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  • MIL-OSI Global: As a neuroscientist, I’ve seen the impact of harsh words on children’s brains. We need to prevent childhood verbal abuse

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Eamon McCrory, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology, UCL

    21March/Shutterstock

    Harsh words can wound – and when directed at children, they can have a lifelong impact.

    Research has shown that when words are routinely used by the adults in their lives to humiliate, shame or control children, they can alter the developing brain. A 2023 study of over 20,500 UK adults found that one in five reported having been verbally abused as children.

    Definitions of verbal abuse vary, but it is generally characterised by a sustained pattern of behaviour where criticism, threats or rejection of the child leads them to feel routinely belittled, blamed, threatened, frightened or ridiculed. This is not the same as occasionally losing your temper with your children and saying something hurtful in the heat of the moment.

    I and colleagues believe this shapes how a child sees the world, others, and themselves. Exposure to abuse, including verbal abuse, leads to an increased risk of anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and drug use in later life.

    It has an impact on forming trusting relationships as an adult. Yet despite its devastating consequences, verbal abuse remains largely overlooked in public debate and policy.

    Preventing verbal abuse – along with all forms of child abuse and neglect – is more than just a moral imperative. It is essential for healthy brain development and lifelong wellbeing.

    Changes in the brain

    I was among the experts brought together by Jessica Bondy, founder of the Words Matter charity, in the House of Commons in April 2025 to discuss the prevention of childhood verbal abuse.

    As a neuroscientist, I have spent decades using brain imaging to understand how early adversity and trauma, including verbal abuse, can shape a young person’s development. We now know that emotional abuse, including consistently hostile or demeaning language from adults, can significantly alter the way a child’s brain perceives and reacts to the world.

    Several key brain systems are affected. For example, our threat system normally helps us stay safe by detecting danger and triggering a quick response – the well-known “fight or flight” reaction.

    But in children subjected to frequent abuse, including verbal abuse, this system becomes hyperactive. Even neutral social cues – a facial expression, or a joke or well-meaning comment – can be misinterpreted as threatening.

    Verbal abuse also affects how children form relationships. In healthy development, warm verbal and non-verbal exchanges with caregivers – praise, compliments, thoughtful understanding – help teach children how to establish secure and healthy relationships. They also help them build self-worth and social confidence.

    Warm exchanges help children build healthy relationships.
    fizkes/Shutterstock

    But verbal abuse, along with other forms of childhood maltreatment, can blunt the brain’s reward system. The brain becomes less responsive to positive experiences.

    We believe that these brain adaptations can alter how a maltreated child builds their social world. They may help the child survive in an adverse social environment, but over time they accrue long-term costs. It becomes harder to trust others; harder to navigate relationships; harder to believe you are of real value and truly lovable.

    Lifelong consequences

    By adulthood, the risk is that a repeated cycle of interpersonal stress and rupture is established. Romantic relationships can be destabilised by deep-seated fears of abandonment or rejection.

    Those early wounds fold into our sense of self, creating an enduring lens through which the world is perceived. It can be a struggle to feel at ease in one own’s mind, or safe in the mind of another.

    In addition to my research work at UCL, I am CEO of Anna Freud, a charity dedicated to transforming mental health support through evidence-based care, cutting-edge research, professional training and accessible resources. In our clinical work at Anna Freud, we have seen countless young people and adults struggle with the verbal messages they have received growing up.

    Harsh language sticks because we are biologically wired to privilege negative and threatening information for our own protection. These verbal wounds underpin so much later anxiety, pain and distress. Adults can spend decades trying to compensate to prove those words wrong.

    We need to shine a light on the impact of verbal abuse, helping parents, carers, teachers and all adults in a child’s life understand the power of their words. This does not imply that poor behaviour should go unchecked; children still need clear limits and honest corrective feedback. However, it does mean creating environments – at home, at school, in communities – where children are spoken to with respect, encouragement and care.

    Verbal abuse is not an inevitable part of growing up. It is preventable. And the science is clear: ending it is essential to safeguarding healthy brain development and improving life-long mental health outcomes. Society as a whole will benefit, with a new generation more likely to thrive in education and employment.

    We need to ensure every child is nurtured by words that build them up, not tear them down.

    Eamon McCrory has received funding from ESRC, MRC and NSPCC.

    – ref. As a neuroscientist, I’ve seen the impact of harsh words on children’s brains. We need to prevent childhood verbal abuse – https://theconversation.com/as-a-neuroscientist-ive-seen-the-impact-of-harsh-words-on-childrens-brains-we-need-to-prevent-childhood-verbal-abuse-255533

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI China: Foreign Minister Lin concludes successful visit to Eswatini, elevating bilateral relations to new heights

    Source: Republic of Taiwan – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

    Foreign Minister Lin concludes successful visit to Eswatini, elevating bilateral relations to new heights

    • Date：2025-04-27
    • Data Source：Department of West Asian and African Affairs

    April 27, 2025  

    No. 122  

    On April 26, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung, serving as a special presidential envoy, successfully completed a five-day visit to Eswatini and returned to Taiwan.

    On the final day of the trip, Special Envoy Lin announced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would cooperate with Big Game Parks, an Eswatini wildlife conservation organization, and contribute one million emalangeni to assist the protection of rhinoceros habitat. The donation was witnessed by Eswatini Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Pholile Shakantu and Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs Jane Mkhonta-Simelane. In a gesture symbolizing the friendship between Taiwan and Eswatini, Special Envoy Lin named a newborn baby rhino in the national park Formosa. The announcement represented a further expansion of the scope of bilateral collaboration into the sphere of preserving ecological diversity.

    In his remarks, Special Envoy Lin thanked Big Game Parks for its contributions to conservation. He said that Taiwan attached great importance to biodiversity and understood that every species played an indispensable role in human survival. Special Envoy Lin explained that as well as prioritizing conservation work, the government of Taiwan had also enacted the Wildlife Conservation Act and incorporated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora into national law. He added that Taiwan had worked hard to protect plants and animals at home and abroad to stop illegal exploitation of natural resources. Looking ahead, Special Envoy Lin said he hoped Taiwan and Eswatini would continue to jointly engage in related efforts.

    Acting on behalf of President Lai Ching-te, Special Envoy Lin led a large delegation including industry representatives to Eswatini from April 21 to 26 to join celebrations for the 57th birthday of King Mswati III. The visit demonstrated Taiwan’s high regard for Eswatini and further deepened the cordial relations and constructive cooperation between the two countries. 

    During the trip, Special Envoy Lin had audiences with the king and queen mother of Eswatini and met with other senior officials including the prime minister and foreign minister. He discussed bilateral cooperation plans and signed memorandums and joint statements that covered areas such as providing medical care, building 5G infrastructure, countering disinformation, and conserving wildlife. Special Envoy Lin also visited the referral and emergency complex and operating theater of Mbabane Government Hospital, which were built with assistance from Taiwan, as well as a factory that receives investment from local Taiwanese businesspeople.

    The successful trip further strengthened Taiwan-Eswatini diplomatic ties, broadened cooperation between the two nations, demonstrated Taiwan’s active contributions to the international community, and laid even more solid foundations for the countries to progress toward common prosperity. (E)

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: MOFA demands Somali government immediately revoke notification to airline operators not to accept Taiwan passport for travel to Somalia

    Source: Republic of Taiwan – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

    MOFA demands Somali government immediately revoke notification to airline operators not to accept Taiwan passport for travel to Somalia

    • Date：2025-04-29
    • Data Source：Department of West Asian and African Affairs

    April 29, 2025  

    No. 128  

    The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) on April 22 issued a notification to all airline operators and stakeholders that, starting from April 30, passports and related travel documents issued by Taiwan and its subordinate authorities could no longer be used to enter, exit, or transit through Somalia. The SCAA stated that the Somali government’s decision was made in line with the “one China principle” based on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2758. 

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) strongly protests Somalia’s imposition of restrictions on Taiwan nationals’ freedom and safety of travel at China’s instigation. It demands that the government of Somalia immediately revoke this notification. MOFA also solemnly refutes and strongly condemns the Somali government’s misrepresentation of UNGA Resolution 2758, conflation of the resolution with the so-called “one China principle,” and propagation of the falsehood that Taiwan is subordinate to the People’s Republic of China.

    MOFA and the Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland as well as the government of Somaliland have jointly requested that like-minded nations and international organizations take concrete steps to press for the abjuration of this wrongful action. To ensure Taiwan nationals’ travel safety and convenience, MOFA reminds them not to travel to either Somalia or Somaliland until the Somali government revokes the notification.

    Since declaring independence in 1991, Somaliland has held four presidential elections. It enjoys political stability and a deepening democracy. Somaliland and Taiwan are like-minded countries that uphold freedom and democracy. The Somali government controls Somaliland’s airspace, and its crass efforts to halt interactions between peoples of democratic nations have a deleterious effect on the situation in the Horn of Africa. MOFA will provide timely updates should there be subsequent developments. (E) 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Three Trustees appointed to the Imperial War Museum

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Three Trustees appointed to the Imperial War Museum

    The Prime Minister has appointed Professor Dame Janet Beer, Emma Loxton and Sheena Wagstaff as Trustees of the Imperial War Museum for a four year term from 1 March 2025 to 31 October 2028.

    Professor Dame Janet Beer

    Professor Dame Janet Beer was the Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes 2007-2015 and at the University of Liverpool 2015-2022. She was President of Universities UK 2017-2019 and was awarded a Damehood in the New Years Honours list 2018 for services to higher education and equality and diversity. She is Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance; a Member of the Board of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle; an Independent Governor of Northumbria University; a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum; Trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust and serves on the National Leadership Advisory Board, Cabinet Office. She is also Patron of the Mark Evison Foundation which exists to provide opportunities for young people to undertake personally designed challenges.

    Emma Loxton

    Emma Loxton is a partner at McKinsey & Company where she co-leads McKinsey’s work with defence, transport, and industrial companies in the UK. Emma has over 15 years’ experience advising institutions in the private sector on strategy and transformation. She has provided extensive pro bono support to arts institutions and homelessness charities in the UK on strategy and financial sustainability.

    Sheena Wagstaff

    Sheena Wagstaff is former Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, honored in 2022 as Chair Emerita. Her tenure was distinguished by leading The Met Breuer, establishing a transnational collection of modern and contemporary art, initiating an acclaimed exhibition program plus two series of artist commissions within the context of the museum’s global collections spanning 5,000 years. As Chief Curator of Tate Modern (2001-12), she commissioned artists for the Turbine Hall and devised the exhibition program. Working at leadership level for 30 years for institutions with strong civic values, she was previously Head of Exhibitions & Displays at Tate Britain, and Director of Collections, Exhibitions & Education at the Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh. Wagstaff has extensive experience collaborating with architects on capital design projects, including David Chipperfield Architects, Herzog & De Meuron, Selldorf Architects, and others. She serves on the Professional Fine Arts Committee of the Foundation for Art & Preservation in Embassies, Washington DC; the International Advisory Committee of Istanbul Modern; the Advisory Board of Delfina Foundation, London.

    Remuneration and Governance Code

    Trustees of the Imperial War Museum are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments.

    The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Dame Janet Beer declared that she canvassed on behalf of the Labour Party in 1997. Emma Loxton is married to Gareth Davies CB, who is the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business and Trade. Sheena Wagstaff has not declared any significant political activity.

    Updates to this page

    Published 30 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: The CMA’s approach to the new consumer enforcement regime

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Speech

    The CMA’s approach to the new consumer enforcement regime

    Speech delivered by Emma Cochrane, Acting Executive Director, Consumer Protection at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

    Introduction

    As everyone here will know, now is a pivotal time in consumer enforcement with direct enforcement. Today I want to talk about how we at the CMA are implementing our consumer protection work under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act (DMCCA).  

    This is a time of change and that’s exciting, including for me personally, as I take on the leadership of our consumer function. But importantly, what hasn’t changed is the CMA’s purpose, and our statutory mandate to promote competition and protect consumers.

    Those fundamentals remain. The protection of consumers – people – in the UK underpins everything that we do. The consumer welfare standard is central to competition policy and with the changes brought in by the DMCCA we have the opportunity to do our consumer protection work more effectively, more quickly and – hopefully – with even better outcomes for people in the UK.  

    In its steer the government emphasised the importance of the CMA using its consumer enforcement powers under the DMCCA. And, in particular, that the CMA should use its consumer enforcement functions to help to support economic growth and investment. 

    The CMA’s ambition for consumer protection

    The CMA’s ambition is an effective and independent consumer protection regime, which safeguards UK consumer interests and gives people the confidence they need that the CMA is standing up for them.   

    An effective consumer protection regime should also give fair dealing businesses the confidence to grow and invest on a level playing-field, knowing that their competitors cannot gain an unfair advantage by breaking the law. 

    We, together with other regulators, have been called upon to support the government’s push to unlock barriers to growth. Growth which will improve quality of life and ultimately support long-term prosperity for everyone in the UK.  

    To me, it is absolutely clear that free and fair competition and effective consumer protection support growth. And consumer protection does this in two ways.  

    First, enforcing consumer protection law protects people from harmful and unfair treatment. Protected consumers are confident consumers. When consumers are confident about spending money, markets thrive. Consumers need clear, accurate information about price and the other key features of products and services they buy so they can shop confidently and find the best deal for them. They need to be able to trust reviews of products on which they rely. They shouldn’t be misled into paying for goods or services they don’t want or would not choose if they had the full picture. And they need to be able to exercise their legal rights when things go wrong – when something they buy online doesn’t look how they expect or when goods or services simply are not fit for purpose. 

    Second, consumer protection supports growth when it levels the playing field on which businesses compete. Businesses can compete vigorously on the prices and quality of their products and services confident that their competitors are playing by the same rules and can’t gain an advantage by breaking the law. That way, businesses are incentivised to become more productive and innovative, rather than relying on unfair practices. As with competition enforcement, business and investor confidence in the level playing field is strengthened, with wider benefits across the economy. 

    Priorities in our first 12 months of direct enforcement

    With that ambition in mind, the CMA has 2 core priorities over the next 12 months. First to support compliance and help businesses to do the right thing. And second, to take action to protect consumers from harm where we see egregious breaches of the law.   

    On compliance, we will be continuing our extensive engagement with stakeholders across the business and advisory community as well as with consumer groups and other enforcers. We want to continue the dialogue that we have been building with business including through the CMA’s new Growth and Investment Council.  

    And we also want to make clear that we have listened to and acted upon the feedback we have received so far. In our consultation process, we heard that our guidance was overly long and too complex – making it difficult for non-lawyers to understand. So, we responded. Our unfair commercial practices guidance includes over 50 examples of how the law will apply in real life scenarios. And we published shorter, more digestible guides for businesses on unfair commercial practices and fake reviews.  

    Now, we are looking for views on how to further develop our guidance. We want to hear from you about the areas where you – or your clients – are still unclear about how to comply with consumer law. Where is there a need for further clarity? Where is there a need for greater predictability on how the CMA will take enforcement action? We want to hear from you and we will take these views into account when deciding which areas to prioritise because it is in everyone’s interests for businesses to get it right. When businesses comply, everyone benefits.    

    In terms of our priorities for the first 12 months our early enforcement action is likely to focus on more egregious practices where the law is clear. We have set out examples in our approach document, so that businesses have transparency on how the CMA intends to operate in the early days. We will focus on the more serious cases of consumer harm, for example: 

    • aggressive sales practices that prey on consumers especially those in vulnerable position
    • where information has been provided to consumers that is objectively false
    • where contract terms are in place that are clearly imbalanced and unfair

    In choosing which cases to pursue, we will continue to apply our public prioritisation principles – looking at whether we are best placed, whether we can be effective and really shift behaviour to create better outcomes for consumers.

    We will also continue to focus on areas of essential spend, to help people struggling with pressure on household budget. It’s always important that consumers are protected, but even more so when they have no choice but to engage with particular sectors. Our recent work in essential spend sectors includes heating, groceries and housing. We will be listening to what consumers say – including by engaging closely with consumer groups – to ensure we tackle issues the most important issues that matter to real people.

    New cases may well come out of the monitoring work we have been carrying out in the past few months. We have been monitoring business compliance with the new DMCCA provisions. It’s really positive to see that a number of businesses have changed their practices in response to the new regime coming into force. For those that haven’t changed their practices yet,we are continuing to monitor, and we will be making decisions about the cases which we will prioritise over the coming weeks.

    Approach to price transparency and fake reviews

    I wanted to talk briefly about the two main areas of change to substantive consumer law – the changes to the law on price transparency (or drip pricing) and the law on fake reviews. 

    Price transparency 

    On price transparency, section 230 of the DMCCA tells us that certain information has to be included in an invitation to purchase, including information about the total price of a product, which includes mandatory taxes, charges and other payments which the consumer will necessarily incur.  

    This provision has the effect of prohibiting drip pricing, which is where customers see a headline price and then, as they go through the transaction process, additional charges are added on, which means the final price ends up looking quite different to the advertised price. Government has published research estimating these unavoidable fees cost consumers £2.2 billion a year. It can also harm businesses that compete with a business that is drip pricing, because we know customers put a lot of weight on headline prices and so a business that complies with the law and presents a more expensive upfront price, may get fewer click throughs that one that conceals additional mandatory fees. We don’t think this is fair. 

    In our initial draft of the unfair commercial practices guidance, we set out guidance on how businesses could think about the requirement and could think about whether fees are mandatory or optional. We also provided guidance on particular types of contract such as fixed term monthly contracts.  

    We’ve received a lot of very helpful feedback from stakeholders who have asked questions about how this will work, often in an industry specific way, and who have suggested that some of the points we made in the guidance could result in unintended consequences. We want to reflect really carefully on how to answer those questions, on whether there are other ways to do things and to think about how to provide really clear guidance – noting of course that our remit covers all sectors across the economy.  

    For this reason, we have adopted a phased approach to the guidance. So what is set out in the recently published unfair commercial practices guidance is a slimmed down version of what the original draft provided, focusing on the core of drip pricing – untrailed, unexpected charges through the purchase process.  

    We will reflect on the feedback on some of the other aspects trailed in the draft Guidance and plan to re-consult on these in the summer, with new finalised guidance expected in the autumn. And we won’t take any enforcement cases on issues to be covered in this later guidance until it is published in its finalised form. 

