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  • MIL-OSI Europe: Press release – Press conference: European Parliament reports on Kosovo and on Serbia

    Source: European Parliament 3

    Standing rapporteur for Kosovo, Riho Terras, and standing rapporteur for Serbia, Tonino Picula, will hold a joint press conference at 15:40 on Wednesday.

    MEPs will vote on Parliament’s response to the Commission’s 2023 and 2024 reports on Kosovo and on Serbia on Wednesday. Following the announcement of the results of the vote on Wednesday, Riho Terras (EPP, ET) and Tonino Picula (S&D, HR) will answer questions from journalists during a press conference.

    When: 15:40 – 16:10, Wednesday, 7 April, 2025

    Where: Strasbourg, Daphne Caruana Galizia press conference room (WEISS N -1/201) and remotely via Interactio

    Interpretation will be available in Croatian, English, Estonian, French, German and Italian.

    Journalists online wishing to take part and ask questions, please connect via Interactio.

    You can also follow the press conference online via webstreaming.

    Background

    The enlargement reports are the European Parliament’s response to the Commission’s annual reports on the candidate and potential candidate countries in the EU accession process. Resolutions adopted in plenary represent the European Parliament’s official position regarding EU relations with these countries.

    Information for the media – Use Interactio to ask questions

    Interactio is only supported on iPad (with the Safari browser) and Mac/Windows (with the Google Chrome browser).

    When connecting, enter your name and the media you are representing in the first name / last name fields.

    For better sound quality, use headphones and a microphone. Interpretation is only possible for interventions with video.

    Journalists who have never used Interactio before are asked to connect 30 minutes before the start of the press event to perform a connection test. IT assistance can be provided if necessary.

    When connected, open the chat window (upper right corner) to be able to see the service.

    more details, check the connection guidelines and recommendations for remote speakers.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: K-Pop’s Biggest Bands Perform in Los Angeles at SMTOWN LIVE 2025 in L.A., Exclusively on Samsung TV Plus

    Source: Samsung

    Samsung TV Plus, the ultimate destination for K-Content, is teaming up with SM Entertainment to bring K-Pop’s biggest performances to the big screen in celebration of its 30th anniversary. As part of this exclusive, Samsung TV Plus will debut a new, dedicated SMTOWN channel–enhancing its commitment to deliver the best-in-class content to K-fans around the world.
    The partnership will kick off its first live event from the Los Angeles Dignity Health Sports Park on May 11th starting at 6 PM PT, with a star studded concert to remember.
    The lineup includes:
    TVXQ!
    SUPER JUNIOR
    KEY, MINHO of SHINee
    SUHO, CHANYEOL, KAI of EXO
    Red Velvet (IRENE, SEULGI, JOY)
    NCT127
    NCT DREAM
    WayV
    aespa
    RIIZE
    NCT WISH
    Hearts2Hearts
    SMTR25
    Now K-Pop fans from around the globe can experience live performances across 18 countries, with concert replays, music videos, and playlists with additional K-Content added to the channel following the SMTOWN LIVE 2025 in L.A. concert.
    “Our partnership with SM Entertainment reflects our continued commitment to leading the K-Content space through bold investments and exclusive experiences,” said Salek Brodsky, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Samsung TV Plus. “By bringing this milestone event to audiences around the globe, we’re not only celebrating K-Pop’s growing popularity, but further expanding the depth of the Samsung TV Plus K-Content offering, which remains amongst the largest in the world.”
    Samsung TV Plus‘ expansion continues to solidify its position as one of the largest providers of K-Content. From premium titles across a variety of genres like K-Dramas, K-Crime, K-Thrillers, K-Romance, and now K-Pop, its expansive offering showcases the unique crossovers and cultural tie-ins that have made K-Content a global phenomenon.
    For more information on Samsung TV Plus, please visit samsungtvplus.com.
    About Samsung TV Plus
    Samsung TV Plus is a premium global entertainment service and is the most used streaming app on Samsung Smart TVs. As a leader in FAST, Samsung TV Plus offers hundreds of channels and thousands of shows and movies on-demand in the U.S. Globally, the streaming service carries over 3,500 ad-supported linear channels in 30 countries and is accessible on over 630M active devices. Samsung TV Plus is the exclusive home of Conan O’Brien TV, Letterman TV, and hundreds of additional exclusive channels available worldwide. Samsung TV Plus is available on Samsung TVs, Galaxy devices, Samsung Smart Monitor, and Family Hub. To learn more, visit samsungtvplus.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Philly’s forgotten history as a hub of anarchism with a thriving radical Yiddish press

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Geoffrey Baym, Professor of Media Studies and Production, Temple University

    The first edition of Bread and Freedom came out on Nov. 11, 1906. From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Broyt un Frayheyt (Bread and Freedom)

    On a late summer day in 1906, a small group of newly arrived Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia took a streetcar across town to Fairmount Park. Several miles from the cramped row houses and oppressive sweatshops of the immigrant quarter of South Philly, the neighborhood now known as Queen Village, they enjoyed a sunny picnic.

    They weren’t there to make small talk, though.

    Instead, they wanted to write “revolutionary articles” that would spark the “struggle against all that degrades and oppresses humanity,” as one of the leaders of the group, Joseph Cohen, later wrote in his 1945 memoir.

    More specifically, the picnicgoers wanted to start a newspaper. It would be titled Broyt un Frayheyt – Yiddish for Bread and Freedom – the anarchist reminder that to live the good life, one needs both.

    I’m a professor of media and politics at Temple University in Philadelphia. For the past year I’ve been tracking the life and times of my great-grandfather Max, a radical Yiddish journalist in the early years of the 20th century.

    To my surprise, I found he had lived here in Philadelphia, and his story is part of a largely forgotten moment in U.S. history: when Philly was an epicenter of the national anarchist movement, heartily supported by the city’s burgeoning Jewish immigrant community.

    Beyond the Russian pale

    By 1906, thousands of people like Max had made their way to Philadelphia from the Russian “pale” – the only part of the Russian Empire where they could legally reside. They fled economic isolation and state-sanctioned persecution in search of a more stable life.

    South Philly was better than where they had come from, but immigrant life then, as now, was by no means easy. They had escaped a legal regime of oppression and the perpetual threat of antisemitic mob violence. But in turn they found a world of dark alleys and dead ends. Their labor was exploited, their living conditions meager.

    For some, the American promise of freedom and prosperity seemed to ring hollow.

    They did, however, find one freedom they had not experienced before. They were able to speak, write and publish their ideas no matter how outlandish or against the grain.

    And they could do so in Yiddish, the vernacular of daily life but a language of exile – one that in the old world had often been outlawed in print.

    The Yiddish press in the United States was experiencing extraordinary growth at the time. In New York, Philadelphia and other cities, newspapers quickly emerged – and often disappeared – month over month.

    Jewish anarchists in America

    Max moved to Philadelphia in 1906 to work with another immigrant named Joseph Cohen. Cohen had arrived in Philadelphia three years earlier. He earned a scant living making cigars, but his real work was advocating anarchism.

    At the dawn of the 20th century, anarchism was not the nihilistic chaos the term may bring to mind today. It was a heartfelt dream of a free and egalitarian society.

    The anarchists believed that man-made hierarchies – political, economic and religious – were illegitimate and limited the full expression of humanity. They rejected the authority of the state. That particularly appealed to many Jewish immigrants, for whom laws in the old country had long served as vehicles of oppression.

    Cohen had studied this philosophy of local autonomy and communal life with the Philadelphia activist Voltairine de Cleyre.

    History may remember Emma Goldman, a Lithuanian-born New Yorker and perhaps the leading voice of American anarchism from that era. But de Cleyre was the heart and soul of Philadelphia’s anarchist scene.

    Goldman once described de Cleyre as a “poet-rebel,” a “liberty-loving artist” and “the greatest woman anarchist of America.”

    Voltairine de Cleyre in Philadelphia circa 1901.
    Wikimedia Commons

    A tireless critic of the inequities of the industrial age, de Cleyre had taught herself Yiddish to better serve as “the apostle of anarchism” in the Jewish ghetto.

    While de Cleyre could often be found speaking in front of city hall, Max, Cohen and their colleagues were more likely to gather at the corner of Fifth and South streets, the hub of Philadelphia’s Yiddish press and its culture of rambunctious street debate.

    By 1906, Cohen had co-founded the anarchist Radical Library in the upstairs rooms at 229 Pine St. This provided the Philadelphia anarchists a meeting space and reading room.

    But “the Jewish newspaper men, the radicals and the tireless talkers,” as the Philadelphia historian Harry Boonin wrote, still congregated in the ramshackle cafes lining the 600 block of South Fifth, where they would argue over anarchism and atheism deep into the night.

    Competition with NYC comrades

    Cohen’s goal was to publish a nationally influential anarchist paper that would give voice to the “comrades from Philadelphia.”

    That meant direct competition with the New York Yiddish press and the influential weekly newspaper Freie Arbeiter Stimme, or The Free Voice of Labor. Edited by Saul Yanovksy on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, FAS was the center of the Jewish anarchist movement and of the Yiddish intelligentsia more broadly.

    “To be able to say ‘I have written for Yanovsky,’” wrote the sociologist Robert Park in 1922, “is a literary passport for a Yiddish writer.”

    Freie Arbeiter Stimme (The Free Voice of Labor) was the intellectual center of the Jewish anarchist movement at the turn of the 20th century.
    From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Freie Arbeiter Stimme (The Free Voice of Labor)

    Although the FAS masthead said the paper was located in New York and Philadelphia, Yanovksy controlled the operation from New York, much to Cohen’s dismay.

    The Philadelphia anarchists were also routinely disappointed in Yanovsky’s politics. He was too moderate for their tastes. Yanovsky favored organizing labor and voting in elections, while the Bread and Freedom group, according to Cohen, wanted to cultivate “the militancy and fighting spirit which our young comrades brought with them from cold Russia.” They advocated for more aggressive measures to counter “the submissive indifference of the bourgeoisie and the slavish patience of the workers.”

    Cohen had partnered with Yanovsky earlier in 1906 to publish a daily anarchist newspaper. He maintained a small office in the back of Finkler’s cigar store at Fifth and Bainbridge streets. But the paper was printed in New York and delivered back to Philadelphia each morning by courier train.

    Cohen wrote in his memoir that he suspected Yanovsky intentionally sabotaged the effort by insisting that he personally write the daily editorial, but then turning in his copy too late for the paper to make the train. After two months the partnership, and the paper, fell apart.

    For Cohen, the lesson was that to be the genuine voice of the anarchist movement, he had to print the paper locally in Philadelphia.

    A digest of anarchist argument

    Editions of the Bread and Freedom anarchist weekly list the Radical Library at 229 Pine St. as its headquarters.
    From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Bread and Freedom

    Bread and Freedom published its first issue on Nov. 11, 1906. The date was symbolic. It was the anniversary of the execution of the “Chicago martyrs” – the four men wrongly sentenced to death for the 1886 bombing at a labor rally at Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The Haymarket affair galvanized the anarchist movement among immigrants, even as it accelerated the wider fear of foreign-born radicalism.

    Over the next three months, the newspaper offered a weekly digest of anarchist arguments. It translated into Yiddish Voltairine de Cleyre’s critique of capitalism and what she called its “moral bankruptcy” – its hunger for wealth, power and material possessions. It attacked what de Cleyre called the “dominant idea” of the times – “the shameless, merciless” exploitation of the worker, “only to produce heaps and heaps of things – things ugly, things harmful, things useless, and at the best largely unnecessary.”

    In the strongest of terms – “bombastic,” in the words of one local historian – the paper echoed de Cleyre’s call for the “restless, active, rebel souls” of immigrant Philadelphia to rise up to oppose the “great and lamentable error” of industrial capitalism.

    Almost as soon as it began, however, Bread and Freedom ran out of money. Its rhetoric was exciting but ineffective. The paper offered no real solutions beyond an impossible demand to dismantle the capitalist state.

    Although two members of the group were briefly detained by the police in Baltimore for selling a radical newspaper, their fiery propaganda lit no revolutionary spark.

    Instead, it disappeared quietly, folding in January 1907.

    Shifting tactics

    Even then, a different kind of immigrant was arriving in the U.S. from Russia. Their radical politics were coupled with organizational acumen.

    Many of the older anarchists would join forces with these newcomers, and the effort morphed into something more pragmatic. They helped build the foundations of the 20th-century labor movement, which successfully fought for once-radical ideals such as the eight-hour workday and paid sick leave.

    Cohen moved to New York and took over as editor of FAS in 1923. That was a tense period for the Jewish left, following the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Communist rise to power. In response, the U.S. government suppressed domestic radicalism, arresting and at times deporting foreign-born leftists, and anarchism fell out of favor.

    A few years earlier, though, the streets of South Philly had been home to a vibrant space of free speech and boundless political imagination. It would not last long, but it is a moment I believe is worth remembering.

    Geoffrey Baym 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. Philly’s forgotten history as a hub of anarchism with a thriving radical Yiddish press – https://theconversation.com/phillys-forgotten-history-as-a-hub-of-anarchism-with-a-thriving-radical-yiddish-press-252869

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Hurricane forecasts are more accurate than ever – NOAA funding cuts could change that, with a busy storm season coming

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Chris Vagasky, Meteorologist and Research Program Manager, University of Wisconsin-Madison

    Radar shows a NOAA Hurricane Hunter flying through the eye of Tropical Storm Idalia during a mission in 2023. Nick Underwood/NOAA

    The National Hurricane Center’s forecasts in 2024 were its most accurate on record, from its one-day forecasts, as tropical cyclones neared the coast, to its forecasts five days into the future, when storms were only beginning to come together.

    Thanks to federally funded research, forecasts of tropical cyclone tracks today are up to 75% more accurate than they were in 1990. A National Hurricane Center forecast three days out today is about as accurate as a one-day forecast in 2002, giving people in the storm’s path more time to prepare and reducing the size of evacuations.

    Accuracy will be crucial again in 2025, as meteorologists predict another active Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

    Yet, cuts in staffing and threats to funding at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – which includes the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service – are diminishing operations that forecasters rely on.

    I am a meteorologist who studies lightning in hurricanes and helps train other meteorologists to monitor and forecast tropical cyclones. Here are three of the essential components of weather forecasting that have been targeted for cuts to funding and staff at NOAA.

    Tracking the wind

    To understand how a hurricane is likely to behave, forecasters need to know what’s going on in the atmosphere far from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

    Hurricanes are steered by the winds around them. Wind patterns detected today over the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains – places like Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota – give forecasters clues to the winds that will be likely along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in the days ahead.

    Satellites can’t take direct measurements, so to measure these winds, scientists rely on weather balloons. That data is essential both for forecasts and to calibrate the complicated formulas forecasters use to make estimates from satellite data.

    A meteorologist prepares to launch a weather balloon at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo. Data collected by the balloon’s radiosonde will help predict local weather that can influence fire behavior.
    Neal Herbert/National Park Service

    However, in early 2025, the Trump administration terminated or suspended weather balloon launches at more than a dozen locations.

    That move and other cuts and threatened cuts at NOAA have raised red flags for forecasters across the country and around the world.

