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  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Panetta Introduces Bill to Raise Cost of Living Adjustment for Local Military Personnel and Families

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif)

    Monterey, CA – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) authored and introduced legislation that would address the absence of Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLA) for military service members and Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employees stationed in California’s 19th Congressional District.  California’s 19th Congressional District is home to seventeen military installations and more than 15,000 military and defense personnel, and is among the most expensive areas to live in the nation

    Cost of Living Adjustments are additional compensation for servicemembers and DoD civilians assigned to high-cost areas, intended to offset regional price disparities.  While San Francisco receives one of the highest COLA rates at 5%, neighboring areas within California’s 19th Congressional District, despite similar economic pressures, do not.  A recent report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that $100 worth of goods nationwide only buys $87 and $88 in the Salinas-Monterey and Santa Cruz-Watsonville metro areas.  That makes California’s 19th Congressional District one of the ten most expensive regions in the country. 

    “Many servicemembers and DoD civilians stationed in California’s 19th Congressional District are struggling to keep up with the high cost of living in one of the most expensive regions in the country,” said Rep. Panetta.  “My legislation would push the Department of Defense to reassess how COLA is calculated and ensure that our region, and military families who call it home, get a fair evaluation.  Our national security professionals serve us day-in and day-out, the least we can do is ensure that they have the compensation they deserve to continue that steadfast service.”

    The bill would direct the Pentagon to submit a detailed report to Congress assessing how COLA rates are determined, whether current methods accurately reflect economic realities, and if the district should qualify for COLA based on modern cost factors.  It would specifically require the Department of Defense to evaluate housing, groceries, transportation, and healthcare costs in California’s 19th Congressional District, and to compare the treatment of Monterey with nearby Santa Clara County, where COLA is currently granted.  The legislation would also ensure that housing benefits like Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) are not factored into COLA eligibility, as they serve different purposes.

    The legislation would not only provide Congress with transparency of how COLA decisions are made, but it could also prompt the Pentagon to reassess outdated formulas that fail to reflect the real cost of living on California’s Central Coast.

    Installations in California’s 19th Congressional District include:

    • Naval Postgraduate School
    • Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
    • Naval Support Activity Monterey
    • Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center
    • Naval Research Lab
    • Coast Guard Station Monterey
    • Camp Roberts
    • Defense Manpower Data Center
    • Presidio of Monterey
    • Defense Personnel Security Research Center Operations
    • 514th Signal Company
    • Gourley VA-DOD Outpatient Clinic
    • California Medical Detachment
    • Army Analytics Group
    • Fort Hunter Liggett
    • Governor’s Military Council
    • Monterey Bay Defense Alliance

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s Statement on President Trump’s First 100 Days

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif)

    Washington, DC – United States Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) released the following statement on the Administration’s first 100 days in office:

    “The first 100 days of the Trump Administration have been chaotic, costly, created economic uncertainty, challenged our constitution, and weakened our institutions, alliances, and credibility.  During the campaign, the President promised that on day one that he would reduce inflation, end the war in Ukraine, bring home the hostages from Gaza, and support America’s working families.  Instead, he has failed to fulfill any of those promises, overwhelmed us with a deluge of executive orders, and tried to distract us from his failures by talking about stealing Greenland, annexing Canada, running for a third term, and more.  Although the most successful part of the Administration’s agenda, increasing immigration enforcement, has significantly reduced the flow of crossings at the southern border, his deportation policy has become mired in legal challenges by disregarding due process, administrative carelessness, and defying courts of law.  The President’s self-imposed, short-sighted, and sweeping tariff policies have hurt our economy and are set to raise prices even higher with retaliation from our trading partners.  By giving Elon Musk unbridled power to cut federal programs and jobs, the Administration has jeopardized vital services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance, and scientific research.  Without a clear strategy in the Administration’s trade and foreign policies, our nation has pushed away our allies and created strategic opportunities for our adversaries.

    “President Trump made his intentions abundantly clear during the campaign. However, his chaotic actions, including instituting massive tariffs, challenging our constitution and courts, continued cozying up to dictators, and pardoning January 6 rioters appear to have no long-term strategy, degraded our credibility, and led to a steady decline in his national polling numbers on all major issues over the past 100 days. 

    “As I said from day one of this Administration, America’s system of checks and balances must flex its muscles. The courts don’t act as fast as the executive branch, but they continue to be the bulwark against the Administration’s overreach and violations of our Constitution.  Although the President has shown little interest in working with Congress to pass any long-term legislation, we will continue to work on bills that constrain the Administration’s destructive actions, investigate any abuses of power, and serve our constituents.  Over the past few decades, Congress has relinquished its authority to the executive branch on trade, commerce, agency oversight, and even warfare.  However, the actions of this Administration must be a wake-up call for Democrats and Republicans to come together and take back our constitutionally mandated power. But ultimately, as we have seen throughout the history of our nation, our democracy isn’t about one person, one court, or one legislative body.  It’s about the collective power of Americans.  The President’s first 100 days will not be anywhere near as important as the remaining 1360 days of his term, and why our system of checks and balances must stay strong, and we the people must stay together in our fight for our shared democratic values.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Alan Wilson, legislators, and sheriffs urge swift passage of Administrative Subpoena Bill to protect childrenRead More

    Source: US State of South Carolina

    (COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson today joined leading legislators and sheriffs from across the state at the Statehouse to call on the General Assembly to pass S.74, a critical bill that would expedite investigations into child sexual abuse material. 

    Speaking alongside Senator Greg Hembree (R-Horry), Representative Travis Moore (R-Spartanburg), and Sheriffs Carl Ritchie (Charleston County), Jay Koon (Lexington County), and Tony Breeden (York County), Wilson emphasized that time is critical when it comes to protecting children and catching predators. 

    “Every day that passes without S.74 becoming law is another day we risk leaving children vulnerable and giving child predators a head start,” Attorney General Wilson said. “This bill gives law enforcement the tools we need to act faster, protect more kids, and bring offenders to justice.” 

    Currently, the Attorney General’s Office must request subpoenas through the U.S. Attorney’s Office to access vital electronic records, a process that can take days or even months. S.74 would allow the Attorney General to issue administrative subpoenas directly, significantly speeding up the early stages of investigations while still requiring judicial approval for any subsequent search warrants. 

    “We’re talking about saving lives and preventing unimaginable harm,” Attorney General Wilson added. ”This is not about cutting corners; it’s about cutting red tape.” 

    S.74 has already passed in the Senate and the House in different forms. Attorney General Wilson and today’s coalition of leaders are urging lawmakers to work quickly to agree on the Senate’s version before the legislative session ends. 

    Senator Hembree, the bill’s lead sponsor, said, ”We have overwhelming bipartisan support. Now we need urgent action. Our children are counting on us.” 

    Representative Moore added, ”Law enforcement needs every lawful tool available to stay ahead of predators who are using technology to victimize the innocent. S.74 provides that, and we must finish the job.” 

    Sheriffs from across South Carolina echoed that sentiment, stressing the importance of faster access to electronic records to intervene before more harm is done. Charleston County Sheriff Carl Ritchie said, “The more time that goes by, the more we delay, the more harm that’s happening to our children, the more targets that these predators can identify. So, I would encourage everyone to make sure we get this passed.”

    Attorney General Wilson closed by thanking the General Assembly for its work so far, but made clear: ”The mission isn’t finished until this bill is on the Governor’s desk. Let’s get it done, for the children of South Carolina.” 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Yakima Man Subject to a Domestic Violence No Contact Order Sentenced to Prison for Possessing More Than a Dozen Firearms

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Yakima, Washington – Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker announced that United States District Judge Mary K. Dimke sentenced Benjamin D. Cliett, age 44, of Yakima, Washington, to 2 years in federal prison on one count of Person Subject to a Court Order in Possession of Firearms. Judge Dimke also imposed 3 years of supervised release.

    According to court documents and information presented at the sentencing hearing, on July 23, 2022, officers with the Yakima Police Department (YPD) were dispatched to Cliett’s residence in Yakima. Dispatch told the YPD that neighbors had called to report screaming and other loud noises coming from the residence.

    Aware that Cliett was subject to a domestic violence no-contact order, and fearing that a domestic violence incident was occurring inside, YPD entered the residence. Cliett’s partner was in the house, and YPD conducted a protective sweep of the residence.  Inside, offices located Cliett hiding in a doghouse in the backyard. Cliett was arrested for violating the no-contact order.

    While conducting the sweep, YPD observed a tall gun safe in the bedroom. Officers later returned with a search warrant and found ammunition and magazines spread throughout the home and eighteen firearms in the gun safe.

    “Victims of domestic violence often feel trapped in abusive relationships, where they face higher risks of being shot or killed by their abuser than the general public,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Barker. “This is why it is so important to enforce laws that keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers—it really can save lives.”

    “Mr. Cliett made many wrong choices that day,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Blais. “He knew that he had a no-contact order and that prohibited him from having access to firearms.  We hope that this prison sentence will give Mr. Cliett time to think about his actions and turn his life around.”

    This case was investigated by the ATF and the Yakima Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Ellis.

    1:22-cr-02111-MKD

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Province moving forward on short-term rental rules

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Municipalities with fewer than 10,000 people, regional districts and resort municipalities are exempt from the principal-residence requirement but may request to opt in by March 31 of each year to take effect Nov. 1 of the same year.

    The three communities that have requested to opt in in 2025 are the Town of Creston, Salt Spring Island and Electoral Area B of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (Revelstoke/Golden).

    Certain local governments can annually request by a resolution submitted to the minister of housing and municipal affairs to opt out of the principal-residence requirement if the community has a rental vacancy rate of 3% or more for two consecutive years. In addition, communities that have previously opted in can request to opt out without the vacancy-rate requirement.

    There are three communities that have made the decision to opt out of the principal-residence requirement, meaning that the principal-residence rules will not apply on Nov. 1, 2025. The communities are the District of Tofino, Electoral Area E of the Cowichan Valley Regional District (Cowichan Station/Sahtlam/Glenora) and Electoral Area G of the Cowichan Valley Regional District (Saltair/Thetis + Penelakut Islands). 

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: With Moominmama, Tove Jansson created a hero who wields a handbag instead of a sword

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Isabel Joely Black, Teaching Fellow in Anthropology, University of Manchester

    In 1989, the science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin published The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. In it, she notes that many stories depend heavily on a hero with a sword or weapon as a central object, while bags seem boring and insignificant.

    Le Guin argued against the idea of weapons being the most important tool in a novel. Novels themselves are not “sword-shaped”, she suggested, but bags of ideas bundled together. It might be unexpected to link Le Guin to Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories. But Moominmamma is a perfect example of the kind of hero Le Guin was imagining.

    The story Jansson tells in the first Moomin book, The Great Flood (1945), is not a conventional hero narrative. It is a bundle of experiences the Moomins encounter as they make their way through an uncertain environment. If the story functions more like the “bag” – of ideas, people, places and their relationships to each other – then the ideal object to sit at the heart of the story is a handbag.

    This is part of a series of articles celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Moomins. Want to celebrate their birthday with us? Join The Conversation and a group of experts on May 23 in Bradford for a screening of Moomins on the Riviera and a discussion of the refugee experience in Tove Jansson’s work. Click here for more information and tickets.

    Moominmamma is, as children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce argues in his introduction to the 2024 edition of The Great Flood, the “hero” of the story in that she is often the person who drives the action forward. She approaches what appear to be dangerous situations with curiosity rather than fear. She rescues a cat and her kittens. She knocks on a door when she and Moomintroll are hungry and need help.

    Heroes normally come with weapons, as Le Guin argues. But as a different kind of hero, Moominmamma comes with a handbag. She shows how it is possible to survive a long and arduous journey to find a home without a weapon, using her bag to carry and collect items to support them on their journey rather than relying on violence to negotiate with the world.

    Le Guin remarks that it’s hard, but not impossible, to rise to the challenge of telling a story where the bag is the heroic object. With Moominmamma and her handbag in The Great Flood, Jansson fully rises to that challenge. Her courage, empathy and creativity encourage readers to think differently about how we live in the world and relate to others around us.

    Tove Jansson holding a model of Moominmama and her handbag.
    Wiki Commons

    Moominmamma’s handbag is ubiquitous in Jansson’s illustrations. She carries it wherever she goes and panics when it goes missing.

    The Exploits of Moominpappa (1950) depicts the first time Moominmama met her husband. She is introduced as she is washed up on shore, and her first worry is that she can’t find her handbag: “Suddenly, she sat up and cried: ‘Save my handbag! Oh, save my handbag!’”

    In Finn Family Moomintroll (1948), the shy, elfish creatures Thingummy and Bob take the handbag and turn it into a home for themselves. The whole of Moominvalley is involved in the hunt to return the bag and a party is thrown once it is found. Moominmama is even shown to sleep with it under her pillow in A Comet in Moominvalley (1946).

    An ice sculpture showing Moominmama with her handbag.
    Wiki Commons, CC BY-SA

    Moominmamma wasn’t drawn wearing her staple apron in the first few books, but the handbag has always been with her. In one comic strip, Moominpappa and Moomintroll know something must be seriously wrong when Moominmamma discards her bag before jumping into water.

    In The Great Flood, it is even shown in the very first drawing as a small black square held by Moominmamma as she and Moomintroll enter the dark forest. They are on a terrible journey in a search for a home, and what could be more useful than a bag carrying all the essentials they need, and able to store new items picked up along the way?

    The handbag’s many uses

    The handbag’s first value is carrying items Moominmamma or anybody else may need on their perilous travels. It is almost immediately put to use in The Great Flood, when Moomintroll falls in water and, once rescued, has wet feet. Moominmamma gives him a pair of dry socks that symbolise the comfort and reassurance Moomintroll needs (even though Moomins do not actually wear socks).

    When they discover a bottle with a message in it, she even has a corkscrew in the bag to open it. She also collects things in the environment that might be useful along the way, proving the value of a bag on a great journey is not only what you have when you start, but what you can gather.

    Moominmama moments from the 1990s cartoon adaptation of Jansson’s books.

    Moominmamma is always on the lookout for potentially useful things, including some chocolate she gathers off-page when the Moomins and a character described as the “little creature” are exploring. Much later, the Moomins are starving and can only find a few figs to eat. Moominmamma takes out the chocolate to keep Moomintroll and the little creature going when they desperately need it.

    Le Guin argued that novels can be thought of as bags of ideas, people and things bundled together and that literal bags can be just as useful in a crisis as a weapon. Moominmamma and her handbag are an ideal example of how this plays out. She is the alternative hero Le Guin imagined, and her bag is the bundle she uses as support, the most vital tool for a crisis or a long journey.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

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

    – ref. With Moominmama, Tove Jansson created a hero who wields a handbag instead of a sword – https://theconversation.com/with-moominmama-tove-jansson-created-a-hero-who-wields-a-handbag-instead-of-a-sword-255332

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: China is reshaping central Asia’s energy sector as Russian influence fades

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lorena Lombardozzi, Senior Lecturer in Political Economy of Global Development, SOAS, University of London

    China has been developing closer ties with countries in central Asia over recent years. Trade between China and the central Asia region grew to US$89 billion (£69 billion) in 2023, an increase of 27% on the previous year. Chinese trade rose with every country there except Turkmenistan.

    In my paper from June 2024, which is part of a collection of studies looking at the impact of China’s sprawling belt and road initiative in low- and middle-income countries, I explored how Chinese investment is affecting Uzbekistan’s energy sector.

    Chinese investment in Uzbekistan has grown significantly since 2020. By the end of 2022, it had reached US$4.5 billion, up from US$2.8 billion one year before. There are now over 3,450 Chinese companies in Uzbekistan, accounting for roughly 20% of all foreign companies in the country.

    One of the main reasons for China’s expanding footprint in central Asia is to intensify energy cooperation. By becoming a major buyer, lender and investor in the region’s energy sector, China is hoping to reduce its dependence on countries such as Russia.

    Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
    Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock

    Central Asia has been politically and economically dependent on Russia since the Soviet Union invaded the region in the 19th century. Much of its infrastructure was built to provide commodities like cotton and energy to Russia, with the latter selling it at high prices to Europe. This infrastructure has, until relatively recently, remained largely unchanged.

    However, some central Asian countries have been able to reduce their dependence on Russia over the past decade or so. China has become the main importer of Uzbek gas, with a peak share of more than 80%. And Uzbekistan exported almost US$2 billion worth of goods to China in 2022, matching its volume of trade with Russia.

    Investment in energy infrastructure is taking place in a reflection of these trade patterns. Central Asia boasts significant reserves of oil and gas. But most of the region’s pipelines were traditionally directed towards Russia and, to a lesser extent, south-west to Turkey.

    Pipelines have been built and maintained with China’s support that are directed towards the east. These pipelines have facilitated trade with China and have helped reduce operational waste in the energy sectors of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

    In 2025, China plans to resume the construction of a pipeline stretching from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, pending the finalisation of a gas supply contract with Turkmenistan. This will further strengthen China’s energy ties with the region.

    A few years ago, while I was carrying out fieldwork in Uzbekistan, I interviewed policy experts and those involved in the Uzbek energy industry. My interviewees saw deals with China as more reliable than Russia, which has in the past renegotiated the terms of long-term energy contracts with central Asian countries or has added unfair clauses in its favour.

    In 2018, for example, the Uzbek government needed additional gas to meet domestic demand. Russia’s Lukoil energy company agreed to sell the gas from a joint Lukoil-Uzbek production facility to Uzbekistan, but at a hefty price. The Uzbek government incurred debt to Lukoil worth US$600 million.

    A train transporting gas parked in Samarkand train station, Uzbekistan.
    Lewis Tse / Shutterstock

    Chinese involvement in the Uzbek energy sector is also having an indirect effect on Uzbekistan’s green economy. During the pandemic, Uzbekistan’s gas exports to China dropped significantly, exposing operators to the vulnerability of relying on a single energy source.

    Gas exports to China have recovered since 2021. But this shock prompted policymakers to explore ways of diversifying Uzbekistan’s energy production away from fossil fuels. Over the past few years, Uzbekistan has invested over US$4 billion in renewable energy production, with the technology and expertise often coming from China.

    With the support of Chinese companies, vast solar power plants have been planned and developed near the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, as well as other cities like Navoi. Wind turbines have been supplied by Chinese firms for projects in Ferghana, near the border with Kyrgyzstan.

    Chinese-led investment in the renewable energy sector has created further demand for skilled and semi-skilled labour, such as translators, logistics operators and engineers. My interviewees noted positive – albeit limited – effects on employment and wages in the sector.

    New challenges ahead

    There are, however, also drawbacks to Chinese involvement in central Asia’s energy sector. Uzbekistan’s gas trade with China is a possible source of political and economic vulnerability.

    The export price of Uzbek gas is more profitable for energy companies than the local subsidised price, so exports have taken priority over the domestic market. Uzbek consumers often have to contend with rationed gas supplies or no access to gas at all, especially during the winter when demand is at its highest.

    This has led to dissatisfaction among the Uzbek population, especially in rural areas where people have had to resort to burning alternative sources of fuel like coal, firewood and animal dung. These energy sources are harmful to health and the environment.

    Western sanctions on Russian oil and gas since 2022, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, have also created further competition for Uzbek gas. Russian gas suppliers have sought alternative markets in Asia to circumvent the sanctions. Trade flow data shows that India, Turkey and even China have increased the amount of Russian fossil fuels they buy.

    But, by and large, the state of play in the global energy market seems to be changing. Central Asia is in a strong position to benefit.

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

    – ref. China is reshaping central Asia’s energy sector as Russian influence fades – https://theconversation.com/china-is-reshaping-central-asias-energy-sector-as-russian-influence-fades-245232

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: DOGE’s AI surveillance risks silencing whistleblowers and weakening democracy

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Thomas Stuart, Lecturer in Communications, Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria

    The United States Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly using artificial intelligence to surveil federal agency communications for anti-Donald Trump and anti-Elon Musk sentiment.

    AI tools now automate firings and assess U.S. federal employees’ sentiment and alignment with the administration’s “mission.” Musk, who has been appointed a “special government employee” by the U.S. president and leads DOGE, has framed these moves as an attempt to cut waste and increase efficiency.

    At least one agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has reportedly warned staff to watch what they say, type or do online.

    The move has been largely overshadowed by tariff debates and constitutional concerns. But research on AI and governance suggests surveillance may erode the transparency that defines public institutions.

    Now, with Musk signalling he may scale back his involvement with DOGE, questions remain about how the system will operate in his absence — and whether anyone will be tasked with dismantling it.

    Disruption replaces due process

    Musk has presented DOGE as a lean, tech-driven solution to government bloat — a message he has repeated in interviews and on social media. Artificial intelligence, he argues, can cut red tape, trim costs and optimize operations.

    However, within federal agencies, AI has been used less to support public servants than to evaluate them — and in some cases, to eliminate them.

    Since DOGE assumed control over key functions within the Office of Personnel Management in January, hundreds of federal employees have been dismissed without formal explanation. DOGE also restricted access to cloud systems and sidelined career officials.

    DOGE was established by Trump through an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025 and tasked with cutting federal spending.
    (Shutterstock)

    Concerns over data security soon followed. In March, a federal judge barred DOGE from accessing Treasury systems, citing a “chaotic and haphazard” approach that posed a “realistic danger” of exposing sensitive financial information.

    Internally, DOGE operates through tools more familiar to startups than government agencies. Staff use disappearing messages via the Signal messenger app and draft documents in Google Docs rather than approved federal platforms.

    Grok, a generative AI chatbot launched by Musk in 2023, has been integrated across departments, though its tasks remain unclear.

    How Doge’s AI targets workers

    Earlier this year, thousands of federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to provide five bullet points listing what they accomplished that week. “Failure to respond,” Musk warned on X, “will be taken as a resignation.”

    The message triggered uncertainty across departments. Without clear legal guidance, many workers were left guessing whether silence would mean termination. The Department of Justice and several intelligence agencies warned staff not to respond.



    Read more:
    Musk’s ruthless approach to efficiency is not translating well to the U.S. government

    Others, like the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Transportation, instructed staff to comply with DOGE’s requests. HHS later warned responses could “be read by malign foreign actors.” The EPA distributed template responses to help staff navigate the demand.

    The following week, the Office of Personnel Management clarified participation was voluntary. By then, responses had already been processed.

    DOGE reportedly planned to feed the responses into a large language model to determine whether an employee was mission-critical. Musk later denied this, describing the exercise as a test “to see if the employee had a pulse.”

    DOGE’S algorithms judge allegiance

    According to reports, DOGE’s AI tools have now been deployed across agencies to monitor political sentiment of workers. There is no indication that these systems otherwise assess employee competence or efficacy.

    Trump administration officials reportedly said some government employees have been informed that DOGE is examining staff for signs of perceived disloyalty to both the Trump administration and Musk himself.

    When AI is used in this way — without transparency or clear performance frameworks — it optimizes for compliance rather than capability.

    AI designed to detect dissent offers little support for the work of public service. Rather than recognizing expertise or ethical judgment, these tools reduce complex decision-making to surface-level signs of loyalty.

    Effective collaboration between humans and AI depends on clear boundaries. AI might complement the public service by identifying patterns in data, for example. Humans though must retain authority over context and judgment. When AI polices allegiance, those boundaries collapse, sidelining human skill and integrity.

    AI surveillance rewrites workplace behaviour

    The inherent limitations of large language models amplify these risks. These models cannot reliably read nuance, navigate ethical grey areas or understand intent. Assigning surveillance or employee evaluations to these systems invites errors.

    Worse, such blunt tools force civil servants into self-censorship to avoid misinterpretation. Public service shifts from informed expertise to performative alignment.

    For employees, the consequences extend beyond flawed assessments. AI surveillance deployed through tools like Grok and Signal creates uncertainty about how performance is measured and by whom.

    As surveillance systems degrade psychological safety, employees disengage and become discouraged. Far from enhancing productivity, covert monitoring erodes trust in both management and mission.

    This atmosphere weakens accountability. Whistle-blowing often reflects loyalty to institutional values rather than defiance. By reframing personal beliefs and integrity as disloyalty, DOGE will silence mechanisms that safeguard transparency.

    AI surveillance becomes institutional

    Musk recently announced his involvement at DOGE “will drop significantly”, likely beginning in May. The move is attributed in part to pressure from Republicans urging Trump to distance himself from Musk, as well as pressure from Tesla investors.

    Despite his expected departure, around 100 DOGE employees — and the AI frameworks they manage — will remain embedded across federal departments. Musk’s departure may shift headlines, but it will leave structural risks embedded within federal operations.

    Once governments adopt new surveillance tools, they rarely dismantle them, regardless of whether their architect stays to oversee them. With no clear formal oversight beyond presidential discretion, the surveillance system is likely to outlast Musk’s tenure.

    Employees monitored for political conformity are less likely to raise concerns, report misconduct or challenge flawed directives.

    As human resource protocols are bypassed and oversight is diminished, the balance could shift from policy grounded in principle to regulations grounded in algorithms. Governance risks giving way to control, which could weaken the political neutrality of the civil service.

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

    – ref. DOGE’s AI surveillance risks silencing whistleblowers and weakening democracy – https://theconversation.com/doges-ai-surveillance-risks-silencing-whistleblowers-and-weakening-democracy-254358

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Security: MS-13 leaders sentenced for January 2022 double murder that resulted in nationwide lockdown of federal prison system

    Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

    BEAUMONT, Texas – The last of seven defendants, all members of the violent transnational criminal organization La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as the MS-13, were sentenced in Beaumont for a double murder in 2022, announced Eastern District of Texas Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr.

    Juan Carlos Rivas-Moreiera, also known as “Juan Carlos Moriera” and “Stocky,” 45, a national of El Salvador and a high-ranking member and leader of MS-13, was sentenced to an additional term of life in federal prison on April 25, 2025, for his role in orchestrating and leading the violent plot to murder rival gang members.

    On April 29, Hector Ramires, also known as “Cuervo,” 31, a national of Honduras, was sentenced to 360 months in federal prison for his role in the attack.

    In April 2022, seven defendants, including Rivas-Moreiera and Ramires, were indicted with charges relating to the planning and execution of a violent attack orchestrated by members of MS-13 against Mexican Mafia and Sureños associates that resulted in two deaths, two attempted murders, and a nationwide lockdown of all inmates in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) for almost a week.

    “This case illustrates the danger posed, both in and out of prison, by MS-13, a foreign terrorist organization,” said Abe McGlothin, Jr., Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.  “MS-13 leaders in El Salvador ordered and plotted these heinous murders from thousands of miles away. MS-13 ‘soldiers’ incarcerated in a Texas prison executed that plan, murdering two rival gang members and stabbing two others.  These sentences should serve as a warning for any foreign terrorist organizations that the Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s office, along with our law enforcement partners, will use all available resources to disrupt and dismantle their terrorist network. Thanks to the outstanding work of the FBI and BOP investigators, the deservedly stiff sentences handed out in this case will likely ensure that these MS-13 defendants never see life beyond the walls of a federal prison.”                 

    “The vicious brutality of MS-13 has no place in our prisons or our society,” said FBOP Director William K. Marshall III. “This heinous attack, which claimed two lives and endangered countless others, demanded a swift and decisive response. The life sentences handed down send an unmistakable message: we will relentlessly pursue and dismantle those who sow chaos and violence within our facilities. The Bureau of Prisons stands united with our law enforcement partners to ensure justice prevails and our communities are protected from these ruthless predators.”

    “In a brutal, calculated act designed to terrorize rival gangs, MS-13 members butchered two men with over 45 stab wounds and left others clinging to life in a Beaumont prison,” said FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams. “This was no ordinary attack— it was one of the most violent prison executions in Texas history that triggered a nationwide lockdown of federal inmates and exposed the arrogance of MS-13 leaders, who believed they were beyond reach. Today’s sentencing shatters that delusion and sends a clear message: the FBI and our law enforcement partners will stop at nothing to guarantee these violent terrorists face the full consequences of their crimes.”

    MS-13 is a transnational criminal organization composed primarily of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador, but also includes members from other countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. Although the gang originated in Los Angeles, California, it quickly spread and is now a national and international criminal organization with an estimated 10,000+ members regularly conducting gang activities in nearly all of the United States, including Texas, California, New York, and in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. On Feb. 20, the U.S. Department of State designated MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).

    The Mexican Mafia controls large portions of the Hispanic prison population in California and Texas and the federal prison system. MS-13 has had a symbiotic relationship with both the Mexican Mafia and the Sureños, which is a close association of Hispanic gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia while incarcerated in federal and state prisons in the United States. That symbiotic relationship recently began to fall apart as MS-13’s leadership in El Salvador, the Ranfla Nacional, sought to exert more control and independence of its own members while incarcerated in prisons within the United States, including using MS-13 command and control structure to enforce their orders, including orders to commit murders, even while in prison.

    According to information presented in court, on January 31, 2022, at the U.S. Penitentiary (USP) in Beaumont, seven MS-13 members converged in a housing unit and attacked multiple Sureños members and one Mexican Mafia associate. Defendant Rivas-Moreiera began the prison attack when he came up behind Guillermo Riojas and stabbed Riojas twice in the chest.  Riojas fell immediately, and other MS-13 defendants stabbed and kicked Riojas while he lay motionless on the prison floor.  The MS-13 defendants then chased, cornered, beat, and repeatedly stabbed Andrew Pineda, and other Sureños members.  The prison attack lasted approximately eight minutes.

    Riojas, 54, died as a result of the attack after suffering three stab wounds to the chest, piercing his heart twice and his lung once.  He also suffered injuries to his head and stomach during the attack.  Pineda, 34, who also died as a result of the attack, was stabbed 20 times on the front of his body and 26 times to the back of his body, for a total of 46 distinct stab wounds.  Two other Sureños members received serious injuries during the attack and were transported to an area hospital with numerous stab and puncture wounds.   

    In addition to Rivas-Moreiera and Ramires, the following defendants have been sentenced for their role in the attack:

    Larry Navarete, 44, a national of Nicaragua, was sentenced to an additional 360 months in federal prison;

    Jorge Parada, 45, a national of El Salvador, was sentenced to an additional 360 months in federal prison;

    Raul Landaverde-Giron, 35, a national of El Salvador, was sentenced to an additional 360 months in federal prison;

    Sergio Sibrian, 32, a national of El Salvador, was sentenced to an additional 420 months in federal prison; and

    Dimas Alfaro-Granados, 42, a national of El Salvador, was sentenced to an additional 360 months in federal prison.

    This prosecution is the result of coordination between the Eastern District of Texas and Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV).  JTFV was created in 2019 to eradicate MS-13 and now expanded to target Tren de Aragua (TdA) and is comprised of U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country. Those include Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; Northern District of Ohio; Districts of New Jersey, Utah, Massachusetts, Nevada and Alaska; Southern District of Florida; Eastern District of Virginia; Southern District of California; and the District of Columbia, as well as the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Criminal Division.  Additionally, the FBI; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; and the FBOP National Gang Unit have been essential law enforcement partners with JTFV.

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

    This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph R. Batte from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, and now-co-directors of JTFV, Christopher A. Eason and Jacob Warren.  The case was investigated by the FBI and the FBOP.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Merkley, Wyden, Colleagues Slam Illegal DOGE Cuts to AmeriCorps

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
    April 30, 2025
    Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined their Congressional colleagues in an effort led by Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) to defend AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) members. The lawmakers are calling on President Trump to immediately reverse cuts to the critical national service agency made by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
    Central Oregon-based nonprofit Heart of Oregon Corps (HOC), which supports 225 youth annually in workforce development, is experiencing the effects of DOGE’s AmeriCorps cuts. Operating in four Oregon counties and working with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, HOC relies heavily on AmeriCorps national and state grants to drive crucial projects in conservation, wildfire fuels reduction, affordable housing, and childcare. Without federal investment through AmeriCorps in the short term, HOC would need to eliminate up to 60 current or planned AmeriCorps service terms for local youth in our corps in their High Desert Conservation Corps and YouthBuild programs. Further, if pending new grant applications for this upcoming fall are not processed, up to 100 more service terms for local Central Oregon youth and young adults would be affected, from Warm Springs and Madras to Bend, from Sisters to Prineville.
    The lawmakers’ urgent demand comes as the Trump Administration recently placed a majority of AmeriCorps employees on leave, and dismantled AmeriCorps NCCC. The move jeopardizes work being done to address urgent community challenges, including workforce shortages and natural disaster recovery and response, while robbing young people of life-changing opportunities.
    “We are deeply concerned these actions will prevent the agency from continuing to deliver critical services, which include supporting veterans, fighting wildfires, tutoring in schools, combatting the fentanyl epidemic, and much more,”the lawmakers wrote.
    AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps Seniors deploy more than 200,000 Americans annually to carry out results-driven projects at over 35,000 locations across the country. In Oregon, more than 1,800 folks of all ages and backgrounds served at over 300 sites statewide through AmeriCorps programs in 2024 alone. This service was backed by $11.4 million in federal investments and another $4.4 million in support from businesses, foundations, public agencies, and other sources.
    The?lawmakers are hearing these concerns across the nation. Their letter to President Trump highlighted the program’s benefits to society, to AmeriCorps members, and to the economy, as it’s estimated $17 in benefits are returned for every taxpayer dollar spent.
    Additionally, Congress recently passed and the President signed into law a funding bill that maintains AmeriCorps funding through the end of Fiscal Year 2025. The Senators emphasized that the Trump Administration is expected to implement the law in a manner consistent with the funding levels enacted in Fiscal Year 2024. Failing to do so would be a violation of the law.
    “If not reversed, these recent actions will both stop current programs and prevent timely and efficient execution of the agency’s fiscal year 2025 appropriations, delaying or even halting the recruitment and deployment of new AmeriCorps members around the country,” the lawmakers added.
    The lawmakers are making the push for the Trump Administration to reverse course and restore AmeriCorps programs for all the communities in Oregon and across the country that have long depended on AmeriCorps to meet critical needs, deliver essential services, and drive lasting change. If the Trump Administration’s actions aren’t reversed, youth development would suffer and the foundation of Oregon’s rural and urban communities alike that is needed when disasters like wildfires strike would be eroded.
    “We are deeply concerned that this is the goal: to eliminate AmeriCorps, in direct conflict with recently enacted appropriations. However, even delays will disrupt programs Americans rely on for their health, education, and safety. We urge you to reverse these actions and instead work with Congress on bipartisan improvements to AmeriCorps so that more Americans have the opportunity to serve their communities,” the lawmakers concluded.
    In addition to Merkley, Wyden, and Coons, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Angus King (I-Maine), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).?Additionally, 105 U.S. House Representatives signed on. 
    You can read the full text of the letter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: ICYMI: President Trump’s Largest Tax Cut in History

    Source: The White House

    Last night, President Donald J. Trump renewed his call for Congress to pass the “one big, beautiful bill” and once again deliver the largest tax cuts in history to the American people.

    In addition to finally exempting tips, overtime, and seniors’ Social Security from taxes, here’s what else that means:

    • Real wages will go up by as much as $3,300/year.
    • Take-home pay for median-income households will increase by as much as $5,000/year.
    • Short-run real GDP will be boosted by 3.3-3.8% and long-run real GDP by 2.6-3.2%.
    • 4.1 million jobs will be saved.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General James Urges Appellate Court to Reinstate Funding for Fair Housing Organizations

    Source: US State of New York

    EW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today co-led a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reinstate congressionally-appropriated funding for fair housing organizations in New York and across the country. In February, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cancelled 78 grants for fair housing organizations that provide vital work in 33 states, including New York. These funds help housing groups investigate discriminatory housing practices, educate the public of their rights and obligations under federal and state fair-housing laws, and enforce those laws in actions brought before government agencies and in court. Attorney General James and the coalition are urging the court to reinstate a lower court’s temporary restraining order to keep the funding intact.

    “The Trump administration’s funding cuts to fair housing groups will only worsen the nationwide housing crisis,” said Attorney General James. “Fair housing groups are critical in helping states stop housing providers and lenders from discriminating against vulnerable people, and we need them now more than ever to ensure that everyone has fair access to dignified housing. I am urging the First Circuit to restore congressionally approved funding for fair housing groups so we can continue to protect access to housing for those who need it most.”

    Congress established the Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP) in 1988 to provide funding to private, nonprofit housing organizations that work to investigate and eliminate discriminatory housing practices and enforce state and federal fair housing laws. In February 2025, HUD suddenly cancelled 78 preexisting FHIP grants to housing organizations doing fair housing work in 33 states. The cancellations were effective immediately and with no prior warning, despite HUD being statutorily required to provide such funding.  

    A group of 66 nonprofit fair housing groups subsequently sued HUD in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and are now calling on an appellate court to reinstate a temporary restraining order barring HUD’s action from taking effect. In their brief, the attorneys general argue that HUD’s sudden revocation of funding could result in more discrimination against families and vulnerable community members in need of housing, and will disrupt state programs that depend on collaboration with fair housing groups to root out discriminatory housing practices.

    The attorneys general assert that fair housing groups help states stop discriminatory housing practices in several ways. For example, as the brief highlights, FHIP organizations in New York routinely bring enforcement actions on behalf of disabled individuals seeking to redress discrimination in the design and construction of apartment buildings, or uncover new or previously undetected forms of discrimination, such as biases in the algorithmic models used in housing advertisements. In other states, FHIP organizations have brought enforcement actions against banks and mortgage companies after a multiyear investigation showed that foreclosed properties in Black and Latino communities were not maintained or marketed to the same standards as those in other, predominantly white communities. Housing organizations that receive FHIP funds also provide critical consultation and advocacy services for New Yorkers facing housing crises, by helping individuals access state resources, mediate disputes with landlords, and file claims with state agencies, like the New York Division of Human Rights, that investigate and adjudicate claims of housing discrimination. The attorneys general argue in their brief that without the funding from HUD, dozens of fair housing groups across the country will not be able to help tenants, report housing injustices, and stop discriminatory housing against low-income, marginalized, or disabled individuals.

    Joining Attorney General James in submitting this brief are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Body in Thames confirmed to be Kaliyah Coa

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    The Metropolitan Police can confirm the body recovered in Maritime Quay on Sunday, 13 April is sadly that of 11-year-old Kaliyah Coa.

    Officers responded to reports of a girl entering the River Thames at 13:23hrs on Monday, 31 March. Kaliyah had been playing near Barge House Causeway during a school inset day.

    First responders arrived on the scene swiftly to support His Majesty’s Coastguard, Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade in a large scale search and rescue effort.

    In a statement Kaliyah’s family said:

    “Our hearts are broken and our lives will never be the same. We were blessed to have Kaliyah, even if it was for such a short time. She will be missed so much. Kaliyah went to a birthday party and never returned home to her family.

    “The family would like to thank all those who were involved in the search and recovery of Kaliyah.

    “We sincerely hope that everyone will respect our wishes to be given the space and time to grieve as a family.”

    Detective Superintendent Scott Ware, who led the Met’s investigation, added:

    “This tragic accident took away a little girl who was loved by many. Our specialist officers will continue to support Kaliyah’s family as they process this heart-breaking news.

    “I echo her family’s request for privacy while they navigate the difficult road ahead, and urge the public to refrain from wholly inaccurate speculation both on and offline.

    “I would like to extend my thanks to our search and recovery teams, supported by blue light partners. I know the local community has been deeply impacted by this incident and also thank them for their support.”

    The Met was alerted to a body in the River Thames in Maritime Quay, E14 on Sunday, 13 April at 09:03hrs. The formal identification was conducted on Tuesday, 29 April.

    An inquest into Kaliyah’s death is due to open on Friday, 2 May.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Fargo, ND Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Fargo – Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl announced today that Kadar Udai Pearson, age 21, from Fargo, North Dakota, appeared in federal court and was sentenced before Chief United States District Judge Peter D. Welte to 51 months in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, and 3 years of supervised release. Pearson pleaded guilty on November 20, 2024.

    As noted in court documents, in the afternoon of June 5, 2024, Fargo Police Department officers were in the area of the Arbors apartment complex after an earlier shots-fired report. They observed a person, later identified as Pearson, wearing a sweatshirt and pulling up a ski mask over his face, though the temperature was in the mid-70s. The sweatshirt pocket appeared to have something heavier than a cell phone in it. Officers further observed Pearson enter into a backyard in the neighborhood, where a resident of the home said Pearson did not have permission to be.

    Officers directed Pearson to halt, but he fled on foot. As officers gave chase, one officer observed Pearson throw what appeared to be a firearm beneath a vehicle in a nearby parking lot. Surveillance cameras captured the toss. On the ground beneath the vehicle, officers found a SIG Sauer 9mm pistol, loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, which was previously reported stolen in Fargo.

    At the time of the offense, Pearson was an inmate on escape status with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, under a state sentence imposed in October 2023, for his felony convictions of Possession with Intent to Deliver Fentanyl and Theft of a Firearm.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN is based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

    This case was investigated by the Fargo Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jacob T. Rodenbiker and Trial Attorney Alyssa Levey-Weinstein in the Violent Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Landsbankinn hf.: Financial results of Landsbankinn for the first three months of 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Landsbankinn’s after-tax profit during the first three months of 2025 was ISK 7.9 billion, compared with ISK 7.2 billion for the same period of 2024.
    • Return on equity (ROE) in the period was 10.0%, compared with 9.3% for the same period the previous year.
    • Net interest margin as a ratio of average total asset position was 2.7%, compared with 2.9% for the same period of 2024. The net interest margin of domestic households was 2.1%, unchanged from 2024.
    • Net interest income amounted to ISK 14.8 billion and net fee and commission income was ISK 3.0 billion. Both items are up between years.
    • The cost-income ratio was 38.7%, compared with 33.6% for the same period of 2024.
    • The total capital ratio was 23.6% at the end of the period. The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) of the Central  Bank of Iceland sets the total capital requirement at 20.4%.
    • In February, the Bank finalised the sale of Additional Tier 1 securities (AT1) in the amount of USD 100 million. This was the Bank’s inaugural AT1 issuance. The Bank also issued senior non-preferred bonds in the amount of NOK 500 million and SEK 1,300 million. There was considerable over-demand for the bonds.
    • The Bank’s AGM on 19 March 2025 approved payment of a dividend of ISK 18.9 billion to shareholders. Total dividend paid by the Bank since 2013 will amount to ISK 210.6 billion at the end of the year.
    • Settlement of the purchase by Landsbankinn of TM tryggingar hf. and delivery took place 28 February 2025 and the Bank has assumed operation of the company.

    Lilja Björk Einarsdóttir, CEO of Landsbankinn:
    “The Bank’s performance in the first three months of the year was solid. Profit amounted to ISK 7.9 billion and return on equity was 10.0%, compared with 9.3% in the same period last year.

    This is the first financial statement since the Bank took over operation of TM and the collaboration is off to a good start. In the first few weeks since the acquisition, significant progress has been made, including the merger of three of the Bank’s and TM’s branches, and the completion of a complex IT systems transfer. We are experiencing goodwill and interest from customers regarding these changes and will be introducing various innovations in insurance services in the near future. The joint operation of an insurance company and a bank is a good fit and offers opportunities for better and more diverse financial services. TM is included in the Bank’s financial reporting from the beginning of March, so this financial statement reflects one month of its operations. The insurance segment performed well in March, but a decline in investment assets due to volatility in capital markets led to an overall negative result.

    In Akureyri, Landsbankinn and TM have come together in new and impressive facilities at Hofsbót, in the town centre. Landsbankinn offers interconnected services across the country. In addition to an excellent app and online banking platform, customers can receive service from branch staff at 34 locations nationwide, through the Bank’s strong service centre and a chatbot capable of resolving various queries on landsbankinn.is. We see strong customer satisfaction with the Bank’s services, which we attribute directly to powerful and integrated service, fair terms and outstanding employees.

    On Monday, it was announced that international rating agency S&P had upgraded the Bank’s credit rating to the A category, from BBB+ to A-. We are thrilled with this change, as we have taken strategic steps to improve the Bank’s credit rating by improving its capital structure. In recent years, requirements for systemically important banks regarding capital structure have increased and S&P’s rating is a significant recognition of our efforts. The higher credit rating reflects the Bank’s solid access to markets, sound operation and strong capital position.

    Market volatility and global uncertainty impacted the quarter in various ways. Lending growth has slowed, both among individuals and corporates, some of which are holding off on investments and other decisions. Under such circumstances, it is reassuring to note that the overall financial position of both corporates and individuals remains strong. Uncertainty often brings opportunities as well and, during the quarter, Landsbréf completed the financing of a new ISK 15 billion private equity fund, Horn V, following the strong performance of the previous four Horn funds.

    Landsbankinn continues to offer highly competitive interest rates on both deposits and loans. The Bank’s solid operation allows us to maintain a 2.1% interest margin for households while still delivering satisfactory profitability and consistent dividends to shareholders. The Bank has the most satisfied customers among the domestic commercial banks. The Bank’s performance is sound and our team is dedicated to providing customers with excellent service. Despite a challenging external environment, the Bank is in a strong position to support Icelandic society.”

    Landsbankinn’s financial calendar

    • Q2 2025 17 July 2025
    • Q3 2025 23 October 2025
    • Annual results 2025 29 January 2026

     

    For further information contact:

    Public Relations, pr@landsbankinn.is

    Investor Relations, ir@landsbankinn.is

    Attachments

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy Slams Trump’s First 100 Days: This Is A Story Of Incompetence, Theft, And Mind-Blowing Corruption

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
    [embedded content]
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to deliver a scathing indictment of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Murphy detailed the litany of corrupt acts that have defined this Administration, including the sale of White House access for the Trump family’s personal profit, manipulation of federal agencies for financial gain, and the systematic dismantling of anti-corruption safeguards.
    “This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days. I just detailed 40 instances of mind-blowing corruption in just 40 days, capped off by an attempt to just sell access to the White House to people who put money in the pocket of Donald Trump’s personal businesses. Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open. But this is not how government works. This has been the story of his first 100 days, but it’s our choice as a nation to allow it to be the story of the rest of his term. We need to expose what he is doing. We need to rally everybody, from the left to the right. Nobody in this country, whether you’re a hardened conservative or a hardened progressive, should root for the president of the United States to be enriching himself off of this position. We need to rally this nation against this corruption and bring it to an end, because if Donald Trump gets what he wants, and we just start allowing our government’s leaders to openly steal from us during the first 100 days or for the rest of his term, then I am telling you, American democracy is not going to survive.”
    Last month, he highlighted Trump’s first six weeks of corruption.
    A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
    MURPHY: “Thank you, Mr. President. My colleagues, you’re going to hear a lot of stories about the first 100 days of President Trump’s second presidency, and indeed there are a lot of stories. There is a story of incompetence. We’re dealing with multiple measles outbreaks all across the country. There is the story about abdicating our responsibility to lead around the world – Vladimir Putin is laughing at us as Trump goes about the business of handing Ukraine to a brutal Kremlin dictator. There is the story of a transferring wealth from the poor and the middle class through massive cuts to Medicaid, to the very, very wealthy, who are asking for another massive tax cut. 
    “But I would argue, Mr. President, that the most important story to tell is a story of corruption. A story of mind-blowing, massive, scalable corruption. That story is important because we are watching the theft of taxpayer money by the decision of the Republican Party to look the other way as Donald Trump essentially monetizes at scale the White House and the powers given to him by the Constitution and the American people in order to enrich himself and his friends. And if we don’t tell this story, and if we don’t mount a national bipartisan, apolitical resistance to this thievery, to this corruption, and it becomes normalized as just a part of doing business in America, a normal facet of residents in the White House, then shame on us, because our democracy will not survive this level of corruption, grift, and graft. 
    “So I am going to try to tell the story really quickly. I’ve got two charts and it’s hard to read – these words are really small – because over the course of 100 days, there are 40, 50, 60 individual acts of precedent-breaking corruption. And that’s intentional because what President Trump is trying to do is engage in so much public corruption that you just become normalized to it, that you stop paying attention to the corruption because can it be corruption if it is just playing out in public? He’s trying to make you think that this kind of stuff happens all the time behind the scenes and now all that’s different is you are seeing it publicly. 
    “But that is not true. This is not actually how government works. And I refuse to accept that just because the corruption is happening in public, in front of the cameras for everybody to see, that we should accept it. 
    “Okay. I’m going to try to do this. I’m going to try to do this as quickly as possible. I’m just going to highlight for you maybe the 40 most egregious examples of corruption in the first 100 days, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. 
    “So, on January 6th – this is before Trump is even sworn in – Amazon, which has a ton of business before the incoming Trump White House, pays $40 million to the Trump family to license a documentary in a series about Melania Trump. Just a cash payment from a company that has huge interests before the incoming White House to the Trump family. 
    “On January 17th, a few days before Trump is sworn in – maybe the most corrupt act in the history of the White House – this is the creation of the Trump meme coin. This is just a backdoor way for anybody with business before the Trump administration to send him millions of dollars in total secret. Trump doesn’t disclose who buys the coin. He launders his income from the coin through an unregulated Chinese exchange. He promotes the coin on his social media feeds. In the first minute of trading, one buyer – and what we know is that this was likely a Chinese individual – purchases six million coins, sending the price through the roof and immediately making a ton of money for Trump, who makes money off of every transaction. Trump knows who this person is, no doubt, but American citizens do not. 
    “January 20th, he is now sworn in and he fulfills a campaign promise to the oil and gas industry. There’s a report from the campaign that says they came down to Mar-a-Lago, I think, and said ‘We’ll give you a billion dollars in campaign contributions.’ This is not me alleging this, this is an open report. The oil and gas industry says we’ll give you a billion dollars in campaign contributions if you do what we want when you are sworn in. And the day he’s sworn in, Trump issues an executive order gutting environmental rules so that the oil and gas industry can start making bigger amounts of money. 
    “On January 25th, Trump eliminates the Inspectors General, the ethics officials in government and whistleblower offices. It’s a late-night purge, so you know it’s fishy. On January 25th, 17 Inspectors General get fired, clearing the way for the president to engage in even more corruption because that’s what the Inspectors General do. They sit in these agencies and they look for corruption. Now the Inspectors General are gone. They’re just gone. 
    “But that’s not good enough because on that same day, Trump fires the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Why would you do that? Well, that office is an investigative and prosecutorial office that works to end government and political corruption and protects government employees who become whistleblowers. That office is gone now, along with all of the whistleblowers. 
    “Two days later, Trump illegally fires NLRB member Gwen Wilcox. This effectively shuts down, illegally, the NLRB for a period of time. Why is that important? Because the guys who were standing behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, they are being investigated at the moment by the NLRB for massive workplace violations. Now the NLRB is shut down, a big gift to the people who financed Donald Trump’s inauguration and stood behind him to give him political endorsement and cover on his inauguration day. 
    “On January 31st, a trend begins: enforcement actions are paused against Trump loyalists. This is Representative Andy Ogles from Tennessee. He was being investigated for illegal, or potentially illegal, loans made to his 2022 campaign. But right after Rep. Ogles introduces a bill to amend the constitution to allow Trump to serve for a third term, what happens? Trump makes the investigation go away. Because as you will see, Trump’s justice system will often look the other way if you cheat or steal but you are a friend of Donald Trump.
    “At the same time, another of Trump’s friends, his IRS nominee Billy Long, gets his donors – almost all of them have direct interest before the IRS – to pay off his six-figure campaign debt. It’s a fabulously corrupt thing to do, but it’s just all normal now. So when Trump is showing you the way, then the folks who work for him follow suit. 
    “Alright, we’ll jump to February now. February 4th. We’re into Week 2 of the Trump White House. Trump hauls the PGA and the Saudi government into the White House to broker an agreement between the two rival golf leagues so that Trump can make more money hosting golf tournaments. He’s in business with one of the entities, the Saudi-owned LIV league. In a normal world, the president of the United States wouldn’t be in business with any foreign government. But the president is, and not only is that okay, but it is also apparently okay for him to bring the golf league that he’s in business with into the White House and pressure the other golf league, the rival golf league, to cut a deal. And guess what happens? The PGA, which had long said they were not going to host events at Trump’s courses, after being hauled into the White House, looking the president of the United States in the eye – somebody they clearly have to do business with – they announce that they’re going to start allowing their tournaments to be held at Trump courses. Big benefit to Donald Trump’s personal bottom line. 
    “February 6th, two days later: Trump ends the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Do you know what this is? You should. It requires people who are being paid by foreign governments to register. It’s no longer going to be enforced, so now members of the Trump administration can get backdoor payments from foreign governments and nobody is going to enforce the law. This isn’t theoretical. There were people who got arrested for doing this exact same thing, getting paid by foreign governments while working for the Trump administration, in term one. He wants to make sure it’s not a problem in term two, so he pauses enforcement of the actual act. 
    “Four days later, Trump eliminates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is just a magnificent present to all of his billionaire enablers because this is the agency that stops big businesses, banks, and other financial firms from ripping off consumers and now it is just shut down. 
    “The same day, DOJ drops charges against Eric Adams in a mind-blowingly public and brazen quid pro quo. Adams says he will pledge loyalty to Trump and support Trump’s political priorities in New York City, Trump drops the corruption charges against Adams. Just like the Ogles case, the door is now wide open to engage in corruption or criminality as long as you support Donald Trump. The thing that makes this one so egregious is that Adams and the White House go on TV to announce the corrupt deal. They don’t hide it. They just say that Adams is now supporting Donald Trump and we’re now going to drop the charges against him, and everybody gets the message. There’s a lot of stuff I can get away with as a corrupt official as long as I am in bed politically with Donald Trump. 
    “Same day, February 10th, DOJ pauses enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This is the law that stops American companies from bribing foreign governments in order to get business. On February 10th, Trump suspends enforcement of an antibribery statute, paving the way for his friends in corporate America to start bribing foreign governments again. 
    “Two days later, the State Department forecasts that they are going to dramatically upscale the amount of money that they’re going to send to Tesla. This is the first time that Elon Musk shows up in this story. By February 12th, Elon Musk is pretty well embedded in the White House, and guess what? The State Department is now going to spend $400 million for armored Teslas – its largest expected contract in the upcoming year. 
    “February 12th, the same day, Musk infiltrates the Department of Labor and OSHA, giving him exclusive secret access to labor law violation data against him and his competitors. Unethical, corrupt, but this stuff is just happening every single day. A few days later, on February 15th and 16th, Musk now starts really testing the limits of what his boss will let him get away with. He fires a specific set of regulators at the FDA that are reviewing one of his medical products, Neuralink. The message is clear: you’ve got to do right by my applications or you risk getting the ax too. 
    “Three days later, on February 19th, Trump’s new U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, starts to use his government power to harass Trump critics. He launches something called Operation Whirlwind and is pretty unapologetic about the fact that this is going to be an enforcement operation against anybody who just seeks to get in the way of DOGE. He doesn’t say he’s going after people who are acting illegally. He says anybody who tries to stop or protest or harass DOGE’s work is now going to be the subject of Operation Whirlwind, and he starts trolling critics of DOGE online. The U.S. Attorney for D.C. is now trolling DOGE critics online, obviously threatening criminal enforcement. 
    “You see what’s happening here? We’re 30 days into the administration, and everybody in Trump’s world, including the supposedly independent U.S. Attorneys, are getting the message: that it is now part of your job, if you work for Trump, to use your government powers to either enrich yourself or Trump or to help Trump politically. 
    “February 21st, two days later, the SEC drops a major investigation into a company called Robinhood. Why does this matter? You guessed it: this firm donated $2 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. 30 days later, the SEC drops an investigation into that firm. 
    “Put a pin in that, because you’re going to hear stories like it over and over again. 
    “Throughout February, we watched the rich guys that are surrounding Trump come up with new ways to monetize their positions. Kash Patel is a perfect example. He’s the nominee to head the FBI – maybe the most important independent bureau in the federal government – and while he’s going through that process, he is selling merchandise online ranging from T-shirts to playing cards, with the proceeds supposedly going to whistleblowers’ education and defamation cases. 
    “February 26th, news breaks that the FAA is considering giving a $2.4 billion contract to Elon Musk’s Starlink. But it’s not like a regular contract that’s up for bid. It’s a contract that was already awarded to one of Musk’s competitors, Verizon, and word leaks that the White House is thinking of just ripping the contract away from Verizon – because Verizon is not a political supporter of Donald Trump in the way Elon Musk is – and just giving it to Elon Musk. Now, that doesn’t happen. As reported, the contract has not been canceled yet. But there are regular reports of the administration still relentlessly attacking Verizon in a clear attempt to try to undermine their contract. 
    “February 27th, the next day, Trump drops a lawsuit against Capital One. Why does this matter? Capital One donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. It’s now just kind of automatic. You donate a big amount of money to Trump’s inauguration, and you can ask him for something. 
    “We’re not done. That same day, the SEC drops a lawsuit against Coinbase. You got the story now. Coinbase donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. They are now told it’s okay to keep cheating consumers. 
    “We’re not done. On February 28th, a day later, the DOJ announced that it would drop a complaint against SpaceX, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for labor discrimination. Elon is like wait a second, all these other big donors to your inauguration are getting out of jail free, I want my get out of jail free card as well. He gets it from DOJ. 
    “We’re now into March. March 1st, a report breaks – this is maybe second to [the meme coin], the most stunning act of corruption. On March 1st, word breaks that Trump is selling meetings at Mar-a-Lago. On at least one occasion, Trump charged guests $1 million to dine with him at Mar-a-Lago. According to the same report, business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president of the United States for a $5 million payment to Donald Trump. 
    “If you were mayor of a medium-sized town and it was reported that you were selling meetings for like $200, you would be arrested. You would be run out of town. But not Donald Trump. He’s selling meetings for $5 million, according to this report. And because the corruption in this White House is daily and normal, he gets away with it. 
    “March 2nd, Trump launches a crypto reserve fund. This is going to involve government taxpayer dollars purchasing and holding a variety of digital assets in a strategic reserve fund –a move that definitely inflates and protects Trump’s investment portfolio, [which], by now, you understand, [is] very heavily dependent on crypto assets. This normally wouldn’t be a problem because normally when somebody takes a high position like president or governor or mayor, they divest from their own personal assets, or they put it all in a blind fund. Trump does none of that. He’s controlling his own assets, his family is controlling their own assets, while he makes policy that benefits himself and his family financially. 
    “On March 3rd, a really curious thing: DOJ intervenes in an obscure but open-and-shut 2020 Colorado elections case. This is the case of Tina Peters, who tampered with voting machines on Trump’s behalf in Mesa County, Colorado. She was convicted by a jury of her peers, open and shut. But because Peters is a MAGA loyalist, now DOJ, on March 3rd, said it’s going to step in and review the case because there are concerns about how it was prosecuted. This is just President Trump again clearly shielding those that violated the law to help him from consequences. 
    “Same thing, different day. No, not even a different day. This is actually still March 3rd. Yuga Labs, a blockchain company, donated $100,000 to the Trump inauguration fund. They now get in line. They get what everybody else is getting. The SEC closes an ongoing investigation into the company. 
    “On March 4th, DOGE lays off thousands of IRS employees. This is bad for a lot of reasons, but it certainly helps Trump’s Mar-a-Lago friends because the IRS now cannot enforce the law against the big, giant tax cheats in the way that it could have when it had those personnel on the books. Mar-a-Lago is celebrating. 
    “March 4th – same day – word breaks that the Commerce Department is considering changes to this very specific rural broadband program and who’s eligible. Why? Because Elon Musk wants to dominate that program. Under the program’s original rules, Starlink was capped at $4.1 billion. This curious change now will allow Elon Musk’s company, Starlink, to receive between $10 billion and $20 billion from the rural broadband program. 
    “This is like a broken record, but six days later, the CFPB – which is basically shut down but exists in name only – drops a lawsuit against the Bank of America and J.P. Morgan. Bank of America donated $500,000 to the inauguration. J.P. Morgan donated $1 million to the inauguration.
    “On March 11th, a day later, Trump and Musk hold this now very well-known advertisement for Tesla on the White House lawn. This is just taxpayer dollars used to support the personnel at the White House and the White House being used to sell cars for Elon Musk, and the message again is pretty simple here: if you are loyal to me, and you pay any kind of price for your loyalty to me, I will use government resources to help you, to get you out of trouble, even including free advertising. 
    “On March 19th – we’re eight days later – the GEO Group donated $500,000 for Trump’s inauguration fund. This is a private prison company, and the NLRB drops its investigation into this company. It’s really getting disgusting at this point. I don’t know that there’s anybody left that made a major donation to the inauguration fund that has not gotten their favor from Donald Trump. 
    “On March 24th, the Treasury Department guts something called the Corporate Transparency Act. This is the regulation that requires businesses to reveal their true owners to the government. These new rules now make it easier for billionaires to hide money, to avoid taxes, to engage in corruption – less accountability for corporations. 
    “March 25th, a day later, the SEC reduces, from $125 million to $50 million, an existing fine. So, this has already been litigated: this company, Ripple, it’s a blockchain-based digital payment company. It’s been fined, and Trump comes in and reduces the fine from $125 million to $50 million. You know the story by now. These guys made a big investment in the inauguration. Most of these companies that got a get-out-of-jail-free or had their investigations terminated were giving $500,000, $1 million. Ripple wanted to make sure they got it right. They made a $5 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund, and they got their fine reduced by $75 million. 
    “March 28th, Trump pardons the founder of Nikola Autos, one of his campaign mega donors. Again, this is a pardon for one of his major campaign contributors. When asked about the pardon, Trump said ‘They say the thing they did was wrong, but he was one of the first people who supported me for president.’ He just tells you what he did. He said, ‘yeah, they said what he did was wrong, he did something that was probably pretty wrong, but he supported me for president, so I’m giving him a pardon.’ I’m not saying that there hasn’t been a lot of really bad stuff that’s happened in the pardon program under Democratic and Republican presidents, but let’s just name it when Donald Trump names it. 
    “April 8th, we’re into April. Trump issues an executive order to expand coal mining. This is part of his down payment on the promise he made to those oil executives. The shares of the company owned by Joseph Kraft, the billionaire coal magnate who helped lead those Trump fundraising efforts during the presidential campaign, immediately shoots up.
    “On April 9th, this really curious timeline of events plays out, in which Trump posts on his social media, ‘This is a great time to buy.’ A lot of his followers complied; they make investments in the market. There’s reports and speculation that many of his inner circle might have done the same thing, and then a couple hours later, he announces that he’s pausing most of his tariffs, and the market shoots up. People who followed his directions online make a lot of money, and potentially other people who had access to that insider information might have made a lot of money as well. 
    “On April 17th, Musk steers billions of taxpayer dollars to something called the Golden Dome. Reuters, on April 17th, reports that Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, SpaceX, has emerged as the frontrunner to develop Trump’s proposed Golden Dome. This is a really ill-defined, technologically unproven defense system. It supposedly has a price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars, money that now looks as if it will be funneled directly to Elon Musk. At this point it is just head-shaking.
    “On April 23rd, now it’s like he can do anything he wants. He has just blown the lid off of any expectations about what a president can and cannot do to enrich himself. On April 23rd, a message appears on the homepage of the website for Trump’s meme coin declaring that the top 220 meme coin holders would be invited for an exclusive dinner with Trump and the top 25 coin holders – these are private investors in Donald Trump’s financial empire–would get a special VIP tour of the White House. After the message went up, the price of Trump’s coin jumped by more than 50%. In the two days following the announcement of the special VIP tour in the people’s house, the White House, Trump and his allies made nearly a million dollars in trading fees alone. They are just selling access to the White House out in the open.
    “April 26th, Trump’s family, this is just last weekend, announces the launch of a private club called the Executive Branch, a new private club in Washington. The initiation fee is around half a million dollars. It is advertised as a place where you can hold secret audiences with the Trump administration, as long as you pay Donald Trump’s family and their financial backers over $500,000 in membership fees. It is apparently already sold out.
    “This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days. I just detailed 40 instances of mind-blowing corruption in just 40 days, capped off by an attempt to just sell access to the White House to people who put money in the pocket of Donald Trump’s personal businesses. 
    “Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open. But this is not how government works. This has been the story of his first 100 days, but it’s our choice as a nation to allow it to be the story of the rest of his term. We need to expose what he is doing. We need to rally everybody, from the left to the right. Nobody in this country, whether you’re a hardened conservative or a hardened progressive, should root for the president of the United States to be enriching himself off of this position. We need to rally this nation against this corruption and bring it to an end, because if Donald Trump gets what he wants, and we just start allowing our government’s leaders to openly steal from us during the first 100 days or for the rest of his term, then I am telling you, American democracy is not going to survive.
    “I yield the floor.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Informal workers in Ghana’s chop bars get no benefit from foreign aid: donors are getting it wrong

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Matteo Rizzo, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, SOAS, University of London

    Informal street food caterers, popularly known as chop bars, are a key feature of Ghanaian city life. They offer the urban poor the cheapest food.

    A 2016 survey by the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated there were about 3,300 chop bars in the capital, Accra, employing almost 4,300 workers. This figure is likely to be much higher now due to rapid urban growth in the last decade. Ghana’s urban population increased from 50.9% in 2010 to 56.7% in 2021. By the same year the Greater Accra region was home to 91.7% of the urban population in the country.

    Street food caterers in Accra face a number of problems, including insecurity of land tenure, inadequate knowledge of food hygiene, harassment from local authorities, cut-throat competition, and low returns from work.

    Foreign donors have over the years stepped in to attempt to address these problems. A flagship of this assistance has been a programme funded by Danish trade unions and the Danish Federation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Under its aegis, Ghana’s Trades Union Congress was able to support workers in chop bars.

    Drawing on our expertise on trade unions in Ghana and on the informal economy, we assessed the effectiveness and strategic relevance of this aid.

    The aid focused on entrepreneurial skills and micro-credit. This overlooks some of the real problems in the sector. It leaves wage workers in a precarious position and does nothing to boost demand for what the sector supplies. We argue that to be more effective, foreign aid should address these gaps.

    Entrepreneurial pipe dreams

    Increased donor attention to workers in the informal economy and trade unions could be seen as a positive trend. After all, this is where the majority of workers in African cities are to be found. Ghana’s official statistical service places the size of the country’s informal sector between 70% and 80% of the working populace in its reports from 2024.

    However, close examination of the type of support given, and its results, yields a more sobering picture.

    Aid focused firstly on capacity building and entrepreneurship. This aimed at boosting skills such as financial literacy and capacity to care for customers. The programme’s own evaluation highlights the increased confidence that chop bar operators gained through this training. Important as this might be, increased confidence can do very little to overcome structural challenges, like intense competition in an oversupplied sector and the insecurity of land tenure.

    A second area of support was the provision of micro-credit via the Trades Union Congress (Ghana). One could argue that it boosted the creditworthiness of informal economy operators. But there is evidence, including our study, that credit can often result in a spiral of debt and “poverty finance”.

    Donors chose to focus on small-scale entrepreneurs as the only economic actors in the informal economy. This reflects an ideological, and market fundamentalist, understanding of the informal economy as inhabited only by small enterprises and self-employed workers, and the challenge as one of making the market work better for the poor.

    The blind spots of donors’ support to the informal economy

    This approach by donors neglects informal and highly precarious wage workers within the chop bar sector. Our research shows that the chop bar industry is stratified in terms of class. Within it, alongside genuine self-employed workers, there are people who own relatively small-scale capital (cooking assets and in some cases the land and buildings in which the bars are based) and who employ informal wage workers.

    The informal workforce is by and large made up of migrant female workers with relatively low education and skill. They work without contracts, for very long hours and very low wages, and face the risk of sudden dismissal and harassment from employers. Such poor working conditions stem from the lack of contracts, and of the rights that come with them. This is the weakest category of workers in the industry – yet they have no place in donors’ and trade unions’ activities to support workers.

    The main limitation of donors’ aid to the chop bar sector is that it focuses exclusively on supply-side interventions. It is based on the idea that improving skills and access to finance will result in increased demand for the services of small-scale entrepreneurs. Many aid programmes on employment make this mistake and suffer from so called “employment dementia” .

    This type of aid doesn’t ask where the stimulus to increase demand for street food will come from, or what the structural roots of urban employment challenges are. It doesn’t consider why African cities have large informal economies and poor-quality jobs.

    Aid priorities

    Donors should re-think their aid priorities, and put informal wage workers at their centre. This would entail moving away from the current focus on micro-solutions for job creation, and instead supporting policies to promote structural change, to tighten labour markets and increase the demand for good-quality jobs within them.

    This article was co-authored with Dr Prince Asafu-Adjaye, an associate of Labour Research Service.

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

    – ref. Informal workers in Ghana’s chop bars get no benefit from foreign aid: donors are getting it wrong – https://theconversation.com/informal-workers-in-ghanas-chop-bars-get-no-benefit-from-foreign-aid-donors-are-getting-it-wrong-253633

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Pettersen Statement on President Trump’s First 100 Days

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Brittany Pettersen (Colorado 7th District)

    WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen (CO-07) released the following statement as President Trump marks his first 100 days back in office:

    “In just 100 days, Donald Trump has done more to inflict harm on families than any other president. The cost of groceries, housing, transportation and everything in between is getting more expensive for families and businesses, and it will only get worse.

    “Not only are costs going up for all of us, he’s also slashing health care for kids and seniors, food assistance for veterans and families, and cutting education funding that our schools rely on. And all of this just to make the ultra-rich richer while also increasing our deficit by trillions.

    “I promise to do everything in my power to keep fighting back, and I know you will too. Our kids and country deserve so much better than this.”

    For a full list of actions taken by the Trump administration in its first 100 days, see the attached fact sheet. Some of the most egregious actions include:

    • Attempting to slash Medicaid and Head Start funding, threatening more than 11,600 Colorado families and children who rely on Head Start and health care for over 400,000 kids.
    • Raising tariffs on essential goods, driving up costs for Colorado small businesses and families.
    • Fast-tracking oil and gas drilling on public lands, setting back Colorado’s clean energy goals and putting lands at risk.
    • Firing federal land management staff and freezing wildfire mitigation and recovery funding, undercutting wildfire mitigation efforts ahead of wildfire season.
    • Rolling back education funding, weakening support for public schools that serve low-income and rural communities, jeopardizing all Colorado students. 

    Rep. Pettersen has spent the past three months holding town halls with record-breaking attendance and community meetings across Colorado, and hearing directly from families and small businesses who have been impacted. She continues to lead efforts in Congress to defend access to child care, health care, and education.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Mann Applauds President Trump’s First 100 Days in Office

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Tracey Mann (Kansas, 1)

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Tracey Mann (KS-01) applauded President Trump’s first 100 days of his second term. During his remarks, Rep. Mann highlighted the Trump Administration’s milestone accomplishments including a 95% drop in border apprehensions, the signing of commonsense legislation including the Laken Riley Act and the Protection of Women and Girl’s in Sports Act, $5 trillion in new investments in the United States, and President Trump’s work with Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts.

    “The only way to describe the first 100 days of President Trump’s historic second term is promises made, promises kept,” said Rep. Mann. He concluded in part, “100 days of winning and I look forward to many, many more.”

    You can listen to Rep. Mann’s remarks here.

    Below are Rep. Mann’s remarks as prepared:

    On November 5, 2024, 77 million Americans gave Washington, D.C. a mandate to restore common sense, secure our border, make America safe again, get our fiscal house in order, grow our economy, and get our country back on track. President Trump and our Republican majorities in the House and Senate have been laser focused on delivering on that mandate since the start of President Trump’s second term.

    For four years, President Biden and many Congressional Democrats blamed the crisis at our border on President Trump. They argued that the record-level inflation across the country was President Trump’s fault and not their Build Back Broke plan and so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.”

    Yet in just 100 days, the same leader my colleagues on the other side obsessed over and blamed for these Biden setbacks has fixed those same problems and gotten our country back on track. The only way to describe the first 100 days of President Trump’s historic second term is promises made, promises kept.

    President Trump promised to secure the border. While left-leaning news outlets tried to fearmonger and portray the enforcement of our nation’s border laws as an attempt to stop any immigrant from entering the United States, America knew this narrative couldn’t have been further from the truth. 100 days in, our nation’s border is more secure it has been in our nation’s history. 

    In March of this year, apprehensions along the southern border had dropped 95% from the average daily encounters under President Biden. After a year and a half of chaos when President Biden rescinded Title 42, the Los Angeles Times reported that crossings at the California-Mexico border had nearly come to a halt under President Trump. Along our northern border, Customs and Border patrol agents apprehended 54 migrants this past March, down 95% from March 2024.

    House Republicans and President Trump did what many Democrats were afraid to do—actually enforce the law and pass laws like the Laken Riley Act that make it clear there is no place for violent criminals illegally in the United States of America. While President Trump and his administration have worked tirelessly to remove these criminals from our country, it’s been a completely different story on the left. Some of my Democrat colleagues spent the Easter recess begging for an alleged MS-13 member to return to the United States. Meanwhile those same Democrats were silent when the Biden Administration abandoned Americans in Afghanistan after their botched withdrawal. The contrasts in priorities for Democrats and Republicans could not be more clear.

    It turns out the only thing we needed for the past four years was a President who doesn’t run from common sense and isn’t afraid to enforce the law. Promises made, promises kept.

    President Trump promised to revive the American dream and usher in the golden age of America. Over the last 100 days he and his administration announced more than $5 trillion dollars in new foreign and domestic investments, including in my home state of Kansas. Just last week, Fiserv announced they would make a $175 million investment in Kansas that will create good-paying job opportunities for individuals in the eastern part of our state. 

    The consumer price index continues to show that inflation is cooling, and prices are falling. Because of the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and President Trump, wholesale egg prices have fallen, and we anticipate that retail prices will soon follow suit. Americans are feeling far less pain at the pump because we have leadership in our nation’s capital that prioritizes an all of the above energy strategy instead of Green New Deal policies that pick winners and losers. President Trump has repealed Biden-era rules that tried to implement an electric vehicle mandate because he knows it won’t work in places like the Big First District, and it only drives up costs for consumers. Promises made, promises kept.

    President Trump made a promise to restore common sense and get our country back on track. I’m grateful we finally have a president who is not afraid to state the obvious. There are two genders, and biological men should not play in women’s sports. One of the first bills President Trump signed during his second term was the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. President Trump has uprooted wasteful, fraudulent and abusive spending and gone line by line through our federal budget to make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. While the Democrat Leader spent all day Sunday advocating for American families to have the largest tax hike in history, President Trump has spent the last 100 days working tirelessly with Congressional Republicans to extend his 2017 tax cuts. Promises made, promises kept.

    I am so grateful to have real leadership back at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that fights for America’s families and a brighter future for our country. Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and for all you’ve done to ensure our best days are ahead of us. 100 days of winning and I look forward to many, many more.

     

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Nadler Opening Statement on the Markup of Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Reconciliation Bill

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (10th District of New York)

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-12) made the following statement on the Markup of Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Reconciliation Bill.

    “This markup is just one small slice of a much larger, deeply dangerous reconciliation bill. But even this narrow portion tells you everything you need to know about Republican priorities.

    Let’s start with just one example: the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program. This is one of the few federal programs specifically designed to repair the damage done by decades of discriminatory infrastructure policy—when highways were deliberately routed through Black and Brown neighborhoods and tore those communities apart. These grants fund real, shovel-ready projects that reconnect people to jobs, schools, health care, and each other.

    And here’s what’s especially galling: half of this grant funding is headed to states that voted for Donald Trump—rural areas and small towns that have been left behind for generations and stand to benefit the most from these investments.

    So why are Republicans attacking it? Because instead of delivering for their own constituents, they’re trying to scrape together offsets to fund their extreme, unpopular tax cuts for billionaires. And they’re doing it by targeting the very programs their communities rely on—Medicaid, SNAP, and other lifelines working families depend on to survive.

    In fact, by passing a budget resolution instructing $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and billions more to SNAP, Republicans are proposing the most devastating assault on the health and well-being of American families in modern history.
    And let’s be very clear: in March, the CBO confirmed what we have known all along—the only way Republicans can cut at least $880 billion within the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction is by making deep, harmful cuts to Medicaid. Additionally, we know that cutting waste, fraud, and abuse will not get you anywhere in the same universe as $880 billion.

    The consequences of these Medicaid cuts would be catastrophic. Medicaid alone covers one in five Americans—nearly 72 million people. In New York, it protects nearly 5.5 million residents, including 44 percent of all children, half of all births, and two-thirds of our nursing home residents. For tens of millions of Americans, Medicaid isn’t just a line in a budget. It’s how they survive. It’s how they manage cancer treatment, vaccinate their children, or afford a wheelchair for an aging parent.

    A new analysis from the Center for American Progress estimates that if Republicans succeed in slashing Medicaid’s federal match rate, more than 34,000 people could die each year. Their likely proposal to impose punitive work reporting requirements—which have consistently failed—would result in another 15,000 unnecessary deaths annually.

    And behind these numbers are real lives. Patricia, 83 years old, lives in poverty in New York and relies on Medicaid just to get to her doctor. She told us, “I have no transportation other than help from Medicaid. I also live on only my Social Security and SNAP. If I lose this precious help, I will be homeless and surely die.” That’s the real cost of these cuts.

    Nearly $9.3 billion in Medicaid payments go to New York hospitals each year, including billions in support for safety-net care. Half of New York’s community health centers’ revenue comes from Medicaid. If this bill passes, doors will close, jobs will vanish, and entire communities—especially in rural areas—will lose access to care altogether. It’s been reported that states like South Dakota, Missouri, and Oklahoma will face even more severe consequences from these cuts.

    And perhaps most absurdly, even after all these brutal cuts, this reconciliation bill will still add over $3 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade. Why? Because the tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy cost more than the services they’re gutting to justify them. My Republican colleagues aren’t even reducing the deficit—they’re exploding it.

    So my message to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is simple: reject these cruel cuts. Refuse to take food and health care away from the people who elected you. Each of you has the power to stop this. And let’s be honest—hitching your wagon to a president with the lowest 100-day approval rating in 70 years is not just morally indefensible, it’s politically reckless. Your constituents are watching—and so is history”.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Larsen Releases Statement on the Passing of Yolanda Larsen

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Rick Larsen (2nd Congressional District Washington)

    Today, Rep. Rick Larsen released a statement about the passing of his mother, Yolanda Larsen:

    “It is a sad day for me, my seven brothers and sisters, and mom’s friends and family. Our mom, Yolanda Jean Larsen (neé Rosenbach) died on April 29th. She just celebrated her 88th birthday this month. 

    “Mom was the center of our lives as kids and as adults. Our house on South French Avenue in Arlington was the center of activity for our friends. Dinner was at 5pm every night except Sunday, no exceptions without approval. Cookies were always available to anyone who would stop by. The door was always open or, at a minimum, unlocked, so friends could come and go as they pleased knowing Mom would always welcome them. 

    “When she wasn’t holding the fort down while Dad was at work, Mom was active in the local community, setting an example for her children to be part of the place where we would live. She was a participant and not just a spectator in Arlington and its surrounding communities.

    “She valued education first and pushed us to do well in school and be active in school sports and clubs. Although she never served on the five-member local school board, Mom was an unofficial sixth member since there was a Larsen kid in Arlington schools for 26 straight years.

    “We are still sifting through her 88 years of life and will have a further announcement on services soon. Until then, bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies, cheer for your kid to do well in school or make sure they are at the dinner table each weekday night to hear how their day went. That would be a great way to honor her.”

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Torres Leads Introduction of Fairness to Freedom Act: A Call for Universal Legal Representation for Individuals Facing Deportation

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Norma Torres (35th District of California)

    April 30, 2025

    Amid Rising Threats to Immigrant Communities, Legislators Demand Comprehensive Solutions to Protect Due Process and Preserve Family Unity

    Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres, alongside her colleagues Congresswoman Grace Meng, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and Congressman Robert Garcia introduced the Fairness to Freedom Act—legislation aimed at ensuring the right to federal legal representation for all immigrants facing deportation.

    The stakes for immigrant communities have never been higher, as the Trump Administration is making it harder to get a fair process during immigration proceedings. The need for legal representation and the safeguarding of due process rights is more urgent than ever as anti-immigrant policies intensify under the Trump administration. Immigrant families are facing an increasingly harsh immigration detention system. President Trump’s threats of mass deportations are stoking fear and uncertainty, further escalating the anxiety within immigrant communities.

    Despite these challenges, a clear solution is on the table: universal representation for immigrants. From voters to lawmakers and advocates, there is a shared vision for a dignified immigration system that upholds the values of fairness, freedom, and justice. Universal representation would ensure that immigrants are not left to navigate complex deportation proceedings alone, protecting their right to stay united with their families, keep their jobs, and remain rooted in their communities.

    “No one should have to go through immigration proceedings alone. Unfortunately, under President Trump’s rhetoric and policies, the protection of due process rights has been undermined, and in some cases, denied entirely,” said Congresswoman Norma Torres. “ That’s why I introduced the Fairness to Freedom Act—to ensure that everyone has their fair day in court, fully understands their rights’ and can communicate with their loved ones. My constituents, and communities across the country, deserve to live with dignity, raise their families, access opportunities, and contribute to society. Universal representation is the key to making that a reality, standing as a safeguard against policies that threaten our shared values.”

    “We are seeing an all out assault on immigrants and immigration in this country, and it has never been more important to ensure that immigrants have access to legal representation,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. “Due process and the right to an attorney are fundamental cornerstones of our legal system – and should be for all who have cases before it. By ensuring universal access to representation for all immigrants, we can take a major step to protect immigrants from the cruel and inhumane actions of the Trump administration.”

    “As someone who has navigated our country’s immigration system, I know how overwhelming and complex it can be, especially when the consequences are deportation,” said Congressman Robert Garcia. “Under the Trump Administration, countless individuals have been wrongfully deported without due process, and people facing removal proceedings are not guaranteed legal representation in the courtroom. I’m proud to co-sponsor the Fairness to Freedom Act because we must protect people’s fundamental rights and ensure that immigration proceedings are fair for all.”

    “There is currently a backlog of more than 3 million deportation cases pending in our immigration court system. Most of these people—men, women, and children—do not have access to an attorney. This is not only inefficient, but inhumane,” said Congresswoman Grace Meng. “The Fairness to Freedom Act guarantees that everyone appearing before an immigration court has access to legal representation, understands their rights, and can communicate with loved ones throughout the process. I’m joining my colleagues in calling on Congress to pass this legislation to uphold due process-a fundamental right in our democracy-and ensure fairness in all courts throughout the United States.”

    Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, said: “Since Day One of his second term, President Trump has been causing harm through a chaotic and misguided attempt to govern. Instead of championing social and economic solutions, he has recklessly targeted immigrants, separated families, and brought chaos and uncertainty to people across the country. In the face of this, we need Congress to push back with solutions that bring safety and stability to everyone who calls the United States home. Congresswoman Norma Torres is doing just that—bringing forward legislation that upholds the right to due process and ensures that no one stands alone in defense of their freedom. We are proud to endorse the Fairness to Freedom Act that gives people their fair day in court, and we urge all members of Congress who oppose Trump’s lawless deportation agenda to support this urgently-needed legislation.”

    Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, said: “Across the country, horrifying stories emerge daily of ICE detaining people without giving them any chance to defend themselves in court. This is a violation of due process—a right guaranteed to everyone under the U.S. Constitution. But due process means more than just advance notice and a hearing. Unlike in criminal court, people in immigration court aren’t guaranteed a lawyer if they can’t afford one. The Fairness to Freedom Act would change that. No one should have to face the devastating consequences of detention and deportation without access to a lawyer to defend their rights and freedom. In defense of due process, keeping families together, and the integrity of our democracy, we urge Congress to pass this bill.”

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    La Congresista Torres Lidera La Introducción de la Ley de Equidad Para la Libertad: Un Llamado a La Representación Legal Universal Para Las Personas Que Enfrentan La Deportación

    Ante las amenazas a las comunidades de inmigrantes, Legisladores exigen soluciones integrales para proteger las libertades judiciales y preservar la unidad de familias

    Washington, D.C. – Hoy, la Congresista Norma Torres, junto Congresista Grace Meng, la Congresista Pramila Jayapal, y el Congresista Robert García introdujeron la Ley de Equidad a la Libertad-legislación destinada a garantizar el derecho a la representación legal federal para todos los inmigrantes que enfrentan la deportación.

    Lo que está en juego para las comunidades de inmigrantes nunca ha sido más importante, ya que la Administración Trump está haciendo más difícil conseguir un proceso justo durante los procedimientos de inmigración. La necesidad de representación legal y la salvaguarda de los derechos del debido proceso es más urgente que nunca a medida que las políticas antiinmigrantes se intensifican bajo la administración Trump. Las familias inmigrantes se enfrentan a un sistema de detención de inmigrantes cada vez más duro. Las amenazas del presidente Trump de deportaciones masivas están avivando el miedo y aumentando aún más la ansiedad dentro de las comunidades de inmigrantes.

    A pesar de estos retos, hay una solución clara sobre la mesa: la representación universal para los inmigrantes. Desde los electores hasta los legisladores y defensores, existe una visión compartida de un sistema de inmigración que defienda los valores de equidad, libertad y justicia. La representación universal aseguraría que los inmigrantes no tuvieran que enfrentarse solos a los complejos procedimientos de deportación, protegiendo su derecho a permanecer unidos a sus familias, mantener sus empleos y seguir en sus comunidades.

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s Statement on Trump’s First 100 Days

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)

    WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, issued the following statement marking the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second occupancy of the White House.

    “Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been a damning masterclass of cruelty, callousness, chaos, and corruption. From slashing essential services and attacking reproductive freedom to terrorizing immigrants and firing thousands of dedicated federal workers—Trump has governed with a reckless disregard for the Constitution and contempt for everyone who calls America home.

    “In just 100 days, Trump has launched a full-scale assault on workers, families, and our most vulnerable communities. He is gutting Medicaid, slashing funding for Head Start, defunding life-saving scientific and medical research, and ending critical programs that put food on the table and keep our families safely housed. He has torn immigrant families apart through mass deportations and unlawful detentions—including the abduction and detention of my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk—and pushed through policies that would rip away healthcare, threaten access to abortion care, and restrict our bodily autonomy. And he has consistently sought to erase Black history, resegregate society, and roll back decades of civil rights progress—all while enacting tariffs that will raise the cost of groceries, housing, and other essentials.

    “Trump has attacked everyone and everything except the rising cost of living, and now Republicans are marking the 100-day milestone by advancing a reconciliation bill that would end Medicaid as we know it and make the largest cuts to food assistance and other essential programs in American history. The cruelty is the point.

    “As Congresswoman for the Massachusetts 7th, I will not be silent, and I refuse to be complicit. I will continue using every tool at my disposal—legislation, litigation, and mobilization—to stand in the gap and fight for the dignity, safety, and economic wellbeing of my constituents and communities across this country.”

    Congresswoman Pressley has been a leading voice in Congress speaking out against Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s unprecedented assault on our democracy, and she has been a steadfast advocate for protecting the essential services that federal workers and agencies provide.

    • On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Trump Administration’s abrupt reinstatement of international student visas. 
    • On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Markey and Rep. McGovern, published an op-ed in the New York Times in which they discussed their meeting with Rümeysa Öztürk in detention and warned the American people of the dangers posed by the Trump administration’s unlawful attacks on our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process.
    • On April 24, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined Senator Elizabeth Warren and Massachusetts lawmakers sounding the alarm on the Trump Administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities staff and grants.
    • On April 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues visited the ICE detention facilities in Basile and Jena, Louisiana with her colleagues, where Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil are being unlawfully detained, respectively.
    • On April 22, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Markey and Warren demanded answers about the Trump Administration’s concerning pattern of ripping individuals from their communities and shipping them to jurisdictions more favorable to the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
    • On April 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Warren and Markey demanded the State Department release a memo and documents related to Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest after a recent report indicated that an internal State Department memo concluded that the key premise underlying her arrest was false.
    • On April 14, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined Senator Ed Markey and the Massachusetts congressional delegation demanding answers on the sudden termination of the federal staff responsible for administering the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
    • On April 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she slammed Trump’s Executive Order attacking Smithsonian museums – namely the National Museum of African American History and Culture, or Blacksonian – and his blatant attempt to erase Black history. 
    • On April 9, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined the Massachusetts delegation in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding answers after the abrupt shuttering of the entire HHS Regional Office in Boston.
    • On April 9, 2025, Rep. Pressley led lawmakers in sending a letter to Trump’s trade official demanding he resign from holding multiple positions with clear conflicts of interest that would further harm federal workers.
    • On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Warren and Markey sounded the alarm on Rumeysa Ozturk’s medical neglect in ICE custody and renewed their urgent calls for her release.
    • On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey led over 30 lawmakers demanding information from DHS about the arrest and detention of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and similar incidents across the country.
    • On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming Trump’s executive order to end collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
    • On March 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and detained Rumeysa Ozturk, an international student with legal status in a graduate program at Tufts University. 
    • On March 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Boston and other municipalities in Massachusetts.
    • On March 21, 2025, Rep. Pressley led Massachusetts lawmakers in a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sharply criticizing and demanding answers about the impact of the Musk-Trump Administration’s mass firings of federal workers in Massachusetts.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley spoke out against the U.S. Department of Education’s mass layoffs of over 1,300 workers, which effectively guts the agency.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley voted against Republicans’ shameful government budget bill, which would harm vulnerable families and provide a blank check for Elon Musk and Donald Trump to continue their unprecedented assault on our democracy. She later issued a statement condemning its final passage in the Senate.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined 13 of her colleagues on a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding answers and the immediate release of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, whose illegal abduction is an attack on his constitutional right to free speech and due process.
    • On March 4, 2025, Rep. Pressley walked out of the House chamber in protest during Donald Trump’s presidential joint address to Congress.
    • On March 4, 2025, Rep. Pressley welcomed Claire Bergstresser, an Everett constituent, dedicated public servant, AFGE union member, and former HUD worker who was unjustly terminated as part of Musk and Trump’s assault on federal agencies as her guest to the presidential joint address to Congress.
    • On February 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley led 85 lawmakers in a letter urging the Office of Special Counsel to immediate reinstate and expand protections for all unfairly fired federal workers.
    • On February 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined over 200 Democrats in filing an amicus brief defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before a U.S. District Court.
    • On February 26, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley discussed what true government efficiency looks like and denounced Elon Musk and Donald Trump for utilizing DOGE to gut the essential services that keep people safe, fed, and housed.
    • On February 25, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley condemned Elon Musk’s abuse of government efficiency through the fraudulent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
    • On February 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she railed against Republicans’ cruel budget resolution that would slash Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion.
    • On February 20, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs issued a statement condemning the Trump Administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.
    • On February 13, 2025, in a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley emphasized the critical role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in safeguarding consumers and sharply criticized Donald Trump and Elon Musk for halting the critical work of the agency.
    • On February 10, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied with Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member Maxine Waters, and advocates to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlawful takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
    • On February 11, 2025, in a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley criticized the Trump-Musk administration for halting the critical work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with crypto scams on the rise.
    • On February 10, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming the Trump Administration’s harmful cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to support hospitals, universities, and research institutions conducting lifesaving research.
    • On February 10, 2025, as Trump and Musk threaten to dismantle the essential work of the U.S. Department of Education, Rep.  Pressley delivered a powerful floor speech to affirm the role of public education in American democracy.
    • On February 6, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful rebuke of Republicans’ efforts to gut diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and eliminate essential services for vulnerable communities.
    • On February 5, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied outside the U.S. Department of Treasury to protest Elon Musk’s unlawful assault on federal agencies and our democracy.
    • On January 30, 2025, Rep. Pressley slammed Donald Trump for blaming the tragic plane crash at Reagan National Airport, which killed over 60 people, including some families from Massachusetts, on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
    • In January 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming Trump’s illegal freeze on federal grants and loans and its harmful impact on vulnerable communities.
    • On January 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech condemning Republicans’ cruel anti-abortion bill that criminalizes providers and denies families care.
    • On January 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined her colleagues to reintroduce the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, a bill to repeal an outdated law that has been used to target innocent immigrants without due process rights.
    • On January 22, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Trump Administration’s harmful executive actions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Casten, 22 House Democrats Highlight Economic Turmoil Caused by Trump’s Immigration Policies

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Sean Casten (IL-06)

    April 30, 2025

    Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Sean Casten (IL-06) led 22 House Democrats in a letter to President Donald Trump highlighting how his immigration policies have increased the cost of living for Americans. The letter demands that the president reverse course or risk further economic turmoil.

    “As President, you are tasked with improving the economy and growing the middle class,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, you have exacerbated Americans’ economic distress during your first 100 days in office.” 

    Unpredictable enforcement of immigration laws has threatened immigrants with legal status, including TPS recipients, who rely on the United States for safe harbor and work, and pursue higher education at high rates. The Trump Administration has refused to focus on reducing food and housing costs, instead choosing to displace workers in essential sectors such as construction, maintenance, material moving, and transportation, causing economic hardship and instability throughout the country. 

    Although the United States has long been a beacon for the world’s best and brightest, President Trump’s immigration policies have destabilized legal immigration and pushed those seeking to innovate, conduct research, and grow our economy away from the United States.

    “We support protecting our borders and vetting individuals who wish to come to our country,” the lawmakers continued. “However, your immigration proposals are impractical and will increase costs for millions of Americans.”

    In addition to Rep. Casten, the letter was signed by Reps. Beatty, Carbajal, Cisneros, Clarke, Connolly, Correa, Costa, Escobar, Espaillat, Fields, Sylvia Garcia, Goldman, Jonathan Jackson, McCollum, McGovern, Meeks, Norton, Quigley, Titus, Tonko, and Vargas.

    A copy of the letter can be found here. Text of the letter can be found below.

    Dear President Trump,

    We write to you with concern about the negative humanitarian and economic impacts your immigration-related executive orders and policies will have nationwide.

    Your immigration policies will increase costs for Americans, disrupt the job market, and slow economic growth. As President, you are tasked with improving the economy and growing the middle class. However, you have exacerbated Americans’ economic distress during your first 100 days in office.

    Since your inauguration, the U.S. stock market is off to its worst start in a century. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by more than seven percent, the S&P 500 index is off by more than eight percent, the Nasdaq composite is down more than eleven percent and small-cap Russell 2000 have slumped by more than fourteen percent.

    During your campaign, you repeatedly promised to lower food prices “immediately” if elected president. Yet, the latest monthly consumer price index showed that the average cost of a dozen eggs reached a record high of $6.23 in March. These prices will only increase due to your recent immigration policies. 

    Thus far, you have issued Executive Orders prioritizing strict enforcement of immigration laws, both at the borders and within the United States. For example, on your first day in office, you signed the Executive Order “Securing Our Borders,” which deploys the military within our own country and ends the CBP One process, which allows migrants to enter the country and be appropriately screened for internationally protected refugee status.

    Additionally, you are recklessly attempting to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for as many as seven hundred thousand vulnerable individuals legally in the United States. This not only raises significant civil rights concerns but also risks serious economic consequences. Judge Edward Chen, who is presiding over a case brought on behalf of Venezuelan TPS recipients facing deportation, has noted that a reversal of TPS status would likely have an “adverse impact” on the economy, given that Venezuelan TPS holders pay taxes, hold jobs and pursue higher education at higher rates than the general public.

    You also issued the Executive Order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which directs a strict enforcement-first version of immigration policy, enlisting all departments to prioritize it above their own work, aiding the Department of Homeland Security in enforcing deportation and criminalization of immigrants. Your focus on deportation, rather than appropriate adjudication with regard to each immigrant’s unique circumstances, counters established international norms and damages our economy.

    Data consistently shows that immigrants are primarily of working age, between 18 and 64 years of age, accounting for nearly 19% of the U.S. labor force in 2023, despite representing only 14% of the total U.S. population that year. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Monetary Policy Report, job growth has consistently outpaced the growth of the labor force over the last few years. Last year, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that immigration is a “big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance.” It is reasonable to conclude that removing working-age individuals from the economy will harm every business that seeks to build and grow in America.

    We support protecting our borders and vetting individuals who wish to come to our country. However, your immigration proposals are impractical and will increase costs for millions of Americans. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that foreign-born workers are often employed in critical sectors such as construction, maintenance, material moving, and transportation. These sectors significantly influence housing costs. As housing inflation is expected to keep core inflation high, this effect will undoubtedly extend beyond the already overheated housing market, impacting the prices of other essential goods and services on which Americans rely.

    According to a December 2024 Report from the Joint Economic Committee, it is projected that an aggressive deportation plan, similar to that outlined through the Executive Order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” would reduce the real Gross Domestic Product of the United States by 7.4% and increase prices for American consumers by 9.1% by 2028. These are significant costs to the American people. 

    Your immigration policies will also severely undermine the American workforce and significantly affect vital sectors such as agriculture, hospitality, and construction. Your proposals could displace 1.5 million construction workers, 250,000 laborers from the agricultural industry, 1 million workers in hospitality, over 800,000 in manufacturing, and more than 400,000 in transportation and warehousing. This would harm essential American industries that drive our economy.

    America’s success has always depended on being the destination of choice for the best and brightest from around the world. As you are aware, there is bipartisan support for strong border security to keep the “bad guys” out. However, it is important to recognize that the overwhelming majority of people coming to America today are not different from our own ancestors; they are coming here to build a better life for themselves, to work, worship and love without fear, and to pursue their entrepreneurial ideas in a country where the rule of law allows them to benefit from their efforts. There are many humanitarian reasons to protect our immigrant communities, but there are also self-interested reasons. A country that attracts talent is a country that out-competes the rest of the world and retains wealth that would otherwise develop elsewhere.

    In that spirit, we urge you to reverse your current immigration policies that are financially harming small business owners and the middle class while providing no actual solutions to fix our broken immigration system. We are ready to work with you to enact comprehensive immigration reform legislation that includes support for border patrol and enforcement, increases work visas to facilitate the flow of skilled labor, includes a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders and farm workers, grows our economy and maintains the promise of America as a place that has always been great – but who’s greatest days are still yet to come.

    Sincerely,

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray Opening Remarks at Appropriations Hearing on Biomedical Research

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray

    ***WATCH: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***

    Washington, D.C. – Today—at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on biomedical research—U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, underscored in her opening remarks how important biomedical research is for patients and families across the country and how President Trump’s unprecedented attacks on our nation’s premier biomedical research enterprise threatens to unravel decades of progress.

    Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

    “I let me start by congratulating you, Senator Collins, as first hearing as Chair.

    “We’ve managed to do a lot of bipartisan work over the past few years, and I hope we can continue to build off of that record together.

    “And I really appreciate this important hearing on biomedical research—it is an issue with long-standing bipartisan support. We’ve worked together many times over the years—along with our colleagues—to invest in advancing medical breakthroughs.

    “And those investments have paid off in so many ways, not just billions in economic activity, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and a medical research enterprise that is the envy of the world. They have also paid off with genuine miracles, cures that were once impossible, treatments that were once unthinkable. These are investments that give patients hope for the future, that give them back a life derailed by a disease, that give people precious more time with loved ones.

    “Which is why I am so deeply alarmed that President Trump has taken a wrecking ball to our biomedical research enterprise. He and Elon Musk have been tossing tomorrow’s groundbreaking cures into a shredder. From day one, DOGE has been cutting critical research without rhyme, reason, or any regard for who gets hurt.

    “Trump has already axed 800 grants—over a billion dollars in research—for HIV prevention, breast cancer, pregnancy, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and more. They have also blocked $2 billion in grant funding from going out to universities and research institutions across our country. And they slapped a $1 limit on NIH researchers’ payment cards—meaning that our labs can’t get gloves, pipettes, and vials—these are the basics they need to keep research going.

    “If Trump and Musk have their way, they aren’t just going to grind medical research to a halt, they are going to send it careening backwards. Because Trump apparently wants to slash $21 billion dollars from NIH next year. That would be a 44 percent cut—the biggest cut in NIH history. He also wants to defy a bipartisan law this Committee worked to pass, so he can massively cut funding for basic costs that keeps our labs running.

    “If Trump succeeds here, a lot of world class research institutions—like the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and the University of Washington in my state—will face massive shortfalls.

    “The fact that Trump and Musk are pushing such a painful policy really underscores how they don’t know—or don’t care—whether their polices actually hurt people.

    “And if you needed any more evidence that there’s no real strategy here, just consider the Women’s Health Initiative, it was coordinated by the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in my home state of Washington. It has led to major advancements in our understanding of women’s health issues, especially in older women. It has paved the way for a generation of researchers focused on women’s health, that is something we never had before.

    “And yet, Trump was going to axe it, presumably because he thinks it’s woke to care about women’s health. Then, hardly 24 hours later he claims to have reversed course following a loud public outcry. Yet, the Fred Hutch Cancer Center has yet to hear from NIH directly on if that funding will actually be restored.

    “Trump’s three-sixty really goes to show you, these cuts and firings are not about some big strategy, just chaos and extortion.

    “We have even seen Trump freeze billions of research dollars for purely political reasons, putting his own petty grievances ahead of curing cancer and saving lives. None of us should stand for that—not for a minute.

    “And just as slashing NIH isn’t about a strategy for our country, it’s not about efficiency either. NIH has an incredibly high return on investment. While medical research accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget, NIH has contributed to over 99 percent of drugs approved by FDA in recent years.

    “And while we’re talking about government efficiency, let’s not forget the FDA, which families trust to keep them safe. Because the NIH breakthrough won’t do much good if FDA does not have the staff and resources they need to approve new drugs. But Trump cannot gut FDA, push out four thousand workers, and expect to maintain that gold standard that keeps food and drugs safe and gives our nation a competitive edge.

    “And NIH cuts are not just cutting off promising future research, but undermining studies we are right in the middle of right now. One NIH lab that analyzes blood samples for more than 200 trials, studying cancer treatments, organ transplants and more—lost half its staff during Trump and Elon’s lay-offs.

    “Right now, in this country patients in clinical trials are praying for a breakthrough, they are seeing their best hope cut off by the richest people in the world.

    “And worse than undermining any one study, Trump and Musk are also cutting the beating heart out of our medical research enterprise—by pushing talented researchers out the door. Trump has pushed out nearly 5,000 people at NIH and counting.

    “China is already trying to seize the moment and recruit some of the brightest talent—and the same for Europe!

    “Instead of supporting new talent, Trump is slashing grants for our early career scientists. I heard about this firsthand a few weeks ago, I was out in my state speaking with researchers and students at WSU in Vancouver. Bright young people, who want to do medical research here, are suddenly worried. Why start that PhD if their funding is going to get yanked away? Why study new vaccines if RFK Jr. is going to meddle in their work? Why come to the U.S. for promising research if Trump might just try to deport them for jaywalking?

    “Make no mistake—the United States is the world leader in medical research. But creating that was not an accident and maintaining it is not inevitable. It is a choice we make through our investments, one that has paid off on a scale that cannot be measured.

    “How do you measure the miracle of eliminating a disease? Of funding a cure? Of developing a new vaccine? How do you measure giving someone the chance to become a parent, or to see their grandkids? You can’t.

    “Which leads me to the question I hope we focus on today. Why on earth would we let Trump slash that all to ribbons? Why on earth would we give up on Alzheimer’s research? Or heart disease? Or cancer? 

    “I will tell you, I am not giving up on patients. I am not giving up on cures. And I suspect many others here feel the same. So, I hope this discussion helps us focus on that common ground. And that working together we can push back on these devastating cuts and push forward the research that is so important to folks back home.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Business Leader of the Future: What Skills and Approaches Determine Success Today

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    How can top managers adapt to rapidly changing market conditions? What is behind the effective implementation of innovative projects? Why should adult experienced specialists undergo training again? Maria Petrova, Vice President of Sales at Health, talks about all this, as well as new approaches to management, the value of partnerships, and the advantages of the HSE HSE Corporate Program “Business Leader of the Future” Higher School of Business, National Research University Higher School of Economics.

    — What can you say about the skills and competencies of the participants of the “Business Leader of the Future” program? How did the listeners improve themselves?

    — The first thing I have already mentioned is the general business outlook and perspective, the ability to look ahead and, based on this, plan the present and the near future. The second is the skills of design thinking and working with uncertainty. This was one of the most significant and, in my opinion, one of the most successful blocks of the program. The third is, of course, the skills of cross-functional interaction, working with stakeholders, communication skills, the ability to present and defend your idea or project in a very short time. This is also a key competency. There were other important blocks, for example, on financial management, as well as blocks related to leadership and taking responsibility.

    And I will separately mention risk management, if I am not mistaken – the topic of the third module of the program. Taking risks is a really important point. Over the last 2-2.5 years in the company, we have included this in our routine: we try to assess risks, anticipate them and find scenarios for an effective response.

    — Did the knowledge and skills acquired in the program find application in the professional activities of the students within the company?

    — I would divide the application into two aspects: the implementation of specific projects, which we may discuss further, and changes in the behavioral habits and patterns of the participants, which I observe as a manager. Now they have begun to prepare for presentations much better, convey their ideas more clearly, and understand the business as a whole better. This is the very same business-acumen — an expanded business outlook. In addition, employees have begun to strive for more productive cross-functional interaction, not to focus on themselves when making decisions, and to take into account the KPIs of different departments.

    — Can you say a few words about the defense of the final projects? Which of them were put into production and what did they consist of?

    — The project defense was a separate amazing story. The entire management committee really enjoyed it. Usually, you go to such events thinking, “Now I’m going to sit and listen to something for six hours.” But this time, all the participants were unanimous in the opinion that everything went by in one breath. After the defense, we, as organizers, were taken to a separate room and asked to evaluate the projects. We were given the task of choosing three winners. We sat down and began to discuss. In the third minute, the question was asked: “Are there any projects here that we are ready to say “no” to?” And everyone answered that there are no such projects. We are ready to give the green light to all initiatives for further implementation in real business. We collectively decided that there is no point in looking for one winner; it would be much more appropriate to provide the teams with high-quality feedback to improve their solutions. As a result, when we went out into the audience, we announced that we were saying “yes” to all the projects.

    — Is it possible to tell a little more about a couple of projects if they do not contain business secrets?

    — We had several initiatives related to the development of new products and the corresponding modification of production capacities. I think I will not reveal any big secrets by saying that we have a trend in the dairy category for high-protein products. There is also a trend for ready-made food and for consuming products outside the home. Of course, we focus on those areas that are interesting to consumers.

    There are also projects related to operational efficiency, optimizing various processes and reducing costs, including through partner solutions in the field of logistics and supply chains. For example, how best to develop remote territories. These solutions are mainly operational and logistical. In addition, there are initiatives to develop individual trade channels and cooperate with new partners.

    — Could you briefly describe the features and advantages of the educational program at our business school?

    — The first is the desire or even a conscious wish to understand the client. This understanding is not for show, but in order to identify the client’s real need and offer a solution that will be selected individually, or, as they say now, customized for this need. The second advantage is a high-level teaching staff with excellent knowledge and material that the teachers are ready to adapt to the students.

    It is also worth noting the overall engagement in the outcome of the program. We felt throughout the entire process – from the design to the final stage – a desire to achieve, or rather, to help participants achieve specific results. And this is how we measure the success of the program, and not just by the participants listening to lectures.

    — Which courses or topics within the program did you personally like the most?

    — Personally, I especially liked two topics — the block on strategizing and foresights and the part related to design thinking. As the leader of the organization, I am responsible for the future of the company, for its independence and ability to pilot its development as a separate large business. Now we ourselves come up with new products and business areas, we implement them ourselves and learn from our own mistakes. Design thinking is one of the key methods that helps to see the business perspective and turn ideas into real solutions.

    — Did your expectations from the program at the start match the final result?

    — As you have understood, I have the most positive impressions. And here is why: I am a result-oriented person, and when I see it, I feel good. And when I see a double result, and it is really specific, right “lying on the table”, it is generally wonderful. You know, when you go to training and understand that there will be project activity, there is always a perception that this is just an educational project for the sake of it, the main thing is to learn. Yes, of course, the main thing is to learn. If the project did not work out, then you can always say that at least different methods were tried. But this is the case when you not only learned, but also got a real business result.

    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 Security: Southfield Doctor Convicted of Illegally Prescribing More Than 200,000 Opioid Pills

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

    DETROIT – On April 25, 2025, a federal jury convicted Dr. Charise Valentine, 69, of Southfield, of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute prescription opioids, including Oxycodone and Oxymorphone, and 10 counts of illegal distribution of Oxycodone and Oxymorphone, Acting United States Attorney Julie A. Beck announced.

    Beck was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Cheyvorea Gibson, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division, and Special Agent in Charge Mario Pinto of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional Office.

    Dr. Valentine was convicted for her role as one of two primary doctors at Orthopedic Medical Building who issued illegal opioid prescriptions. From November 2016 to July 2018, Dr. Valentine issued more than 3,000 prescriptions for more than 200,000 pills to supposed “patients” who did not have a legitimate medical need for the drugs. The “patients” were typically brought to the clinic by “patient recruiters/marketers.” Orthopedic Medical Building, a sham clinic that operated out of a warehouse in Oak Park, Michigan, accepted only cash, and charged patients $200-500 per prescription, but did not charge anything if the patient didn’t receive an opioid prescription. The prices were not based on the service provided, but instead based on the quantity, type, and dosage of prescription opioids that the “patient” received, usually Oxycodone 30mg or Oxymorphone 40mg, two of the most addictive prescription opioids. These prescription drugs are also among the most highly diverted prescription opioids due to their high street value. The clinic also charged cash for the creation of fraudulent medical records for the supposed “patients.”

    Dr. Valentine was paid about 50% of the clinic’s proceeds – more than $500,000 in cash over about 19 months – and was paid only if she wrote an opioid prescription to a patient, not based on any supposed “medical care.” She received an envelope of thousands in cash each day she worked.

    The other defendants charged in the case, including clinic operator Iris Winchester, Dr. Michele Ritter, clinic employee Kristina Brown, and Joyce Robinson, previously pleaded guilty.

    “Addressing the sources of the opioid epidemic – which include addictive opioid prescription pills as well as street drugs – remains a top priority of this office,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Beck. “We continue to focus on doctors who, rather than helping to address the terrible impact the opioid epidemic, use the cover of a “medical office” to write illegal prescriptions for the opioids that fuel the crisis.”

    “The conviction of Dr. Valentine, who abused her position of trust by prescribing opioids in exchange for cash, underscores the FBI’s strong commitment to holding medical professionals accountable under federal law,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. “Physicians and other healthcare providers are entrusted with the well-being of our communities and are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Those who violate that trust for personal financial gain can expect to be investigated and brought to justice by the FBI’s Detroit Field Office. I also want to thank our partners at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General for their collaboration and support throughout this case.”

    “Physicians who prescribe powerful opioids and other controlled substances, without regard for medical necessity, endanger the health and safety of the very patients they have sworn an oath to protect,” said Mario M. Pinto, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.  “Working in conjunction with our law enforcement partners, our agency is committed to identifying and investigating those medical providers who place profits over patient safety.”

    This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Andrew J. Lievense and Wayne F. Pratt. The Eastern District of Michigan is one of the twelve districts included in the Opioid Fraud Abuse and Detection Unit, a Department of Justice initiative that uses data to target and prosecute individuals that are contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis.

    The case was investigated by special agents and task force officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services-Office of the Inspector General.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From COVID to cancer: Why Canada’s RNA vaccine leadership matters more than ever

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Anna Blakney, Assistant Professor, Michael Smith Laboratories and School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia

    As the world marks World Immunization Week, attention turns once again to the lifesaving power of vaccines.

    Amid headlines about rising cases of measles, falling vaccination rates and growing vaccine hesitancy, a quieter revolution is underway — one that could fundamentally reshape how we respond to global health threats, including pandemics and cancer.

    This revolution is being powered by RNA technology — and Canada is uniquely positioned to lead it.

    A made-in-Canada breakthrough

    While the swift development of COVID-19 vaccines appeared to be a sudden scientific triumph, it was built on six decades of foundational work. Much of that work happened in Canada. Messenger RNA (mRNA) are large, negatively charged molecules that are easily degraded and repelled by our cells.

    To coax our cells to internalize them, scientists developed a way to encapsulate them in “fat bubbles” or lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which were invented by Pieter Cullis and collaborators. Cullis, a co-author of this article, is a professor in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of British Columbia.

    Once inside a patients’ cells, the mRNA gives the cell instructions to translate a viral protein that triggers an immune response. Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines — which relied on these fat bubbles — were found to be highly efficacious (more than 94 per cent) and safe, both in initial trials and continuous monitoring over time. They were estimated to have saved nearly 10 million lives in 2021 alone.

    That’s just the beginning. Research teams across the country are now building on this homegrown innovation to expand the potential of RNA vaccines beyond infectious diseases.

    The next generation: Less means more

    At the University of British Columbia, the Blakney Lab is focused on developing vaccines and therapies using self-amplifying RNA (saRNA), a technology that offers several advantages over conventional mRNA. Because saRNA replicates itself once inside a patient’s cells, much smaller doses are needed to produce a robust immune response.

    Now, this replication process may sound like something out of a science fiction film, but similar to mRNA vaccines, this technology has been developed over decades and has been thoroughly clinically validated. The saRNA technology reduces manufacturing costs and makes vaccine production more scalable during global emergencies. Notably, the lower dose can also minimize side effects, potentially reducing the risk of getting a sore arm or having to miss a day of work after vaccination.

    Recent pre-clinical studies have shown that saRNA vaccines can offer longer-lasting immunity with smaller doses, and multiple clinical trials are now underway to evaluate their use for influenza, Zika virus and even cancer.

    Vaccine equity, health security, economic growth

    Expanding Canada’s domestic RNA vaccine capacity is more than just a scientific priority; it’s a public health imperative and economic opportunity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain breakdowns exposed the risks of relying on international sources for essential vaccine ingredients and production. Investing in local infrastructure allows for faster and more flexible responses to future outbreaks.



    Read more:
    From PPE shortages to COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the supply chain has emerged as a determinant of health

    But it’s not just about pandemic readiness. One of the most exciting frontiers for RNA technology is the development of personalized cancer vaccines. These vaccines train the immune system to recognize and attack mutations specific to an individual’s tumour.

    In early clinical trials, mRNA-based cancer vaccines — such as those developed by Moderna and BioNTech — have shown promising results, dramatically reducing recurrence rates in melanoma and pancreatic cancer patients.

    Canada’s scientific ecosystem is primed to contribute meaningfully to this next generation of therapies. Strengthening our biotech infrastructure could create high-quality jobs, stimulate economic growth and reinforce Canada’s place as a leader in the global bioeconomy.

    From crisis to capacity

    The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how rapidly science can enable positive public health outcomes — and how easily inequities can widen if infrastructure and access aren’t prioritized.

    Despite being home to world-class researchers, Canada lacked the manufacturing capacity to produce its own mRNA vaccines. That gap is now being addressed through substantial recent investments from the government of Canada, but sustaining momentum will require long-term commitment from policymakers and funders.

    Equity must also remain at the forefront. Communities in rural, remote and Indigenous regions often face barriers to accessing vaccines — not because of hesitancy, but due to logistical challenges and under-resourced health systems. The Public Health Agency of Canada has emphasized the importance of building trust and tailoring solutions in partnership with these communities.

    Vaccine confidence remains another challenge. Post-pandemic surveys reveal that misinformation continues to shape public perceptions, even about long-established vaccines like MMR. Addressing this requires proactive science communication, sustained public education and rebuilding trusted relationships between communities and health systems.

    Looking ahead

    World Immunization Week offered a chance to celebrate how far we’ve come — but also to ask what comes next. With decades of research leadership, a strong innovation ecosystem and new investments in RNA infrastructure, Canada has the tools to lead the next chapter of mRNA technology development.

    Whether it’s fighting the next virus or personalizing cancer therapies for individual patients, RNA technologies hold transformative promise. Seizing this opportunity will require sustained support, policy alignment and a focus on equitable access.

    By investing in RNA innovation today, Canada can deliver not just vaccines, but a healthier, more resilient future for all.

    Immunity and Society is a new series from The Conversation Canada that presents new vaccine discoveries and immune-based innovations that are changing how we understand and protect human health. Through a partnership with the Bridge Research Consortium, these articles — written by academics in Canada at the forefront of immunology and biomanufacturing — explore the latest developments and their social impacts.

    Anna Blakney sits on the scientific advisory board and/or consults for Genvax Technologies, Replicate Biosciences and Pasture Biosciences. She receives funding from CIHR, CBRF, NSERC and CFI.

    Pieter Cullis a co-founder and have shares in Acuitas Therapeutics, the company that provided the LNP enabling the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. He receives funding from CIHR.

    – ref. From COVID to cancer: Why Canada’s RNA vaccine leadership matters more than ever – https://theconversation.com/from-covid-to-cancer-why-canadas-rna-vaccine-leadership-matters-more-than-ever-254692

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Laurel Lee Introduces Bipartisan Second Chance Legislation

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Laurel Lee – Florida (15th District)

    Washington, D.C.– Today, Representatives Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) introduced the Fresh Start Act, a bipartisan bill to provide support for rehabilitated individuals to have access to employment, housing, and educational opportunities.

    “People who have worked to turn their lives around after a criminal conviction deserve the opportunity to move forward, not be held back by administrative barriers. Today, nearly one-third of Americans have a criminal record that can prevent them from getting a job, finding housing, or pursuing education—even when they qualify for record-sealing or expungement. The Fresh Start Act of 2025 modernizes and streamlines these processes for states, helping more individuals access the opportunities they’ve earned. I look forward to seeing my colleagues come together to pass this important legislation and ensure that everyone who deserves a second chance has the opportunity to build a better future,” said Congresswoman Laurel Lee.

    Approximately one-third of Americans have criminal records that can hinder their ability to secure employment, housing, or educational opportunities. While many of them qualify for record-sealing or expungement under state laws, the process is frequently complicated, time-consuming, and costly.

    The Fresh Start Act would allow states that have enacted automated record-sealing or expungement laws to apply for federal infrastructure grants to help streamline the process. This federal legislation builds on the momentum of Clean Slate policies enacted in 2018 by a diverse group of 12 states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia.

    “No one should be denied a job, housing, or education because of bureaucratic red tape,” said Rep. Kamlager-Dove. “Millions of Americans have arrest or conviction records that are eligible to be sealed or expunged, yet many are blocked by confusing, burdensome, and costly processes. I’m proud to cosponsor the bipartisan Fresh Start Act, which helps individuals who have been exonerated or who have paid their debts to society get a chance to contribute to their communities. This legislation will give states the resources they need to implement automatic record clearance systems that offer people a fresh start.”

    Sheena Meade, CEO of The Clean Slate Initiative, said, “The Fresh Start Act recognizes what we’ve seen on the ground: Clean Slate has the power to change lives. This legislation is an essential component of modernizing state infrastructure, making sure federal support is spent on common-sense solutions that are serious about safety and benefit communities across the country. A fresh start should be more than a promise; it should be a reality. With the Fresh Start Act, it can be.”

    Jason Pye, Executive Director of the Due Process Institute, said, “The Fresh Start Act is a commonsense policy solution to help improve states’ record-sealing laws. The bill crucially allocates already existing funding to help with the implementation of proven recidivism reduction strategies that result in better economic outcomes and safer communities for us all. We urge members of Congress to join in cosponsoring and supporting this bipartisan legislation.”

    Akua Amaning, Director of Criminal Justice Reform, Center for American Progress said, “Everyone deserves the opportunity to unlock their full potential. Yet, for far too many people who have been impacted by America’s criminal legal system, a second chance can be hard to achieve with an arrest or conviction record. The Fresh Start Act will provide important resources to states that are working to remove unnecessary barriers to employment, housing, education, and other critical life resources due to having a record. In helping to create pathways to automatic record expungement at the state level, The Fresh Start Act will not only help individuals transform their lives, but will also improve economic security and public safety outcomes for all. We applaud the bipartisan support for this measure and urge Congress to swiftly pass the Fresh Start Act.”

    Patrick Plein, Director of CPAC’s Nolan Center for Justice, said, “Communities are safer when individuals returning from prison are given a fair chance to reintegrate into society and rebuild their lives. The Fresh Start Act recognizes that people are more than their past mistakes—they are hard working parents, employees, and neighbors with the potential to prosper. By removing barriers to opportunity, these bills strengthen families, boost our economy, and promote public safety.”

    “The Fresh Start Act is a common sense measure that will help give people who have fulfilled their justice system obligations a second chance,” said Nan Gibson, Executive Director of the JPMorganChase Policy Center. “The bill would make federal grants available to states to upgrade their justice system infrastructure so that states can implement Clean Slate legislation and strengthen their workforce.  Over the last six years, our firm has hired more than 21,000 people with a record whose history had no bearing on the requirements of their job, because we know implementing fair chance hiring practices is good for our business and the economy.  This measure will enable companies like ours to continue to connect individuals to meaningful career pathways, opening doors to opportunities that transform lives, lift up communities and strengthen the workforce.”

    Summary:

    • Amends 34 U.S.C. §40302 (National Criminal History Improvement Program, or NCHIP) to include funding for covered automatic expungement and record sealing laws.
    • Covered Expungement Law—The term “automatic” is defined as expungement or sealing that does not require any action on the part of the eligible individual. The term “covered expungement law” is defined as a law of a State that provides for the automatic expungement or sealing of a criminal record, subject to requirements imposed by the State.
    • Reporting Requirements—A State that receives a grant under the Fresh Start Act of 2025 is required to produce and send a report to the Attorney General, under the guidelines established by the Attorney General, that provides information on:
      • the number of individuals eligible for automatic expungement or sealing disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender;
      • the number of individuals whose records have been expunged or sealing disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender;
      • and the number of individuals who application for expungement or sealing are still pending disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender;
    • Inaccessibility of Data for Reporting—If data required for reporting are not available, the State is required to develop and report a plan to obtain as much of the data as possible no later than one (1) year after the first year the grant is awarded.
    • Publication—The Attorney General is required to publish and make publicly available a report containing data collected under the reporting requirements.

    Read the bill text here. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: New Data Reveals Strong Economic Momentum

    US Senate News:

    Source: The White House
    “It’s no surprise the leftovers of Biden’s economic disaster have been a drag on economic growth, but the underlying numbers tell the real story of the strong momentum President Trump is delivering. Robust core GDP, the highest gross domestic investment in four years, job growth, and trillions of dollars in new investments secured by President Trump are fueling an economic boom and setting the stage for unprecedented growth as President Trump ushers in the new Golden Age.” — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
    Here are the facts:
    GDP is a backward-looking indicator. Today’s headline figure reflects the end of the Biden economic disaster, not the beginning of the economic boom that President Trump is delivering.
    January growth, especially in consumer spending — which has an outsized weight on the Q1 figure — was hampered by colder-than-usual weather and California wildfires, and mostly occurred before President Trump took office.

    Core GDP grew at a robust 3.0%. This signals strong underlying economic momentum that occurred after President Trump’s inauguration.
    Gross domestic investment soared by 22%. This is the highest in four years and comes as businesses and consumers — bolstered by rising take-home pay — fuel an economic boom.
    Monthly indicators, which capture growth trends at a much higher frequency, all point to accelerating growth AFTER President Trump took office. Private employment gains, consumer spending, capital investment, and aggregate hours worked have all accelerated since January, while inflation has decelerated.
    An unprecedented surge in imports due to tariff frontrunning contributed to most of the decline.
    The forward-looking indicators highlight the momentum that has occurred in anticipation of President Trump’s economic agenda. Exports still rose at a healthy 1.8% rate, implying no major disruption to flow of U.S. goods and services to our trading partners abroad.

    MIL OSI USA News –