    To round up on drip pricing, we were monitoring the pricing practices of a number of businesses as the DMCCA came into force. I am really pleased to say that many of the most serious and harmful examples of drip pricing were changed at the beginning of this month. This is a great outcome for consumers who will no longer be misled into clicking on a headline price that isn’t what they will ultimately pay. And it is also a great outcome for competitors of those businesses who can now compete fairly on price/on a LPF. But not all businesses have changed their practices and of those that did change their practices, not all will have come far enough so we are continuing to look at pricing practices across the economy, and where we have concerns about compliance, businesses can expect to hear from us.  

    Fake reviews 

    Turning now to fake reviews, which are covered in a new banned practice introduced in the DMCCA. Various practices involved in the supply chain for fake reviews are now prohibited including, creating reviews that conceal the fact they have been incentivised, and publishing reviews in a misleading way. It also imposes a duty on anyone who publishes reviews or review information to take effective steps to prevent and remove from publication fake and concealed incentivised reviews and false or misleading review information. 

    This is a new banned practice – but it is worth noting the CMA has been active in this space for a while. You may have seen that the CMA recently agreed undertakings with Google relating to its reviews practices and has an open investigation into Amazon. That followed undertakings signed with Facebook and eBay in relation to the sale of fake reviews on those platforms. And the CMA has previously taken action against sixteen influencers for not labelling endorsements as advertisements on social media, as well as the Instagram platform for not doing enough to tackle these practices on its platforms.

    Although we could already, and have already, tackled fake reviews under our existing powers, we recognise that the new provisions create very specific obligations on businesses that need to be operationalised and these may require changes to systems and compliance programmes.

    During our engagement with stakeholders, we have heard that businesses need time to bed these in, and so for the first 3 months of the new regime we will focus primarily on supporting businesses with their compliance efforts rather than taking enforcement action straight out the gates.

    But that is, of course, not to say that we won’t be doing anything until July. Our fake reviews enforcement strategy mirrors the new banned practice. We are looking across the fake reviews value chain and thinking about when and how to take enforcement action all across it. We are using the most up to date tech to help us to identify potential infringements at scale. We know customers rely on review data when taking decisions about which products to buy and the law now gives us the tools to hold to account those that fail to comply.

    Implementing the 4Ps

    I will now talk about a bit about the how – how we intend to use our DMCCA powers. You may have heard that the CMA has recently introduced ‘the 4Ps’ – a programme of meaningful changes to how the CMA will go about all our work, including consumer protection focusing on delivering good processes at pace, proportionately and predictability. The 4Ps framework reflects feedback we sought and heard clearly from businesses and investors, as well as themes from the draft government steer. 

    The 4Ps will enable businesses and investors to have confidence in UK’s competition and consumer protection regimes, providing a regulatory environment which is conducive to growth. 

    Pace 

    The CMA is committed to reaching decisions under its consumer enforcement regime as swiftly as possible – we aim to bring consumer harm to an end quickly and secure redress for consumers where appropriate. Of course, we must ensure decisions are robust, that processes are fair and that we respect the rights of defense of those we investigate.  

    To achieve this – first – we plan to publish timetables at the outset of investigations, so businesses are clear on what to expect and when. Our new case management system means that we will be able to administer cases more efficiently. We will use our information gathering powers in a targeted way, minimising the burden for businesses wherever possible whilst also being mindful of the need for our teams to have a full understanding of the conduct we are investigating and the context in which that takes place. 

    Where we can, we will seek to streamline cases, focusing on the most important areas of concern and dropping less important areas quickly. We will seek early resolution of cases where it is appropriate to do so through settlement. 

    Pace is a two-way street: we expect businesses and their advisers to play their part in progressing cases at pace. Parties will be expected to respond to information notices fully and on time, to work with us constructively and identify where there are issues they can be resolved or agreed early in the process.  

    Predictability 

    Core to predictability is our focus on helping businesses comply, in part by issuing further guidance that I have already spoken about. We know that at the start of a new regime there is an inherent level of uncertainty and we have worked hard to set out how we expect the regime to operate going forward. We are committing to communicating with businesses fairly and openly during the course of investigations. And as time progresses, businesses will be able to rely on the CMA’s precedent decisions to predict how consumer law could apply to different scenarios. 

    We are also exploring further ways to give businesses clarity on conduct which does not infringe the law, in particular, in areas where there is no legal precedent. And we are exploring new opportunities for businesses to seek advice for conduct they are considering introducing. 

    Proportionality 

    The burden of following the rules must be proportionate especially for small businesses. We recognise that businesses need time to review their compliance activities – our early enforcement action will focus on more egregious conduct and conduct where businesses should already be clear about their legal obligations as there is a clear marker in guidance or past cases.  

    The CMA will prioritise consumer redress, recognising that our primary focus is on stopping consumer harm. In determining the level of any penalty, we will take account of proactive steps businesses have taken to correct wrongdoing. We will also invest in monitoring the effectiveness of all our remedies, to ensure that where we do take action, it has the impact we hope to achieve.  

    Process 

    Finally the CMA intends to implement a process which works for all businesses, large and small, constructively and collaboratively. For that reason the CMA has consulted on its guidance extensively, both through formal consultations and business roundtables.  

    In terms of engagement throughout the lifetime of a case, the CMA’s direct enforcement process, has a lot of parallels with the competition process – and so businesses and their advisors can expect similar opportunities to engage on a case. 

    Leveraging the CMA’s expertise

    Finally, I wanted to talk briefly about an important topic which will be discussed later in one of the panel sessions later this afternoon including my colleague Karen Croxson, our Chief Data, Technology and Insight Officer. How at the CMA we intend to use the full range of our tools, including our in-house digital, data, technological and behavioural expertise.  

    Our data team provide invaluable input to our consumer function across the life cycle of our cases. From helping us draw on the very latest technology to identify at scale traders that may be infringing the law; to informing our prioritisation decisions; to gathering evidence, simulating consumer journeys to an evidential standard; evaluating evidence submitted by parties, and then all the way through to supporting our case teams with design and evaluation of potential remedies. We work closely with our DTI team and will continue to do so even more closely as we move into a direct enforcement model.  

    Of course, whether a commercial practice or contract term is illegal is, ultimately, a legal question. Exactly what types of evidence will be needed to prove an infringement will vary case by case. Behavioural evidence can shine a light on how consumers respond, but it won’t always be necessary or proportionate to undertake extensive complex analysis.  

    The expertise of the data team is also incredibly valuable in informing our work in supporting compliance including through guidance and principles we publish for businesses. The team provided extensive input into our discount and reference pricing principles in the mattress sector and in other papers and research published by the CMA – for example our Online Choice Architecture evidence review.  

    I’m looking forward to hearing more on this topic in the panel discussion later this afternoon.  

    Concluding remarks

    I would like to finish by re-emphasising the role an effective CMA consumer enforcement function has in today’s world. Effective, proportionate consumer protection will protect and safeguard UK consumer interests and should give UK consumers the confidence they need that the CMA is standing up for them. And when consumers are confident about spending their money, markets thrive.  

    An effective consumer protection regime should also give fair dealing businesses the confidence to grow and invest on a level playing-field, knowing that their competitors cannot gain an unfair advantage by breaking the law. 

    Reflecting the strategic steer from government, the CMA will use its new powers to properly and independently exercise our statutory function of consumer protection – promoting consumer trust and confidence and deterring poor corporate practices. I am confident this approach will deliver robust protections for consumers and support economic growth. 

    Thank you very much for listening.  

    Updates to this page

    Published 30 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: With the support of Rosneft, Reindeer Herders’ Day was celebrated in Taimyr

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    RN-Vankor (part of the Rosneft oil and gas complex) acted as the general partner of the main holiday of the indigenous peoples of the North – Reindeer Herders’ Day in the Taimyr village of Nosok. The event became the key cultural event of the already traditional EcoArctic forum, held in Krasnoyarsk Krai – the territory of the implementation of the flagship project of the Company Vostok Oil.

    The most spectacular part of the festival was the reindeer sled race. More than 300 participants competed for the title of the fastest musher in men’s, women’s and youth races.

    The indigenous people took part in northern competitions: jumping over sleds, pulling a stick and throwing a maut on a khorey (a lasso is thrown onto a long pole used to drive reindeer). The ethnic site also hosted a national clothing competition, women presented northern cuisine dishes made from fish and reindeer meat, and arts and crafts. The winners of all competitions received gifts from the oil workers.

    The event ended with a large festive concert with the participation of local creative groups.

    More than 1.5 thousand people live in the village of Nosok, of which almost 90% are representatives of indigenous peoples leading a nomadic lifestyle. Preservation of the national culture and traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples of the North is one of the significant areas of Rosneft’s social policy.

    Oil workers build housing for the indigenous population, develop the infrastructure of northern villages, help families of reindeer herders, improve the material and technical base of educational institutions, social facilities and healthcare institutions in the areas of traditional residence of the indigenous peoples of the North.

    Reference:

    RN-Vankor LLC, a subsidiary of Rosneft, is the operator for the implementation of the largest oil and gas production project Vostok Oil in the north of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It includes 60 licensed areas, including the Vankor and Payakh cluster fields.

    Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft April 30, 2025

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Foreign Minister Lin concludes successful visit to Eswatini, elevating bilateral relations to new heights

    Source: Republic of China Taiwan

    Foreign Minister Lin concludes successful visit to Eswatini, elevating bilateral relations to new heights

    Date：2025-04-27
    Data Source：Department of West Asian and African Affairs

    April 27, 2025  
    No. 122  

    On April 26, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung, serving as a special presidential envoy, successfully completed a five-day visit to Eswatini and returned to Taiwan.

    On the final day of the trip, Special Envoy Lin announced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would cooperate with Big Game Parks, an Eswatini wildlife conservation organization, and contribute one million emalangeni to assist the protection of rhinoceros habitat. The donation was witnessed by Eswatini Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Pholile Shakantu and Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs Jane Mkhonta-Simelane. In a gesture symbolizing the friendship between Taiwan and Eswatini, Special Envoy Lin named a newborn baby rhino in the national park Formosa. The announcement represented a further expansion of the scope of bilateral collaboration into the sphere of preserving ecological diversity.

    In his remarks, Special Envoy Lin thanked Big Game Parks for its contributions to conservation. He said that Taiwan attached great importance to biodiversity and understood that every species played an indispensable role in human survival. Special Envoy Lin explained that as well as prioritizing conservation work, the government of Taiwan had also enacted the Wildlife Conservation Act and incorporated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora into national law. He added that Taiwan had worked hard to protect plants and animals at home and abroad to stop illegal exploitation of natural resources. Looking ahead, Special Envoy Lin said he hoped Taiwan and Eswatini would continue to jointly engage in related efforts.

    Acting on behalf of President Lai Ching-te, Special Envoy Lin led a large delegation including industry representatives to Eswatini from April 21 to 26 to join celebrations for the 57th birthday of King Mswati III. The visit demonstrated Taiwan’s high regard for Eswatini and further deepened the cordial relations and constructive cooperation between the two countries. 

    During the trip, Special Envoy Lin had audiences with the king and queen mother of Eswatini and met with other senior officials including the prime minister and foreign minister. He discussed bilateral cooperation plans and signed memorandums and joint statements that covered areas such as providing medical care, building 5G infrastructure, countering disinformation, and conserving wildlife. Special Envoy Lin also visited the referral and emergency complex and operating theater of Mbabane Government Hospital, which were built with assistance from Taiwan, as well as a factory that receives investment from local Taiwanese businesspeople.

    The successful trip further strengthened Taiwan-Eswatini diplomatic ties, broadened cooperation between the two nations, demonstrated Taiwan’s active contributions to the international community, and laid even more solid foundations for the countries to progress toward common prosperity. (E)

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: MOFA demands Somali government immediately revoke notification to airline operators not to accept Taiwan passport for travel to Somalia

    Source: Republic of China Taiwan

    MOFA demands Somali government immediately revoke notification to airline operators not to accept Taiwan passport for travel to Somalia

    Date：2025-04-29
    Data Source：Department of West Asian and African Affairs

    April 29, 2025  
    No. 128  
    The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) on April 22 issued a notification to all airline operators and stakeholders that, starting from April 30, passports and related travel documents issued by Taiwan and its subordinate authorities could no longer be used to enter, exit, or transit through Somalia. The SCAA stated that the Somali government’s decision was made in line with the “one China principle” based on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2758. 

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) strongly protests Somalia’s imposition of restrictions on Taiwan nationals’ freedom and safety of travel at China’s instigation. It demands that the government of Somalia immediately revoke this notification. MOFA also solemnly refutes and strongly condemns the Somali government’s misrepresentation of UNGA Resolution 2758, conflation of the resolution with the so-called “one China principle,” and propagation of the falsehood that Taiwan is subordinate to the People’s Republic of China.

    MOFA and the Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland as well as the government of Somaliland have jointly requested that like-minded nations and international organizations take concrete steps to press for the abjuration of this wrongful action. To ensure Taiwan nationals’ travel safety and convenience, MOFA reminds them not to travel to either Somalia or Somaliland until the Somali government revokes the notification.

    Since declaring independence in 1991, Somaliland has held four presidential elections. It enjoys political stability and a deepening democracy. Somaliland and Taiwan are like-minded countries that uphold freedom and democracy. The Somali government controls Somaliland’s airspace, and its crass efforts to halt interactions between peoples of democratic nations have a deleterious effect on the situation in the Horn of Africa. MOFA will provide timely updates should there be subsequent developments. (E) 

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: During visit to Eswatini, Foreign Minister Lin meets with Prime Minister Dlamini and announces additional funding for women’s microfinance revolving fund

    Source: Republic of China Taiwan

    April 24, 2025
    No. 115

    Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung is currently visiting Eswatini as President Lai Ching-te’s special envoy. He continues to carry out important engagements in Taiwan’s African ally. 
     
    On the morning of April 23, the second day of his visit, Special Envoy Lin called on Prime Minister Russell Dlamini to thank him for his friendship with Taiwan. Prime Minister Dlamini, who assumed office in November 2023, led a delegation to Taiwan in March 2024. In the same year, he spoke up for Taiwan on behalf of the government of Eswatini at major international events, including the United Nations General Assembly and the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, demonstrating staunch support for the diplomatic alliance between the two countries.
     
    Prime Minister Dlamini warmly welcomed Special Envoy Lin to Eswatini and thanked Taiwan for its long-standing support. He reaffirmed that relations with Taiwan were rock-solid and emphasized that Eswatini, as a sovereign nation, had the right to choose its own friends without being influenced by other countries. He underlined that Eswatini was firmly committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with Taiwan.
     
    Also on the morning of April 23, Special Envoy Lin joined Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Pholile Shakantu; Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo; and other high-level officials at an event to showcase the results of a microfinance revolving fund implemented by Taiwan and Eswatini to help women start businesses.
     
    In his remarks, Special Envoy Lin stated that Taiwan had announced an investment of US$1 million to establish the revolving fund in September 2023. He said the program provided start-up loans for women in rural areas, increased household incomes, and contributed to the economic and social development of Eswatini. In the past year or more since the fund was launched, over 500 loans had been approved, leading to changes in people’s lives and helping women achieve economic independence, he added. Highlighting a touching result of the initiative, Special Envoy Lin noted that one beneficiary had named her newborn baby Taiwan to thank Taiwan for its assistance. He further announced that the Taiwan government would inject an additional US$500,000 into the fund to further expand the virtuous cycle.  Special Envoy Lin said this underscored Taiwan’s strong commitment to economic empowerment in Eswatini.
     
    Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Dladla recalled her 2019 visit to Taiwan as foreign minister, during which she presented a proposal to the Taiwan government for the revolving fund on behalf of Queen Mother Ntombi Tfwala. She said that in 2020 the Technical Mission of the International Cooperation and Development Fund in Eswatini had introduced the Women’s Microenterprise Mentoring and Capacity Building Project, under which more than 6,000 women had received entrepreneurship skills training. Deputy Prime Minister Dladla said this was followed by a bilateral cooperation agreement to launch the fund, signed at a ceremony witnessed by the heads of state of both nations in September 2023. She praised the results that the program had achieved since it was launched just over a year ago in effectively giving women in rural areas of Eswatini an avenue to finance their start-up plans.
     
    Around 100 beneficiaries of the fund attended the event. Participants sang classic Taiwanese songs such as “Fight to Win,” creating a warm and lively atmosphere. Special Envoy Lin presented a stuffed leopard cat to the child named Taiwan, highlighting the profound friendship between Taiwan and Eswatini.
     
    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to work with the government of Eswatini to enhance the well-being of the peoples of both countries and further deepen bilateral relations. (E)

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China’s National Health Commission answers questions on white paper from press

    Source: People’s Republic of China Ministry of Health

    BEIJING — China’s State Council Information Office on Wednesday released a white paper titled “Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China’s Actions and Stance.”

    The National Health Commission has responded to questions raised by the press regarding the white paper.

    Q1: What’s the background of issuing the white paper, Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins-Tracing: China’s Actions and Stance, and what information does it contain?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has been open and transparent in sharing information, and generous and selfless in providing aid. Its efforts in response and commitment to transparency have been highly acclaimed by the international community. However, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri accused China of “hoarding medical supplies” and ruled that China must pay Missouri 24.49 billion USD in compensation for COVID-related losses; and recently, an article published on the official website of the White House blamed the origin of the virus on China, where some US politicians made spurious allegations, accusing China of concealing pandemic information from the world and hoarding medical supplies.

    In such context, China released this white paper to present a systematic overview of China’s key achievement in tracing the origins of Covid-19, to attest to its contribution to international cooperation in the response to the global pandemic, and to advance scientific endeavors and foster global collaboration as a responsible major country in this critical domain. Despite being the world’s largest economy and most developed country, the US failed to make contributions commensurate with its capabilities; even worse, it blamed its own problems on others and sabotaged collaborative global efforts to address the crisis. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns such practice.

    The white paper contains a preface, the main body, and a conclusion, in total 14,000 Chinese characters. The main body has three chapters: “Contributing Chinese Wisdom to the Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2”, “China’s Contribution to the Global Fight against Covid-19”, and “The Mismanaged Response of the US to the Covid-19 Pandemic”.

    Q2: How is the origins study of SARS-CoV-2 going in China? Where should the next step be taken?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has consistently dedicated substantial resources to collaborative research into the origins of the virus participated by Chinese and international scientists. Upholding its commitment to international responsibilities and scientific soundness with openness and transparency, the country spearheaded research initiatives in critical fields such as clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, and the identification of intermediate animal hosts. China closely cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the study of the virus origins with a strong sense of global responsibility and transparency, and in 2020 and 2021 invited WHO expert teams to China to carry out joint investigations. On March 30, 2021, the WHO organized a member state information session and press conference to present the findings about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and published the “WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part-Joint WHO-China Study” on its official website. To date, no findings have contradicted the conclusions of the “Joint WHO-China Study”.

    The next phase of the origins study should be conducted mainly in the US. A large number of studies have pinned the origin of the virus outside of China. A US CDC study reveals that out of 7,389 serological survey samples collected from nine states from December 13, 2019 to January 17, 2020, 106 were Covid-19 antibody positive. This suggests that the virus existed in the US before the first official case was identified. Similarly, the NIH “All of Us” Research Program tested 24,079 blood samples collected from participants across 50 states from January 2 to March 18, 2020, identifying nine containing Covid-19 antibodies. The earliest two were collected on January 7 and 8, respectively. These findings show that the virus was circulating in the US at a low level as early as December 2019, well before the first official cases were recorded. An expert associated with The Lancet suggested that SARS-CoV-2 might not have come from nature; instead, it probably came from an incident at a US bio-technology lab. Between 2006 and 2013, the US reported at least 1,500 serious laboratory incidents involving coronaviruses and other highly dangerous pathogens linked to diseases such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, anthrax, smallpox, and avian influenza.

    These questionable events all suggest that Covid-19 may have emerged earlier than the US official timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China. A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the US The US must not continue to turn a deaf ear to this call; rather, it should respond to the reasonable concern of the international community, share the data of earlier suspected cases with the WHO, and give a responsible answer to the world.

    Q3: How does China comment on the performance of the US in its response to Covid-19?

    A: The delayed and ineffective response to Covid-19 in the US made it the worst performing country in handling of the pandemic.

    In January 2020, the federal government of the US, choosing to downplay the severity of the transmission, labelled the novel coronavirus pneumonia as a case of “bad flu” which would “disappear” automatically one day, touted hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as “wonder drugs” without solid scientific evidence, and even advocated the use of detergents to control infections and transmissions, becoming a laughing stock in the scientific community. The US government also deprived its citizens of the right to be informed of updated pandemic information. From March 3, 2020, the US CDC stopped releasing key data on Covid-19, including tallying the people tested for the virus, on the grounds that its information might not be “accurate”. Over the next three years or so, people in the US could only find information about the pandemic from estimated data collected and reported by non-governmental institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University. By mid-April 2020, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US had exceeded 660,000. However, with an eye on the upcoming presidential elections, the Administration announced that the pandemic had “passed the peak,” and rushed to roll out plans to reopen the economy. Insisting that citizens should be “free to choose,” the government of Florida demanded schools across the state to reopen, leading to widespread infection among teachers and students.

    Covid-19 overwhelmed the costly and profit-driven US medical system, and vulnerable groups such as the impoverished, ethnic minorities, and senior citizens were the first to be abandoned in treatment. According to a report from the Associated Press in June 2020, of every 10 deaths in the US, eight were people over 65 years old. With a strained medical system, infected people could not receive timely care and death toll surged. The American people’s rights to life and health were in no way being guaranteed on an equal basis.

    Data from the US National Center for Health Statistics shows that the life expectancy in the country fell from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 in 2020, and further declined to 76.1 in 2021, a decrease of 2.7 years from 2019. For comparison, life expectancy in China rose from 77.3 years in 2019, to 77.93 in 2020, 78.2 in 2021, 78.3 in 2022, and 78.6 in 2023, signaling a steady improvement in population health.

    US CDC data released in May 2023 revealed that deaths due to Covid-19 in the US totaled 1.13 million, accounting for 16.4 percent of concurrent global deaths reported by the WHO. These figures were out of alignment with the overall population size, economic strength, and level of medical technology of the US, and were indicative of its ineffective and unscientific response policies.

    The US not only botched its own response to Covid-19, but also obstructed and sabotaged international cooperation in various ways. The deliberate concealment of information by the US government misled other countries and the WHO in the research and analysis of Covid-19 trends. The US government publicly announced that it would take an America First approach in vaccine supply and vaccination, keeping hoarding excess vaccines and agitating vaccine nationalism on the one hand, and waging a smear campaign to discredit China’s vaccines on the other. A US think tank criticized the US for its reluctance to provide foreign aid, saying this practice would expose the country as a “selfish isolationist when its help was most desperately needed.”

    Q4: The Missouri and other US state governments have initiated groundless lawsuits against China, holding China accountable for the pandemic. What is China’s comment on this?

    A: The groundless lawsuit of Missouri is a politically motivated farce orchestrated by state governments out of political self-interest that has ignored basic facts and violated fundamental legal norms. It is an affront to the sovereignty and dignity of all nations and to the international rule of law. China rejects such proceedings and will never accept a judgement delivered in absentia.

    The allegations in the judgement that China concealed pandemic information from the world and that China hoarded medical supplies are groundless. In the early stage of the outbreak, China provided clear information to the international community, adopting an open and transparent approach in releasing relevant information to the world. By May 31, 2020, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism and the Information Office of the State Council had held 161 press conferences, during which over 490 officials from more than 50 government departments answered over 1,400 questions from Chinese and foreign media.

    China tried every possible means to provide materials and assistance. From January 2020 to May 2022, China offered over 4.6 billion protective suits, 18 billion test kits, and 430 billion masks to 15 international organizations and 153 countries, including the US.

    In 2020, China sent 38 medical expert teams to 34 countries assisting in local pandemic control efforts, sharing China’s experience and practice in preventing and controlling the epidemic, and medical treatment plans.

    China made a significant contribution to the global fight against the pandemic, for which China deserves recognition and fair treatment, rather than blames and damage claims. In contrast, the incompetent responses of the Missouri state government led to a mortality rate ranking among the highest in the US Now the state government is trying to shift the blame for its failures, which is both irresponsible and unethical, a selfish and evading presence. China will never accede to demands for compensation claimed on baseless allegations, and will take resolute countermeasures in defense of its legitimate rights.

    Q5: How China played its roles as WHO member in global health governance?

    A: Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China lost no time in sharing information on the epidemic updates and genome sequencing to the international community including the WHO. China invited multiple WHO international expert missions to conduct joint research on its territory. China provided tremendous supplies and aid to the international community to the best of its ability and shared the experience of pandemic prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment. Constantly sticking to the shared idea of a community with a shared future for mankind, China has made significant contributions to the global fight against pandemic by carrying out international cooperations.

    In early 2020, the WHO dispatched warnings to the international community including the US, reminding of “a possible pandemic on a larger scale”. On April 10, the US government, which up till then had dismissed the WHO admonitions as sensational, began to accuse the media, WHO officials and Democratic congressmen of incompetence in fighting against the pandemic. On April 14, the US government announced for the first time that it would suspend funding to the WHO on the ground that the organization had not performed its fundamental duties.

    On January 20, 2025, the current US government again announced its withdrawal from the WHO on the excuses that it had failed in responding to the pandemic and yielded to China’s influence. Far from reflecting on its own incompetence during the pandemic, the US government has gone too far in shifting the blame, which will further harm its competence in responding to new emergencies to the public health.

    China supports the United Nations and the WHO in playing and enhancing their mandatory roles and the capacity building of global health governance. China has been, and will be, active in participating in the WHO’s efforts in preventing and responding to emergencies in public health, in implementing and amending the “International Health Regulations,” and in reviewing a “pandemic treaty.” China will be active in participating in the IPPPR of the WHO and its SAGO mission by contributing advice and opinions. China has contributed and will continue to contribute Chinese perspectives, solutions and strengths to building an efficient and sustainable global public health system for the benefit of all humanity and fortifying defenses for the lives and health of all. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: GD scheme’s care service launches

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Social Welfare Department today announced that the New Home Association has been commissioned to provide Social & Care Support Service under the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong starting from tomorrow to offer support to elderly participants and their families.

     

    The Social & Care Support Service is one of the measures announced in the 2024 Policy Address to help elderly participants of the scheme better adapt to life in residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) on the Mainland and receive timely assistance when needed.

     

    The association will provide support services for the elderly participants under the scheme, especially during the initial six-month trial period upon admission into the RCHEs.

     

    Such services will assist them in understanding the Mainland’s medical systems and care services, maintaining connections with their families in Hong Kong, and providing them with suitable advice and assistance in handling situations such as housing, medical care, and financial matters in Hong Kong.

     

    Continuous support will also be rendered in accordance with their needs upon completion of the trial period.

     

    The Social & Care Support Service will also conduct assessments under the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Services and follow up applications for Hong Kong seniors who have settled in Guangdong Province and are interested in joining the scheme at their places of residence.

     

    Click here for details.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri C.R. Patil reviews the Jalaj initiative and charts a new path for river conservation and livelihood generation

    Source: Government of India

    Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri C.R. Patil reviews the Jalaj initiative and charts a new path for river conservation and livelihood generation

    Along with conservation, Jalaj aims at creating economic opportunities and enhancing community participation in river rejuvenation efforts: Shri C R Patil

    Union minister lauds the innovative models developed under Jalaj and emphasizes the need to scale up successful practices across other major river basins

    Jalaj has empowered over 5,000 members of the boating community and supported more than 2,400 women in 42 districts across nine states

    Posted On: 30 APR 2025 3:50PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri C.R. Patil, chaired a review meeting to assess the progress of the Wildlife Institute of India’s livelihood-focused project JALAJ. The Jalaj program under the aegis of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), is a significant component of the Government’s Arth Ganga vision — linking people to rivers through sustainable economic activities. Along with livelihood focus, the project aims at creating societal awareness towards aquatic biodiversity conservation.

    Highlighting its pivotal role, the Union Minister emphasized that along with conservation, JALAJ aims at creating economic opportunities and enhancing community participation in river rejuvenation efforts. Jalaj has successfully connected river conservation with livelihood generation by promoting eco-tourism, sustainable farming, skill development, and artisanal production across the Ganga basin. The initiative aims at establish 75 Jalaj centers, with various models such as Dolphin Safaris, Homestays, Livelihood Centers, and Awareness & Sale Points etc. Jalaj has empowered over 5,000 members of the boating community and supported more than 2,400 women in 42 districts across nine states.

     

    It emerged in the review that JALAJ aims at symbiotic linkage between river and communities and helps in educating people on values of conserved Ganga river. The review noted that Jalaj has conducted 263 training programs and mass outreach efforts through digital and print media, including YouTube channel. Shri C.R. Patil reviewed efforts to further enhance the livelihood potential of Jalaj and stressed its role as a bridge connecting communities to river ecosystems, making river conservation an economically rewarding endeavour. He appreciated the innovative models developed under Jalaj and emphasized the need to scale up successful practices across other major river basins like the Godavari, Periyar, Pampa and Barak whose ecological assessments were also reviewed in the meeting.

    To further strengthen outreach and awareness, a dedicated Jalaj informative website was launched by Sh. C.R. Patil. The website serves as a comprehensive resource hub, offering detailed insights into various Jalaj models such as Homestays, Dolphin Safaris, Livelihood Training Centers, and Awareness and Sale Centers. It also showcases success stories on how the Jalaj initiative has empowered community members, particularly women, by linking them to marketing centers. The website displays a range of eco-friendly products crafted by Ganga Praharis and aims to create widespread awareness about threatened aquatic biodiversity, including the Ganga River Dolphin, crocodilians, freshwater turtles, and water birds.

    Additionally, a Jalaj Products Catalogue was launched which has been developed, profiling sustainably produced goods prepared at Jalaj Production Centers, categorized into stationery items, home décor, apparels, body and skincare, and edibles. Furthermore, “SaanskritikLehren,” a special feature under Jalaj, was released by Sh. C.R. Patil which highlights the cultural ecosystem service value of the Ganga River, emphasizing its deep connection with India’s heritage, traditions, and the livelihoods of millions. Jalaj’s success has been widely recognized. The Hon’ble President of India lauded it during Gaj Utsav 2023, and Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi mentioned Jalaj as a model for freshwater conservation in his “Mann Ki Baat” address and at ICCON 2023, Mysore.

    The Jalaj initiative, by linking conservation efforts with livelihood generation, stands today as a shining example of how environmental protection and socio-economic development can go hand-in-hand — truly realizing the vision of Arth Ganga.

    ***

    Dhanya Sanal K

    Director

    (Release ID: 2125460) Visitor Counter : 98

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI: Real Matters Reports Second Quarter Financial Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    TORONTO, April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Real Matters Inc. (TSX: REAL) (“Real Matters” or the “Company”), a leading network management services platform for the mortgage and insurance industries, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended March 31, 2025.

    “We posted consolidated Net Revenue(A) of $10.1 million compared with $11.5 million in the second quarter of 2024 mainly due to a double-digit decline in the addressable U.S. purchase mortgage origination market. We continue to maintain our focus on operational efficiency and leveraged our network management model to deliver U.S. Appraisal Net Revenue(A) margins of 27.3% in the second quarter, up 80 basis points sequentially. Our U.S. Title segment delivered strong year-over-year growth driven by net market share gains with clients and higher refinance origination market volumes; refinance origination revenue was up 40% year-over-year and Net Revenue(A) for the segment was up 32%,” said Real Matters Chief Executive Officer Brian Lang. “With $45.7 million in cash and no debt, Real Matters remains well positioned for current market conditions and we are primed to scale up.”

    “As we have experienced in the past, economic and financial market uncertainties can create significant opportunity for the mortgage industry. Even minor decreases in interest rates like those we saw last fall can have a significant positive impact on origination volumes – especially from today’s historical low volumes. With nearly 10 million outstanding mortgages with rates above 6%, and nearly 7 million mortgages above 6.5%, the pool of refinance candidates continues to grow,” concluded Lang. “Solid execution of our strategy continues to broaden our client base and deepen our customer relationships, particularly in U.S. Title where we have significant runway for growth, which should allow us to better capitalize on market improvements and capture more volume.”

    Q2 2025 Summary

    • Consolidated revenue of $37.3 million, down 11% year-over-year as increased volumes in our U.S. Title and Canadian segments were offset by lower year-over-year U.S. Appraisal addressable volumes
    • Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA(A) of $(1.9) million compared with $0.7 million in Q2’24
    • Net loss of $2.2 million, down from net income of $2.1 million in Q2’24
    • Launched three new clients in Q2’25
    • Real Matters’ U.S. Appraisal mortgage origination volumes down 21% year-over-year mainly due to lower U.S. addressable purchase origination market volumes
    • Real Matters’ U.S. Title mortgage origination volumes up 32% year-over-year due to net market share gains with clients and higher refinance origination market volumes
    • Cash and cash equivalents of $45.7 million and no outstanding debt as at March 31, 2025

    Financial and Operational Summary

        Quarter ended       Six months ended   %
        2025     2025     2024     2024     2024     % Change1     2025     2024     Change1
        Q2   Q1   Q4   Q3   Q2   Quarter
    over
    Quarter    		 Year
    over
    Year    		   March 31 March 31   Year
    over
    Year
    Consolidated                                        
    Revenue $ 37.3   $ 41.0   $ 45.6   $ 49.5   $ 42.2     -9 % -11 %   $ 78.3   $ 77.6     1 %
    Net Revenue(A) $ 10.1   $ 10.9   $ 12.0   $ 13.1   $ 11.5     -7 % -13 %   $ 20.9   $ 21.2     -1 %
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) $ (1.9 ) $ (1.7 ) $ 0.6   $ 1.7   $ 0.7     -14 % -365 %   $ (3.5 ) $ (0.4 )   -881 %
    Net (loss) income $ (2.2 ) $ 2.3   $ (0.2 ) $ 1.7   $ 2.1     -197 % -207 %   $ 0.1   $ (1.5 )   104 %
    Net (loss) income per diluted share $ (0.03 ) $ 0.03   $ –   $ 0.02   $ 0.03     -200 % -200 %   $ 0.00   $ (0.02 )   100 %
    Adjusted Net (loss) income(A) $ (1.2 ) $ (0.3 ) $ 0.9   $ 1.7   $ 1.3     -345 % -192 %   $ (1.5 ) $ 0.1     -1600 %
    Adjusted Net (loss) income(A) per diluted share $ (0.02 ) $ 0.00   $ 0.01   $ 0.02   $ 0.02     0 % -200 %   $ (0.02 ) $ 0.00     0 %
                                             
    U.S. Appraisal segment                                        
    Revenue $ 26.7   $ 29.4   $ 33.8   $ 37.5   $ 32.6     -9 % -18 %   $ 56.0   $ 59.3     -6 %
    Net Revenue(A) $ 7.3   $ 7.8   $ 9.0   $ 10.3   $ 9.2     -6 % -21 %   $ 15.1   $ 16.6     -10 %
    Net Revenue(A) margin   27.3 %   26.5 %   26.7 %   27.6 %   28.3 %           26.9 %   28.1 %    
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) $ 2.6   $ 2.4   $ 4.1   $ 5.5   $ 4.4     7 % -41 %   $ 5.0   $ 7.1     -30 %
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) margin   35.4 %   30.9 %   45.2 %   53.2 %   47.9 %           33.1 %   42.5 %    
                                             
    U.S. Title segment                                        
    Revenue $ 2.3   $ 2.5   $ 2.4   $ 2.1   $ 2.0     -11 % 11 %   $ 4.8   $ 4.1     18 %
    Net Revenue(A) $ 1.2   $ 1.4   $ 1.2   $ 0.9   $ 0.9     -13 % 32 %   $ 2.5   $ 1.9     36 %
    Net Revenue(A) margin   52.1 %   53.4 %   49.8 %   43.6 %   44.0 %           52.8 %   45.7 %    
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) $ (2.1 ) $ (1.8 ) $ (1.6 ) $ (1.9 ) $ (1.7 )   -18 % -28 %   $ (3.9 ) $ (3.3 )   -20 %
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) margin   -179.6 %   -132.3 %   -131.4 %   -209.8 %   -184.8 %           -154.3 %   -176.0 %    
                                             
                                             
    Canadian segment                                        
    Revenue $ 8.3   $ 9.1   $ 9.4   $ 9.9   $ 7.6     -8 % 11 %   $ 17.5   $ 14.2     23 %
    Net Revenue(A) $ 1.6   $ 1.7   $ 1.8   $ 1.9   $ 1.4     -8 % 11 %   $ 3.3   $ 2.7     24 %
    Net Revenue(A) margin   19.0 %   18.9 %   18.9 %   19.0 %   18.9 %           19.0 %   18.8 %    
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) $ 1.0   $ 1.1   $ 1.2   $ 1.3   $ 0.9     -8 % 17 %   $ 2.2   $ 1.6     37 %
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) margin   65.7 %   66.1 %   67.7 %   69.3 %   62.3 %           65.9 %   59.7 %    
                                             
    Corporate segment                                        
    Adjusted EBITDA(A) $ (3.4 ) $ (3.4 ) $ (3.1 ) $ (3.2 ) $ (2.9 )   0 % -15 %   $ (6.8 ) $ (5.8 )   -18 %
     

    Note 1 – Percentage change is calculated based on figures disclosed in our MD&A which are rounded to the nearest thousands of dollars.