    Forecasters everywhere, from TV to private companies, rely on NOAA’s data to do their jobs. Much of that data would be extremely expensive if not impossible to replicate.

    Under normal circumstances, weather balloons are released from around 900 locations around the world at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern time every day. While the loss of just 12 of these profiles may not seem significant, small amounts of missing data can lead to big forecast errors. This is an example of chaos theory, more popularly known as the butterfly effect.

    The balloons carry a small instrument called a radiosonde, which records data as it rises from the surface of the Earth to around 120,000 feet above ground. The radiosonde acts like an all-in-one weather station, beaming back details of the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and air pressure every 15 feet through its flight.

    Together, all these measurements help meteorologists interpret the atmosphere overhead and feed into computer models used to help forecast weather around the country, including hurricanes.

    Hurricane Hunters

    For more than 80 years, scientists have been flying planes into hurricanes to measure each storm’s strength and help forecast its path and potential for damage.

    Known as “Hurricane Hunters,” these crews from the U.S. Air Force Reserve and NOAA routinely conduct reconnaissance missions throughout hurricane season using a variety of instruments. Similar to weather balloons, these flights are making measurements that satellites can’t.

    Hurricane Hunters use Doppler radar to gauge how the wind is blowing and LiDAR to measure temperature and humidity changes. They drop probes to measure the ocean temperature down several hundred feet to tell how much warm water might be there to fuel the storm.

    They also release 20 to 30 dropsondes, measuring devices with parachutes. As the dropsondes fall through the storm, they transmit data about the temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and air pressure every 15 feet or so from the plane to the ocean.

    Dropsondes from Hurricane Hunter flights are the only way to directly measure what is occurring inside the storm. Although satellites and radars can see inside hurricanes, these are indirect measurements that do not have the fine-scale resolution of dropsonde data.

    That data tells National Hurricane Center forecasters how intense the storm is and whether the atmosphere around the storm is favorable for strengthening. Dropsonde data also helps computer models forecast the track and intensity of storms days into the future.

    Two NOAA Hurricane Hunter flight directors were laid off in February 2025, leaving only six when 10 are preferred. Directors are the flight meteorologists aboard each flight who oversee operations and ensure the planes stay away from the most dangerous conditions.

    Having fewer directors limits the number of flights that can be sent out during busy times when Hurricane Hunters are monitoring multiple storms. And that would limit the accurate data the National Hurricane Center would have for forecasting storms.

    Eyes in the sky

    Weather satellites that monitor tropical storms from space provide continuous views of each storm’s track and intensity changes. The equipment on these satellites and software used to analyze it make increasingly accurate hurricane forecasts possible. Much of that equipment is developed by federally funded researchers.

    For example, the Cooperative Institutes in Wisconsin and Colorado have developed software and methods that help meteorologists better understand the current state of tropical cyclones and forecast future intensity when aircraft reconnaissance isn’t immediately available.

    Forecasting rapid intensification is one of the great challenges for hurricane scientists. It’s the dangerous shift when a tropical cyclone’s wind speeds jump by at least 35 mph (56 kilometers per hour) in 24 hours.

    For example, in 2018, Hurricane Michael’s rapid intensification caught the Florida Panhandle by surprise. The Category 5 storm caused billions of dollars in damage across the region, including at Tyndall Air Force Base, where several F-22 Stealth Fighters were still in hangars.

    NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite shows Hurricanes Irma, left, and Jose in the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 7, 2017.
    NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), CC BY

    Under the federal budget proposal details released so far, including a draft of agencies’ budget plans marked up by Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, known as the passback, there is no funding for Cooperative Institutes. There is also no funding for aircraft recapitalization. A 2022 NOAA plan sought to purchase up to six new aircraft that would be used by Hurricane Hunters.

    The passback budget also cut funding for some technology from future satellites, including lightning mappers that are used in hurricane intensity forecasting and to warn airplanes of risks.

    It only takes one

    Tropical storms and hurricanes can have devastating effects, as Hurricanes Helene and Milton reminded the country in 2024. These storms, while well forecast, resulted in billions of dollars of damage and hundreds of fatalities.

    The U.S. has been facing more intense storms, and the coastal population and value of property in harm’s way are growing. As five former directors of the National Weather Service wrote in an open letter, cutting funding and staff from NOAA’s work that is improving forecasting and warnings ultimately threatens to leave more lives at risk.

    Chris Vagasky is a member of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association.

    – ref. Hurricane forecasts are more accurate than ever – NOAA funding cuts could change that, with a busy storm season coming – https://theconversation.com/hurricane-forecasts-are-more-accurate-than-ever-noaa-funding-cuts-could-change-that-with-a-busy-storm-season-coming-255369

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How was the Earth built?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alexander E. Gates, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Rutgers University – Newark

    The Earth formed in a ring of debris around the Sun, like the one around Vega, a bright star, in this artist’s conception. NASA/JPL-Caltech

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

    How was the Earth built? – Noah, age 5, Florida

    It isn’t easy to figure out how the Earth was built, because it happened 4½ billion years ago, and no one was there to watch. So scientists have had to look at what the Earth looks like now and at all of the other planets, moons and debris in the solar system.

    They’ve concluded that the Earth was built in the same way that you would build a big snowball to make a snowman. The mass that would become our home rolled through planetary debris – rocks floating in space – for more than 100 million years, adding more and more material, until it grew into a full-size planet.

    How do scientists like me know this is what happened? First, studies of the size, composition and location of asteroids and comets, many of which are as old as the Earth, indicate that 4½ billion years ago the solar system looked the way Saturn looks today, with rings of space rocks orbiting around the Sun. There’s still one such ring around the Sun – it’s called the asteroid belt and lies between Mars and Jupiter, with the Sun’s gravity holding the rocks in orbit.

    The solar system that includes Earth formed from a spinning disk of dust and gases.

    All of the other bodies that we know as planets today began as similar rings of space debris. An eddy, or area of rolling, developed in each of these rings and caused the debris to clump up in a snowball effect. But these pieces of debris were asteroids that smashed violently into the growing planets.

    We can see those impacts on planets and moons whose surfaces haven’t weathered or reformed. If you look at the Moon or the planet Mercury, you can see that they are covered with craters from asteroid impacts.

    When asteroids or comets struck these building planets, they crashed into their surfaces at speeds as high as 40,000 to 50,000 miles per hour (65,000 to 80,000 kilometers per hour). The impacts caused huge explosions that emitted massive amounts of dust and broken or melted rock.

    In fact, scientists believe that the Moon was once part of the Earth, until a large asteroid crashed into the Earth so hard that the Moon broke away and shot into space. There, it began orbiting the Earth as it does now.

    Still under construction

    Most big asteroids and comets collided with the Earth when it was young, about 4½ billion years ago. The number of such collisions has steadily decreased ever since. However, at least 100 tons of dust-size space rock rains down on the Earth every day, increasing the size of our planet bit by bit.

    The Earth also collides with space rocks, called meteors, that show up as shooting stars in the night sky. Some of these meteors come from an impact that struck Mars at some point, breaking away rock from the planet surface and shooting it into outer space. These rocks have been falling to Earth ever since.

    What’s the difference between an asteroid and a comet? Asteroids are large space rocks, while comets are large, dirty ice balls. Meteors are smaller − typically the size of pebbles or even dust.

    About 65 million years ago, a huge asteroid struck the Earth in the Gulf of Mexico. The enormous Chicxulub explosion drove large tsunamis throughout the ocean and raised so much dust into the air that it made the dinosaurs go extinct.

    Another large asteroid impact, about 35 million years ago, made a huge crater in the area that is now the Chesapeake Bay, near Washington, D.C. More recently, in 1908, an asteroid likely exploded over Tunguska, Russia, flattening 830 square miles (2,150 square kilometers) of trees. Fortunately, no one lived in the area, so there were no known casualties.

    Barringer Crater in Arizona was caused by a meteor strike about 50,000 years ago. It measures about 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometers) across.
    D. Roddy, USGS/Wikipedia

    Once a mass of space debris was assembled into the Earth, many processes continued to shape the planet’s surface. Wind, water, heat and cold cause rocks to weather and break down and soil to erode. Mountains are created as pieces of Earth’s crust collide and crack. Rivers and glaciers wear down the planet’s surface to make it smoother.

    The Earth is a dynamic planet that is constantly being built, and these processes will continue for billions of years into the future.

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

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

    – ref. How was the Earth built? – https://theconversation.com/how-was-the-earth-built-254257

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: New study informs fire prevention strategies to save lives and property

    Source: US Government research organizations

    U.S. National Science Foundation-supported research shows that fires in populated areas are three times more likely to lead to premature deaths than wildfires overall, informing fire mitigation efforts.

    Scientists at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) led the study, published in Science Advances, which found that smoke from fires that blaze through the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has far greater health impacts than smoke from wildfires in remote areas.

    “This research will support the development of advanced fire prevention strategies, improve building codes and lead to effective emergency response plans,” said Bernard Grant, a program director in the NSF Directorate for Geosciences. “It will help protect lives and homes, safeguard natural ecosystems and reduce the economic burden of wildfire disasters,”

    The researchers used an advanced NSF NCAR-based computer model, the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols, to simulate pollutants from fires. Their modeling included carbon monoxide chemical tracers, which allowed them to estimate emission sources and differentiate between wildland and WUI fires.

    “The health impacts are proportionately large because they’re close to human populations,” said NSF NCAR scientist Wenfu Tang, the report’s lead author. “Pollutants emitted by WUI fires, such as particulate matter and the precursors to ozone, are more harmful because they’re not dispersing across hundreds or thousands of miles.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Seeing Is Believing: UConn’s Materials Library Helps Student Researchers Weigh Options

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    If there’s one thing Christopher Sancomb freely admits, it’s that he likes things like foamed aluminum, pieces of copper, chunks of iron, and sticks of ebony.

    “I’ve always been a materials person,” says Sancomb, an assistant professor of industrial design in the Department of Art and Art History. “It’s always been a big part of my work.”

    For 15 years before coming to UConn in 2019, Sancomb designed museum exhibitions for children, a job that required him to carefully consider each material he planned to use: Would it do what he wanted it to do? Is it environmentally friendly? How hard is it to obtain? Can it be ethically sourced?

    “That began my collection and fostered a deeper interest into all the things that go along with the stuff we use in the world,” he says.

    Industrial designers and engineers – really, anyone who builds something from scratch – must think about things like this when working on projects, he says, and until now UConn students studying for these professions had no place to learn about the infinite number of materials available in the world.

    Sancomb has changed that.

    Christopher Sancomb, assistant professor of industrial design at UConn, arranges some of the items in the Materials Library within the Fine Arts Complex on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo)

    UConn’s Materials Library, of which he is founder, has been a project five years in the making, stalled by the pandemic but now finishing its first year as a resource for students and faculty.

    In the rear of the Art Design Center – that’s Room 108 in the Art Building – the library houses a collection of raw, manufactured, and reclaimed materials from all over the world that go into the built environment around us, he explains.

    “We want to use this as a hands-on learning space, so you can see the thing, touch the thing, measure it, mark it, uncover where it comes from, learn more about it as a way to understand what we use in the world, what we put into the world as designers,” he says.

    It’s a place where people can feel the weight of a brick of mycelium, the gentleness of a tuft of alpaca wool, the grooves of a crocodile pattern on a piece of bioleather, and the sturdiness of recycled plastic turned into a 1.5-inch-thick felt-like board.

    It’s a place to refine ideas, develop new ones, and spark creativity.

    “Let’s say you came in and were thinking of using an existing plastic that had certain qualities – maybe it needs a high breaking strength and high UV sensitivity. Maybe it needs to be washed and sanitized. Traditional plastics from the petrochemical world might work, but the library would show you there are alternative biomaterials that are just as well-suited and they’re less toxic,” he says.

    Assessing Alternatives Through Hands-on Research

    Samantha Wilkins ’25 (ENG) freely admits that she loves everything about airplanes, from the ailerons to the yaw string. There’s just something about them, she says.

    As one of five interns at the Materials Library this academic year – each with their own research project in addition to helping Sancomb establish the library – she’s been thinking about sustainable aviation.

    What alternative textiles can be used as seat covers and cushions? What plant-based products can form the cabin’s airframe?

    “We have a bunch of different materials in here that I didn’t even know existed,” she says of the library.

    Take hemp, for example.

    “I was doing a lot of research and found an aircraft designer who made a completely sustainable, flyable aircraft out of hemp because it comes in all different forms. He made the entire fuselage structure out of it. This is just the textile version,” Wilkins, a multidisciplinary engineering major who’s concentrating in industrial design, says as she holds a fabric hemp sample in her hand.

    “I’ve been researching a lot about hemp, jute, flax, things like that and the different forms they can take,” she says. “It really intrigues me that you can have so many different forms from one single material and it can serve so many different uses. I love that.”

    Pamela Mackingue ’26 (SFA) says that after working as an intern this year, hemp also has become one of her new favorite things.

    A pile of wool sits on a table as Christopher Sancomb, assistant professor of industrial design at UConn, arranges some of the items in the Materials Library within the Fine Arts Complex on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo)

    The double major in digital media and design and art with a concentration in industrial design says she’s focused her research on the fashion industry and finding materials that are more sustainable than many other products used today.

    She’s growing her own leather – out of kombucha – fermenting black tea to create a biofilm that can be dried out to resemble the texture of animal leather, conditioned to restore some of its natural oils, and dyed any color in the rainbow. What she freely admits is that it’s not her own novel idea – it’s a process she came across while researching sustainable leather alternatives.

    “As a designer, you have to think about the product you’re using, why you’re using it, what’s the purpose of it, how does it help your design,” she says. “It’s important information to know and getting that hands-on experience in the Materials Library is equally important.”

    In addition to their research projects, Sancomb says the interns are helping him with the day-to-day work of the library – that is, cataloging each item and deciding what information is important for someone to know, then putting that information into a database, which eventually will go online.

    Nonetheless, Wilkins says, “You can look at a database or inventory, but you don’t really know what you’re looking for until you get in here. The hands-on element is super important. A database can help you grasp the basics, then you can come in here to narrow down the possibilities and interact with the material you settled on.”

    Personal Belongings, Donated Items, Purchased and Procured Objects

    Sancomb opens the lid of an old cardboard box labeled “Constantine’s Rare Collection of the World’s Fine Woods” and carefully lifts out rectangle samples of cabinet wood veneer. They’re about 50 years old, he says, and were a donation from a friend.

    Each of the 50 samples no doubt has a story, he says. Some of the wood might have been over forested and no longer is available. Some might have been the root of a humanitarian conflict. Some might be lost to forest fires and labor disputes.

    “I find it really interesting the stories that can be told just from this collection and what might be in here that’s just gone,” he says.

    With hundreds of items in the library, Sancomb says the collection includes some of his personal belongings like a chunk of marble with machined, cut, and polished faces brought back after a research trip to Italy, along with donated items like a bag of wool from UConn’s farm.

    Other items have been purchased or procured without a cost other than a written request. No hazardous materials are part of the collection, and nothing is of significant monetary value – important things, Sancomb says, to keep the library freely open for all.

    “My students are required at different times to think about the library and work with it, but we want students from other disciplines to know they can come here and access the materials,” he says.

    UConn Bound in April drew dozens of prospective students and their families, and a steady stream of people came through during an open house the month prior, everyone wanting to see the library, which surprisingly isn’t something all schools have.

    A variety of items sit in the Materials Library within the Fine Arts Complex on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Sydney Herdle/UConn Photo)

    The Rhode Island School of Design has a materials library, and so does the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Texas at Austin, but not every school with an industrial design program boasts such a research space, Sancomb says.

    Over the next decade, he says he hopes UConn’s library can outgrow its current home and move into a larger, more permanent location, maybe joining with another library on campus to bring its catalog to the UConn community.

    Its hundreds of items could become thousands, with Connecticut industries and Connecticut products figuring prominently, he envisions. A larger budget would allow for more acquisitions, although donations likely will always be accepted.

    “We recently got a large donation of wood and veneer,” Sancomb says, “so we’re working to catalog that collection and make it available to students through an application process. This way, if someone got an IDEA grant and needed to build some furniture, for instance, they might come to us with a proposal, and we would help supply them.”

    Sancomb reaches across a table and hands off a small block of what looks like compressed soda can flip-tops.

    Imagine that someone dipped a straw into a vat of molten aluminum and blew bubbles, he says. This is the solidified result, light airy panels of foamed aluminum that are sturdy enough for some structural applications, like for insulation or exterior cladding.

    “They’re sound-dampening. They have a high fire retardancy because they’re made of metal, and they’re recyclable,” Sancomb says. “It’s a visually stunning material because you look at it and ask, ‘Is this what I think it is?’ And it is.”

    Donations of raw, manufactured, and reclaimed items can be made to the Materials Library by emailing Sancomb at christopher.sancomb@uconn.edu. Check out @uconnindustrialdesign on Instagram for its Material Monday campaign, featuring materials that might not be in the library but have interesting backstories.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Press release – EP TODAY – Monday, 5 May

    Source: European Parliament 3

    Last-minute press briefing at 16:30

    The Parliament’s Spokesperson and the Press Service will hold a press briefing on this week’s plenary session at 16:30. Follow the last-minute briefing live.

    Journalists wishing to take part and ask questions should please connect via Interactio.

    Remembering Pope Francis

    After the opening of the plenary session, EP President Roberta Metsola will make a statement on the passing of Pope Francis, followed by contributions from one speaker per political group. MEPs will then observe a minute’s silence.

    Andreas KLEINER

    (+32) 498 98 33 22

    EuroParlPress

    Estefania NARRILLOS

    (+32) 498 98 39 85

    EuroParlPress

    MEP’s expectations for the EU-UK summit on 19 May

    From around 17:45, MEPs, Commissioner Šefčovič and Polish Minister for EU Affairs Szłapka will debate their priorities and demands for the first EU-UK summit on British soil since Brexit. Among other topics, the 19 May summit is expected to focus on defence cooperation, opportunities for young people, and trade issues.

    Viktor ALMQVIST

    (+32) 470 88 29 42

    EP_ForeignAff

    In brief

    Combating fraud. From around 19:00, MEPs will discuss Parliament’s 2023 report on how to protect the EU’s financial interests and combat fraud with Commissioner Serafin. The vote will take place on Tuesday.

    European Investment Bank. From around 20:00, MEPs, EC Vice-President Fitto and Robert de Groot, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, will assess the Bank’s financial activities in 2023. The vote will take place on Tuesday.

    Economic and social cohesion. From around 21:00, Parliament will debate with EC Vice-President Fitto progress and obstacles to economic and social cohesion in the EU. The vote will take place on Thursday.

    Live coverage of the plenary session can be found on Parliament’s webstreaming site and on EbS+.

    For detailed information on the session, please also see our newsletter.

    Find more information regarding plenary.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI: Aemetis to Review First Quarter 2025 Financial Results on May 8, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CUPERTINO, Calif., May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aemetis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMTX) announced that the company will host a conference call to review the release of its first quarter 2025 earnings report:

    Date: Thursday, May 8, 2025

    Time: 11 am Pacific Time (PT)

    Live Participant Dial In (Toll Free): +1-877-545-0523 entry code 761021 

    Live Participant Dial In (International): +1-973-528-0016 entry code 761021

    Webcast URL: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/2211/52416

    Attendees may submit questions during the Q&A (Questions & Answers) portion of the conference call.

    The webcast will be available on the Company’s website (www.aemetis.com) under Investors/Conference Calls, along with the company presentation, recent announcements, and video recordings.

    The voice recording will be available through May 15, 2025 by dialing (Toll Free) 877-481-4010 or (International) 919-882-2331 and entering conference ID number 52416. After May 15th, the webcast will be available on the Company’s website (www.aemetis.com) under Investors/Conference Calls.

    About Aemetis

    Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Aemetis is a renewable natural gas and renewable fuel company focused on the operation, acquisition, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies that replace petroleum products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Founded in 2006, Aemetis is operating and actively expanding a California biogas digester network and pipeline system to convert dairy waste gas into Renewable Natural Gas. Aemetis owns and operates a 65 million gallon per year ethanol production facility in California’s Central Valley near Modesto that supplies about 80 dairies with animal feed. Aemetis owns and operates an 80 million gallon per year production facility on the East Coast of India producing high quality distilled biodiesel and refined glycerin. Aemetis is developing a sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel fuel biorefinery in California, renewable hydrogen, and hydroelectric power to produce low carbon intensity renewable jet and diesel fuel. For additional information about Aemetis, please visit www.aemetis.com. 

    Company Investor Relations
    Media Contact:
    Todd Waltz
    (408) 213-0940
    investors@aemetis.com

    External Investor Relations
    Contact:
    Kirin Smith
    PCG Advisory Group
    (646) 863-6519
    ksmith@pcgadvisory.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: The Keg Royalties Income Fund Enters into a Letter of Intent in Respect of a Proposed Acquisition of All Issued and Outstanding Units at $18.60 per Unit

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Not for distribution to U.S. News wire services or dissemination in the U.S.

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Keg Royalties Income Fund (the “Fund”) (TSX: KEG.UN) today announced that it has entered into a letter of intent (the “Letter of Intent”) pursuant to which one or more affiliates of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (collectively, “Fairfax”) would acquire all of the issued and outstanding units of the Fund (“Units”) other than those Units already owned by Fairfax (including any Units issuable in respect of securities exchangeable into Units (the “Exchangeable Units”)), at a purchase price of $18.60 per Unit (the “Offer Price“), payable in cash (the “Proposed Transaction”).

    The Offer Price represents a 30.8% premium to the closing price for the Units on May 2, 2025, and a 34.7% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average trading price as of the end of trading on May 2, 2025.
    The Proposed Transaction would not be subject to any financing condition.

    The Letter of Intent was entered into following negotiations between Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel Ltd. (“HWIC”), in its capacity as investment manager on behalf of Fairfax, and the board of trustees of the Fund (the “Trustees”), each of whom is independent. The Trustees determined to enter into the Letter of Intent after carefully evaluating the financial terms of the Proposed Transaction and receiving advice from the Fund’s independent financial and legal advisors.

    The largest holder of outstanding Units (without taking into account any Exchangeable Units held by Fairfax), which currently holds 14.6% of the issued and outstanding Units on an undiluted basis (representing 9.9% of the Units on a fully diluted basis, including the Exchangeable Units), has entered into an agreement with HWIC, in its capacity as investment manager on behalf of Fairfax, to support the Proposed Transaction, subject to certain customary conditions.

    In connection with their continued review of the Proposed Transaction, the Trustees have retained an independent valuator to prepare a formal valuation of the Units (the “Formal Valuation“) as required under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101“) and provide an opinion that, subject to the assumptions, limitations and qualifications to be set forth in any written opinion, the consideration to be received by the holders of Units (other than Fairfax) pursuant to the Proposed Transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to the holders of Units (other than Fairfax) (a “Fairness Opinion”).

    The Letter of Intent is not a definitive agreement with respect to the Proposed Transaction, and the execution of a definitive agreement in respect of the Proposed Transaction, if any, remains subject to, among other things, (i) the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement on terms satisfactory to the Fund and Fairfax, (ii) final approval of the Proposed Transaction by the Trustees, and (iii) receipt of the Formal Valuation and Fairness Opinion satisfactory to the Trustees. The consummation of the Proposed Transaction would be subject to various conditions customary for transactions of this nature, including, among others, (i) receipt of any required regulatory, court and stock exchange approvals, and (ii) the approval of the Proposed Transaction at a special meeting of the holders of Units entitled to vote on the Proposed Transaction, including “minority approval” as defined under MI 61-101.

    Unitholders of the Fund do not need to take any action at this time in respect of the proposal from Fairfax pursuant to the Letter of Intent and should await further information from the Trustees in respect of the Proposed Transaction.

    While the Trustees have determined to enter into the Letter of Intent with respect to the Proposed Transaction, the Letter of Intent does not bind the Trustees or the Fund to enter into the Proposed Transaction, or any agreement in respect thereof, all of which remains subject to final approval by the Trustees. There can be no assurance that the Fund and Fairfax will enter into a definitive agreement in respect of the Proposed Transaction or that the Proposed Transaction will occur as proposed or at all. The Fund does not expect to make further public comment regarding the matters contemplated herein until a definitive agreement in respect of the Proposed Transaction is entered into or the Proposed Transaction is abandoned.

    Advisors

    Capital West Partners and Lawson Lundell LLP are acting as financial advisor and legal advisor, respectively, to the Trustees in respect of the Proposed Transaction. Torys LLP is acting as legal advisor to Fairfax in respect of the Proposed Transaction.

    Forward Looking Information

    This news release contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking information”) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information includes, but is not limited to, statements concerning our objectives, our strategies to achieve those objectives, as well as statements made with respect to the Trustees’ beliefs, plans, estimates, projections and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations that are not historical facts. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “expects”, “estimates”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might”, “will”, “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved”. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent the Trustees’ expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. Forward-looking information in this news release, which includes, among other things, statements relating to the Proposed Transaction (including statements in respect of the execution of the definitive agreement and the consummation of the Proposed Transaction, including the satisfaction of the conditions precedent thereto, in each case, if at all), is necessarily based on a number of opinions, estimates and assumptions that the Fund considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such statements are made in light of its experience, current conditions and expected future developments, including the assumption that the Proposed Transaction can be completed on acceptable terms and that any conditions precedent can be satisfied.

    Risks and uncertainties related to the Proposed Transaction include, but are not limited to: the possibility that the Proposed Transaction will not be completed on the terms and conditions currently contemplated; failure of the Fund and Fairfax to enter into a definitive agreement for the Proposed Transaction on terms satisfactory to the Fund and Fairfax, or at all; failure of the Fund and Fairfax to obtain the required regulatory, court, stock exchange and unitholder approvals for, or satisfy other conditions to effect, the Proposed Transaction; failure by the independent valuator to deliver a Formal Valuation and Fairness Opinion satisfactory to the Trustees at the time the definitive agreement is entered into; the risk that the Proposed Transaction may involve unexpected costs, liabilities or delays; the risk of a change in general economic conditions; the risk that, prior to the completion of the Proposed Transaction, the business of KRL (as defined below) may experience significant disruptions; the risk that any legal proceedings may be instituted against the Fund or determined adversely to the interests of the Fund; and other risk factors contained in filings made by the Fund with the Canadian securities regulators, including the Fund’s annual information form dated March 25, 2025 and financial statements and related management discussion and analysis for the financial year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the securities regulatory authorities in certain jurisdictions of Canada and available at www.sedarplus.ca.

    Although the Trustees have attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other risk factors not presently known to them or that they presently believe are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward- looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. No forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future results. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information, which speaks only as of the date made. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Fund’s expectations as of the date of this news release (or as the date they are otherwise stated to be made) and are subject to change after such date. However, the Fund disclaims any intention or obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities laws in Canada. All of the forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements.

    About The Keg Royalties Income Fund

    The Fund is a limited purpose, open-ended trust established under the laws of the Province of Ontario that, through The Keg Rights Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of the Fund, owns certain trademarks and other related intellectual property used by Keg Restaurants Ltd. (“KRL”). Vancouver-based KRL is the leading operator and franchisor of steakhouse restaurants in Canada and has a substantial presence in select regional markets in the United States. KRL has been named the number one restaurant company to work for in Canada in the latest edition of Forbes “Canada’s Best Employers 2025” survey.

    For further information, contact:
    Investor Relations
    Tel: (604) 276-0242
    investorrelations@kegrestaurants.com   https://www.thekeg.com/en/keg-income-fund

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: SHARC Energy Announces Board of Director Changes

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SHARC International Systems Inc. (CSE: SHRC) (FSE: IWIA) (OTCQB: INTWF) (“SHARC Energy” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that Fred Andriano has been named Chairman of the Board of Directors (“BOD”) and Executive Officer. Mr. Andriano replaces SHARC Energy’s founder Lynn Mueller as Executive Chairman. Mr. Mueller will remain on the Board as Vice Chairman and Executive Officer of the Company.

    Mr. Andriano has extensive experience and expertise in finance, accounting, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions. He has been in the heating and cooling energy sector for 20 years. He formally was the Vice President of Finance and Administration – NIBE North America for NIBE Industrier AB. Prior to that he was Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary for WaterFurnace International, Inc. Furthermore, he spent 6 years as Chief Financial Officer of a regional M&A firm.

    “I am very appreciative for the opportunity to help guide the Company’s Board and management team as we strategize for expansion and growth. The Company has tremendous products, applications and dedicated team members and it’s time we leveraged their strengths while we continue to build awareness of the opportunities SHARC Energy’s products present to the heat transfer sector,” stated Mr. Andriano.

    Mr. Mueller added, “The additions of Michael as CEO and Fred as Executive Chair marks a significant day in the evolution of SHARC Energy’s maturity,” says Mr. Mueller. “These moves validate SHARC Energy as an emerging player in the industry with superior Wastewater Energy Transfer products and proven executives with successful track records in the thermal energy, heat transfer and hydronic space to augment the team.”

    The appointment will strategically accelerate the Company’s growth and improve its ability to expand its markets, products and geographical reach. The Company anticipates future strategic moves enabling SHARC Energy to grow revenue and improve profitability.

    The Company also has the bittersweet task of announcing the BOD has accepted the retirement and resignation of Eleanor Chiu. Mrs. Chiu has been a director for just shy of six years, consistently adding valued insight, business acumen and astute counsel to both management and the Board. She leaves SHARC Energy as a strong believer and long-term shareholder, holding 5% of the Company.

    “I am pleased to be leaving the BOD in good hands with addition of Fred as Chairman. In the short time that I have known Fred, he brings a strong understanding of the corporate governance policies and procedures needed for a public company to grow and mature. With the additions of Michael and Fred to augment Lynn and Hanspaul, I remain confident in the opportunity SHARC Energy and Wastewater Energy Transfer present,” says Mrs. Chiu.

    “Eleanor has been an important member of the Board and she will be dearly missed. I have leaned on her for nearly six years. She will always be remembered as one of the instrumental members that built the foundation the Company will grow on for years to come. Thank you Eleanor,” stated Mr. Mueller.

    Mr.Andriano will take over Mrs. Chiu role as Chairman of the Audit Committee going forward.

    About SHARC Energy  
    SHARC International Systems Inc. is a world leader in energy recovery from the wastewater we send down the drain every day. SHARC Energy’s systems recycle thermal energy from wastewater, generating one of the most energy-efficient and economical systems for heating, cooling & hot water production for commercial, residential, and industrial buildings along with thermal energy networks, commonly referred to as “District Energy”.

    SHARC Energy is publicly traded in Canada (CSE: SHRC), the United States (OTCQB: INTWF) and Germany (Frankfurt: IWIA) and you can find out more on our SEDAR profile.

    Learn more about SHARC Energy: Website | Investor Page | LinkedIn | YouTube | PIRANHA | SHARC

    ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

    Fred Andriano
    Chairman of the Board

    The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

    Forward-Looking Statements 

    Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified using words such as “anticipate”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “may”, “will”, “intend”, “should”, and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. SHARC Energy’s actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information because of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. SHARC Energy believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company’s expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Video: Scientists and Researchers: “Choose Europe”

    Source: European Commission (video statements)

    The European Union considers freedom of science and research as fundamental. We want scientists and researchers from all over the world to make Europe their home and contribute to making Europe the home of excellence and innovation. This is a crucial moment to attract top talents and boost the entrepreneurs’ spirit.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxvsxVdHOi0

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Economics Faculty Girls Win Step Aerobics Competition

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

    More than 250 people (39 teams) took part in the traditional championship in fitness aerobics on steps as part of the Spartakiad between faculties and institutes of NSU.

    This year it became truly special. The competition was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and was dedicated to women – soldiers and home front workers.

    Our talented students spent several months preparing programs with mandatory aerobic elements, selecting music and creating costumes for themselves, mostly in Russian folk style. And only after that, a colorful show took place in the large game hall, where the girls showed their compositions, in which strict judges assessed the technique of basic steps, correctness of execution of elements, artistry, synchronicity, performance skills, as well as appearance and originality.

    All teams demonstrated excellent preparation, wonderful grace and team spirit. The atmosphere in the hall was incredible – everyone supported each other, applauded and charged with positive energy. At the end of the holiday, the NSU aerobics team performed their composition.

    And the winners among first-year students were:

    1st place – team of the EF “Quadrille” consisting of: Elizaveta Cheremisina, Ulyana Shepeleva, Ekaterina Ponasenko, Elizaveta Limanova, Arzhaana Saryglar, Anastasia Smorodina and Anastasia Smirnova

    2nd place – team of the Kulemushki EF: Daria Andryushchenko, Angelina Veretennikova, Polina Gnedenko, Maria Komashko, Angelina Lubyagina and Daria Cheremisina

    3rd place was shared by students of the IMPZ “Vasilechki”: Yulia Filatova, Varvara Sebeleva, Alina Shushakova, Elizaveta Chernousova, Daria Sirotkina, Zhanna Matveeva and Anastasia Kopylova and another team from the EF “Nightingales”: Anna Feoktistova, Veronika Pribytkina, Daria Popova, Maria Mozhaitseva, Anastasia Zheravina, Karina Pinoeva and Ulyana Trushkova

    Among 2nd year students:

    1st place – team of the EF “Ivanushki”: Daria Maksimova, Nadezhda Smolyaninova, Victoria Guseletova, Anastasia Surova, Olesya Ustimenko, Velora Obraztsova and Irina Yaroshenko

    2nd place – the team of the State Institution “Deffchonki”: Anastasia Matusevich, Valeria Myakisheva, Alexandra Yatsunova, Vera Chernenkova, Elizaveta Cherepanova, Daria Novoselova, Anna Krivopalova and Alida Ramazanova

    3rd place – team of the EF “Venochek”: Victoria Zotova, Ksenia Ivanova, Angela Shestakova, Anastasia Ganus, Ksenia Stolenskaya and Anastasia Abdulaeva

    Combining the fiery energy of step aerobics with bright folk motifs, the competition became a real celebration of sports, youth and patriotism!

    We congratulate the winners on their awards, thank all the participants for their beautiful performances, and the teachers of the Department of Physical Education Anna Yuzhakova, Olga Maneeva and Olesya Vyshegorodtseva for organizing and holding this wonderful event.

    Link to photos

    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 United Kingdom: New Council homes handed over in Rattray

    Source: Scotland – City of Perth

    The Rattray project is part of Perth & Kinross Council’s ongoing multi-million-pound new build housing programme, which has seen over 500 new Council homes built for tenants since 2012.

    The properties include a mix of three-bedroom semi-detached homes, terraced two and three-bed homes and semi-detached bungalows providing high-quality accommodation for the new tenants.

    Built to the highest standard by the Council’s construction partner The Springfield Group, the homes have include energy efficiency measures such as solar panels, efficient heating systems and quality insulation to make sure tenants’ bills are kept as low as possible and the development’s carbon footprint is minimised.

    The 20 houses cost almost £3.6m to build. The Council invested £2.54m, with the Scottish Government contributing the rest.

    Housing and Social Wellbeing Convener, Councillor Tom McEwan, visited the development today and said: “This is the third handover of brand-new Council homes we have seen so far in 2025, and it’s fantastic to see these properties in Rattray completed. The properties will provide much-needed affordable accommodation for a wide range of different tenants in an area of high-demand for housing.

    “We have bought these homes ‘off-the-shelf’ from the developer. Working with housing developers and buying new properties is just one of the many ways we provide new homes for affordable social rent for our tenants.

    “Our own ambitious house building programme has delivered additional new homes for affordable social rent in towns and settlements right across the region, including Methven, Scone, Abernethy, Alyth, Inchture, Stanley, Blairgowrie, Meigle, Auchterarder, Balbeggie, Rattray and in many sites in Perth. This programme continues, and we are always looking for sites where more affordable Council housing can be built.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: GUU became the arena for the National Project Management Championship

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The National Project Management Championship was held at the State University of Management, organized jointly with the youth wing of the project management association SOVNET Young Crew Russia.

    The National Project Management Championship is a two-stage competition consisting of a qualification round and a final. The event aims to increase student involvement in project management, interest in professional project management, and the exchange of knowledge and experience between researchers and the professional community.

    The championship brought together representatives from 24 Russian cities. At the first stage, 93 teams from 47 universities passed the ICB 4.0 standard test prepared by SOVNET Vice President Alexander Kaltykov and consisting of 28 cases. The finalist teams met at the State University of Management to get acquainted, exchange experiences, try their hand at developing a project based on a real case from the Project PRACTICE Group of Companies and compete for the main prize – the opportunity to undergo free IPMA Level D certification.

    To evaluate the teams’ work, a pool of experts was formed, which included seven professionals in the field of project management:

    Dmitry Bryukhanov – Vice-Rector of the State University of Management; Dmitry Medvedev – Director of the SOVNET-SERT Certified Center; Yuri Kim – General Director of ANO TsORPU; Maxim Guzenko – Head of the Department for Work with Universities of the Moscow Bank of PJSC Sberbank; Natalia Starkova – Director of the Department of Academic Policy and Implementation of Educational Programs of the State University of Management; Evgeny Bespalov – Head of the Project Office of JSC GT Energo; Mikhail Zorin – Chairman of the Young Crew SOVNET youth community

    The partners of the event were: – SOVNET – National Project Management Association; – GC “Project PRACTICE”; – PJSC “Sberbank”; – ANO “TsORPU”; – Business Studio “LAB”; – Case Club Garnet.

    Teams from GUU, HSE, RTU MIREA, Financial University, PNIPU and RANEPA defended their projects. Four hours of non-stop brainstorming: participants, like seasoned architects of the future, designed a solution for one of the key national projects, tying it to the region of Russia they had chosen.

    The third place was taken by the team of the National Research University Higher School of Economics with a project to develop a digital product aimed at developing a culture of blood donation in the Samara region. The second place was taken by the team of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, which proposed the development of the SPO program “Innovation Engineer”, which solves the problem of shortage of qualified personnel in the Kaluga region. The well-deserved victory was won by the team of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation with a project to develop and implement stops in the city of Gorlovka that ensure safety for local residents.

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 05.05.2025

    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: Eucharistic Celebration on the ninth day of the Novendiali

    Source: The Holy See

    At 17.00 this afternoon, in the Vatican Basilica, the Eucharistic Celebration in memory of the Roman Pontiff Francis took place, on the ninth day of the Novendiali.
    The Papal Chapel was specially invited to the Celebration.
    The Concelebration was presided over by His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, Protodeacon of the College of Cardinals.
    The following is the homily delivered by His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti during the course of the Holy Mass:

    Homily of His Eminence Cardinal Dominique Mamberti
    Venerable Cardinal Fathers,
    Dear brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
    Dear brothers and sisters,
    The Liturgy of the Word of this last of the Novendiali in memory of Pope Francis is that of the day, the third Sunday of Easter, and the page of the Gospel of John just proclaimed presents to us the encounter of the risen Christ with some of the Apostles and disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, which ends with the Mission entrusted to Peter by the Lord and Jesus’ command, “Follow me!”.
    The episode is reminiscent that of the first miraculous catch of fish, narrated by Luke, when Jesus had called Simon, James and John, announcing that the Lord would have become a fisher of men. From that moment, Peter followed him, at times in incomprehension and even betrayal, but in today’s encounter, the last before Christ’s return to the Father, Peter receives from him the task of shepherding his flock.
    Love is the key word of this page of the Gospel. The first to recognize Jesus is the “disciple whom Jesus loved”, John, who exclaims, “It is the Lord!”, and Peter immediately throws himself into the sea to reach the Master. After they have shared the food, which will have kindled in the Apostles’ hearts the memory of the Last Supper, the dialogue between Jesus and Peter begins, the Lord’s threefold question and Peter’s threefold answer.
    The first two times, Jesus adopts the verb to love, a strong word, whereas Peter, mindful of the betrayal, responds [in some translations] with the less demanding expression “to care,” and the third time Jesus stresses the expression to care, adjusting to the Apostle’s weakness. Pope Benedict XVI noted in commenting on this dialogue: “Simon understands that Jesus is satisfied with his poor love, the only one of which he is capable. … It is precisely this divine adjustment that gives hope to the disciple, who has recognized the suffering of infidelity. … From that day on, Peter ‘followed’ the Master with a precise awareness of his own fragility; but this awareness did not discourage him. For he knew that he could count on the presence of the Risen One beside him … and so he shows us the way as well”.1
    In his homily at the Mass for the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate, Saint John Paul II confirmed: “Today, dear brothers and sisters, I am pleased to share with you an experience that has now lasted for a quarter of a century. Every day that same dialogue between Jesus and Peter takes place in my heart. In spirit, I focus on the benevolent gaze of the risen Christ. Although he knows of my human frailty, he encourages me to answer confidently, like Peter: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (Jn 21: 17). And then he invites me to take on the responsibilities that he himself has entrusted to me.”.2
    This mission is love itself, which becomes service to the Church and to all humanity. Peter and the Apostles assumed it immediately, by the power of the Spirit they had received at Pentecost, as we heard in the first reading: “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God raised him to his right hand, as head and Saviour”.
    We have all admired how much Pope Francis, animated by the Lord’s love and carried by his grace, was faithful to his mission to the utmost consumption of his strength. He reminded the powerful that we must obey God rather than men and proclaimed to all humanity the joy of the Gospel, the merciful Father, Christ the Saviour. He did this in his magisterium, in his travels, in his gestures, in his lifestyle. I was close to him on Easter Day, at the Loggia of Blessings in this Basilica, witnessing his suffering but above all his courage and determination to serve the people of God to the end.
    In the second reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, we heard the praise that the whole universe gives to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb: “Praise, honour, glory and power, throughout the ages. And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen.’ And the elders prostrated themselves in worship”.
    Adoration is an essential dimension of the Church’s mission and the lives of the faithful. Pope Francis often recalled this, as for example in his homily for the Feast of the Epiphany last year: “The Magi have hearts bowed in adoration. … They came to Bethlehem, and when they saw the child, ‘they knelt down and paid him homage (Mt 2:11). … A King who came to serve us, a God who became man. Before this mystery, we are called to bow our heart and bend our knee in worship: to worship the God who comes in littleness, who dwells in our homes, who dies for love. … Brothers and sisters, we have lost the habit of adoration, we have lost the ability that gives us adoration. Let us rediscover our taste for the prayer of adoration. … Nowadays there is a lack of adoration among us”.3
    This capacity that gives adoration was not difficult to recognize in Pope Francis. His intense pastoral life, his countless meetings, were grounded in the long moments of prayer that the Ignatian discipline had imprinted in him. Many times he reminded us that contemplation is “a dynamism of love” that “raises us up to God, not to separate us from the world but to ground us more deeply in it” (Audience with Superiors and Delegates of the Discalced Carmelites, 18 April 2024). And everything he did, he did under the gaze of Mary. There will remain in our memory and in our hearts his 126 stops before the “Salus Populi Romani.” And now that he rests at the beloved image, we entrust him with gratitude and confidence to the intercession of the mother of the Lord and our mother.
    _____________________
    [1] General Audience, 24 May 2006).
    [2]  Homily, 16 October 2003
    [3]  Homily, 6 January 2024
    [4] Audience with Superiors and Delegates of the Discalced Carmelites, 18 April 2024

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI: Best No Credit Check Loans Guaranteed Approvals Direct Lenders | Best Payday Loans for Bad Credit – IOnline Payday Loans

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SHERIDAN, Wyo., May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — No credit check loans provide consumers with quick financial assistance when they need cash without collateral, even if they have a poor credit score. This article covers everything you need to know about no credit check loans, including how they work, the benefits of these loans, and why Online Payday Loans is the best source for them. Additionally, it outlines the application steps and repayment options available.

    >> Click Here to Apply for No Credit Check Loans >>

    ✅Key Takeaways:

    • No credit check loans are a type of loan that does not require a credit check before approval.
    • IOnline Payday Loans is a reputable brand that offers guaranteed approval for no credit check loans.
    • Applying for a 1 hour payday loans for bad credit at IOnline Payday Loans is simple and straightforward, with no strict requirements or credit score needed.

    >> Click Here to Apply for No Credit Check Loans >>

    What are No Credit Check Payday Loans?

    No credit check payday loans are a type of financing specifically designed for individuals who may struggle to obtain financial assistance, particularly those with bad credit. These $255 payday loans online same day provide cash to borrowers without requiring collateral and eliminate the lengthy application process typically associated with personal loans.

    Instead of relying solely on credit scores, no credit check loans guaranteed approval take into account alternative factors, making them an attractive option for many people in need of emergency funds. In today’s economy, Best installment loans for bad credit have become increasingly popular as they enable borrowers to access larger loan amounts with predictable payments, allowing them to budget more effectively. Reputable lenders offer best installment loans for bad credit that contribute to credit improvement.

    >> Click Here to Apply for No Credit Check Loans >>

    How Do No Credit Check Loans Work with Direct Lenders?

    No credit check loans guaranteed approval direct lenders typically feature a straightforward application process that provides quick approvals, guaranteed approval, and guaranteed acceptance for eligible borrowers. Direct lenders assess eligibility based on income verification and overall financial health rather than solely focusing on credit history.

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    The application process usually involves a few easy steps:

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    Interest rates are often determined based on the borrower’s financial profile, ensuring that even individuals with bad credit receive a fair evaluation. Fast funding through direct deposit is available.

    Factors considered in the approval process for a best no credit check personal loans include income levels, employment status, and existing debt. Quick funding is often available after approval, making this option ideal for those in need of immediate financial assistance.

    What Are the Benefits of No Credit Check Loans Guaranteed Approval Direct Lenders?

    No credit check loans guaranteed approval direct lenders can be beneficial as they provide financial assistance during urgent situations, allowing individuals to access cash without the need for collateral or lengthy approval processes. These consumer loans offer easy repayment options and loan terms that facilitate personal financing.

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    Why Choose IOnline Payday Loans for No Credit Check Loans?

    IOnline Payday Loans is an excellent choice for no credit check loans guaranteed approval direct lender, as it significantly enhances your chances of securing a loan when you need it most. This is especially true for those seeking short-term loans with higher interest rates.

    This reputable platform enables borrowers to easily and swiftly access online loans from multiple lenders, providing the necessary funds without the challenges typically associated with traditional banks.

    IOnline Payday Loans prioritizes customer satisfaction, ensuring that the entire process—from application to funding—is straightforward and hassle-free. This approach allows individuals with poor credit to obtain the financial assistance they require.

    Additionally, the platform emphasizes openness and transparency, guaranteeing that there are no hidden fees or cumbersome paperwork.

    What Sets IOnline Payday Loans Apart from Other Lenders?

    IOnline Payday Loans offers innovative financial solutions and a unique approach to individuals seeking best payday loans for bad credit. As one of the lenders in this space, IOnline often provides an application process that requires minimal paperwork, facilitating fast approvals and quick access to funds. This is particularly important for those who need emergency funding rapidly. Clients can conveniently apply for loans through IOnline’s website or mobile application, making it easier to obtain funds in a timely manner.

    IOnline leverages the latest technology to enhance wait times, utilizing algorithms that enable faster assessment of applications, which means borrowers experience shorter waiting periods for responses. Additionally, IOnline’s customer service representatives are knowledgeable and easily accessible, helping clients better understand their options.

    Some of the features that distinguish IOnline as a unique lender include:

    • Competitive interest rates clearly communicated upfront
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    What Are the Terms and Conditions for No Credit Check Loans at IOnline Payday Loans?

    The terms and conditions for no credit check personal loans guaranteed approval at IOnline Payday Loans are designed to provide flexibility and transparency for borrowers. These loans feature clear terms that outline repayment schedules, interest rates, and any applicable fees, ensuring that borrowers fully understand their obligations from the beginning. IOnline Payday Loans is dedicated to offering straightforward information about the borrowing process, enabling individuals to make informed decisions regarding their financial needs.

    When considering financial assistance through consumer loans, borrowers can expect a variety of terms tailored to different financial situations. Loan networks facilitate applications and help avoid hidden fees.

    For example, interest rates may vary based on the total amount borrowed, typically ranging from 5% to 35%, depending on market conditions and the borrower’s credit profile.

    Repayment schedules are structured to be manageable, often allowing for monthly payments over a specified term that usually spans from three to 24 months. A notable feature of these loans is the guaranteed approval, making them accessible to individuals with less-than-perfect credit.

    Borrowers are encouraged to maintain open communication with lenders to clarify any questions regarding their specific repayment conditions. Las Vegas lenders are among those offering transparent loan terms.

    Additional requirements may include proof of income or residency, which ensures that borrowers demonstrate their ability to repay the loan. This approach fosters accountability and instills greater confidence in individuals seeking loans to meet their immediate financial needs.

    What Are the Requirements for No Credit Check Loans at IOnline Payday Loans?

    The requirements for no credit check loans at IOnline Payday Loans align with the company’s other loan offerings and are designed to encourage responsible lending practices. Loan applications require income verification and evaluation of credit profiles.

    Generally, borrowers must be at least 18 years old and provide valid identification along with proof of income to demonstrate their ability to repay the loan. These criteria are established to create eligibility requirements for loans while still enabling individuals with varying credit backgrounds to access the funds they may need.

    Do I Need a Good Credit Score to Get a Loan from IOnline Payday Loans?

    One of the primary benefits of obtaining a loan through IOnline Payday Loans is that a good credit score is not a requirement for qualification. Since credit scores are not the main consideration, IOnline Payday Loans provide individuals with poor credit a better opportunity to secure a loan when they need it most.

    Consequently, more borrowers can access the emergency funds they require without undergoing rigorous credit checks. The flexibility of IOnline Payday Loans is particularly valuable in times of financial emergencies, as the repercussions of not having cash can be severe for those with poor credit, exacerbating their existing financial difficulties.

    IOnline Payday Loans offers a solution that allows borrowers to have a more sustainable lending experience by considering their overall circumstances. This means that even individuals in dire financial situations can find a loan solution that addresses their needs, enabling them to begin the process of recovery.

    How to Apply for a No Credit Check Loan at IOnline Payday Loans? Understanding the Qualifications

    Applying for a no credit check loan at IOnline Payday Loans is a straightforward and expedited process, as the company is committed to providing borrowers with quick funding when needed.

    The entire application process is conducted online, allowing applicants to complete the necessary forms from the comfort of their own homes without any paperwork. This user-friendly approach to online loans, enables borrowers to easily navigate the process and receive an instant decision regarding their installment bad credit loans eligibility.

    Step 1: Fill Out an Online Application

    The first step in obtaining a no credit check loan from IOnline Payday Loans is to complete an online application form with accurate and complete information. Providing accurate details is crucial, as it gives the lender essential insights into the borrower’s financial position, enabling them to assess eligibility for funding without reviewing high interest rates credit histories. Therefore, applicants must ensure that they submit correct information regarding their income, employment status, and identification details. Any inaccuracies can lead to delays or even disqualification from the process, particularly if the financial information is misleading.

    Here are some important considerations for the application:

    • Income Verification: You will need to confirm your earnings, which may include submitting pay stubs or bank statements.
    • Employment Status: Providing current employment details will strengthen your application.
    • Bad Credit Considerations: It is essential to be transparent about any previous financial difficulties.

    Honesty regarding financial information is one of the most important aspects of the application process. Misrepresentations can jeopardize loan opportunities and damage the trust between the borrower and the lender. Therefore, borrowers are encouraged to double-check the information they provide before submitting the application. By doing so, they can help ensure that the lending process is as smooth and efficient as possible, allowing them to obtain the financial assistance they need without the complications of traditional credit checks.

    Step 2: Receive an Instant Decision

    After applying for a no credit check loan online, without no paperwork, applicants receive an immediate decision regarding their loan approval. This instant decision feature is a significant advantage of no credit check loans, as it allows borrowers to quickly determine their eligibility for the funds they need.

    The ability to obtain a fast loan decision helps individuals plan accordingly and address urgent financial situations without unnecessary delays. The instant decision process relies on evaluating specific criteria in the borrower’s application, including income stability, length of employment, and current debt levels.

    Furthermore, automated systems expedite these evaluations, enabling applicants to receive results in just a few minutes. This quick response allows those in need of cash to access their funds promptly. Understanding how this lending process works can help applicants prepare their documentation effectively and enhance their chances of receiving guaranteed approval, ensuring timely assistance during emergencies.

    Step 3: Review and Sign the Loan Agreement

    Once you receive approval for a no credit check loan, the next step is to review and sign the loan agreement, which outlines crucial information regarding repayment terms and conditions. The significance of the loan agreement cannot be overstated, as it ensures that borrowers fully understand their obligations, including interest rates and payment schedules, before receiving the funds. iOnline Payday Loans is a direct lender that prioritizes transparency and clarity, ensuring there are no hidden fees or unexpected charges, which promotes a sustainable borrowing experience, ensuring budget effectively.

    The following key elements of a loan agreement can significantly impact your financial well-being:

    • Interest Rates: Make sure you understand how much you will owe over time to ensure it fits within your budget.
    • Fees: Be aware of any origination fees or penalties for early repayment.
    • Payment Schedule: Knowing when payments are due can help you avoid late fees and potential default.

    Being informed about these terms give the power tos borrowers and encourages sound budgeting and responsible financial planning. Understanding the details of your loan agreement can help you navigate your financial solutions without the stress of unexpected obstacles.

    Step 4: Receive Funds in Your Bank Account

    Borrowers can expect their funds to be deposited directly into their bank accounts immediately after signing the loan agreement. This allows for quick access to cash through direct deposit without the need for collateral, which is especially beneficial for those facing unexpected expenses.

    Generally, borrowers can anticipate the funds to be transferred within 1 to 2 business days, depending on the lender and the institution’s processing times, making it a reliable source of emergency funding when needed.

    The convenience is further enhanced for users of Online Payday Loans online platform, as they can apply for funds from the comfort of their homes. Additionally, borrowers can often secure financing without extensive paperwork or complicated credit checks.

    This streamlined process enables almost instant access to consumer loans in Las Vegas, making it an ideal solution for individuals experiencing financial difficulties.

    What Are the Repayment Options for No Credit Check Loans at IOnline Payday Loans?

    IOnline Payday Loans offers a variety of repayment options for no credit check loans, enabling borrowers to select the terms that best fit their financial circumstances. The flexibility in repayment terms options allows individuals to manage their debts in a way that is comfortable for them, with predictable payments that aid in budgeting.

    IOnline also provides clear guidelines regarding repayment to promote responsible borrowing and ensure that customers can maintain their financial health.

    Are There Any Alternatives to No Credit Check Loans at IOnline Payday Loans?

    For individuals seeking alternatives to no credit check loans, IOnline Payday Loans offers the following options

    • Online Payday Loans: A secured loan requires collateral, such as a car or a home. Because this reduces the lender’s risk, secured loans often come with more favorable terms and lower interest rates.
    • Installment Loans: A co-signed loan enables the loan applicant to have a trusted individual, known as the co-signer, apply for the loan on their behalf. The co-signer’s creditworthiness is taken into account alongside the borrower’s when determining eligibility and loan terms.
    • Online Personal Loans: A credit builder loan allows the borrower to access the funds they need while simultaneously providing an opportunity to improve their credit profile.

    Online Payday Loans

    Online Payday Loans are a form of financing in which the borrower provides collateral, significantly reducing the risk for lenders and resulting in lower interest rates compared to unsecured loans. This type of financial product can be tailored to meet various needs and may be particularly suitable for those who have had difficulty obtaining credit in the past.

    Individuals typically pledge assets such as their home, motor vehicle, or savings accounts as collateral for secured loans. Common types of acceptable collateral include real estate properties, automobiles, and bank fixed deposits.

    The advantages of secured loans over unsecured loans are numerous. Firstly, secured loans usually come with lower interest rates because the presence of collateral offers a safety net for lenders. This can help borrowers manage their finances and payments more easily.

    Additionally, individuals with poor credit histories may find better acceptance through direct lenders, who can offer more favorable terms based on the collateral provided.

    Installment Loans

    Installment Loans involve a secondary borrower who agrees to take responsibility for the debt if the primary borrower defaults. This arrangement often provides individuals with bad credit a pathway to secure loans under better terms. By including a co-signer with strong creditworthiness, applicants can enhance their chances of approval and potentially receive lower interest rates, making this a viable option for those struggling to obtain financing independently.

    Essentially, co-signed loans act as a bridge for many seeking financial assistance during emergencies or looking to make significant purchases. The co-signer, typically a family member or friend, plays a crucial role not only by signing the loan documentation but also by establishing credibility for the borrower.

    This arrangement can be particularly beneficial for individuals with limited credit history or poor credit ratings, as it can open doors to consumer loans that might otherwise remain inaccessible. However, potential risks accompany this borrowing method, including strain on personal relationships and the financial liability that the co-signer assumes.

    Advantages:

    • Increased chance of loan approval.
    • Lower interest rates due to the co-signer’s stronger credit profile.
    • Opportunity for the primary borrower to build credit.

    Disadvantages:

    • Risk of damaging relationships if payments are missed.
    • Financial responsibility for the co-signer if the primary borrower defaults.
    • Potential negative impact on the co-signer’s credit score.

    Online Personal Loans

    Online Personal loans are specifically designed to help individuals enhance their credit profiles while accessing funds, making them an excellent alternative for those seeking to improve their credit history and loan eligibility. These loans typically involve small amounts, which are held in a savings account until the borrower has made all necessary payments. This arrangement allows borrowers to build a positive credit history through regular repayment.

    Understanding how these loans operate can significantly influence one’s financial future and loan decisions. When a borrower applies for a credit builder loan, the lender places the borrowed amount in a secured account that the borrower cannot access until the loan is fully repaid. This structure not only ensures the safety of the funds but also fosters a sense of financial discipline.

    Regular payments are reported to credit bureaus, which can positively influence the credit score over time. This option is particularly advantageous for individuals with poor credit or those just beginning their credit journey, as it can help them qualify for better financial products in the future.

    Therefore, credit builder loans offer a valuable pathway for financial give the power toment, transforming past credit challenges into sustainable borrowing experiences and future opportunities.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What are the best no credit check loans guaranteed approvals direct lenders offered by IOnline Payday Loans in Las Vegas?

    IOnline Payday Loans offers a variety of loans with guaranteed approvals from direct lenders, including personal loans, payday loans, and installment loans.

    Can I get a no credit check loan from a direct lender through IOnline Payday Loans?

    Yes, IOnline Payday Loans works with a network of trusted direct lenders who offer no credit check loans to individuals with varying credit scores.

    What are the advantages of choosing a direct lender for my no credit check loan?

    Choosing a direct lender for your no credit check loan can often result in faster approvals, more personalized loan terms, and potentially lower interest rates.

    Do I need a good credit score to qualify for a no credit check loan from a direct lender through IOnline Payday Loans?

    No, IOnline Payday Loans works with direct lenders who specialize in providing loans to individuals with less-than-perfect credit, so your credit score may not be a determining factor in your loan approval.

    What is the application process like for a no credit check loan from a direct lender through IOnline Payday Loans?

    The application process for a no credit check loan through IOnline Payday Loans is simple and can be completed entirely online. You will need to provide basic personal and financial information, and may also be required to submit proof of income for direct deposit.

    How quickly can I receive the funds from my no credit check loan with a direct lender through IOnline Payday Loans,

    Depending on the lender and your bank’s processing times, you may be able to receive the funds from your no credit check loan as soon as the next business day after approval.

    Media Contact:
    Company Name: IOnline Payday Loans
    Registered Office Address: 1095 Sugar View Dr Ste 500 Sheridan, WY 82801
    Company Website: https://ionlinepaydayloans.com/
    Email: mria@ionlinepaydayloans.com
    Phone: 307-777-7311
    Contact person name: Mria

    Disclaimer: This announcement contains general information about Ionline payday loan services and should not be considered financial advice. Ionline Payday Loans does not guarantee loan approval, and loan terms may vary by applicant and lender requirements. Loans are available to U.S. residents only.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0b02e2d3-6f2d-4234-98fe-1f7d694aa226

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Midland, Texas, May 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:NGS), a leading provider of natural gas compression equipment, technology and services to the energy industry, will host a conference call to review its first quarter financial results on May 13, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. (EST), 7:30 a.m. (CST). The Company’s Q1 2025 financial and operating results for the first quarter will be disseminated via press release and made available on the Company’s website (www.ngsgi.com) after market close on May 12, 2025.

    To join the conference call, kindly access the Investor Relations section of our website at www.ngsgi.com or dial in at (800) 550-9745 and enter conference ID: 167298 at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Please note that using the provided dial-in number is necessary for participation in the Q&A section of the call. A recording of the conference will be made available on our Company’s website following its conclusion. Thank you for your interest in our company’s updates.

    About Natural Gas Services Group, Inc.

    Natural Gas Services Group is a leading provider of natural gas compression equipment, technology and services to the energy industry. The Company designs, rents, sells and maintains natural gas compressors for oil and natural gas production and plant facilities, primarily using equipment from third-party fabricators and OEM suppliers along with limited in-house assembly. The Company is headquartered in Midland, Texas, with a fabrication facility located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a rebuild shop located in Midland, Texas, and service facilities located in major oil and natural gas producing basins in the U.S. Additional information can be found at www.ngsgi.com.

    For Additional Information:

    Anna Delgado-Investor Relations
    (432) 262-2700
    ir@ngsgi.com
    www.ngsgi.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: CORRECTION: Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Interim Report 1.1.-31.3.2025: High costs and declining market interest rates weighed on the result, work to strengthen OmaSp continues

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    OMA SAVINGS BANK PLC, STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 5 MAY 2025 AT 13.00 A.M. EET, INTERIM REPORT Q1


    CORRECTION: Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Interim Report 1.1.-31.3.2025: High costs and declining market interest rates weighed on the result, work to strengthen OmaSp continues

    This release corrects the January-March interim report published today at 9.45 a.m. EET. The CEO’s review contained an incorrect figure regarding the total investments in the Noste project. The corrected sentence reads: Total investments in the Noste project reached EUR 11.6 million over its duration.

    Below the corrected stock exchange release and the interim report January-March 2025 attached.

    Oma Savings Bank Plc’s Interim Report 1.1.-31.3.2025: High costs and declining market interest rates weighed on the result, work to strengthen OmaSp continues

    This release is a summary of Oma Savings Bank’s (OmaSp) January-March 2025 Interim Report, which can be read from the pdf file attached to this stock exchange release and on the Company’s web pages www.omasp.fi

    CEO Karri Alameri: High costs and declining market interest rates weighed on the result, work to strengthen OmaSp continues

    ”I had the honour of starting as the CEO of Oma Savings Bank at the end of March. In recent weeks, I have engaged with the bank’s personnel, customers, and stakeholders across Finland. These discussions have underscored OmaSp’s strong customer relationships, employee commitment, as well as comprehensive range of services, and personalised service model. These elements provide a solid foundation for OmaSp’s next phase. It is clear that we must continue refining our policies and evolving our ways of working. Trust in the Company is rebuilt through actions.

    The comparable profit before taxes for the first quarter was EUR 4.6 million and the comparable cost/income ratio of 54.4%. Profit and profitability were burdened by increased operating and personnel expenses, as well as lower net interest income due to declining market interest rates.

    The increase in costs is primarily attributed to the implementation of the risk management action plan (the “Noste”) initiated in summer 2024. The final investments in the project were made as planned in the first quarter, and new operating models are being integrated into daily operations. Total investments in the Noste project reached EUR 11.6 million over its duration. What is more, we continue to act on the findings of the supervisory assessment.

    Net interest income decreased by 18.3% compared to the comparison period, totalling EUR 46.9 million. The decline is due to fallen market interest rates. The volumes transferred from Handelsbanken have contributed to the development of net interest income as market interest rates have declined.

    Fee and commission income and expenses (net) remained nearly at the level of the comparison period, amounting to EUR 14.7 million.

    The mortgage loan portfolio increased by 3.0%, the corporate loan portfolio by 0.4%, and the deposit base by 2.7% from the level of the previous year.

    Impairment losses on financial assets totalled EUR -22.3 million in January–March. Approximately one-third was related to the update of the calculation model for expected credit losses (ECL), another third to increased allowances in the portfolio, which is being wound down in a controlled manner, and the remaining third to other impairment losses on the loan portfolio due to the general uncertain economic situation.

    Additionally, a provision of EUR 3.0 million was made for the first quarter to prepare for potential sanctions from the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) due to deficiencies identified in the final inspection report on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. The FIN-FSA’s audit covered the period prior to December 2023. Measures to rectify the deficiencies were initiated while the audit was underway last year.

    Customer and employee satisfaction at an excellent level

    Following the Handelsbanken acquisition, we gained 10,000 new customers last autumn, and the integration has progressed smoothly. We have 48 branches covering all key growth and regional centres in Finland. In January–March, approximately 800 new customer relationships were established organically per month. OmaSp has a strong customer base of over 200,000. We are committed to offering services to households and SMEs across our network.

    Our customer and employee surveys indicated that satisfaction has remained at the excellent level of previous years. I want to extend my gratitude to our personnel for their exemplary work. Committed and motivated personnel are crucial to OmaSp’s future success.

    OmaSp’s financial position is stable, with a good solvency and liquidity position. The total capital (TC) ratio further strengthened to 17.7% at the end of March. The accumulated equity exceeds EUR 583 million.

    I look to the future with confidence. We will continue to develop our operations, invest in our core business, and strengthen the customer experience for both existing and new customers. Our strategy aims for profitable growth.”

    January–March 2025

    • In January–March, net interest income decreased by 18.3% compared with the same period last year. Net interest income totalled EUR 46.9 (57.4) million.
    • Mortgage portfolio increased by 3.0% during the previous 12 months. Corporate loan portfolio increased by 0.4% during the previous 12 months.
    • Deposit base increased by 2.7% over the past 12 months.
    • From January to March, fee and commission income and expenses (net) decreased mainly due to lower lending commissions compared to the comparison period, 2.6%.
    • From January to March, total operating income decreased by 18.9% compared to the comparison period. In the first quarter, comparable total operating income decreased by 19.8% and was EUR 59.5 (74.3) million.
    • From January to March, total operating expenses grew in total by 31.9%. The growth is mainly explained by the costs of the Company’s ongoing extensive risk management development projects, the authority processes and the promotion of a controlled winding down plan related to the non-compliance with the guidelines. In addition, the number of personnel increased compared to the comparison period due to business arrangements, the opening of new branches and the strengthening of the risk management processes. Other operating expenses were in total EUR 22.2 (16.4) million, of which the development costs of the risk management action plan and investigation costs amounted to EUR 5.3 million.
    • Comparable total operating expenses grew by 27.9% in the first quarter and were EUR 32.2 (25.2) million. Of this amount the risk management action plan (the ”Noste”) amounted to EUR 3.3 million. The measures implemented in the first quarter completed the action plan initiated in the summer of 2024.
    • For January-March, the impairment losses on financial assets were in total EUR -22.3 (-23.1) million. During the reporting period, the Company updated the calculation model for expected credit losses (ECL) as part of a larger operational programme and development of risk control. The total impact of the updated model increased the ECL by approximately EUR 8.5 million. In addition, the amount of impairment losses was impacted by an increase in allowances in the controlled winding down of the portfolio, which had an impact of approximately EUR 5.7 million. In other credit portfolio, impairment losses amounted to approximately EUR 8.1 million, and the development was particularly affected by the overall economic uncertainty.
    • For January-March, profit before taxes was EUR 3.1 (24.7) million and comparable profit before taxes was EUR 4.6 (25.6) million.
    • In the first quarter, cost/income ratio was 57.4 (35.2)% and comparable cost/income ratio was 54.4 (34.1)%.
    • In the first quarter, comparable return on equity (ROE) was 2.5 (15.5)%.
    • Total capital (TC) ratio was 17.7 (15.6)%.
    The Group’s key figures (1,000 euros) 1.3.2025 1.3.2024 Δ % 1.12.2024
    Net interest income 46,88 57,369 -18 % 213,097
    Fee and commission income and expenses, net 12,439 12,766 -3 % 50,745
    Total operating income 60,074 74,08 -19 % 270,068
    Total operating expenses -34,24 -25,958 32 % -111,004
    Impairment losses on financial assets, net -22,322 -23,112 -3 % -83,379
    Profit before taxes 3,111 24,668 -87 % 74,589
    Cost/income ratio, % 57.4% 35.2% 63 % 41.3%
    Balance sheet total 7,517,814 7,531,291 0 % 7,709,090
    Equity 583,026 527,426 11 % 576,143
    Return on assets (ROA) % 0.1% 1.0% -88 % 0.8%
    Return on equity (ROE) % 1.7% 14.9% -89 % 10.7%
    Earnings per share (EPS), EUR 0.07 0.60 -88 % 1.80
    Total capital (TC) ratio % 17.7% 16.9% 5 % 15.6%
    Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio % 16.5% 15.4% 8 % 14.4%
             
    Comparable profit before taxes 4,617 25,626 -82 % 86,656
    Comparable cost/income ratio, % 54.4% 34.1% 60 % 37.8%
    Comparable return on equity (ROE) % 2.5% 15.5% -84 % 12.4%

    Outlook for the financial year 2025 adjusted

    OmaSp updated its expected credit loss (ECL) calculation model in the first quarter and made a provision to prepare for possible sanctions following the final inspection report from the FIN-FSA on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing. These had a total one-off impact of approximately EUR -11 million on the results. Overall economic uncertainly has further increased. Therefore, OmaSp maintains its earnings guidance on the Group’s comparable profit before taxes to be EUR 65–80 million for the financial year 2025, with a clarification that the figure is expected to be below the mid-point of the range.

    Business outlook and earnings guidance are as follows:

    The outlook for the Company’s business for the financial year 2025 is affected by the decline in market interest rates and the continued high level of costs due to IT investments and system improvements required by risk management and quality processes. In addition, the Company continues to invest in customer experience on different channels. The uncertainty of the operating environment and economic situation affects the development of balance sheet items and comparable profit for the financial year 2025.

    Oma Savings Bank Plc provides earnings guidance on comparable profit before taxes for 2025. Earnings guidance is based on the forecast for the entire year, which takes into account the current market and business situation. Forecasts are based on the management’s insight into the Group’s business development.

    We estimate the Group’s comparable profit before taxes to be EUR 65–80 million for the financial year 2025, with a clarification that the figure is expected to be below the mid-point of the range (comparable profit before taxes was EUR 86.7 million in the financial year 2024).

    Oma Savings Bank Plc

    Additional information:
    Karri Alameri, CEO, tel. +358 45 656 5250, karri.alameri@omasp.fi

    DISTRIBUTION: 
    Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd
    Major media
    www.omasp.fi

    OmaSp is a solvent and profitable Finnish bank. About 500 professionals provide nationwide services through OmaSp’s 48 branch offices and digital service channels to over 200,000 private and corporate customers. OmaSp focuses primarily on retail banking operations and provides its clients with a broad range of banking services both through its own balance sheet as well as by acting as an intermediary for its partners’ products. The intermediated products include credit, investment and loan insurance products. OmaSp is also engaged in mortgage banking operations.

    OmaSp core idea is to provide personal service and to be local and close to its customers, both in digital and traditional channels. OmaSp strives to offer premium level customer experience through personal service and easy accessibility. In addition, the development of the operations and services is customer-oriented. The personnel is committed and OmaSp seeks to support their career development with versatile tasks and continuous development. A substantial part of the personnel also own shares in OmaSp.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A basic income support grant can address extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa – economic model shows how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Carolyn Chisadza, Associate professor, University of Pretoria

    South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. The country’s per-capita expenditure Gini coefficient, a measure of how spending from income is distributed, stands at 0.65. This puts it among countries with the most unequal distribution of spending globally.

    Nearly 55% of the population were living in poverty in 2023. The country also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world: 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024. To compound these issues, economic growth has stagnated since 2008.

    Ending extreme poverty, unemployment and inequality requires economic growth that includes more people. To get that result, there must be a set of interventions that work together. One intervention being considered in South Africa is basic income support to relieve poverty among unemployed citizens.

    Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, basic income support had been on the policy agenda in South Africa for at least two decades, since the Taylor Committee in 2001. The pandemic made existing inequalities worse through job losses. A “social relief of distress” grant was introduced in 2020 to support the unemployed.

    The grant targeted those affected by sudden income loss, including unemployed working-age individuals who did not qualify for other grants. The introduction of the grant renewed interest in the concept of a universal basic income, or a more comprehensive form of income support. It highlighted the welfare potential for a more permanent basic income support system.

    Very few cases of universal basic income support pilots exist in developing countries. Where they do exist, studies point to the vital benefits a basic income grant system might provide. Examples include evidence from a pilot in Namibia, nine villages in India, and rural Kenya.

    In a recently published paper, a team of economists explored the possible effects of introducing permanent basic income support to:

    • all individuals aged between 18 and 59

    • only those who are unemployed

    • only unemployed individuals in extremely poor households, defined by the food poverty line.

    The economic modelling exercise demonstrates that a basic income grant targeting all individuals aged between 18 and 59 could significantly reduce poverty and inequality. These gains would, however, require carefully targeted and implemented interventions over a multi-year period.

    Our approach

    The study identifies which socio-economic groups would benefit the most from the grant, and sheds light on the impact of basic income support on the welfare and livelihoods of individuals and their households. We used market income or pre-transfer income as the starting point to see how public spending changed poverty or income inequality.

    We used data from the 2017 Quarterly Labour Force Survey, a measure of employment and unemployment based on the country’s working population. Using the three scenarios, we calculated the likely effects.

    The first scenario was based on the universal grant being paid to all those aged 18 to 59. In the second, only those aged 18-59 who were unemployed received it. Lastly, only those who lived in extremely poor households and were unemployed in 2017 were included.

    Some form of support exists for children under 18 (child grant) and for adults aged 60 and over (pension). That’s why we allocated the grant only for adults from 18 to 59.

    In all the scenarios, the income support transfer is assumed to be R595 (US$38) per individual per month in 2021, equivalent to what it cost to provide a basic basket of food (that is, the food poverty line). We use R595 as it closely aligns with the COVID social relief of distress grant extension and reflects the grant amount for the 2021/22 financial year.

    Main findings

    The main findings show that in general, a basic income support grant has the potential to reduce poverty and inequality in South Africa. However, the effect varies based on the targeting mechanism used to identify beneficiaries. Absolute poverty, its gap (the ratio by which the mean income of the poor falls below the poverty line) and income inequality fall the most when the transfer is universal or targets the unemployed and the extreme poor.

    In the first scenario (support for all individuals aged 18 to 59) and the third scenario (the unemployed and extremely poor), both poverty headcount (the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line) and the poverty gap (the ratio by which the mean income of the poor falls below the poverty line) decrease more than in the second scenario (targeting only the unemployed). The income inequality reduction is also larger in the first and third scenarios compared to the second scenario.

    Significance of findings

    The significance of these findings is that better targeting makes basic income support more pro-poor and progressive, and reduces the leakage of the benefit to the non-poor.

    In countries such as South Africa, where poverty and inequality are extensive and public resources are limited, the case for targeting is attractive. But it’s important to recognise that effective targeting entails higher administrative costs. Conversely, while a universal basic income grant may be more expensive in terms of total disbursement, it has the greatest potential to reduce poverty and overall inequality.

    The government can make the best use of its resources by focusing on vulnerable populations, such as those who are extremely poor and unemployed.

    Finding the right criteria to identify the poor, and running the grant properly, largely determines the programme’s success in improving welfare.

    Concluding remarks

    South Africa is currently saddled with high poverty and inequality. Our study brings the debate on the potential welfare benefits of expanding existing social grants back to the forefront of social policy.

    Eleni Abraham Yitbarek is affiliated with Partnership for Economic Policy (Research Fellow)

    Carolyn Chisadza, Kehinde Oluwaseun Omotoso, Margaret Chitiga-Mabugu, Nicky Nicholls, and Ramos Emmanuel Mabugu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. A basic income support grant can address extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa – economic model shows how – https://theconversation.com/a-basic-income-support-grant-can-address-extreme-poverty-and-inequality-in-south-africa-economic-model-shows-how-247954

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Video: “Choose Europe for Science” Event at the Sorbonne in Paris

    Source: European Commission (video statements)

    On Monday, May 5, 2025, President Emmanuel Macron has launched the “Choose Europe for Science” initiative from the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne university. The the aim of the conference is to encourage public and private researchers and entrepreneurs to choose Europe and France as their home.

    Commission President von der Leyen is among the high-ranking attendees and will give a speech.

    Like, comment, and share to support informed discussions on European affairs.

    Watch now & stay informed!

    More information can be found on the EC Press Corner
    Follow us on:
    -X: https://twitter.com/EU_Commission
    -Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/europeancommission/
    -Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EuropeanCommission
    -LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-commission/
    -Medium: https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission

    Visit our website: http://ec.europa.eu

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zimXNLPU0r4

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 29 April 2025 Thailand launches WHO SPECS 2030 initiative to tackle leading cause of vision impairment

    Source: World Health Organisation

    Kicking off the event, Dr Warapat Wongsawad, the head of the Thai Public Health Ophthalmology Society, and Professor Dr Wanicha Chuenkongkaew, who leads the Royal College of Ophthalmologists of Thailand, provided opening remarks. Dr Andreas Mueller from WHO then delivered a keynote highlighting the importance of addressing refractive errors.  

    “Refractive error isn’t just about health—it creates societal and economic barriers. With the WHO SPECS 2030 initiative, nations get a worldwide strategy to eliminate these barriers by creating lasting, all-in-one eye care solutions,” Dr Mueller explained in his main speech. 

    Local progress and challenges  

    In the morning, Thailand’s current efforts took the spotlight. Projects like “Good Sight for Thai Children” and strategies from the Ministry of Public Health were on display. Presentations highlighted both progress and persistent challenges, from service access disparities to integration hurdles across public and private sectors.  

    Mr Udom Wongsing from the Office for Teacher and Education Institution Quality Development  illustrated how supporting children with vision impairment in the classroom is essential to building more equitable and inclusive societies.  

    In the afternoon, everyone looked ahead to Thailand’s upcoming strategy. They split into smaller teams to dive into the five SPECS 2030 pillars:  Service design, Personnel development, public Education, Costing, Surveillance and research. Participants from a range of stakeholder groups put their heads together to discuss solid srategies to boost Thailand’s eye health. 

    Each working group shared its insights during a debrief session, emphasizing integrated solutions such as training multidisciplinary visual care teams, educating the public on eye health literacy, and developing robust data systems to monitor outcomes. Dr Kulawan Rojananuangnit pointed out that the seminar laid the foundation to put Thailand at the forefront of bringing WHO SPECS 2030 to life with solid practical shifts. 

    Moving forward 

    As everything wrapped up, the participants agreed on one thing: turn the insights from the get-together into a plan for the nation. People from the health, education, private and policy circles in Thailand are banding together feeling hopeful that their homeland might just show others in the region how to tackle vision issues head-on. 

    Countries aim to hit the WHO’s worldwide goal to lower wrong refractive errors by 40% by 2030. Thailand’s initial push shows strong determination and true potential.

     

     

    During the launch week, both the Royal College of Ophthalmologists of Thailand and the Optometry Association of Thailand extended an invitation to Dr Andreas Mueller from WHO to present on SPECS 2030. Both professional bodies expressed strong interest in collaborating together with WHO to advance the initiative. 

    Photo: WHO/ Andreas Mueller and Dr Warapat Wongsawat 

    “,”datePublished”:”2025-04-29T11:33:22.0000000+00:00″,”image”:”https://cdn.who.int/media/images/default-source/topics/health-and-well-being/disability/blindness-and-vision-impairment/thailand2-specs2030.jpg?sfvrsn=7b4054a9_5″,”publisher”:{“@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”World Health Organization: WHO”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://www.who.int/Images/SchemaOrg/schemaOrgLogo.jpg”,”width”:250,”height”:60}},”dateModified”:”2025-04-29T11:33:22.0000000+00:00″,”mainEntityOfPage”:”https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/thailand-launches-who-specs-2030-initiative-to-tackle-leading-cause-of-vision-impairment”,”@context”:”http://schema.org”,”@type”:”Article”};
    ]]>

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Risks relating to multi-million EU funding of centralised (and often left-leaning) fact checkers – E-001663/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-001663/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Beatrice Timgren (ECR), Charlie Weimers (ECR), Dick Erixon (ECR)

    The Commission recently launched a EUR 5 million call[1] under the Digital Europe Programme to strengthen the European Fact-Checking Standards Network[2].

    Objectives covered by the funding from Brussels include expanding fact-checking capacity, developing sustainable business models and protecting fact checkers from harassment while providing them with legal and relocation support. The further funding of such centralised structures risks consolidating influence among a limited number of actors who lack democratic legitimacy and political neutrality. Unlike the transparent and consensus-based model used in Community Notes on X – now being adopted by other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram[3] – the Commission’s approach relies on opaque selection and review processes. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pointed out that fact checkers often exhibit a left-leaning bias.

    The current US presidential administration has criticised centralised fact-checking as undemocratic. Continued EU reliance on such models may undermine free speech and further strain transatlantic ties.

    Bearing in mind what has been said above:

    • 1.Why has the Commission adopted a critical view of relatively more transparent and open-source alternatives to fact-checking, such as Community Notes?
    • 2.Has the Commission assessed the risk of its model being perceived as institutionalised censorship, with negative implications for public confidence and EU-US relations?
    • 3.How will the Commission evaluate fact checkers’ independence and neutrality when offering them legal and relocation support under the proposed fact checkers protection scheme?

    Submitted: 24.4.2025

    • [1] European Commission, EU Funding & Tenders Portal, Call for proposal: European Network of Factcheckers, https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08-FACTCHECKERS?isExactMatch=true&status=31094501,31094502,31094503&frameworkProgramme=43152860&order=DESC&pageNumber=1&pageSize=50&sortBy=startDate.
    • [2] European Commission, Digital Europe Programme: Call for proposals – Accelerating the Best Use of Technologies, 1 April 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/digital/wp-call/2025/call-fiche_digital-2025-bestuse-08_en.pdf.
    • [3] Meta, ‘More Speech and Fewer Mistakes’, 7 January 2025, https://about.fb.com/news/2025/03/testing-begins-community-notes-facebook-instagram-threads/.
    Last updated: 5 May 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Impact of the revised EU Emissions Trading System on household costs – E-001665/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-001665/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Beatrice Timgren (ECR), Charlie Weimers (ECR), Dick Erixon (ECR)

    The extension of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to include road transport and buildings under ETS 2 is expected to significantly raise energy costs for households across the EU. According to a recent analysis, the cost of this measure could be as much as EUR 650 per year for Belgian households.[1]

    This raises concerns about the distributive effects of the revised ETS, especially at a time when many families are already struggling with inflation and high energy prices. The largest burden will fall disproportionately on middle- and lower-income citizens in colder, car-dependent regions.

    • 1.Does the Commission acknowledge that the revised ETS places a disproportionate financial burden on certain Member States and certain households, e.g. those living in colder rural areas?
    • 2.In the light of the disproportionate burden placed on certain households, has the Commission considered adjusting the ETS so that it does not punish households that are not eligible for compensation from the Social Climate Fund, but which are still hit with considerably increased expenses?
    • 3.Considering the strained financial situation for many households, has the Commission considered pausing the implementation of the revised ETS, and what would the consequences on climate and household economy be if such a pause took place?

    Submitted: 24.4.2025

    • [1] https://energyville.be/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ETS2-paper_final-15042025.pdf.
    Last updated: 5 May 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Artificial property holdings, unfair competition and social housing – E-001414/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-001414/2025/rev.1
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Nikos Pappas (The Left)

    According to a recent case study on Thessaloniki,[1] from 2008 onwards, sky-rocketing property prices were accompanied by excessive housing loans, which, at the onset of the economic crisis, resulted in mass foreclosures and the ownership of a large number of properties being transferred to the banks. With a view to limiting financial losses, the banks avoided putting these properties on the market, whereas they are now actively reappearing through the banks’ own brokerage mechanisms or sales to investment funds. The thousands of unsold properties, which are mostly small and old, remain out of use by society. This exacerbates the decline of the already limited housing stock and acts as a catalyst for increased market and rental prices.

    In light of the above, can the Commission answer the following:

    • 1.How does the Commission intend to address the artificial holding of real estate by banks and funds, which hampers accessibility to affordable housing, especially in urban centres, and examine whether this practice constitutes a form of unfair competition to the detriment of both tenants and private owners?
    • 2.Does it intend to regulate, at EU level, the activities of investment funds and servicers in the housing sector, in order to ensure transparency and the protection of social housing?
    • 3.How could the Commission help ensure that national tax incentives (e.g. exemptions for renovations) do not create unequal treatment in favour of large landlords to the detriment of tenants and vulnerable groups?

    Submitted: 7.4.2025

    • [1] Hatziprokopiou, P., Mangou, I. Siatitsa, D. (2024), Assessing vacant homes in the Municipality of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki Social Atlas, https://thessalonikisocialatlas.arch.auth.gr/en/items/prosengizontas-tis-kenes-katoikies-sto-dimo-thessalonikis/
    Last updated: 5 May 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: A basic income support grant can address extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa – economic model shows how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Carolyn Chisadza, Associate professor, University of Pretoria

    South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. The country’s per-capita expenditure Gini coefficient, a measure of how spending from income is distributed, stands at 0.65. This puts it among countries with the most unequal distribution of spending globally.

    Nearly 55% of the population were living in poverty in 2023. The country also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world: 33.5% in the second quarter of 2024. To compound these issues, economic growth has stagnated since 2008.

    Ending extreme poverty, unemployment and inequality requires economic growth that includes more people. To get that result, there must be a set of interventions that work together. One intervention being considered in South Africa is basic income support to relieve poverty among unemployed citizens.

    Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, basic income support had been on the policy agenda in South Africa for at least two decades, since the Taylor Committee in 2001. The pandemic made existing inequalities worse through job losses. A “social relief of distress” grant was introduced in 2020 to support the unemployed.

    The grant targeted those affected by sudden income loss, including unemployed working-age individuals who did not qualify for other grants. The introduction of the grant renewed interest in the concept of a universal basic income, or a more comprehensive form of income support. It highlighted the welfare potential for a more permanent basic income support system.

    Very few cases of universal basic income support pilots exist in developing countries. Where they do exist, studies point to the vital benefits a basic income grant system might provide. Examples include evidence from a pilot in Namibia, nine villages in India, and rural Kenya.

    In a recently published paper, a team of economists explored the possible effects of introducing permanent basic income support to:

    • all individuals aged between 18 and 59

    • only those who are unemployed

    • only unemployed individuals in extremely poor households, defined by the food poverty line.

    The economic modelling exercise demonstrates that a basic income grant targeting all individuals aged between 18 and 59 could significantly reduce poverty and inequality. These gains would, however, require carefully targeted and implemented interventions over a multi-year period.

    Our approach

    The study identifies which socio-economic groups would benefit the most from the grant, and sheds light on the impact of basic income support on the welfare and livelihoods of individuals and their households. We used market income or pre-transfer income as the starting point to see how public spending changed poverty or income inequality.

    We used data from the 2017 Quarterly Labour Force Survey, a measure of employment and unemployment based on the country’s working population. Using the three scenarios, we calculated the likely effects.

    The first scenario was based on the universal grant being paid to all those aged 18 to 59. In the second, only those aged 18-59 who were unemployed received it. Lastly, only those who lived in extremely poor households and were unemployed in 2017 were included.

    Some form of support exists for children under 18 (child grant) and for adults aged 60 and over (pension). That’s why we allocated the grant only for adults from 18 to 59.

    In all the scenarios, the income support transfer is assumed to be R595 (US$38) per individual per month in 2021, equivalent to what it cost to provide a basic basket of food (that is, the food poverty line). We use R595 as it closely aligns with the COVID social relief of distress grant extension and reflects the grant amount for the 2021/22 financial year.

    Main findings

    The main findings show that in general, a basic income support grant has the potential to reduce poverty and inequality in South Africa. However, the effect varies based on the targeting mechanism used to identify beneficiaries. Absolute poverty, its gap (the ratio by which the mean income of the poor falls below the poverty line) and income inequality fall the most when the transfer is universal or targets the unemployed and the extreme poor.

    In the first scenario (support for all individuals aged 18 to 59) and the third scenario (the unemployed and extremely poor), both poverty headcount (the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line) and the poverty gap (the ratio by which the mean income of the poor falls below the poverty line) decrease more than in the second scenario (targeting only the unemployed). The income inequality reduction is also larger in the first and third scenarios compared to the second scenario.

    Significance of findings

    The significance of these findings is that better targeting makes basic income support more pro-poor and progressive, and reduces the leakage of the benefit to the non-poor.

    In countries such as South Africa, where poverty and inequality are extensive and public resources are limited, the case for targeting is attractive. But it’s important to recognise that effective targeting entails higher administrative costs. Conversely, while a universal basic income grant may be more expensive in terms of total disbursement, it has the greatest potential to reduce poverty and overall inequality.

    The government can make the best use of its resources by focusing on vulnerable populations, such as those who are extremely poor and unemployed.

    Finding the right criteria to identify the poor, and running the grant properly, largely determines the programme’s success in improving welfare.

    Concluding remarks

    South Africa is currently saddled with high poverty and inequality. Our study brings the debate on the potential welfare benefits of expanding existing social grants back to the forefront of social policy.

    – A basic income support grant can address extreme poverty and inequality in South Africa – economic model shows how
    – https://theconversation.com/a-basic-income-support-grant-can-address-extreme-poverty-and-inequality-in-south-africa-economic-model-shows-how-247954

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: 60 years of international education: Polytechnic celebrated the anniversary of the preparatory faculty

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

    Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University celebrated the 60th anniversary of the preparatory faculty for foreign students. This event was not just an anniversary date, but a vivid demonstration of many years of successful experience and achievements in the field of international education.

    The history of the faculty began in 1965, when the first 200 students from Cuba, Arab countries and Africa crossed the threshold of the classrooms at 21 Politekhnicheskaya Street. Under the leadership of Dean A. N. Nosov, a unique educational structure was created with three departments: Russian language, natural sciences and humanities. In 1988, the faculty found a new home – a modern building at 28 Grazhdansky Prospekt, which today remains a center of attraction for foreign students.

    The special value of the preparatory faculty is its ability to adapt to the challenges of the time, while maintaining the best traditions. Today we see how graduates of the preparatory faculty become successful specialists all over the world, and many remain in Russia, contributing to the development of our economy and science. This is the best assessment of our work, – noted the Vice-Rector for International Affairs of SPbPU Dmitry Arsenyev.

    Over six decades, the preparatory faculty has achieved impressive results in educational activities.

    When I came to Russia, I knew only a few Russian words. But thanks to the unique teaching method, after a month and a half I could understand speech and participate in dialogues, recalls 2016 graduate Hanaa Itri from Morocco. Today, she successfully works at a large Russian university, continuing the traditions of intercultural communication.

    The anniversary celebrations lasted two days. On the first day, an all-Russian scientific and methodological seminar was held, where representatives of leading Russian universities – Moscow State University, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Kazan Federal University, Tomsk and Volgograd Polytechnics – discussed current issues of teaching taking into account the ethnic factor.

    On the second day, a festival of Russian language and culture was held, where students enthusiastically competed in linguistic contests, participated in master classes on folk crafts, and mastered the secrets of traditional Russian cuisine.

    The culmination of the celebration was the gala concert in the White Hall “Day of the Russian Language”, in which more than 60 students from 30 countries participated. The staff and veterans of the Higher School received gratitude from the Committee for Science and Higher School of St. Petersburg and honorary certificates from SPbPU.

    Preparatory faculty graduates shared their memories of their student years. One of them is the senior teacher of additional education at the Higher School of MOP Mukbil Mansur Hassan Muhammad from Yemen. After studying at the preparatory faculty, he graduated from the physics and metallurgy faculty and defended his PhD thesis at the Polytechnic University.

    The Polytechnic Institute has become my home. I love my job and my students. My students are my friends. I know from my own experience how difficult it is to adapt to life in another country where everything is new: the climate, the cuisine, the language, the people. Creative events help students get to know the country and get to know each other better, – shared Mukbil Mansur Hassan Muhammad.

    Foreign students performed Russian songs and dances at the concert. The numbers dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War were presented: the compositions “Katyusha”, “Wait for me”, “Yablochko” and “Siniy kerchief”.

    The event was attended by students from Turkmenistan, China, Latin America and Africa, as well as from other parts of the world. Many students of the preparatory faculty have talents: they dance, sing, recite poems. Concerts and similar events help foreign children adapt to our culture. Creativity plays an important role in this process, – said Lyubov Stepanova, senior teacher of additional education at the Higher School of MOP and the organizer of the event.

    Last year’s preparatory faculty graduates and current first-year students of the Institute of Historical and Cultural Studies Anzhi and Roz from Haiti also took part in the concert: Russia is a large, beautiful country with a rich culture and history. When we were choosing a university for study on the Internet, we really liked the Polytechnic, and were impressed by the opportunities for students. And our friends study here, and they told us a lot of good things. We like it here, the teachers are very helpful, for which we are very grateful to them.

    60 years is not just a number. It is thousands of graduates, dozens of countries, hundreds of educational programs. But the main thing is the traditions of quality and innovation that we carefully preserve and develop, – summed up the director of the Higher School of International Educational Programs Viktor Krasnoshchyokov.

    Today, the preparatory faculty of SPbPU is a modern educational center, where time-tested methods and innovative approaches are harmoniously combined. As a graduate from Indonesia, Desmarnov Tirto Pamangin, said: Here they not only give knowledge of the language, but also open the door to a new life. This is precisely the mission of the Higher School – to be a bridge between cultures and peoples.

    Photo archive

    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 Asia-Pac: “Phulera Ka Panchayati Raj” : A Digital Hit with a Self-Reliant Heart

    Source: Government of India

     “Phulera Ka Panchayati Raj” :  A Digital Hit with a Self-Reliant Heart

    Final Episode of the Three Part Series “Alhua Vikas” Highlights Local Taxes Fuel Local Progress

    Posted On: 05 MAY 2025 1:13PM by PIB Delhi

    The Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s  “Alhua Vikas”, the third and final film of the three-part extension series “Phulera Ka Panchayati Raj”, is enthusing digital audiences widely and sensitising them about the issues that affect gram panchayats across India. The third and final episode was released earlier on the occasion of the  National Panchayati Raj Day (24th April, 2025) and has since then received  a phenomenal response on Youtube with over 6M+ views so far. 

    “Alhua Vikas” highlights the critical importance of generating  Own Sources of Revenue (OSR) by Rural Local Bodies that helps in strengthening the self-reliance of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across rural India. This film promotes citizen awareness on timely payment of local taxes, highlighting how such contributions enable improved service delivery and sustained village development. The film features renowned actors including Neena Gupta, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, Durgesh Kumar, and others from the original “Panchayat” cast, and has received significant public attention with  emphasizes on the message “जमा करके कर, बनाईये अपनी पंचायत को आत्मनिर्भर” to encourage citizens to pay local taxes promptly, thereby supporting development works in their villages. The release of the film that coincided with the conferring of awards on the Panchayats by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on the National Panchayati  Raj Day to recognize the outstanding contributions in the areas of self-reliance in mobilization of Own Sources of Revenue (OSR), reaffirms the resolve of the Ministry towards making the rural local bodies financially self-reliant and “Atmanirbhar”. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj aims to make OSR a household term and encourage capable citizens to pay relevant taxes. These contributions are essential for making Panchayati Raj Institutions financially sustainable and self-sufficient entities of grassroots governance in rural India.

    Watch the Three Part Series “Phulera Ka Panchayati Raj” Showcasing Key Themes of Grassroots Governance in Rural India : Links Given Below :-

    Sl. No.

    Title of sketch / film

    Premiered on

    Theme

    YouTube link

    1.

    Asli Pradhan Kaun?

     

    4th March, 2025

    “Asli Pradhan Kaun?” draws attention to the issue of proxy representation and advocates for strengthening the leadership of elected women representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxadWl5Cjk&t=102s

    2.

    Phulera Mein Chori

     

    12th March, 2025

    “Phulera Mein Chori” highlights the impact of the SVAMITVA Scheme and digital governance tools such as Meri Panchayat App, showcasing how rural communities are gaining access to transparent, efficient services.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d56hvDYu5yA&t=162s

    3.

    Alhua Vikas

     

    24th April, 2025

    “Alhua Vikas” promotes the idea of enhancing Own Sources of Revenue (OSR) through citizen participation, enabling Panchayats to become financially self-reliant and development-ready.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRW8Nu9Wivs

     

    ***

    Aditi Agrawal

    (Release ID: 2126985) Visitor Counter : 72

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Public urged to clean hands properly to prevent spread of infectious diseases in support of Hand Hygiene Day

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    In support of Hand Hygiene Day, the Department of Health (DH) today (May 5) launched the 2025 Hand Hygiene Day campaign, and appealed to members of the public to develop habits of cleaning hands properly at the right moments with a view to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

    Hand Hygiene Day is a global initiative led by the World Health Organization held annually on May 5. Using the tagline “Clean Properly—Every Surface, Every Time” this year, the DH aims to promote the critical role of proper hand hygiene techniques in both the healthcare and community settings, and will roll out a series of publicity activities, which include displaying posters and visual cues in hospitals, clinics under the DH and Hospital Authority (HA), health centres, residential care homes for the elderly and public toilets to raise public awareness about proper hand hygiene techniques.

         “Hand hygiene is a seemingly small but powerful act to prevent the spread of infections. About 80 per cent of infectious diseases are transmitted by not thoroughly cleaned hands after touching contaminated surfaces, and a single bacterium can multiply into 16 million bacteria in just six hours. Hand-washing can prevent approximately 30 per cent of diarrhea-related illnesses and about 20 per cent of respiratory infections,” the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health, Dr Edwin Tsui said.

    In the healthcare settings, the DH and the HA have conducted regular hand hygiene audits among healthcare workers. In the past decade, the overall compliance rate has continuously improved, reaching over 90 per cent since 2021. To build a healthier and safer community, the public should commit to cleaning hands properly—every surface, every time and adopt it as a daily habit.

    For effective protection, it is important to clean hands with appropriate hand hygiene techniques at the right moments. When hands are visibly dirty, wash them with liquid soap and water. A 70-80 per cent alcohol-based handrub is an effective alternative when hands are not visibly soiled. Clean your hands for at least 20 seconds following the 7 Steps of Hand Hygiene (see Annex) to thoroughly clean every surface of the hands including the palms, the backs of the hands, the fingers webs, the backs of the fingers, the thumbs, the fingertips, and the wrists. The public and healthcare workers should clean their hands at the following moments:

    • Before and after touching one’s eyes, nose, or mouth;
    • Before eating or preparing food;
    • After using the toilet;
    • After hands are contaminated by respiratory secretions, such as after coughing or sneezing;
    • After changing diapers for children or the sick, or handling soiled items;
    • After touching animals, poultry, or their droppings;
    • After handling garbage;
    • After touching public installations or equipment, such as escalator handrails, elevator buttons, or door handles;
    • Before and after visiting hospitals, residential care homes, or caring for the sick; and
    • Whenever your hands are visibly dirty.

     
    For more information on hand hygiene, please visit https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/features/108742.html.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India’s MICE Industry Set to Be a Major Economic Driver, Generating High-Quality Jobs: Union Tourism Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

    Source: Government of India

    India’s MICE Industry Set to Be a Major Economic Driver, Generating High-Quality Jobs: Union Tourism Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

    ‘Meet in India Conclave 2025 organized in Jaipur, Rajasthan

    Strong focus on state-led promotion, public-private partnerships, and seamless connectivity to support the MICE sector

    MICE tourism is recognized as a key driver for economic growth and job creation in India

    Posted On: 05 MAY 2025 8:33AM by PIB Delhi

    The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), organized the Meet in India Conclave on 4th May 2025 at Jaipur, Rajasthan on the sidelines of the 14th Great Indian Travel Bazaar (GITB).

    Union Minister of Tourism & Culture, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat,   addressed the conclave and said that India’s Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) Industry is set to be a major economic driver, generating high-quality jobs. Speaking at the conclave, Shri Shekhawat said, India’s MICE industry is rapidly emerging as a global powerhouse, fuelled by robust economic growth, world-class infrastructure, and strong government backing. States across the country are unlocking tourism opportunities in their own unique ways — and now, it’s time for India to position itself firmly on the global MICE map.

    With iconic venues like Bharat Mandapam, Yashobhoomi, Jio World Centre etc. and with special focus on MICE, we aim to elevate at least 10 Indian cities into the world’s top MICE destinations. Guided by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s visionary leadership, and with states like Rajasthan leading through legacy and innovation, India is poised to become the world’s most admired tourism and events destination,” the Tourism Minister added while highlighting the growing potential of the country in the MICE segment.

    More than 300 delegates and participants attended the event consisting of International MICE Companies/Operators, Domestic MICE Companies/Professional Conference organizers, Speakers, Foreign Tour Operators specialized in MICE invited for GITB, Secretaries from States / UTs, Media, Stakeholders from various Tourism and Hospitality Associations, Local Stakeholders (Hotels, DMCs, Associations, GITB, officials from States / UTs, exhibitors etc.) etc.

    The India MICE market generated a revenue of USD 49,402.6 million in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 103,686.5 million by 2030 while registering a growth of 13% CAGR. This growth is fuelled by the recent developments in MICE-ready destinations coming up in cities like Varanasi, Khajuraho, Kochi etc. Over the last decade, India has shown a tremendous growth curve in infrastructure with be it the construction of roads over 1,50,000 km, new railway stations, semi high-speed trains, inland waterways, more than 150 operational airports and over 2.48 million hotel rooms. Further, India’s hosting of G20 nations has reinforced India’s growing venue network and regional tourism potential.

    Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, Shri Suman Bery, emphasized, “The vision laid by Hon’ble PM during India’s G20 presidency has opened new pathways. It is now up to states to build on this momentum. From deregulation to concert tourism, India has the opportunity to become a global hub for events and experiences.”

    Highlighting Rajasthan as an emerging MICE destination, Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ms. Diya Kumari, said, “Rajasthan is not just a heritage destination — it is a vibrant, future-ready hub for MICE tourism. With state-of-the-art convention centres, seamless connectivity, digital infrastructure, and world-class hospitality, we are building a dynamic ecosystem that blends tradition with transformation”Elucidating Rajasthan’s commitment to MICE not as a short-term effort, but as a strategic priority to drive growth, innovation, and global visibility, the Deputy CM of Rajasthan said, “Rajasthan is ready — not just to welcome conferences, but to offer an unforgettable, enriching experience.”

    Deputy Chief Minister, Smt. Pravati Parida, while addressing the gathering said, whether it’s conferences or exhibitions, India is ready to welcome the world—and Odisha stands proudly among the leading states. From the spiritual serenity of Puri to the architectural marvel of Konark, our state offers not only robust infrastructure but also a rich cultural tapestry for all to experience.

    Additional Secretary & Director General of Tourism, Mr. Suman Billa, set the context for MICE in India conclave and added that “A unified national strategy, skilled talent, digital tools, and strong state-led promotion can propel us into the top five MICE markets by 2025.” While India already has the necessary infrastructure and market demand, he pointed out that the real challenge lies in coordination. Mr Billa emphasized the need for city-level convention promotion bureaus, a strong national MICE brand, skill development academies, and a seamless digital portal.

    Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Past President, FICCI highlighted that India is no longer just a leisure destination and We are now ready to take on the world as a leading MICE destination. With exceptional infrastructure, seamless connectivity, and the proven capabilities we demonstrated during the G20, we have everything it takes to host large-scale global conventions. Through platforms like the Great Indian Travel Bazaar and Meet in India, we are not just showcasing our potential — we are inviting the world to collaborate, catalyse, and say, ‘Let’s meet in India”.

    Post inaugural keynote address was deliver by Dr. Senthil Gopinath, CEO, International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA. The event concluded with three sessions on  Catalyzing Growth: How Tourism Policies are Attracting MICE Opportunities, Unlocking India’s MICE Tourism Potential: Elevating Convention Centres to Attract Global MICE Events and  Strategizing for Success: Crafting Policies & Marketing India as a Global MICE Hub. B2B sessions for the buyers and sellers were also organised.

    Following the conclave, the 14th edition of GITB will commence from May 5–6 at the Jaipur Exhibition and Convention Centre (JECC).

    ***

    Sunil Kumar Tiwari

    tourism4pib[at]gmail[dot]com

    (Release ID: 2126905) Visitor Counter : 25

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –