At its foundation, AI literacy includes a mix of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are technical, social and ethical in nature. According to one prominent definition, AI literacy refers to “a set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies; communicate and collaborate effectively with AI; and use AI as a tool online, at home, and in the workplace.”

    AI literacy is not simply programming or the mechanics of neural networks, and it is certainly not just prompt engineering – that is, the act of carefully writing prompts for chatbots. Vibe coding, or using AI to write software code, might be fun and important, but restricting the definition of literacy to the newest trend or the latest need of employers won’t cover the bases in the long term. And while a single master definition may not be needed, or even desirable, too much variation makes it tricky to decide on organizational, educational or policy strategies.

    Who needs AI literacy? Everyone, including the employees and students using it, and the citizens grappling with its growing impacts. Every sector and sphere of society is now involved with AI, even if this isn’t always easy for people to see.

    Exactly how much literacy everyone needs and how to get there is a much tougher question. Are a few quick HR training sessions enough, or do we need to embed AI across K-12 curricula and deliver university micro credentials and hands-on workshops? There is much that researchers don’t know, which leads to the need to measure AI literacy and the effectiveness of different training approaches.

    Ethics is an important aspect of AI literacy.

    Measuring AI literacy

    While there is a growing and bipartisan consensus that AI literacy matters, there’s much less consensus on how to actually understand people’s AI literacy levels. Researchers have focused on different aspects, such as technical or ethical skills, or on different populations – for example, business managers and students – or even on subdomains like generative AI.

    A recent review study identified more than a dozen questionnaires designed to measure AI literacy, the vast majority of which rely on self-reported responses to questions and statements such as “I feel confident about using AI.” There’s also a lack of testing to see whether these questionnaires work well for people from different cultural backgrounds.

    Moreover, the rise of generative AI has exposed gaps and challenges: Is it possible to create a stable way to measure AI literacy when AI is itself so dynamic?

    In our research collaboration, we’ve tried to help address some of these problems. In particular, we’ve focused on creating objective knowledge assessments, such as multiple-choice surveys tested with thorough statistical analyses to ensure that they accurately measure AI literacy. We’ve so far tested a multiple-choice survey in the U.S., U.K. and Germany and found that it works consistently and fairly across these three countries.

    There’s a lot more work to do to create reliable and feasible testing approaches. But going forward, just asking people to self-report their AI literacy probably isn’t enough to understand where different groups of people are and what supports they need.

    Approaches to building AI literacy

    Governments, universities and industry are trying to advance AI literacy.

    Finland launched the Elements of AI series in 2018 with the hope of educating its general public on AI. Estonia’s AI Leap initiative partners with Anthropic and OpenAI to provide access to AI tools for tens of thousands of students and thousands of teachers. And China is now requiring at least eight hours of AI education annually as early as elementary school, which goes a step beyond the new U.S. executive order. On the university level, Purdue University and the University of Pennsylvania have launched new master’s in AI programs, targeting future AI leaders.

    Despite these efforts, these initiatives face an unclear and evolving understanding of AI literacy. They also face challenges to measuring effectiveness and minimal knowledge on what teaching approaches actually work. And there are long-standing issues with respect to equity − for example, reaching schools, communities, segments of the population and businesses that are stretched or under-resourced.

    Next moves on AI literacy

    Based on our research, experience as educators and collaboration with policymakers and technology companies, we think a few steps might be prudent.

    Building AI literacy starts with recognizing it’s not just about tech: People also need to grasp the social and ethical sides of the technology. To see whether we’re getting there, we researchers and educators should use clear, reliable tests that track progress for different age groups and communities. Universities and companies can try out new teaching ideas first, then share what works through an independent hub. Educators, meanwhile, need proper training and resources, not just additional curricula, to bring AI into the classroom. And because opportunity isn’t spread evenly, partnerships that reach under-resourced schools and neighborhoods are essential so everyone can benefit.

    Critically, achieving widespread AI literacy may be even harder than building digital and media literacy, so getting there will require serious investment – not cuts – to education and research.

    There is widespread consensus that AI literacy is important, whether to boost AI trust and adoption or to empower citizens to challenge AI or shape its future. As with AI itself, we believe it’s important to approach AI literacy carefully, avoiding hype or an overly technical focus. The right approach can prepare students to become “active and responsible participants in the workforce of the future” and empower Americans to “thrive in an increasingly digital society,” as the AI literacy executive order calls for.

    Funding from Google Research helped to support part of the authors’ research on AI literacy.

    Funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the funding code 16DHBKI051 helped to support part of the authors’ research on AI literacy.

    Arne Bewersdorff 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. AI literacy: What it is, what it isn’t, who needs it and why it’s hard to define – https://theconversation.com/ai-literacy-what-it-is-what-it-isnt-who-needs-it-and-why-its-hard-to-define-256061

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Art exhibition gives unpaid carers the chance to express themselves

    Source: City of Portsmouth

    Portsmouth City Council’s carers service offers a one-stop shop for unpaid carers to get advice and support, meet others who are going through the same thing, and have a break from their caring role.

    Most recently, this has included a new programme of creative sessions, where carers can paint, write, sculpt or collage to express their thoughts and feelings about being a carer, caring in Portsmouth, or their caring journey. Guided activities and support are available or attendees can just let their imagination go wild and do their own thing.

    Now the artwork and poetry that has been produced has been put on display and is ready to be shared with the city. It is hoped that the artistic creations may help others who might not yet recognise themselves as carers to get the help they need, and for the professionals who work with carers to better understand their experiences and point of view, to help them deliver better services.

    A carer is anyone who provides unpaid care or support to someone who would not manage without that help. Carers typically and most often care for family members at home, although not always. Caring might also involve regular support given to a neighbour or friend. There are 15,000 carers living in Portsmouth according to the Census data from 2021.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Groundbreaking of Sullivan County Broadband Project

    Source: US State of New York

    ir=”ltr”>Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the groundbreaking of a $29.9 million broadband infrastructure project in Sullivan County that will bring high-speed internet access to more than 22,000 homes and businesses across the region’s rural and mountainous terrain. The project, funded through New York State’s Municipal Infrastructure Program under the ConnectALL initiative, represents the largest single broadband investment in Sullivan County’s history and advances the Governor’s commitment to ensuring every New Yorker has access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet. The groundbreaking will mark the beginning of construction on 253 miles of fiber optic cable and an expansion on an existing tower that will work in conjunction with Sullivan County’s 11 existing towers to deliver broadband service to previously unserved and underserved locations.

    “Today marks a historic turning point for Sullivan County — we’re finally bridging the gap that has held back too many communities for far too long,” Governor Hochul said. “This publicly-owned infrastructure isn’t just about faster internet — it’s about opening doors to better healthcare, education, and economic opportunities that access to high speed internet brings to the table. No New Yorker should be left behind simply because of where they live, and this project ensures that rural communities have the same access to opportunity as anywhere else in our state.”

    Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight said, “The Municipal Infrastructure Program highlights New York State’s commitment to innovative, equitable broadband solutions. By prioritizing public ownership, we ensure broadband connectivity is universally accessible, affordable, and sustainable. This investment will make a tangible difference in the daily lives of Sullivan County residents — helping students succeed in school, supporting small businesses, and expanding access to telehealth and other vital services.”

    Senator Chuck Schumer said, “Access to high-speed internet is not luxury, but a necessity, a utility as vital as electricity for everyday life. Today, Sullivan County takes a major step towards closing the digital divide. I was proud to deliver a whopping $30 million in federal funding to boost affordable, high-quality internet access for more than 22,000 homes throughout Sullivan County. These federal resources will help families stay connected to education, to healthcare, economic opportunity, and each other. When I led the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law to passage, I made sure there was funding for long term investments like this that would create good paying jobs helping build the 21st century infrastructure needed to make high-speed internet reach every corner of New York State.”

    Assemblymember Paula Kay said, “High-speed internet is not a luxury — it’s a lifeline. I’m proud to stand with Governor Hochul as we break ground on this record investment. By leveraging public-private partnership, we’re making sure families can learn, work, and thrive right here in Sullivan County.”

    Sullivan County Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz said, “Thanks to Governor Hochul’s visionary support of upstate New York and the historic funding provided by the State’s ConnectALL program, Sullivan County is about to experience an incredible transformation that simply could not have happened otherwise. Together with our partner Archtop Fiber, we will be bringing high-speed Internet access to every corner of Sullivan, providing an essential service where it is needed most.”

    Sullivan County faces unique broadband deployment challenges due to its rural and mountainous terrains. Under the innovative public-private partnership model, Sullivan County will own the infrastructure while Archtop Fiber LLC will serve as internet service provider, ensuring competitive pricing and service options for residents and businesses. Construction on the fiber network will begin following the groundbreaking ceremony, with the first connections anticipated within 18 months. The project will be completed in phases, prioritizing areas with the greatest need while ensuring minimal disruption to local communities.

    The Sullivan County broadband project is part of Governor Hochul’s broader ConnectALL initiative, which has committed over $1 billion to expanding broadband access across New York State as essential infrastructure for economic recovery and long-term prosperity. Funded through the U.S. Department of the Treasury under the American Rescue Plan’s Capital Projects Fund, the Municipal Infrastructure Program utilizes a public ownership model that serves the public interest while creating an open-access network for multiple internet service providers, promoting competition and keeping costs affordable for consumers. To date, ConnectALL has awarded over $240 million through the program, funding construction of nearly 2,400 miles of broadband infrastructure that will reach 98,000 locations across New York State. ConnectALL has expanded the program to nearly $300 million and is currently reviewing additional applications. Visit the ConnectALL Projects Dashboard for more information on Municipal Infrastructure Program projects.

    Governor Hochul’s ConnectALL Initiative

    Governor Hochul has made expanding broadband access a cornerstone of her administration’s efforts to create a more equitable New York. Through the ConnectALL initiative, New York State is investing $1 billion to transform the state’s digital infrastructure, enhance competition among providers, and ensure that every New Yorker has access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet. For more information on the ConnectALL initiative visit broadband.ny.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News –