    Conference Call and Webcast
    A conference call to review the results will take place at 10:00 a.m. (ET) on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, hosted by Chief Executive Officer Brian Lang and Chief Financial Officer Rodrigo Pinto. An accompanying slide presentation will be posted to the Investor section of our website shortly before the call.

    Conference call dial-in:

    • Participants can dial-in to the conference call; however, pre-registration is required. To register, visit: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIb410bf1804714fc98c4a22b2351db181.
    • Once registered, you will receive an email including dial-in details and a unique access code required to join the live call.
    • Please ensure you have registered at least 10 minutes prior to the conference call start time.

    To listen to the live webcast of the call:

    The webcast will be archived and a transcript of the call will be available in the Investor section of our website following the call.

    (A) Non-GAAP Measures
    The non-GAAP measures used in this news release, including Net Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS® Accounting Standards and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. These non-GAAP measures are more fully defined and discussed in the Company’s MD&A for the three and six months ended March 31, 2025 under the heading “Non-GAAP measures”, which is incorporated by reference in this Press Release and available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

    Real Matters financial results for the three and six months ended March 31, 2025 are included in the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and the accompanying MD&A, each of which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. In addition, supplemental information is available on our website at www.realmatters.com.

    Net Revenue represents the difference between revenues and transaction costs. Net Revenue margin is calculated as Net Revenue divided by Revenues. The reconciling items between net income or loss and Net Revenue were as follows:

                Quarter ended   Six months ended
        Q2 2025   Q1 2025   Q4 2024   Q3 2024   Q2 2024   March 31,
    2025    		 March 31,
    2024
                                   
    Net (loss) income $ (2.2 ) $ 2.3   $ (0.2 ) $ 1.7   $ 2.1     $ 0.1   $ (1.5 )
    Operating expenses   12.1     12.7     12.6     11.8     11.2       24.6     22.8  
    Amortization   0.7     0.7     0.8     0.8     0.8       1.5     1.6  
    Restructuring expenses   –     0.4     –     –     –       0.5     –  
    Interest expense   0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1       0.2     0.2  
    Interest income   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.4 )     (1.0 )   (0.8 )
    Net foreign exchange loss (gain)   0.2     (6.1 )   1.3     (0.9 )   (2.2 )     (6.0 )   (0.2 )
    Loss (gain) on fair value                              
    of derivatives   0.6     1.7     (1.9 )   (0.1 )   0.1       2.3     (0.1 )
    Income tax (recovery) expense   (0.9 )   (0.4 )   (0.2 )   0.2     (0.2 )     (1.3 )   (0.8 )
    Net Revenue $ 10.1   $ 10.9   $ 12.0   $ 13.1   $ 11.5     $ 20.9   $ 21.2  
     

    Adjusted EBITDA represents net income or loss before stock-based compensation expense, amortization, restructuring expenses, interest expense, interest income, net foreign exchange gain or loss, gain or loss on fair value of derivatives and income tax expense or recovery. Adjusted EBITDA margin is calculated as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Net Revenue. The reconciling items between net income or loss and Adjusted EBITDA were as follows:

                Quarter ended   Six months ended
        Q2 2025   Q1 2025   Q4 2024   Q3 2024   Q2 2024   March 31,
    2025    		 March 31,
    2024
                                   
    Net (loss) income $ (2.2 ) $ 2.3   $ (0.2 ) $ 1.7   $ 2.1     $ 0.1   $ (1.5 )
    Stock-based compensation expense   0.1     0.1     1.2     0.4     0.4       0.2     1.2  
    Amortization   0.7     0.7     0.8     0.8     0.8       1.5     1.6  
    Restructuring expenses   –     0.4     –     –     –       0.5     –  
    Interest expense   0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1     0.1       0.2     0.2  
    Interest income   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.5 )   (0.4 )     (1.0 )   (0.8 )
    Net foreign exchange loss (gain)   0.2     (6.1 )   1.3     (0.9 )   (2.2 )     (6.0 )   (0.2 )
    Loss (gain) on fair value                              
    of derivatives   0.6     1.7     (1.9 )   (0.1 )   0.1       2.3     (0.1 )
    Income tax (recovery) expense   (0.9 )   (0.4 )   (0.2 )   0.2     (0.2 )     (1.3 )   (0.8 )
    Adjusted EBITDA $ (1.9 ) $ (1.7 ) $ 0.6   $ 1.7   $ 0.7     $ (3.5 ) $ (0.4 )
     

    The reconciling items between net income or loss and Adjusted Net Income or Loss were as follows:

                Quarter ended   Six months ended
        Q2 2025   Q1 2025   Q4 2024   Q3 2024   Q2 2024   March 31,
    2025    		 March 31,
    2024
                                   
    Net (loss) income $ (2.2 ) $ 2.3   $ (0.2 ) $ 1.7   $ 2.1     $ 0.1   $ (1.5 )
    Stock-based compensation expense   0.1     0.1     1.2     0.4     0.4       0.2     1.2  
    Amortization of intangibles   0.4     0.4     0.5     0.4     0.4       0.8     0.8  
    Restructuring expenses   –     0.4     –     –     –       0.5     –  
    Net foreign exchange loss (gain)   0.2     (6.1 )   1.3     (0.9 )   (2.2 )     (6.0 )   (0.2 )
    Loss (gain) on fair value                              
    of derivatives   0.6     1.7     (1.9 )   (0.1 )   0.1       2.3     (0.1 )
    Related tax effects   (0.3 )   0.9     –     0.2     0.5       0.6     (0.1 )
    Adjusted Net (Loss) Income $ (1.2 ) $ (0.3 ) $ 0.9   $ 1.7   $ 1.3     $ (1.5 ) $ 0.1  
     

    Forward-Looking Information
    This Press Release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Words such as “could”, “forecast”, “target”, “may”, “will”, “would”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “intend”, “plan”, “seek”, “believe”, “likely” and “predict” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words.

    The forward-looking information in this Press Release includes statements which reflect the current expectations of management with respect to our business and the industry in which we operate and is based on management’s experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that management believes appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. The forward-looking information reflects management’s beliefs based on information currently available to management, including information obtained from third party sources, and should not be read as a guarantee of the occurrence or timing of any future events, performance or results.

    The forward-looking information in this Press Release is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or results anticipated by the forward-looking information. A comprehensive discussion of the factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations can be found in the “Risk Factors” section of our Annual Information Form for the year ended September 30, 2024, which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

    Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking information, which reflect our expectations only as of the date of this Press Release. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    About Real Matters
    Real Matters is a leading network management services provider for the mortgage lending and insurance industries. Real Matters’ platform combines its proprietary technology and network management capabilities with tens of thousands of independent qualified field professionals to create an efficient marketplace for the provision of mortgage lending and insurance industry services. Our clients include top 100 mortgage lenders in the U.S. and some of the largest banks and insurance companies in Canada. We are a leading independent provider of residential real estate appraisals to the mortgage market and a leading independent provider of title services in the U.S. Headquartered in Markham (ON), Real Matters has principal offices in Buffalo (NY) and Middletown (RI). Real Matters is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol REAL. For more information, visit www.realmatters.com.

    For more information:
    Lyne Beauregard
    Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
    Real Matters
    lbeauregard@realmatters.com
    416.994.5930

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Onity Group Announces First Quarter 2025 Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Onity Group Inc. (NYSE: ONIT) (“Onity” or the “Company”) today announced its first quarter 2025 results and provided a business update.

    First Quarter 2025:

    • Net income attributable to common stockholders of $21 million; diluted EPS of $2.50; ROE of 19%
    • Adjusted pre-tax income* of $25 million, resulting in annualized adjusted ROE* of 22%
    • Book value per share improved to $58 as of March 31, 2025, up $2.15 year-over-year
    • $17 billion in total servicing additions
    • Average servicing UPB of $305 billion, up $13 billion year-over-year

    2025 Outlook:

    • Confirmed previous guidance including 2025 adjusted ROE* range of 16% – 18%
    • Some or all of $180 million deferred tax valuation allowance (US) as of December 31, 2024, could be released by year-end 2025

             * See “Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below

    “We are thrilled to report another strong quarter, with growth in revenue, adjusted pre-tax income, adjusted ROE, and book value per share compared to a year ago,” said Onity Group Chair, President and CEO Glen Messina. “Our results demonstrate the success of our strategy coupled with strong execution. Our balanced business continues to perform well regardless of interest rate cycles.”

    Messina continued, “We believe our demonstrated resiliency, customer focus, and award-winning servicing platform will enable us to successfully navigate interest rate volatility and economic uncertainties. We expect our actions to deliver balanced MSR and subservicing additions, expand high-margin products, and continuously strengthen recapture performance, will drive our growth in the coming quarters.”

    Additional First Quarter 2025 Operating and Business Highlights

    • Funded recapture volume up 2.7x year-over-year; refinance recapture rate is 1.6x industry average based on ICE Mortgage Monitor report as of April 2025
    • Originations volume of $7 billion, up 53% year-over-year, exceeding 8% industry growth
    • MSR additions (bulk purchases and originations) of $12 billion, up more than 2x year-over-year
    • Expanded high-margin products with launch of enhanced home equity and proprietary reverse mortgage (EquityIQ®) loans
    • Effective MSR hedge strategy resulting in minimal MSR fair value volatility in the quarter and continued alignment with operating and financial performance
    • Total liquidity (unrestricted cash plus available credit) at $239 million as of March 31, 2025

    Webcast and Conference Call

    Onity will hold a conference call on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. (ET) to review the Company’s first quarter 2025 operating results and to provide a business update. All interested parties are welcome to participate. You can access the conference call by dialing (800) 579-2543 or (785) 424-1789 approximately 10 minutes prior to the call; please reference the conference ID “Onity.” Participants can also access the conference call through a live audio webcast available from the Shareholder Relations page at onitygroup.com under Events and Presentations. An investor presentation will accompany the conference call and be available by visiting the Shareholder Relations page at onitygroup.com prior to the call. A replay of the conference call will be available via the website approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call. A telephonic replay will also be available approximately three hours following the call’s completion through May 14, 2025, by dialing (844) 512-2921 or (412) 317-6671; please reference access code 11158988.

    About Onity Group

    Onity Group Inc. (NYSE: ONIT) is a leading non-bank financial services company providing mortgage servicing and originations solutions through its primary brands, PHH Mortgage and Liberty Reverse Mortgage. PHH Mortgage is one of the largest servicers in the country, focused on delivering a variety of servicing and lending programs to consumers and business clients. Liberty is one of the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lenders dedicated to providing loans that help customers meet their personal and financial needs. We are headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, with offices and operations in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, India and the Philippines, and have been serving our customers since 1988. For additional information, please visit onitygroup.com.

    Forward Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements may be identified by a reference to a future period or by the use of forward-looking terminology. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as “expect”, “believe”, “foresee”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “estimate”, “goal”, “strategy”, “plan” “target” and “project” or conditional verbs such as “will”, “may”, “should”, “could” or “would” or the negative of these terms, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words, and includes statements in this press release regarding our 2025 outlook and guidance, our expectation of releasing our deferred tax valuation allowance by year-end 2025, our ability to drive growth, and navigate interest volatility and economic uncertainties. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Readers should bear these factors in mind when considering such statements and should not place undue reliance on such statements.

    Forward-looking statements involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. In the past, actual results have differed from those suggested by forward looking statements and this may happen again. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the potential for ongoing disruption in the financial markets and in commercial activity generally as a result of U.S. and global political events, changes in monetary and fiscal policy, and other sources of instability; the impacts of inflation, employment disruption, and other financial difficulties facing our borrowers; whether we will release some or all of the valuation allowance offsetting our net U.S. deferred tax asset, and the timing and amount of such release; the adequacy of our financial resources, including our sources of liquidity and ability to sell, fund and recover servicing advances, forward and reverse whole loans, future draws on existing reverse loans, and HECM and forward loan buyouts and put backs, as well as repay, renew and extend borrowings, borrow additional amounts as and when required, meet our MSR or other asset investment objectives and comply with our debt agreements, including the financial and other covenants contained in them; our ability to interpret correctly and comply with current or future liquidity, net worth and other financial and other requirements of regulators, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (together, the GSEs), and the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), including our ability to implement a cost-effective response to Ginnie Mae’s risk-based capital requirements by the extended deadline granted to us by Ginnie Mae of October 1, 2025; our ability to timely reduce operating costs, or generate offsetting revenue, in proportion to the industry-wide decrease in originations activity; the impact of cost-reduction initiatives on our business and operations; the impact of our rebranding initiative; the amount of senior debt or common stock or that we may repurchase under any repurchase programs, the timing of such repurchases, and the long-term impact, if any, of repurchases on the trading price of our securities or our financial condition; breach or failure of Onity’s, our contractual counterparties’, or our vendors’ information technology or other security systems or privacy protections, including any failure to protect customers’ data, resulting in disruption to our operations, loss of income, reputational damage, costly litigation and regulatory penalties; our reliance on our technology vendors to adequately maintain and support our systems, including our servicing systems, loan originations and financial reporting systems, and uncertainty relating to our ability to transition to alternative vendors, if necessary, without incurring significant cost or disruption to our operations; the future of our long-term relationship with Rithm Capital Corp. (Rithm); our ability to close acquisitions of MSRs and other transactions, including the ability to obtain regulatory approvals; our ability to grow our reverse servicing business; our ability to retain clients and employees of acquired businesses, and the extent to which acquisitions and our other strategic initiatives will contribute to achieving our growth objectives; increased servicing costs based on increased borrower delinquency levels or other factors; uncertainty related to past, present or future claims, litigation, cease and desist orders and investigations regarding our servicing, foreclosure, modification, origination and other practices brought by government agencies and private parties, including state regulators, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), State Attorneys General, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Justice or the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the reactions of key counterparties, including lenders, the GSEs and Ginnie Mae, to our regulatory engagements and litigation matters; increased regulatory scrutiny and media attention; any adverse developments in existing legal proceedings or the initiation of new legal proceedings; our ability to effectively manage our regulatory and contractual compliance obligations; our ability to comply with our servicing agreements, including our ability to comply with the requirements of the GSEs and Ginnie Mae and maintain our seller/servicer and other statuses with them; our ability to fund future draws on existing loans in our reverse mortgage portfolio; our servicer and credit ratings as well as other actions from various rating agencies, including any future downgrades; as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed in our reports and filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. Anyone wishing to understand Onity’s business should review our SEC filings. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, we disclaim any obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    This press release contains references to adjusted pre-tax income (loss) and adjusted ROE, both non-GAAP financial measures.

    We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide a useful supplement to discussions and analysis of our financial condition, because they are measures that management uses to assess the financial performance of our operations and allocate resources. In addition, management believes that this presentation may assist investors with understanding and evaluating our initiatives to drive improved financial performance. Management believes, specifically, that the removal of fair value changes of our net MSR exposure due to changes in market interest rates and assumptions provides a useful, supplemental financial measure as it enables an assessment of our ability to generate earnings regardless of market conditions and the trends in our underlying businesses by removing the impact of fair value changes due to market interest rates and assumptions, which can vary significantly between periods. However, these measures should not be analyzed in isolation or as a substitute to analysis of our GAAP pre-tax income (loss) or GAAP pre-tax ROE nor a substitute for cash flows from operations. There are certain limitations to the analytical usefulness of the adjustments we make to GAAP pre-tax income (loss) and GAAP pre-tax ROE and, accordingly, we use these adjustments only for purposes of supplemental analysis. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, Onity’s reported results under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Other companies may use non-GAAP financial measures with the same or similar titles that are calculated differently to our non-GAAP financial measures. As a result, comparability may be limited. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on analysis of the adjustments we make to GAAP pre-tax income (loss) and GAAP pre-tax ROE.

    The Company has not provided reconciliations of guidance for adjusted ROE, in reliance on the unreasonable efforts exception provided under Item 10(e)(1)(i)(B) of Regulation S-K. The Company is unable, without unreasonable efforts, to forecast certain items required to develop meaningful comparable GAAP financial measures. These items include the change in fair value of our net MSR exposure due to changes in market interest rates and assumptions which can vary significantly between periods and are difficult to predict in advance in order to include in a GAAP estimate.

    Notables

    In the table below, we adjust GAAP pre-tax income for the following factors: MSR valuation adjustments, expense notables, and other income statement notables. MSR valuation adjustments are comprised of changes to Forward MSR and Reverse mortgage valuations due to rates and assumption changes. Expense notables include significant legal and regulatory settlement expenses, severance and retention costs, LTIP stock price changes, consolidation of office facilities and other expenses (such as costs associated with strategic transactions). Other income statement notables include non-routine transactions that are not categorized in the above.

    Beginning with the three months ended December 31, 2024, for purposes of calculating Income Statement Notables and Adjusted Pre-Tax Income, we changed the methodology used to calculate Other Income Statement Notables to include change in fair value due to interest rates for reverse loan buyouts (reported in gain/loss on loans held for sale, at fair value). We made this change to align with the change to our risk management approach to include changes in fair value of reverse loan buyouts due to interest rates in our MSR hedge strategy, consistent with other notables, such as Forward MSR Valuation Adjustments due to rates and assumption changes, net and Reverse Mortgage Fair Value Change due to rates and assumption changes.

    Other Income Statement Notables (a component of Other Notables) for the first three quarters of 2024 have been revised from prior presentations to reflect the methodology we adopted during the fourth quarter of 2024.

     (Dollars in millions) Q1’25 Q4’24 Q1’24
    I Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Common Stockholders 21 (29) 30
      A. Preferred Stock Dividend (1) (1) –
    II Reported Net Income (Loss) [I – A] 22 (28) 30
      B. Income Tax Benefit (Expense) 13 6 (2)
    III Reported Pre-Tax Income (Loss) [II – B] 9 (34) 32
      Forward MSR Valuation Adjustments due to rates and assumption changes, net (a)(b) (12) 14 18
      Reverse Mortgage Fair Value Change due to rates and assumption changes (b)(c) 10 (15) 1
    IV Total MSR Valuation Adjustments due to rates and assumption changes, net (2) (1) 19
      Significant legal and regulatory settlement expenses (14) (2) (2)
      Severance and retention (d) (0) (0) (2)
      LTIP stock price changes (e) 0 (1) 3
      Office facilities consolidation (0) (0) (0)
      Other expense notables (f) 1 (0) (1)
      C. Total Expense Notables (14) (4) (2)
      D. Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt – (51) 1
      E. Gain on sale of MAV canopy – 14 –
      F. Other Income Statement Notables (g) (0) (3) (2)
    V Total Other Notables [C + D + E + F] (14) (44) (2)
    VI Total Notables (h) [IV + V] (16) (45) 17
    VII Adjusted Pre-Tax Income (i) [III – VI] 25 11 15
    a) MSR valuation adjustments that are due to changes in market interest rates, valuation inputs or other assumptions, net of overall fair value gains / (losses) on MSR hedge, including FV changes of Pledged MSR liabilities associated with MSR transferred to MAV, Rithm and others and ESS financing liabilities that are due to changes in market interest rates, valuation inputs or other assumptions, a component of MSR valuation adjustments, net
    b) The changes in fair value due to market interest rates were measured by isolating the impact of market interest rate changes on the valuation model output as provided by our third-party valuation expert
    c) FV changes of loans HFI and HMBS related borrowings due to market interest rates and assumptions, a component of gain on reverse loans held for investment and HMBS-related borrowings, net
    d) Severance and retention due to organizational rightsizing or reorganization
    e) Long-term incentive program (LTIP) compensation expense changes attributable to stock price changes during the period
    f) Contains costs associated with but not limited to rebranding and other strategic initiatives and transactions
    g) Contains non-routine transactions including but not limited to fair value assumption changes on other investments recorded in other income/expense
    h) Certain previously presented notable categories with nil numbers for each period shown have been omitted
    i) Effective in Q4’24, change in fair value due to interest rates for reverse loan buyouts is now recognized as a notable (previously reported in gain/loss on loans held for sale, at fair value); presentation of past periods has been conformed to the current presentation; without this change, adjusted PTI would be $14M in Q1’24 and $8M in Q4’24; see note titled “Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information
       

    Adjusted ROE Calculation

    (Dollars in millions) Q1’25 Q4’24 Q1’24
      GAAP ROE (after tax) 19% (25%) 29%
    I Reported Net Income (Loss) 22 (28) 30
    II Notable Items (16) (45) 17
    III Income Tax Benefit (Expense) 13 6 (2)
    IV Adjusted Pre-Tax Income (Loss) [I – II – III] 25 11 15
    V Annualized Adjusted Pre-tax Income [IV * 4 for qtr.] 102 46 59
      Equity      
           A Beginning Period Equity 443 468 402
                C Ending Period Equity 460 443 432
                D Equity Impact of Notables 16 45 (17)
           B Adjusted Ending Period Equity [C + D] 477 488 415
    VI Average Adjusted Equity [(A + B) / 2] 460 478 408
    VII Adjusted ROE (a) [V / VI] 22% 10% 14%
    a) Effective in Q4’24, change in fair value due to interest rates for reverse loan buyouts is now recognized as a notable (previously reported in gain/loss on loans held for sale, at fair value); presentation of past periods has been conformed to the current presentation; without this change, adjusted pre-tax income would be $14M in Q1’24 and $8M in Q4’24; without this change, adjusted ROE would be 14% in Q1’24 and 7% in Q4’24; see note titled “Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information
       

    Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited)

    Assets (Dollars in millions) March 31,
    2025    		 December 31,
    2024    		 March 31,
    2024
    Cash and cash equivalents 178.0 184.8 185.1
    Restricted cash 58.9 80.8 66.1
    Mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), at fair value 2,547.4 2,466.3 2,374.7
    Advances, net 514.0 577.2 602.7
    Loans held for sale, at fair value 1,402.2 1,290.2 1,028.9
    Loans held for investment, at fair value 10,812.5 11,125.3 8,130.5
    Receivables, net 222.3 176.4 152.1
    Investment in equity method investee – – 37.6
    Premises and equipment, net 10.8 11.0 11.8
    Other assets 106.0 111.3 84.3
    Contingent loan repurchase asset 407.2 412.2 416.3
    Total Assets 16,259.3 16,435.4 13,090.1
           
    Liabilities, Mezzanine & Stockholders’ Equity (Dollars in millions) March 31,
    2025    		 December 31,
    2024    		 March 31,
    2024
    Home Equity Conversion Mortgage-Backed Securities (HMBS) related borrowings, at fair value 10,587.6 10,872.1 7,945.0
    Other financing liabilities, at fair value 835.5 846.9 906.8
    Advance match funded liabilities 377.5 417.1 440.2
    Mortgage loan financing facilities, net 1,577.4 1,528.2 1,108.9
    MSR financing facilities, net 1,136.0 957.9 964.1
    Senior notes, net 488.0 487.4 552.0
    Other liabilities 340.0 420.6 324.7
    Contingent loan repurchase liability 407.2 412.2 416.3
    Total Liabilities 15,749.2 15,942.5 12,658.0
    Mezzanine Equity 49.9 49.9 –
    Stockholders’ Equity 460.2 442.9 432.1
    Total Liabilities, Mezzanine and Stockholders’ Equity 16,259.3 16,435.4 13,090.1
           

    Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited)

      For the Quarter Ending
    (Dollars in millions) March 31, 2025 December 31, 2024 March 31, 2024
    Revenue      
    Servicing and subservicing fees 203.3 206.0 204.5
    Gain on reverse loans held for investment and HMBS-related borrowings, net 23.8 0.6 15.4
    Gain on loans held for sale, net 11.8 5.9 10.9
    Other revenue, net 10.9 12.4 8.3
    Total revenue 249.8 224.8 239.1
    MSR valuation adjustments, net (38.9) (20.4) (11.6)
    Operating expenses      
    Compensation and benefits 57.4 64.3 53.6
    Servicing and origination 13.0 12.3 15.0
    Technology and communications 15.0 14.1 12.7
    Professional services 22.6 12.5 12.0
    Occupancy, equipment and mailing 8.2 8.3 7.7
    Other expenses 3.6 4.1 3.4
    Total operating expenses 119.9 115.6 104.4
    Other income (expense)      
    Interest income 26.2 28.8 17.5
    Interest expense (67.0) (74.2) (67.4)
    Pledged MSR liability expense (41.9) (42.1) (44.9)
    Gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt – (51.2) 1.4
    Earnings of equity method investee – 16.2 2.7
    Other, net 0.9 0.1 (0.6)
    Other income (expense), net (81.9) (122.4) (91.3)
    Income before income taxes 9.1 (33.7) 31.8
    Income tax expense (13.0) (5.6) 1.7
    Net Income (Loss) 22.1 (28.1) 30.1
    Preferred stock dividend (1.0) (0.5) –
    Net Income (Loss) attributable to common stockholders 21.1 (28.6) 30.1
    Basic EPS $2.68 ($ 3.63) $3.91
    Diluted EPS $2.50 ($ 3.63) $3.74
           

    For Further Information Contact:

    Investors:

    Valerie Haertel, VP, Investor Relations
    (561) 570-2969
    shareholderrelations@onitygroup.com

    Media:

    Dico Akseraylian, SVP, Corporate Communications
    (856) 917-0066
    mediarelations@onitygroup.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: YieldMax™ ETFs Announces Distributions on CONY (102.91%), FIAT (100.78%), CVNY (86.83%), ULTY (81.75%), YMAX (67.85%), and Others

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE and NEW YORK, April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YieldMax™ today announced distributions for the YieldMax™ Weekly Payers and Group C ETFs listed in the table below.

    ETF
    Ticker    1    		 ETF Name Distribution
    Frequency    		 Distribution
    per Share    		 Distribution
    Rate    2,4    		 30-Day
    SEC Yield3    		 ROC5 Ex-Date &
    Record Date    		 Payment
    Date
    CHPY YieldMax™ Semiconductor Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly $0.6229 – – 87.69% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    GPTY YieldMax™ AI & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly $0.2926 38.49% 0.00% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    LFGY YieldMax™ Crypto Industry & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly $0.4721 65.90% 0.00% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    QDTY YieldMax™ Nasdaq 100 0DTE Covered Call ETF Weekly $0.3362 43.92% 0.00% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    RDTY YieldMax™ R2000 0DTE Covered Call ETF Weekly $0.4696 56.41% 0.00% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    SDTY YieldMax™ S&P 500 0DTE Covered Call ETF Weekly $0.3110 38.70% 0.00% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    ULTY YieldMax™ Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF Weekly $0.0936 81.75% 2.21% 100.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    YMAG YieldMax™ Magnificent 7 Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly $0.1010 35.45% 69.89% 79.99% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    YMAX YieldMax™ Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly $0.1744 67.85% 96.57% 73.04% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    ABNY YieldMax™ ABNB Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.6020 64.20% 3.62% 94.97% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    AMDY YieldMax™ AMD Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.3365 62.42% 2.97% 94.47% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    CONY YieldMax™ COIN Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.6510 102.91% 4.42% 96.77% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    CVNY YieldMax™ CVNA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $2.6816 86.83% 2.44% 68.30% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    FIAT YieldMax™ Short COIN Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.5618 100.78% 1.73% 0.00% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    MSFO YieldMax™ MSFT Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.5255 42.19% 3.75% 92.04% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    NFLY YieldMax™ NFLX Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.9230 64.06% 3.58% 95.72% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    PYPY YieldMax™ PYPL Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 Weeks $0.5519 55.23% 4.19% 94.52% 5/1/25 5/2/25
    Weekly Payers & Group D ETFs scheduled for next week: CHPY GPTY LFGY QDTY RDTY SDTY ULTY YMAG YMAX AIYY AMZY APLY DISO MSTY SMCY WNTR XYZY YQQQ


    Standardized Performance and Fund details can be obtained by clicking the ETF Ticker in the table above or by visiting us at     www.yieldmaxetfs.com

    Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted above. Performance current to the most recent month-end can be obtained by calling (833) 378-0717.

    Note: DIPS, FIAT, CRSH, YQQQ and WNTR are hereinafter referred to as the “Short ETFs.”

    Distributions are not guaranteed. The Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield are not indicative of future distributions, if any, on the ETFs. In particular, future distributions on any ETF may differ significantly from its Distribution Rate or 30-Day SEC Yield. You are not guaranteed a distribution under the ETFs. Distributions for the ETFs (if any) are variable and may vary significantly from period to period and may be zero. Accordingly, the Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield will change over time, and such change may be significant.

    Investors in the Funds will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions with respect to the underlying reference asset(s).

    1All YieldMax™ ETFs shown in the table above (except YMAX, YMAG, FEAT, FIVY and ULTY) have a gross expense ratio of 0.99%. YMAX, YMAG and FEAT have a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.99% for a gross expense ratio of 1.28%. FIVY has a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.59% for a gross expense ratio of 0.88%. “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are indirect fees and expenses that the Fund incurs from investing in the shares of other investment companies, namely other YieldMax™ ETFs. ULTY has a gross expense ratio after the fee waiver of 1.30%. The Advisor has agreed to a fee waiver of 0.10% through at least February 28, 2026.

    2The Distribution Rate shown is as of close on April 29, 2025. The Distribution Rate is the annual distribution rate an investor would receive if the most recent distribution, which includes option income, remained the same going forward. The Distribution Rate is calculated by annualizing an ETF’s Distribution per Share and dividing such annualized amount by the ETF’s most recent NAV. The Distribution Rate represents a single distribution from the ETF and does not represent its total return. Distributions may also include a combination of ordinary dividends, capital gain, and return of investor capital, which may decrease an ETF’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment. These Distribution Rates may be caused by unusually favorable market conditions and may not be sustainable. Such conditions may not continue to exist and there should be no expectation that this performance may be repeated in the future.

    3The 30-Day SEC Yield represents net investment income, which excludes option income, earned by such ETF over the 30-Day period ended March 31, 2025, expressed as an annual percentage rate based on such ETF’s share price at the end of the 30-Day period.

    4Each ETF’s strategy (except those of the Short ETFs) will cap potential gains if its reference asset’s shares increase in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset’s shares decrease in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF. Each Short ETF’s strategy will cap potential gains if its reference asset decreases in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset increases in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF.

    5ROC refers to Return of Capital. The ROC percentage is the portion of the distribution that represents an investor’s original investment.

    Each Fund has a limited operating history and while each Fund’s objective is to provide current income, there is no guarantee the Fund will make a distribution. Distributions are likely to vary greatly in amount.

    Important Information

    This material must be preceded or accompanied by the prospectus. For all prospectuses, click here.

    Tidal Financial Group is the adviser for all YieldMax™ ETFs.

    THE FUND, TRUST, AND ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY UNDERLYING REFERENCE ASSET.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable to all YieldMax ETFs referenced above, except the Short ETFs)

    YMAX, YMAG, FEAT and FIVY generally invest in other YieldMax™ ETFs. As such, these two Funds are subject to the risks listed in this section, which apply to all the YieldMax™ ETFs they may hold from time to time.

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Referenced Index Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Index (or the Index ETFs). This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of companies that comprised the Index or an ETF that tracks the Index, even though it does not.

    Indirect Investment Risk. The Index is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way. Investors in the Fund will not have the right to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the companies that comprise the Index but will be subject to declines in the performance of the Index.

    Russell 2000 Index Risks. The Index, which consists of small-cap U.S. companies, is particularly susceptible to economic changes, as these firms often have less financial resilience than larger companies. Market volatility can disproportionately affect these smaller businesses, leading to significant price swings. Additionally, these companies are often more exposed to specific industry risks and have less diverse revenue streams. They can also be more vulnerable to changes in domestic regulatory or policy environments.

    Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer periods.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next.

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Call Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (ARKK, TSLA, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, META, GOOGL, NFLX, COIN, MSFT, DIS, XOM, JPM, AMD, PYPL, SQ, MRNA, AI, MSTR, Bitcoin ETP, GDX®, SNOW, ABNB, BABA, TSM, SMCI, PLTR, MARA, CVNA), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Indirect Investment Risk. The Index is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GPTY)

    Artificial Intelligence Risk. Issuers engaged in artificial intelligence typically have high research and capital expenditures and, as a result, their profitability can vary widely, if they are profitable at all. The space in which they are engaged is highly competitive and issuers’ products and services may become obsolete very quickly. These companies are heavily dependent on intellectual property rights and may be adversely affected by loss or impairment of those rights. The issuers are also subject to legal, regulatory, and political changes that may have a large impact on their profitability. A failure in an issuer’s product or even questions about the safety of the product could be devastating to the issuer, especially if it is the marquee product of the issuer. It can be difficult to accurately capture what qualifies as an artificial intelligence company.

    Technology Sector Risk. The Fund will invest substantially in companies in the information technology sector, and therefore the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. Market or economic factors impacting technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technological advances could have a significant effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The value of stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology is particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology product cycles, rapid product obsolescence, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology, especially those of smaller, less-seasoned companies, tend to be more volatile than the overall market. Information technology companies are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights, the loss or impairment of which may adversely affect profitability.

    Risk Disclosure (applicable only to MARO)

    Digital Assets Risk: The Fund does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than the Fund. Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to BABO and TSMY)

    Currency Risk: Indirect exposure to foreign currencies subjects the Fund to the risk that currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Currency rates in foreign countries may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates and the imposition of currency controls or other political developments in the U.S. or abroad.

    Depositary Receipts Risk: The securities underlying BABO and TSMY are American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). Investment in ADRs may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market.

    Foreign Market and Trading Risk: The trading markets for many foreign securities are not as active as U.S. markets and may have less governmental regulation and oversight.

    Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers involve certain risks that may not be present with investments in securities of U.S. issuers, such as risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations or to political or economic instability, as well as varying regulatory requirements applicable to investments in non-U.S. issuers. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. issuer than a U.S. issuer. Non-U.S. issuers may also be subject to different regulatory, accounting, auditing, financial reporting, and investor protection standards than U.S. issuers.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GDXY)

    Risk of Investing in Foreign Securities. The Fund is exposed indirectly to the securities of foreign issuers selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers involve risks beyond those associated with investments in U.S. securities.

    Risk of Investing in Gold and Silver Mining Companies. The Fund is exposed indirectly to gold and silver mining companies selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies.

    The Fund invests in options contracts based on the value of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX®), which subjects the Fund to some of the same risks as if it owned GDX®, as well as the risks associated with Canadian, Australian and Emerging Market Issuers, and Small-and Medium-Capitalization companies.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YBIT)

    YBIT does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than YBIT.

    Bitcoin Investment Risk: The Fund’s indirect investment in Bitcoin, through holdings in one or more Underlying ETPs, exposes it to the unique risks of this emerging innovation. Bitcoin’s price is highly volatile, and its market is influenced by the changing Bitcoin network, fluctuating acceptance levels, and unpredictable usage trends.

    Digital Assets Risk: Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility. Potentially No 1940 Act Protections. As of the date of this Prospectus, there is only a single eligible Underlying ETP, and it is an investment company subject to the 1940 Act.

    Bitcoin ETP Risk: The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Bitcoin ETP. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of the Bitcoin ETP, even though it does not. Bitcoin ETPs are subject, but not limited, to significant risk and heightened volatility. An investor in a Bitcoin ETP may lose their entire investment. Bitcoin ETPs are not suitable for all investors. In addition, not all Bitcoin ETPs are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Those Bitcoin ETPs that are not registered under such statute are therefore not subject to the same regulations as exchange traded products that are so registered.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to the Short ETFs)

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Price Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the underlying reference asset. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the underlying reference asset, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, the Fund is subject to the risk that the value of the underlying reference asset increases. If the value of the underlying reference asset increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses.

    Put Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s put writing (selling) strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in decreases in the value of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold put options and over longer periods.

    Purchased OTM Call Options Risk. The Fund’s strategy is subject to potential losses if the underlying reference asset increases in value, which may not be offset by the purchase of out-of-the-money (OTM) call options. The Fund purchases OTM calls to seek to manage (cap) the Fund’s potential losses from the Fund’s short exposure to the underlying reference asset if it appreciates significantly in value. However, the OTM call options will cap the Fund’s losses only to the extent that the value of the underlying reference asset increases to a level that is at or above the strike level of the purchased OTM call options. Any increase in the value of the underlying reference asset to a level that is below the strike level of the purchased OTM call options will result in a corresponding loss for the Fund. For example, if the OTM call options have a strike level that is approximately 100% above the then-current value of the underlying reference asset at the time of the call option purchase, and the value of the underlying reference asset increases by at least 100% during the term of the purchased OTM call options, the Fund will lose all its value. Since the Fund bears the costs of purchasing the OTM calls, such costs will decrease the Fund’s value and/or any income otherwise generated by the Fund’s investment strategy.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next.

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in decreases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Put Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, for any Fund that focuses on an individual security (e.g., TSLA, COIN, NVDA, MSTR), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YQQQ)

    Index Overview. The Nasdaq 100 Index is a benchmark index that includes 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, based on market capitalization.

    Index Level Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the Index level. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the Index, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the Index level, the Fund is subject to the risk that the Index level increases. If the Index level increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses. The Fund may also be subject to the following risks: innovation and technological advancement; strong market presence of Index constituent companies; adaptability to global market trends; and resilience and recovery potential.

    Index Level Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will benefit from decreases in the Index level experienced over the Put Period. This means that if the Index level experiences a decrease in value below the strike level of the sold put options during a Put Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and any Fund gains may significantly differ from the level of the Index losses over the Put Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in decreases in value experienced by the Index level over each Put Period, but has significant negative exposure to any increases in value experienced by the Index level over the Put Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the inverse of the performance of the Index level. The Fund’s ability to benefit from the Index level decreases will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold put option contracts and will vary from Put Period to Put Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of component companies that comprise the Index, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of the Index and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the Index level changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Put Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly inversely correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of the Index level. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact that the value of the options contracts has on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the Index level will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than the inverse of the changes experienced by the Index level.

    YieldMax™ ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Foreside is not affiliated with Tidal Financial Group, or YieldMax™ ETFs.

    © 2025 YieldMax™ ETFs

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Beat the blues and get into the swing at the City of Derry Jazz Festival

    Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

    Beat the blues and get into the swing at the City of Derry Jazz Festival

    30 April 2025

    Music is in the air in Derry so that can only mean one thing – the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival is about to roll into town, with the first performers set to take to the stage tomorrow.

    This year is the 24th outing for the five day music extravaganza which runs from Thursday May 01 – Monday May 05 – perfect for anyone looking to get the most out of the bank holiday weekend.

    With over 400 performances, most of them free, the festival takes over the entire city, with music on every stage and street corner. It all kicks off with the Live Launch event on Thursday in the Guildhall at 6pm, with a fabulous showcase of homegrown talent.

    Over 100,000 music lovers are expected to jump, jive, swing and boogie woogie all weekend, as venues right across the city throw open their doors to jazz.

    This year’s headline act is none other than music icon Billy Ocean, who will play two events at the Millennium Forum on Saturday and Sunday May 3rd and 4th featuring all his greatest hits.

    He tops a vibrant programme featuring old jazz favourites, local legends and plenty of new talent, ready to deliver five days packed with entertainment, from jazz workshops to live concerts and drama performances. 

    Looking ahead to the festival, Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Councillor Lilian Seenoi Barr, said: “There is so much excitement building for this year’s festival, and we are really looking forward to welcoming visitors to our beautiful city. The summer vibes are already here and it’s the perfect time to experience our famous hospitality and warm welcome.

    “I look forward to seeing everyone out and about soaking up the atmosphere, and I would call on all attending the festival to behave responsibly to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience.”

    Festival Coordinator with Derry City and Strabane District Council, Aisling McCallion, said: “We have been working hard to make this year’s Jazz Festival bigger and better than ever and we can’t wait to see those first performers take to the stage tomorrow night. It’s going to be a phenomenal weekend, with so much entertainment to suit all ages. Check out the City of Derry Jazz Trail to plan your ideal jazz journey and keep an eye on our social media for all the latest updates over the weekend.”

    The City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival is organised and funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council with support from Diageo and EY. 

    For regular updates follow the City of Derry Jazz Festival on Facebook Instagram and X @derryjazzfest.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Boost to local services from taxes on empty shops and second homes

    Source: Scotland – City of Edinburgh

    Hundreds of buildings have been brought back into use and over £10 million has been raised for council services thanks to new tax-raising powers adopted by the council.

    Since 1 April 2024, following changes to Scottish Government legislation, a 200% Council Tax charge has been applied to second homes. At the same time, non-domestic rates relief on empty commercial properties has been capped at three months.

    The move has encouraged the occupation and active use of at least 206 commercial properties and 52 homes, helping to stimulate the local economy and lived in homes during Edinburgh’s Housing Emergency.

    Finance and Resources Convener, Councillor Mandy Watt, said: 

    By making these changes, we’re not only raising millions of pounds for the council at a time when we face huge financial challenges – we’re successfully encouraging property owners to bring buildings back into their proper use. 

    It is well known that Edinburgh faces a chronic shortage of housing, which led us to become the first city in Scotland to declare a housing emergency. it is in the whole city’s best interests to allow those who have more than one home to contribute where they can towards addressing this crisis and supporting their local services.

    Likewise, I’m pleased to see our new rate relief policy working well. It’s about enhancing communities, stimulating the economy and putting underused buildings to better use. Some of these properties have been empty for years and under the previous regulations owners didn’t have to pay rates. 
     

    Published: April 30th 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Lord Mayor’s charity walk takes sporting theme

    Source: City of Leicester

    A CHARITY walk with a sporting theme is taking place in Leicester later this week – and it’s open to everyone.

    On Friday 2 May, walkers are invited to set out at 12noon from Leicester City Football Club on a 5 mile fund-raising circular walk that will take in the Leicester Tigers stadium and the home of county cricket at Grace Road before returning the to the football stadium.

    The walk has been organised by United Leicester, a partnership project delivered by local professional sports clubs in Leicester through their official charities – Leicester City in the Community, Leicester Riders Foundation, Leicester Tigers Foundation, Leicestershire County Cricket Club in the Community and Leicester Hockey Club.  Their combined work aims to improve health and wellbeing in the community.

    It costs £6 to take part, which is payable on the day. All the funds raised will go to the Lord Mayor of Leicester’s chosen charity, PASIC Cancer Support for Children and Young People.

    Lord Mayor of Leicester Cllr Bhupen Dave said: “PASIC is a wonderful charity, providing crucial emotional, practical, and financial assistance to families of children and young people with cancer in the East Midlands. This support is offered during their most challenging times of distress and disruption.

    “I am delighted to be able to support them as my chosen charity as Lord Mayor, and I am really looking forward to joining this walk and helping to raise funds for their vital work.”

    Matt Bray from Leicester City in the Community said: “We’re very happy to support this charity and the Lord Mayor. The walk should be great fun and highlights Leicester’s strong sporting history.

    “Leicester City in the Community was formed in 2007 to engage, inspire and empower local people and since that time, we’ve been proud to work with local charities and organisations to help transform thousands of lives. It is our pleasure to support the Lord Mayor and United Leicester with this fund-raising effort.”

    To sign up for the walk, go to United Leicester – Lord Mayor’s Charity Walk – Friday 2nd May | Leicester City in the Community

    ends

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Roadworks ahead for crossing improvements

    Source: City of Leicester

    WORK to improve road crossings at a busy junction in Leicester will get under way from next week.

    The city council is planning to construct a new signal-controlled pedestrian and cycle crossing, and an additional zebra crossing, at the junction of Blackbird Road and Parker Drive, in northwest Leicester. Existing traffic lights at the junction will also be renewed.

    Work is due to begin on Tuesday 6 May and is expected to take around two months to complete.

    During the roadworks, traffic will be controlled by temporary lights. Some short-term road closures will also be required but these will be kept to a minimum and well-signposted diversions will be in place.

    The £295,000 scheme is being paid for with Section 106 developer contributions linked to new housing at nearby Somerset Avenue.

    A Leicester City Council spokesperson said: “This latest round of highway improvements will provide improved crossings in a busy residential area and help further extend the network of safe routes for walkers, wheelers and cyclists into local neighbourhoods.

    “Every effort will be made to minimise disruption to traffic while works are carried out.”

    The new signal-controlled pedestrian and cycle crossing will located on Blackbird Road, close to its junction with Parker Drive. A parallel zebra crossing will also be created on the left-turn slip-road from Blackbird Road to Parker Drive.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/NIGERIA – Father Ibrahim Amos, kidnapped from his home on April 24, is free

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Wednesday, 30 April 2025

    Abuja (Fides Agency) – Father Ibrahim Amos, parish priest of St. Gerald Quasi Church in Kurmin Risga, a village in the Kauru district of Kaduna state in northwestern Nigeria, has been released. This was announced by the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan in a statement. He was abducted from his home in Kurmin Risga in the early morning of April 24 (see Fides, 4/25/2025). According to Father Jacob Shanet, chancellor of the Diocese of Kafanchan, the priest returned home “unharmed” after the abduction.In the statement released on the day of the kidnapping, Father Shanet thanked the faithful for their prayers and affection: “We thank God and all those who prayed with us during such a dark and terrible time.” “May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests, Religious, and all Angels, intercede for those still imprisoned and bring them safely back to their families and communities,” Father Shanet concluded.In March, Father Sylvester Okechukwu, parish priest of St. Mary Tachira Church, was also kidnapped and killed in Kaduna State (see Fides 6/3/2025). The alleged perpetrators of the priest’s kidnapping and murder were subsequently arrested by security forces (see Fides 26/3/2025).Pope Francis also spoke out on the scourge of kidnappings for ransom in Nigeria, repeatedly expressing his closeness to the Nigerian Church: “TThe increasingly frequent kidnappings in Nigeria are concerning. I express my closeness in prayer to the Nigerian people, hoping that efforts will be made to contain the spread of these incidents as much as possible.” (Angelus, February 25, 2024). (FB) (Fides Agency 30/4/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/INDIA – Bishop in Madhya Pradesh: “Pope Francis’ welcoming approach has improved interreligious coexistence”

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    CBCI Matters india

    Indore (Fides) – “What surprised us positively is like a surprise from the Holy Spirit: so many people, so many non-Christians, who spontaneously appreciate Pope Francis as a man of dialogue, welcome, and compassion, have somehow changed their attitude towards us Catholics. Many non-Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs came to offer their condolences and express their solidarity. Pope Francis’ approach has had a positive impact on our lives, in terms of coexistence with people of other faiths. And this is very important and a beautiful legacy in our diocese (18,000 Catholics out of a population of 8 million, ed. ) and in a state like Madhya Pradesh, where there are sometimes interreligious tensions, is very important and a beautiful legacy,” Bishop Thomas Mathew Kuttimackal of Indore, a diocese in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the second largest and fifth most populous state in India with over 72 million inhabitants, told Fides.The proportion of Christians in Madhya Pradesh is small: less than 0.3% compared to a national average of 2.3%. Catholics in the Diocese of Indore, as in other dioceses in the central Indian state, watched the funeral Mass for Pope Francis on television and celebrated memorial Masses in memory of the late Pope in their parishes. Bishop Kuttimackal remarked, “We remember him as a shepherd of dialogue and mercy: our Catholic communities feel a sense of gratitude, also because they see how the Pope’s words and gestures in recent years have touched hearts, even here in our area, which is so far from Rome and which Francis never visited in person.”Recently, tensions have also arisen in the state with radical Hindu groups accusing Christians and Muslims of “proselytism.” And the state government, led by the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has at times supported this narrative. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said in a public speech last March that he wanted to “introduce the death penalty to punish what he called ‘forced religious conversion of women.’”Radical Hindu groups sometimes accuse Muslims and Christians of converting members of tribal groups from lower castes using allegedly illicit means, such as money. In Madhya Pradesh, a so-called “anti-conversion law” has been in force since 2021, which provides for penalties of up to 10 years in prison for those who use violence or deception to persuade people to convert to another religion. In this context, according to the bishop, “the faithful of Indore are experiencing the Holy Year as ‘pilgrims of hope’, also with a view to improving the climate of interreligious coexistence.”The evangelical message proclaimed and lived by Pope Francis is also represented in Indore by the “Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace,” a network of Catholic religious communities of men and women who are particularly committed to humanitarian issues and the “care of our common home.” The religious are committed to implementing the “integral ecology” mentioned and described in the encyclical Laudato si’, starting from their closeness to the poorest and most marginalized communities, but also promoting respect for natural resources and the promotion and dissemination of sustainable lifestyles. (PA) ( Fides Agency 30/4/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Press release – Europeans celebrate 75 Years of unity and solidarity on Europe Day 2025

    Source: European Parliament 3

    The Schuman Declaration laid the foundations for the European Union and paved the way for an unprecedented era of prosperity, peace, democracy, solidarity and cooperation in Europe.

    To mark the occasion, many events will take place in EU Member States and around the world, bringing together citizens from all walks of life. The EU institutions will open their doors and invite citizens to visit their premises, discover their work and engage in a wide range of educational and entertaining activities.

    Landmark buildings and monuments across the globe will be illuminated in the EU colours, while a special Europe Day programme is planned for Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

    In times of global uncertainty, Europe remains an anchor of stability – a place of opportunity and protection for its citizens. The EU and its institutions are working towards the common goal of ensuring prosperity and competitiveness, guaranteeing our security and defence, while upholding the fundamental values Europeans care about.

    European Parliament

    On 4 May, citizens of all ages will be able to attend the official Europe Day opening ceremony and take a seat in the hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The ceremony will begin with a video message from President Roberta Metsola, followed by a speech from Vice-President Younous Omarjee, and a musical performance by the Voix de Stras’ ensemble. Through various exhibits and interactive activities, visitors will learn how the Parliament works, how laws are made, and why European politics matters. Visitors will also be able to visit the “Changemakers” exhibition. On 10 May, the public will once again be given the chance to discover European democracy in action at the Parliament’s hemicycle in Brussels, with day-long activities emphasising the importance of citizen participation. In Luxembourg, special activities will mark the first anniversary of the Visitors’ Centre on 9 May, including the recently inaugurated Europa Experience. The following day, a rich cultural programme is planned in the Echternach Abbey courtyard. Full programme and events organised in the 27 EU countries.

    European Council/Council of the European Union

    On 10 May, the Council of the European Union will also open its doors, granting citizens an opportunity to follow in EU leaders’ footsteps. Guided tours throughout the day will offer visitors a rare look at where important European decisions are made. Each of the 27 Member States will host a stand, showcasing their culture, traditions, culinary specialties and more. Younger visitors can also expect tailor-made activities, including a treasure hunt and a “fun fact” quest designed specifically for kids. In honour of the Council’s 50th anniversary, the public will even be able to travel back in time and take a selfie with the leaders of 1974.

    European Commission

    On 10 May, citizens will also have the opportunity to visit the Commission’s iconic Berlaymont building in Brussels. Here, they will have the chance to learn about the Commission’s role and priorities, engage in series of activities, and find out more about initiatives and concrete benefits for their daily lives. Among others, visitors will have an opportunity to learn about the Commission’s efforts to boost European competitiveness both, promote social cohesion, protect democracy and protect fundamental rights, at home and abroad.

    European Central Bank

    As part of its Europe Day celebrations on 10 May, the European Central Bank (ECB) will bring the vibrant spirit of Europe to its hometown, Frankfurt am Main, by participating in the city’s Europa-Fest. Visitors will find the ECB at the “European Marketplace” on the Römerberg plaza, alongside Frankfurt-based European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and the Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism. In such a special year, celebrating 40 years of Schengen and the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, many themed activities have been organised, with the ECB even planning a lightshow, to be projected onto the west wing of the city’s Grossmarkthalle. In Brussels, the ECB will also host its own stand at the Commission’s Europe Day event.

    European Investment Bank

    The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group will welcome visitors to its stand at the Council of the European Union’s Justus Lipsius building as part of its Open Day on 10 May in Brussels. EIB Group staff will inform visitors of how its financing and advisory services improve lives and advance EU policy goals. This includes anything from innovation, security and defence to social and territorial cohesion, and the transition towards a net-zero economy. The stand itself will be enhanced by various activities and media, such as quizzes, games and audiovisual material showcasing EIB-financed projects.

    European Court of Auditors

    On 10 May, as part of the Europe Day celebrations in Echternach, EU auditors will host a series of interactive and engaging activities at the European Court of Auditors’ premises. Among other things, visitors will have the chance to partake in an engaging quiz to test their audit skills. Families and people of all ages are welcome to discover how the European Court of Auditors, the guardian of the EU’s finances, helps protect EU citizens’ money.

    European External Action Service

    The European External Action Service (EEAS) will open its doors to the public on 10 May for its “Travel the World in a Day“. Travel the World in a Day” event. Visitors to the EU’s diplomatic headquarters in Brussels will be given an opportunity to learn about the work of the EEAS and its 144 delegations and offices worldwide. Through interactive exhibits and activities, visitors will discover the EU’s role as a global leader and reliable partner for prosperity, peace, security, multilateralism, democracy, and a rules-based order. The event will also include a digital booth to help explore the EU pavilion at Expo 2025 in Japan, as well as live dance performances, workshops and family-friendly activities that celebrate global diversity.

    European Economic and Social Committee

    This year, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) will also host a special celebration of the Schuman Declaration’s 75th anniversary. To honour this seminal text, the EESC – the house of European organised civil society – is putting together a range of activities on its premises, through which it will inform and engage with citizens, while offering insights into its various Sections’ and Groups’ advisory work. The day itself will offer entertainment for all, with a real-time voting simulation allowing visitors to step into EESC members’ shoes and discover the process for themselves.

    European Committee of the Regions

    On 10 May, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) – ideally located between the European Parliament and Council in Brussels – will open its doors to the public as well, showcasing how it represents regions and cities in the EU, and everything that regional and local elected politicians do for citizens. Visitors will learn how their region voices its interests in the EU, and they will have the chance to meet local and regional elected politicians and discuss European issues in a direct, informal atmosphere. The traditional Festival of Regions and Cities will treat visitors to a showcase of their preferred tourist spots, traditional music and dance, and various culinary specialties.

    Background

    Europe Day held on 9 May every year celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the anniversary of the ‘Schuman declaration’, a historic proposal made by Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, in 1950 that laid out the foundation of European cooperation. Schuman’s proposal is considered to be the beginning of what is now the European Union.

    In 2025, Europe Day is a special occasion, as we are celebrating 75 years since the Schuman declaration. To learn more about each institution’s programme, visit the Europe Day 2025 website.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI: KE Holdings Inc. to Report First Quarter 2025 Financial Results on May 15, 2025 Eastern Time

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    BEIJING, April 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — KE Holdings Inc. (“Beike” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BEKE; HKEX: 2423), a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services, today announced that it will report its unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2025 before the U.S. market opens on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

    The Company’s management will hold an earnings conference call at 8:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 15, 2025 (8:00 P.M. Beijing Time on Thursday, May 15, 2025).

    For participants who wish to join the conference using dial-in numbers, please complete online registration using the link provided below at least 20 minutes prior to the scheduled call start time. Dial-in numbers, passcode and unique access PIN would be provided upon registering.

    Participant Online Registration:

    English Line: https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10046740-j8h7g6.html

    Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation Line (listen-only mode): https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10046741-h6g53.html

    A replay of the conference call will be accessible through May 22, 2025, by dialing the following numbers:

    United States: +1-855-883-1031
    Mainland, China: 400-1209-216
    Hong Kong, China: 800-930-639
    International: +61-7-3107-6325
    Replay PIN (English line): 10046740
    Replay PIN (Chinese simultaneous interpretation line): 10046741
       

    A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company’s investor relations website at https://investors.ke.com.

    About KE Holdings Inc.

    KE Holdings Inc. is a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services. The Company is a pioneer in building infrastructure and standards to reinvent how service providers and customers efficiently navigate and complete housing transactions and services in China, ranging from existing and new home sales, home rentals, to home renovation and furnishing, and other services. The Company owns and operates Lianjia, China’s leading real estate brokerage brand and an integral part of its Beike platform. With more than 23 years of operating experience through Lianjia since its inception in 2001, the Company believes the success and proven track record of Lianjia pave the way for it to build its infrastructure and standards and drive the rapid and sustainable growth of Beike.

    For more information, please visit: https://investors.ke.com.

    For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

    In China:
    KE Holdings Inc.
    Investor Relations
    Siting Li
    E-mail: ir@ke.com

    Piacente Financial Communications
    Jenny Cai
    Tel: +86-10-6508-0677
    E-mail: ke@tpg-ir.com

    In the United States:
    Piacente Financial Communications
    Brandi Piacente
    Tel: +1-212-481-2050
    E-mail: ke@tpg-ir.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ10: Dog keeping in public rental housing

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LCQ10: Dog keeping in public rental housing 
    Question:
     
         The Hong Kong Housing Authority has, since 2003, implemented a one-off “temporary permission” arrangement for dog keeping (the arrangement) whereby public rental housing (PRH) tenants who have been keeping dogs before August 1, 2003 are allowed to register with the Housing Department (HD), and their dogs can continue to be kept only after their applications are approved, and they are not allowed to register any new dogs thereafter. Although the arrangement has been in place for nearly 22 years, it has been reported that quite a number of PRH tenants are still keeping dogs without authorisation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

    (1) of the current number of PRH tenants who have registered with and obtained approval from HD for keeping dogs lawfully; 
    Reply:
     
    President,
     
         In formulating the policy of animal keeping in Public Rental Housing (PRH) estates, the ultimate consideration of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to achieve a harmonious community whereby different interests of all PRH residents are being respected at large. While under the current policy and as stipulated in the Tenancy Agreement signed between the HA and the tenant that the tenant should not keep any animal in the premises without the prior written consent of the landlord (HA), in consideration of residents with special needs, such as visually impaired/hearing impaired residents who need to keep guide dogs, or for residents who are recommended by medical practitioners to keep companion dogs for mental support, tenants may submit written applications to the HA. The HA will consider approving such applications at its discretion, subject to the principle of not causing nuisance.
     
         In May 2003, the HA introduced the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates (Marking Scheme), and “Keeping animal, bird or livestock inside leased premises without prior written consent of the Landlord” is one of the misdeeds that will result in points allotment under the Marking Scheme which applies to dogs. The HA subsequently implemented the “Temporary Permission Rule” (TPR) in November 2003 as a one-off measure to allow eligible PRH tenants to continue to keep small dogs that had been kept in PRH flats before August 1, 2003 until the dogs passed away. At present, all dogs which were allowed under the TPR had passed away.
     
         The reply in response to the question raised by the Hon Lee Chun-keung is as follows:
     
    (1) As at end-December 2024, about 1 700 service dogs were kept under special approval by the HA.Issued at HKT 12:50

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ19: Services and facilities provided by Government in new towns

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hok-fung and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Ms Bernadette Linn, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):
     
    Question:
     
    There are views pointing out that the Government has proposed to construct the second government complex in Tseung Kwan O, a new town with a population of nearly 500 000, while it has no plan to provide any government complex in Tung Chung, even though there will be a population of almost 300 000 in Tung Chung upon completion of the expansion of Tung Chung East and Tung Chung West. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
     
    (1) of the criteria for providing government complexes in new towns (e.g. the population in and accessibility of the district, etc); whether it has plans to construct a government complex in Tung Chung Area 1; if so, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
     
    (2) given that the proposed second government complex in Tseung Kwan O will provide medical and health facilities, day care centre for the elderly, government offices, a public vehicle park and other facilities, how the Government determines the services and facilities to be provided in the government complex, so as to realise the land use principle of “single site, multiple use”;
     
    (3) given that some residents of Tung Chung have relayed to me that they need to go to the Immigration Department’s Regional Office in Tuen Mun for registration of persons and travel document applications, whether the Government will consider providing services in relation to registration of persons and travel document applications in Tung Chung; if so, of the implementation timetable;
     
    (4) whether the Government had extensively promoted the use of electronic government services (e-government services) in Tung Chung in the past three years; if so, of the details; whether the Government has formulated any publicity plan for the coming year to promote the use of e-government services by more Tung Chung residents, so as to fill the service gap arising from the Government’s failure to provide a government complex in the district; and
     
    (5) given that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department currently provides different types of leisure and cultural services facilities in Tung Chung (e.g. Tung Chung North Park, Tung Chung Road Soccer Pitch, Tung Chung Man Tung Road Sports Centre, Tung Chung Public Library, etc), whether the Government has plans to extensively cultivate iconic species of plants at such facilities, so as to create a scenic landscape comprising government facilities in Tung Chung; if so, of the details?
     
    Reply:
     
    President,
     
    After consultation with the relevant policy bureaux and departments, the reply to the questions is as follows:
     
    (1) When developing New Towns/New Development Areas, the Government reserves sufficient land for “Government, Institution or Community” uses so as to meet the daily needs of the public. In general, the Government will take into account the population density of the relevant area when determining the type and quantity of facilities to be provided. With reference to the actual needs of local users, the supply of land or space, and views from other relevant departments, the departments responsible for providing the relevant services would plan accordingly, including whether developing Joint-user Complexes (JUCs) is the suitable approach to provide the public services needed by the relevant community.
     
    For the site of Tung Chung Area 1, nearby sits the Tung Chung Municipal Services Building, which is around 500 metres away. The building is near the MTR Tung Chung Station, within which there are various facilities such as a community hall, a public library, a sports centre, and elderly care facilities. In fact, within the public housing estates and private developments of the Tung Chung area, many community facilities have been provided, including health centres and post offices, etc, so as to serve the needs of Tung Chung residents. While there are currently no plans to develop JUCs at the site of Tung Chung Area 1, the Government will continue to take note of the view from the community on how this lot can be effectively utilised.
     
    (2) When considering the mix of services and facilities to be provided in a JUC, the Government mainly considers factors including local demand for public services, the space requirements of departments for providing such public services and setting up offices, compatibility of different facilities, and cost effectiveness, etc.
     
    (3) According to the Immigration Department (ImmD), there are currently seven Registration of Persons Offices and seven Immigration Branch Offices throughout Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, providing registration of persons and document services to members of the public in various districts. These offices are of high accessibility, located near MTR stations and Public Transport Interchanges. Since the ImmD has already set up offices serving the public in areas conveniently accessible to Tung Chung residents, the Government does not have plans to set up additional offices in Tung Chung at the moment. The ImmD will continue to review the service demand in each district to ensure the continuous provision of efficient and high-quality services to the public while making optimal use of resources.
     
    In fact, to facilitate the public and align with the Government’s objective of full digitalisation of services, the ImmD has been proactively promoting electronic services. Members of the public can submit applications for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport through the Internet or the ImmD Mobile Application. In recent years, the ImmD has also launched various electronic services, obviating the need for residents to visit the offices in person and thus saving queuing and form-filling time. These online services include birth registration, death registration, and application for Certificate of Registered Particulars, where applicants may also choose to receive relevant certificates by mail. Starting from January 2025, applications for certain visas/entry permits and extensions of stay will only be accepted electronically, and applicants will not need to visit ImmD offices in person throughout the entire process.
     
    (4) The Government has been striving to drive the full digitalisation of government services, and whether there is a JUC in a particular district has no bearing on the Government’s effort in this regard. According to the information provided by the Digital Policy Office (DPO), all licences and government services involving application and approval (about 1 480 items in total) and forms (over 3 800) have been digitalised since mid-2024, thereby enabling submission of application, payment and collection of documents by electronic means for relevant licences and services. If in-person submission or collection of documents is required by law or international practices, applicants will only need to visit the relevant government office no more than once.
     
    The DPO will strengthen the promotion of “iAM Smart” and related online services, and work with Care Teams to assist citizens and elderly people in various districts in registering and using “iAM Smart”. Moreover, the DPO has set up community-based help desks in suitable locations across all districts to provide regular and fixed-point training and technical support, teaching elderly people to use various digital government service applications.
     
    (5) The Development Bureau advocates the policy of “Right Plant, Right Place”, which involves taking into account planting space, adaptability, characteristics and matching of species, as well as compatibility with landscape designs and the surrounding environment. In this regard, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has been planting various conspicuous flowering or foliage plants in its recreational venues to beautify the environment. When pursuing recreational facility projects, the LCSD collaborates with works departments and design teams to select suitable plants based on factors including site condition, etc. When choosing plant species for open spaces in the Tung Chung area, the LCSD will make reference to the Greening Theme, Theme Plants, and Recommended Tree List for the Islands District in the Greening Master Plan drawn up by the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD).
     
    Currently, over 30 Tabebuia chrysantha trees have been planted in Man Tung Road Park in Tung Chung, attracting many residents of the district during their spring blossom. In Tung Chung North Park, various themed trees have been planted, including nearly 50 Liquidambar formosana trees, the leaves colour of which changes through seasons. The red foliage in late autumn is particularly popular among visitors. For the Open Space Development in Tung Chung New Town Extension (East), the works of which will commence shortly, the LCSD plans to plant Pennisetum alopecuroides, Melastoma sanguineum, Cassia bakeriana, and other species, as well as install trellises adorned with distinctive climbers, to create a richly layered and vibrantly coloured landscape and greenery in Tung Chung. In addition to the above plants, in early 2023, the CEDD set up a trial nursery at the seafront of the newly reclaimed land in Tung Chung East to assess the growth performance of different tree species, with a view to selecting more suitable species for the Open Space Development in Tung Chung New Town Extension (East).

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ13: Allocation arrangements for public housing

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    (7) of the three most common reasons given by ordinary families waiting for PRH for refusing the units allocated to them; whether the Government has reviewed the savings in administrative costs in processing PRH applications with successful allocations on the first offer as compared to those requiring several offers before an allocation is successful?

    Reply:
     
    President,
     
    The objective of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to provide public rental housing (PRH) to those who cannot afford private rental accommodation. With regard to the question raised by the Hon Tang Ka-piu, my reply is as follows:
     
    (1) Given the limited PRH resources, it is the prevailing policy of the HA to accord priority to general applicants (i.e. family applicants and elderly-one person applicants) over non-elderly one-person applicants in the allocation of PRH flats. The relative priority of flat allocation to general applicants is determined according to the principle of rational allocation of PRH resources and strictly in accordance with the order of registration date/G-number Equivalent Date (Note) (if any) of applications. Apart from the general applicants, we have set another queue for non-elderly one-person applicants and the priority of flat allocation is determined by the Quota and Points System (QPS). Unlike that of general applicants, the order of the applications is not in accordance with the sequence of the date of registration, but is determined by the total points accumulated by such applicants under QPS.
     
         To cater to the housing needs of the elderly, encourage younger families to take care of their elderly parents or dependent relatives, and provide incentives to families applicants to encourage childbearing, there are several allocation priority schemes under the HA, including “Elderly Persons Priority Scheme”, “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme”, “Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”. Eligible applications under individual priority schemes will generally be processed earlier than applications by ordinary families. For example, eligible applications under the “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme” will be processed earlier by six months and one year respectively, and will be assigned a G-number Equivalent Date. Details on the above-mentioned schemes and arrangement are set out at Annex.
     
    (2) The progress of PRH allocation depends on various factors, including the applicants’ choice of district, the number of applications with same family size in individual districts, the supply of new and refurbished PRH flats in individual districts, the acceptance of flat offers by other applicants of higher priorities, the change of family particulars during the waiting period, etc. Therefore, the waiting time of applicants in individual districts may vary. For individual applicants, the latest allocation status of PRH applications in various districts can better enable them to estimate the waiting time required for them to be housed. In this regard, the Housing Department (HD) would publish in newspapers the latest allocation status of each district on a monthly basis, and would upload relevant information to the HA’s/HD’s website (www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/flat-application/allocation-status/index.html 
         Moreover, general applicants can make reference to the future supply of PRH in different districts so as to estimate their waiting time. To this end, the Housing Bureau (HB) would update and publish the public housing production forecast for the next five years, and would upload the relevant public housing project information (including name of project, location, estimated number of flats, completion year, etc.) to the HB’s website (    www.hb.gov.hk/eng/publications/housing/public/phpf/index.html 
    (3) The HA has enhanced the allocation mechanism since September 2023 by taking into account an applicant’s place of residence when allocating flats based on his/her choice of district. In processing individual application under the enhanced allocation mechanism, the computer system will allocate a PRH flat which is near to the applicant’s place of residence to the applicant, subject to the availability of public housing resources in the applicant’s chosen district, in order to increase the applicant’s chance of accepting the allocated PRH flat nearer to his/her current place of residence. Following the system enhancement, the proportion of applicants who are allocated with flats near their place of residence has increased by about 10 per cent, and the acceptance rate has increased by about 5 per cent accordingly.
     
         Eligible applicants are entitled to three housing offers (one at a time). If applicants have special requests for PRH allocation (such as wishing to be accommodated to a specific area or a specific type of PRH flat in their choice of district) and have obtained the recommendation from government departments or organisations concerned (such as the Social Welfare Department or the Hospital Authority) supporting their special requests, the HD will, having regard to the applicants’ individual circumstances and subject to the availability of resources, arrange allocation of PRH flats to the applicants according to the area or type of flat recommended as far as practicable. If the applicant can furnish sufficient reasons that are acceptable by the HD for refusing the housing offer, the HD will arrange an extra flat offer for him/her according to his/her special need.
     
    (4) In view of the supply and demand situation as well as the distribution of PRH flats, the HA had, on several occasions, reviewed and regrouped the geographical districts to speed up the allocation of suitable flats to applicants. Due to the different number of flats supply and distribution in all geographical districts, the choices available for applicants in different district may vary. Therefore, the smaller the district boundary, the chance for successful flat allocation will be lower. In order to improve the situation, the HA consolidated the number of PRH districts from fourteen to eight in 1993. This could expedite the allocation process and enable early allocation of suitable flats to applicants.
     
         In tandem with urban development, the number of public transportation facilities connecting various districts is increasing, which greatly shortens the travelling time between districts. The HA further reduced the number of PRH districts from eight to four in 1998 in order to speed up the allocation work even more flexibly and further expedite the PRH allocation. The prevailing arrangement with four districts allows a more even distribution of supply of flats in each district and more effective allocation work. In fact, the Average Waiting Time (AWT) of general applications as at March 1998 was 6.6 years. Upon consolidating the PRH districts to four districts by the HA, and coupled with the increased supply of PRH, the AWT gradually reduced to around two years in 2000, proven that it is a good arrangement for consolidating the districts.
     
    (5) Comparing with the 1990s, the infrastructure and transportation facilities in Tung Chung are well-developed today. The public transport links between districts are also very convenient. Reservation of some newly completed PRH flats in Tung Chung for special allocation arrangements would be unfair to other applicants who are waiting for allocation.
     
    (6) Among the general applicants who were allocated PRH flats in the past three years (i.e. from 2022-23 to 2024-25), around 43 per cent of the applicants accepted the first offer, while around 27 per cent and 30 per cent of the applicants accepted the second and third offer respectively. If a flat is not accepted by an applicant, we will immediately allocate it to another applicant.
     
    (7) Putting into consideration that each applicant has different housing needs for PRH flats, the HA will provide up to three housing offers to eligible applicants. Applicants can decide whether to accept the offers in accordance with their individual preferences and circumstances. Applicants may refuse to accept the housing offer for different reasons (not limited to a single reason). The HA does not maintain relevant statistical information.
     
    Note: The HA will issue a registration date to the applicant upon registration of a PRH application. As the registration date cannot be changed, the HA will issue an adjusted registration date (i.e. G-number Equivalent Date) reflecting the adjusted waiting time due to implementation of PRH allocation policies (e.g. waiting time credit of one year will be given for “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”, waiting time will be frozen for one year if all members included in the application are currently living in PRH, etc). If there is a G-number equivalent date in the application, that date will be taken as the basis for future flat allocation and implementation of PRH application policies. When a G-number Equivalent Date is issued, the applicant will, at the same time, be issued with a corresponding range of application numbers which may be used as a reference for enquiring about the PRH application status.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: ECI strengthens field readiness with 2-day training for electoral officers at IIIDEM

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 30 APR 2025 12:24PM by PIB Delhi

    Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Shri Gyanesh Kumar inaugurated a two-day capacity-building training programme for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) from Bihar, and EROs and BLO Supervisors from Haryana, NCT of Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM), New Delhi today. The training programme is part of the Election Commission of India’s ongoing preparations for the upcoming General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies. A total of 369 grassroots election officials are taking part in this mixed-batch training programme.

    2. In his inaugural address CEC Gyanesh Kumar said that the BLOs and EROs along with the Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are responsible for ensuring correct and updated electoral rolls and they are to function strictly as per the Representation of People Act 1950, Registration of Electors Rules 1960 and instructions issued by the ECI from time to time. Earlier this month, around 280 BLAs from Bihar of 10 recognised political parties were also trained at IIDEM.

    3. The training is designed to enhance participants’ practical understanding especially in the areas of voter registration, form handling, and field-level implementation of electoral procedures. The officials will also be provided technical demonstrations and training of EVMs and VVPATs. The participants were also familiarised with the provisions of first and second appeals against the final electoral rolls as published with the DM/District Collector/Executive Magistrate under section 24(a) of RP Act 1950 and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the State/UT under section 24(b) respectively. It may be recalled that no appeals were filed from Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi after the completion of the Special Summary Revision (SSR) exercise as of 6th-10th of January 2025.

    4. The curriculum includes interactive sessions, role plays simulating house-to-house surveys, case studies, and hands-on exercises for filling Forms 6, 6A, 7, and 8. Additionally, participants will receive practical training on the Voter Helpline App (VHA) and the BLO App.

    5.   Sessions are being conducted by experienced National Level Master Trainers (NLMTs) and expert Resource Persons from the IT and EVM Divisions of the Commission. The sessions are interactive and will address common field-level errors and how to avoid them.

    ******

    PK/GDH/RP

    (Release ID: 2125387) Visitor Counter : 139

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ11: Sale of electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LCQ11: Sale of electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities 
    Question:
     
    It is learnt that the Government is currently selling the surplus electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities to the power companies at the prevailing fuel costs of the power companies. It has been reported that the relevant sale prices of electricity are too low, but the power companies are selling electricity to consumers at normal prices. There are views that the Government should make public the criteria for determining the sale prices of electricity, so as to ensure that the electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities can be sold to the power companies at reasonable prices. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
     
    (1) since the commissioning of T·PARK, O·PARK1 and O·PARK2, of (i) the amount of electricity generated by such facilities, (ii) the prices at which the surplus electricity generated by them was sold to the power companies, (iii) the criteria for the sale of electricity (including why the surplus electricity from such facilities was sold to the power companies at fuel costs), and (iv) the respective prevailing average tariffs charged by the power companies; the revenue received by the Government from the sale of such electricity;
     
    (2) given that the Integrated Waste Management Facilities Phase 1 (i.e. I·PARK1) is expected to come into operation within this year, whether the authorities have drawn up plans for the sale of electricity in respect of the facilities;
     
    (3) as it is learnt that the Government sells the surplus electricity generated by waste-to-energy facilities to the power companies at the prevailing fuel costs of the power companies, whether the tariff revenue concerned has been deducted from the permitted rate of return stipulated in the Scheme of Control Agreements (SCAs); if so, of the details; if not, whether the relevant provision will be added when formulating SCAs in the future; and
     
    (4) whether it will require the power companies to offer corresponding tariff discounts to the grass roots, or residents living in the vicinity of waste-to-energy facilities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

    Reply:
     
    President,
     
    To achieve the goals of “Zero Landfill” and carbon neutrality set out in the Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035 and Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050, the Government is pressing ahead with the development of a network of advanced and highly efficient modern waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities, including modern WtE incineration facilities and food waste treatment facilities, with a view to moving away from the reliance on landfills for direct disposal of municipal solid waste and transforming waste into energy for the daily operation of such facilities, while the surplus electricity generated can be exported to the power grid of the power companies. According to the existing arrangement, the Government would sell the surplus electricity to the power companies at the prevailing fuel costs of the power companies. The relevant revenue generated would be paid into the general revenue of the Government. My reply to the question raised by the Hon Chan Hak-kan is as follows:
     
    (1) and (3) T·PARK, Organic Resources Recovery Centre Phase 1 (O·PARK1) and Phase 2 (O·PARK2) are all WtE facilities. T·PARK is a sludge incineration facility dedicated to treating sludge generated from sewage treatment works. The heat energy generated from the sludge incineration process is recovered to generate electricity. On the other hand, O·PARK1 and O·PARK2 adopt anaerobic digestion technology to convert food waste into biogas for electricity generation. From their commencement of operation till December 2024, the cumulative amount of electricity generated and surplus electricity exported to the power grid by T·PARK and O·PARK1 are tabulated below:
     

    Facility(million kWh)(million kWh)O·PARK2 began receiving food waste for operational testing in March 2024, during which the contractor was required to test and fine-tune each combined heat and power generation unit in phases. The electricity generated and utilised during normal operation was not reflected, and there was no surplus electricity exported to the power grid. Hence, there are no detailed records for O·PARK2 from March to December 2024.
     
    The sale of surplus electricity generated by WtE facilities to the power companies by the Government does not cause an increase in overall electricity demand. Its actual effect is saving the fuel that power companies would otherwise need to generate an equivalent amount of electricity. If the sale price is set at a level higher than the fuel cost thus saved, it will lead to an increase of the fuel cost. On the contrary, if the sale price is set at a level lower than the fuel cost thus saved, it will be equivalent to subsidising the fuel cost by the Government. The Government has therefore used the prevailing marginal fuel cost of electricity generation saved by the power companies for purchasing such surplus electricity as a basis for setting the price of the surplus electricity, to avoid affecting the tariff. According to the Scheme of Control Agreements (SCAs) signed between the Government and the power companies, the amounts paid by the power companies for purchasing the surplus electricity generated by the Government’s renewable energy systems are counted as part of their fuel costs, which are accountable expenses. The power companies are not permitted to earn a return from such electricity purchases.
     
    Over the years, the surplus electricity generated by T·PARK and O·PARK1 has been sold to CLP Power Hong Kong Limited at actual prices ranging from approximately $0.2 to $0.8 per kWh, while the average net tariffs have been charged at rates ranging from approximately $1.1 to $1.5 per kWh. The sale has yielded a total revenue of around $52 million to the Government.
      
    (2) The Integrated Waste Management Facilities Phase 1 (I·PARK1) is expected to commence operation this year. The aforementioned existing arrangement will apply to I·PARK1. Upon full operation of I·PARK1, apart from generating electricity for its daily operation, it is estimated that approximately 480 million kWh of surplus electricity can be exported to the power grid each year.
     
    (4) Under the framework of the SCAs, the power companies have provided the energy saving rebate scheme and concessionary tariff schemes to offer discounts in the electricity bills to low consumption customers and customers in need, thereby encouraging energy saving and reducing their expenditure on electricity tariff. In addition, through programmes under their respective Community Energy Saving Fund and Smart Power Care Fund, the power companies would assist the disadvantaged in alleviating their expenses on electricity tariff, including the provision of cash subsidies to eligible grassroots families and households of sub-divided units. The Government will continue to encourage the power companies to provide assistance for customers in need having regard to their operating situations.
    Issued at HKT 11:55

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ3: Enhancing effectiveness of waste management

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Following is a question by the Hon Carmen Kan and a written reply by the Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):

    Question:
     
    The Government has indicated in the 2024 Policy Address that it will continue to promote waste reduction and recycling, including expanding the community recycling network, and reviewing the tender arrangements and requirements for the GREEN@COMMUNITY project to enhance its cost-‍effectiveness and improve service quality. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
     
    (1) given that, under the 2024 Legislative Programme, the Government plans to amend the Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354) to require the property management companies and owners’ organisations of major housing estates and single-block residential buildings with relatively large number of flats (the property management sector) to separately collect common types of recyclables and pass them to downstream recyclers for processing, but the relevant legislative proposals have yet to be submitted to this Council, and the Promotion of Recycling and Proper Disposal of Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2025 (the Bill), which involves amendments to Chapter 354, does not include the aforesaid legislative proposals, of the reasons for that; whether the Government has assessed the impact of its failure to implement the aforesaid legislative proposals on the effectiveness of its efforts to expand the community recycling network as indicated in the 2024 Policy Address; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
     
    (2) given that the Waste Reduction and Recycling Charter (the Charter) was launched in June last year for private residential premises to enhance residents’ awareness of recycling, of the following information on the signing of the Charter by management groups of private residential premises each month since its launch (set out in a table): the number of private residential premises involved (and their proportion to the total number of private residential premises in Hong Kong), the number of households involved, and the recycling data for such premises; whether the authorities have studied the reasons why some management groups of private residential premises have not signed the Charter, and when legally-binding waste reduction and recycling regulatory measures will be implemented for the property management sector based on the implementation experience of the Charter;
     
    (3) given that the plastic shopping bag (PSB) charge under the existing Plastic Shopping Bag Charging Scheme (the Charging Scheme) is retained and handled by business operators on their own, whether the authorities have required business operators to submit information on the number of PSBs distributed and the amounts of income involved for each of the past five years (i.e. 2020-2021 to 2024-2025); if so, of the relevant annual data, with a tabulated breakdown by business sectors; if not, the reasons for that;
     
    (4) given that the fixed penalty under the current Charging Scheme can be paid via electronic platforms (e.g. the Faster Payment System), and taking into account the current fiscal position of the Government, whether the authorities will consider adjusting the policy and drawing on the practice of penalty payment to allow members of the public to pay the PSB charge to the Government directly via electronic payment methods; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
     
    (5) given that, based on the information provided by the Government in response to my question regarding the Estimates of Expenditure for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the operating expenditure of the GREEN@COMMUNITY project has increased annually, with the budget for 2025-2026 being $507 million, an increase of 61.98 per cent over the actual expenditure of $313 million in 2023-2024, there are views that the operational model of the project is unsustainable, and the Government has indicated in the 2024 Policy Address that it will review the tender arrangements and requirements for the project to enhance its cost-effectiveness, of the details and specific timetable of the relevant work?

    Reply:
     
    President,
     
    The Government continues to vigorously promote waste reduction and recycling, enhance the community recycling network and strengthen public education to promote a green culture of waste reduction and recycling in our society. The recycling network, comprising the Programme on Source Separation of Waste and GREEN@COMMUNITY, has reached a coverage over 90 per cent of the population in Hong Kong. The various waste reduction and recycling initiatives implemented have achieved encouraging results to date. The current-term Government has reversed the rising trend of waste disposal amount. The daily average quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposed of at landfills has consistently declined for three consecutive years since 2021. The daily quantity of MSW disposed of at landfills decreased from 11 358 tonnes in 2021 to 10 510 tonnes in 2024, amounting to a total reduction of 7.5 per cent.
     
    The reply to the question raised by the Hon Carmen Kan is as follows:
     
    (1) and (2) Having consulted the property management trade and owners’ organisations, we consider that prior to implementing legislation to regulate separation and recycling of domestic waste, it would be appropriate to further promote participation of residential premises and increase the quantity and variety of domestic waste recycling facilities by way of enhancing publicity and public education first. In this connection, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) launched the Waste Reduction and Recycling Charter (the Charter) in June 2024 to encourage private residential premises (PRPs) to set up more waste separation and recycling facilities which are easily accessible within the premises. In addition to the collection of common types of recyclables including paper, metals and plastics, the signees of the Charter are required to collect glass containers, beverage cartons and food waste, and ensure that the collected recyclables are handed over to downstream recyclers. The signees are also obligated to maintain delivery records of various types of recyclables and regularly publish recycling data for residents’ information with a view to enhancing the performance management of recyclables and instilling residents’ confidence in the practice of waste separation and recycling. The Charter has received very positive feedbacks from the housing estates. In about nine months, as at the first quarter of 2025, 858 PRPs have already signed the Charter, covering about 740 000 households, representing about 40 per cent of the total number of households in PRPs with property management companies/owners’ corporations/residents’ organisations across the territory. About 2 000 waste separation and recycling facilities have been set up additionally. According to the preliminary data, the average recovery rate per household participating in the Charter is showing an increasing trend.
     
    The number of signees of the Charter by quarter is tabulated below:
     

    Quarter for signing the Charter Number of PRPs signing the Charter Number of households in PRPs signing the Charter
         		 Percentage of households in PRPs with property management companies/owners’ corporations/residents’ organisations
    Q3 2024
         		 215 168 597 9.5 per cent
    Q4 2024
         		 480 409 019 23.0 per cent
    Q1 2025
         		 163 163 020 9.2 per cent
    Total 858 740 636 41.7 per cent

    The EPD will continue to encourage more PRPs to join the Charter through various channels such as publicity at district level and engagement with property management sector, in order to provide enhanced recycling facilities for more members of the public. Some PRPs have reflected that they have not joined the Charter due to inadequate space. The EPD will continue to maintain communication with these premises and explore whether we could offer any assistance. 
     
    (3) and (4) During the initial phase of the Plastic Shopping Bag (PSB) Charging Scheme from 2009 to 2015, retailers subject to the regulation were required to submit returns and remit their levy income to the Government on a quarterly basis. When the Scheme was extended to cover the entire retail sector in 2015, the Government decided to adopt a “retention” approach after public consultation, under which retailers are allowed to retain and handle the PSB charges on their own without the need of remitting to the Government or submitting returns, so as to reduce the administrative burden and compliance costs on small and medium enterprises. Following the implementation of the Enhanced Scheme on December 31, 2022, the number of PSBs disposed of in 2023 decreased significantly by around 31.5 per cent compared to that in 2022, among which the flat-top bags disposed of dropped by more than 60 per cent alone. In view of the effectiveness of the Enhanced Scheme, the EPD so far has no plan to adjust the existing mode of operation. As retailers are not required to remit the PSB charges to the Government, the EPD does not have the figures of PSBs distributed by retailers or the PSB charges involved in the past five years.
     
    (5) As mentioned above, the EPD is continuously expanding the community recycling network GREEN@COMMUNITY to strengthen the recycling facilities at district level. The number of GREEN@COMMUNITY public collection points has notably increased from around 250 in 2023 to over 800 at present. These include 12 Recycling Stations focusing on both environmental education and recycling support, 82 Recycling Stores located in close proximity to clusters of single-block buildings or set up in public rental housing (PRH) estates, around 600 Recycling Spots, and over 100 sets of smart recycling bins. As the 50 Recycling Stores set up in PRH estates mainly commenced operation progressively in the first half of 2024, their expenditures were not reflected in 2023-24. Together with an increase in some 470 Recycling Spots thereafter, the estimated operating expenditure of 2025-26 increases to some extent compared to that of 2023-24. However, the quantity of recyclables collected by GREEN@COMMUNITY has been continuously increasing remarkably at the same time from around 26 900 tonnes in 2023 to around 41 800 tonnes in 2024, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 60 per cent. The quantity of recyclables collected in the first quarter of 2025 was around 11 270 tonnes, representing a further increase compared to the same period last year.
     
    To enhance the overall cost-effectiveness and sustainability of the operation of GREEN@COMMUNITY, the EPD is reviewing the tender arrangements and requirements for GREEN@COMMUNITY facilities. For example, in the tendering for the follow-on contracts of 12 Recycling Stores conducted early this year, different types of operators (including private enterprises) have been included, with a view to reducing cost through enhanced competition. The EPD will also relocate some of the Recycling Stores to suitable government facilities and make greater use of smart recycling devices to gradually transform the operation of Recycling Stores into self-service recycling facilities, so as to reduce the rental expenses and operating costs. The EPD will review the operation of GREEN@COMMUNITY from time to time and adjust the service arrangements as necessary, with a view to enhancing its cost-effectiveness.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LCQ8: Village sewerage systems

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is a question by the Hon Holden Chow and a written reply by the Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):
     
    Question:
     
         It is learnt that the Government commenced the rural trunk sewerage project in Kam Tin Heung (the trunk sewerage project) in as early as 2006, and the private housing courts completed in the vicinity have already been connected to the trunk sewer. However, there have yet to be any public sewer connection works carried out for quite a number of the villages under the Kam Tin Rural Committee, causing great distress to the villagers over the years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
     
    (1) of the following information on the villages under the Kam Tin Rural Committee in relation to public sewer connection works (set out in a table): (i) the names of the villages where public sewer connection works have been completed or are being carried out, (ii) the titles of the relevant works projects as well as the time required/estimated for completing the works, and (iii) the names of the villages where no public sewer connection works have been carried out;
     
    (2) among the villages mentioned in (1)(iii) where no public sewer connection works have been carried out, of a list of those villages for which the authorities have plans to carry out such works, as well as the locations and commencement dates of such works (set out in a table);
     
    (3) of the commencement and completion dates of the trunk sewerage project, as well as the shortest distance for laying a sewer to connect to the trunk sewer from Kam Tin Heung; and
     
    (4) as it is learnt that in 2016, the Kam Tin Rural Committee made a request for improvement of the sewerage system of Kam Tin Heung, as well as proposed to lay sewers to connect to the aforesaid trunk sewer, whether the authorities will carry out such works for Kam Tin Heung; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
     
    Reply:
     
    President,
     
         The Government has all along been allocating resources with a view to taking forward the Village Sewerage Programme (the Programme) to progressively provide public sewerage facilities in village areas for improving rural environment and enhancing the water quality of rivers and coastal waters. Currently, the sewerage systems for 17 village areas in Yuen Long district have been completed. 

         The Government’s consolidated reply to the question raised by the Hon Holden Chow is as follows:

    (1) and (2) The Programme currently covers nine village areas in Kam Tin, Yuen Long. Among them, the Drainage Services Department commenced the village sewerage works for part of Kam Tin Shi in 2020 and completed the works in 2024, while the investigation study for the sewerage systems of the other eight village areas has been completed. Relevant information is tabulated below:
     

    Progress No. of village areas Names of project and village areas
    Sewerage works completed 1 Village sewerage at Kam Tin Shi, Kam Tin – Kam Tin Shi (part)
    Investigation study completed 8 Village sewerage for Kam Tin, Yuen Long (Stage 1) – Ha Ko Po, Ko Po San Tsuen, Ko Po Tsuen (Kam Tin), Tsz Tong Tsuen (Kam Tin), Wing Lung Wai, Kam Tin San Tsuen, Tai Hong Wai and Kat Hing Wai

     
         Given the large number of village areas scattered over an extensive area in Yuen Long district, the Government will take into account various factors, including level of improvement to the environment by the Programme, density of village population, preference of residents, technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness and financial position, to plan relevant works for the remaining village areas in Kam Tin in a timely manner.

    (3) and (4) The works project of Kam Tin trunk sewers commenced in 2005. However, due to a lack of consensus among stakeholders and congestion of underground utilities along the route, parts of the trunk sewers of the Kam Tin village sewerage were not completed concurrently upon project completion in 2011. Nevertheless, the constructed trunk sewers are still available for connection to the aforementioned village areas in Kam Tin. In general, the distance for laying branch sewer to connect to trunk sewer is considered during the detailed design stage of individual village sewerage projects.

         The Government will continue to strengthen communication with stakeholders such as District Councils, Rural Committees, and village representatives for the orderly planning and implementation of the village sewerage projects. Residents in village areas yet to be provided with public sewerage at present, including some remote and sparsely populated villages, can continue to use on-site sewage treatment facilities such as septic tanks and soakaway systems to treat their sewage.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –