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Category: housing

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján: President Trump’s Newest Executive Order Could Take Away Millions in Federal Investment From New Mexico’s Small Businesses, Affordable Housing, First-Time Homebuyers

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján
    President Trump Signed Executive Order to Dismantle Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund
    The CDFI Fund Aims to Promote Economic Revitalization in Underserved Communities in All 50 States, Provides Over $480 Million to New Mexico Communities
    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) issued the following statement highlighting the devastating impacts President Trump’s recent executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund will have on New Mexicans. The CDFI Fund aims to promote economic revitalization in underserved communities and has supported New Mexico’s small businesses, expanded access to affordable housing, and helped families buy homes.
    “Across New Mexico, the CDFI Fund is used to help small businesses grow on Main Street, support families so they can afford their first home, and expand access to affordable housing,” said Senator Luján. “My colleagues on both sides of the aisle have long supported the CDFI Fund which has boosted community development across the country. Now, the Trump administration has put New Mexico’s Main Street lending on the chopping block – a move that will make it harder for families to buy a home and for small businesses to grow. This is the latest effort by the Trump administration to make it harder for working families to get by and get ahead.”
    Since the program’s founding, the CDFI Fund has provided $480,020,846 to communities in New Mexico, including in fourteen different cities and towns. A full list of New Mexico CDFI Fund projects can be found here.
    States, community banks, credit unions, and other local financial institutions have used CDFI funding to build affordable housing and create jobs. Meanwhile, CDFI funding has encouraged banks to invest in distressed communities—helping small businesses get off the ground and get the capital they need to thrive. It is a proven bipartisan effort that has empowered private sector entities and underserved communities in all 50 states.
    The CDFI Fund provides funding through targeted programs and offers technical assistance to grantees. Since its creation, the CDFI Fund has awarded over $8 billion to CDFIs, $81 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities, and $3 billion in guaranteed bonds.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: RELEASE: Senator Mullin Reaches Thousands of Oklahomans with Telephone Town Hall

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator MarkWayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma)
    Washington, D.C. – Monday evening, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) hosted a live telephone town hall event with thousands of Oklahomans across the state. During the call, Senator Mullin addressed the recent devastating wildfires and took questions on DOGE cuts, border security, returning education to the states, and tariffs, among other topics. Click here to listen and see below for highlights.

    On the devastating wildfires impacting Oklahoma: 
    “First, as we start this tele town hall meeting, we want to keep in mind that there’s a lot of families that are still hurting from the wildfires that took place and that are actually still taking place across Oklahoma. Christie’s, my wife, aunt and uncle who live in Stillwater, they lost their house and everything in it. And I know our family’s not any different than anybody else. All of us were impacted in some way. Our family is here to help personally, plus our office is here to help too. So, if there’s anything that comes up from the federal assistance side, we’ve been coordinating closely with Governor Stitt. Of course, you know, he lost his house out on the ranch, and had issues there too. But I can tell you him and I have talked on a regular basis. He is working with us on the federal side, in the coordination, making sure that it takes place. But if there’s a question that you have, someone that you that you know, or you may have been personally impacted, don’t hesitate to reach out to our office.”  
    On waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government: 
    “The President was very clear. I mean, promises made, promises kept. I can’t repeat that enough. Promises made, promises kept by the President. When he came out there and he said he was going to hold the government accountable for the people again, and make the government work for the people again, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. And you see the left losing their loving mind over it, because he’s actually doing something that, truthfully, you can go back and find the video that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi talked about it in a forum in 2010… where they literally talked about exactly what DOGE is doing, except the Democrats never did it, and President Trump is doing it.”  
    On returning education to the states: 
    “Keep in mind, there was 4,200 employees that worked for the Department of Education, and they set policy for teachers to teach, and none of them were teaching. They were never designed to be educators… They weren’t teaching the students, but yet, they were trying to tell our teachers in Bixby, Oklahoma, or in Choctaw, Oklahoma, or Chickasa… how to teach their students in their classroom. And what President Trump is saying is, let’s put it back in the hands of the teachers. Let’s take the money, let the school board, and allow the superintendent and allow the principal and allow the teachers to be involved in how to educate their kids.” 
    “Where we went wrong was, we took the Department of Education and started thinking a lot of people from Washington, DC knew best how to teach our kids… You’re just going to see a lot more involvement out of your local school boards and a lot more responsibility going to your superintendent, your principal and your teachers in the classrooms.”  
    On deporting criminal illegal aliens: 
    “The President’s well within his authority to do it, he should be able to do it. I mean, why is it bad to be deporting illegals that are here illegally? Obviously, they’re here illegally. These same judges didn’t do one single thing to stop the previous administration from allowing these criminals to come into our country, and now when we’re trying to deport them out of our country, now all of a sudden, these judges are speaking up? That’s a problem… They don’t want them in their neighborhood.”  
    On false rumors about cuts to benefits: 
    “The President has made it very clear, we’re not cutting benefits to anybody, not anyone on Social Security, not anybody on Medicare, Medicaid or VA benefits. That’s absolutely not happening. Now are we looking at making cuts because they’re bloated? Yes. Are we looking at shrinking the workforce in some of these places? Absolutely. The critical ones, no. But the government has absolutely impregnated itself since COVID… We’ve just seen a lot more employees coming in than we should have.”  
    On tariffs: 
    “That’s why you see a huge boost in manufacturing coming back to the United States. You’re seeing foreign companies that have been shipping their products into the United States, now they are saying that they’re going to invest in our manufacturing, which is exactly what the President wants. And at the same time, we’re not looking for a trade war for anybody. We’re just looking to be treated fairly, and fairly means the same. We want you to be treated just like we’re being treated.”  

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Our research shows the harm the two-child limit on benefits is doing. Only scrapping it can end this

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kate Andersen, Research Fellow, School for Business and Society, University of York

    Malysheva Liudmyla/Shutterstock

    Since the UK Labour government took office in summer 2024, calls have intensified to scrap both the “two-child limit” – which restricts support for children through universal credit to two children – and the overall benefit cap. With Chancellor Rachel Reeves resisting this pressure as she tries to manage deteriorating public finances, ways of tweaking the two-child limit policy have been proposed.

    But as researchers of child poverty, we have no doubt that the best place to start reducing the high and rising numbers of children growing up in poverty in Britain today is by fully abolishing the two-child limit and the benefit cap.

    We argue that both policies are astoundingly unfair. As our four-year research programme has documented, both are causing wide-ranging harm to children. They restrict children’s everyday experiences and damage their ability to thrive – which in the long run affects everyone in the UK.

    Children live in poverty because their families don’t have an adequate income. This is partly a simple question of maths: wages don’t adjust when there are more mouths to feed. It’s also partly because things happen unexpectedly for some families – job loss, disability, relationship breakdown – leaving them needing extra support for a period of time.

    Countries across Europe respond to these dual challenges by providing financial support that adjusts to family needs. Until recently, the UK did too. Indeed, the UK welfare state was one of the pioneers of “family allowances” in the post-war period.

    But since 2017, the UK has reformed the system so that in families with three or more children, the support on offer when things go wrong deliberately and explicitly falls far short of what is needed. The UK’s two-child limit, an approach that differs to other countries in Europe, restricts means-tested support to two children in a family only. It bakes child poverty into the fibre of the UK.

    Its sister policy, the benefit cap, limits the maximum benefit amount available to households without adults in work. This removes further help from some of the most vulnerable.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    Struggling to get by

    The parents we spoke to frequently talked of difficulties in affording basic necessities for their children, including clothes and food. Many parents had resorted to using foodbanks or cut back on food spending.



    Read more:
    ‘When you’ve got nothing in your belly, you can’t concentrate’: teachers on the food banks they run in schools

    The material impacts also affected children’s education and their social and emotional wellbeing. Jessica is a single mum of four. Her business went under during the pandemic and her partner left the household, leaving her affected by both the two-child limit and the benefit cap.

    When a hole appeared in Jessica’s daughter’s school shoes, there was no money to replace them straight away. Her daughter went to school wearing trainers and was put in isolation for not adhering to the dress code. Jessica explained:

    I got the phone call to say she had to go into isolation and, and things and I just said, “I’m not the type of person that just has £20 sat in the bank” … it was kind of a bit public shaming her really, taking her away and putting her in isolation.

    Our interviews also showed that, despite parents’ best efforts to shield them, children are often aware of household financial hardship and in turn try to protect their parents. Christina, a mum of three affected by the two-child limit, said of her middle child:

    He won’t say he needs new clothes and he won’t say his shoes don’t fit anymore … I think he’s got it into his head now that we can’t go out and spend or he can’t ask, and I feel so bad for that.

    Our research also documents the importance of abolishing the benefit cap alongside the two-child limit. Otherwise, some families affected by the two-child limit won’t see much financial gain, while others will be newly pushed into the benefit cap.

    Complete removal

    Suggested alternatives to the full abolition of the two child limit include a “three-child limit”, or an exemption for children under five. These options would undoubtedly help some families, but would leave many of those in the greatest need still struggling.

    Families are struggling to get the food they need.
    Klemzy/Shutterstock

    Pound for pound, a three-child limit is less effective at reducing poverty than simple abolition, precisely because it is less well targeted on those in deepest poverty. An exemption for under fives would create a new cliff edge, removing significant support on a child’s fifth birthday, even though we know that the costs of children rise as children get older.

    Further, these approaches continue to enforce a separation between what a family needs and its entitlement to support, and therefore will continue to embed child poverty as an institutional feature of our social security system. Children’s life chances will continue to be circumscribed by the number of siblings they have. Given what we know about the long-term costs of child poverty for society, these are short-sighted ways to save money today.

    It is very encouraging that the government has committed to a child poverty strategy, and that the prime minister has said he will be “laser focused” on tackling child poverty.

    But, as we wait for the strategy to be published, the number of children harmed by the two-child limit rises daily. Nearly two-in-five larger families are now affected and this is predicted to rise to 61% of larger families by the time the two-child limit has full coverage.

    If the child poverty strategy is to have real impact, its starting point is straightforward: both the two-child limit and the benefit cap need to go, and urgently, before more damage is done to children’s lives.

    Kate Andersen received funding from the Nuffield Foundation and the Research England Policy Support Fund facilitated by The York Policy Engine for the research reported in this article.

    Kitty Stewart has received funding from the Nuffield Foundation for the research reported in this article.

    – ref. Our research shows the harm the two-child limit on benefits is doing. Only scrapping it can end this – https://theconversation.com/our-research-shows-the-harm-the-two-child-limit-on-benefits-is-doing-only-scrapping-it-can-end-this-252250

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Fund for unsafe cladding assessments launched

    Source: Scottish Government

    Building safety strengthened following Grenfell Tower tragedy

    People with concerns about unsafe cladding in their properties can apply to a £10 million fund to have their building assessed.

    The funding will be available to owners to have relevant buildings assessed, regardless of whether the property is privately owned or social housing. A further extension of this scheme is also planned to support mitigation and remediation works.

    These initiatives, announced today by Housing Minister Paul McLennan, are part of a cladding remediation plan published today alongside the Scottish Government’s response to the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report.

    Mr McLennan said:

    “The fire at Grenfell Tower which resulted in the deaths of 72 people was a tragedy that should never have been able to happen.

    “For owners who have cladding in their homes this has been a worrying time which is why we have launched this new fund to speed up the process of assessing and replacing unsafe cladding.

    “Of the 58 recommendations in the Inquiry’s second report, 43 relate to areas devolved to Scotland and we are continuing to collaborate with other parts of the UK on building and fire safety matters.

    “Immediately after the tragedy we took steps to strengthen building safety in Scotland and we are continuing to deliver an ongoing programme of improvements including introducing legislation as appropriate.”

    Background

    3: The Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report – Scottish Government Response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report – gov.scot

    Cladding remediation: plan of action – gov.scot

    Cladding – Building standards – gov.scot

    Overview – Cladding Remediation Programme: factsheet – gov.scot

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Six ‘great Coventrians’ to be honoured for their work for the city

    Source: City of Coventry

    Six people who have shown dedication and passion to support the city of Coventry and its residents are to be honoured with The Coventry Award of Merit.

    The six include famous names from the world of entertainment and sport, as well as those who have dedicated their lives to local communities, education, and the work for peace and friendship.

    The Award was launched by the Council in the 1960s and is a way of recognising and honouring personal behaviour that reflects the highest ideals of citizenship, improves the good name of Coventry and inspires its residents.

    There have only been eight award ceremonies over the years, honouring 46 individuals and organisations.

    Award winners have included famous names such as athlete David Moorcroft; head of Jaguar Sir John Egan; poet Phillip Larkin; Sir Basil Spence, designer of Coventry Cathedral; and Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, Inventor of the jet engine.

    Now, six more names are to join the list.

    They are: Pauline Black, Professor Stuart Croft, Sybil Hanson, Councillor Abdul Salam Khan, Mark Robins and Jon Sharp.

    Pauline Black OBE DL, is an icon of British music who was a major part of the 2-Tone and Ska music revolution in the 1970s that became synonymous with Coventry and helped spread a message of racial equality. She has performed for over 50 years with The Selecter and is a pioneer for Black performers and in particular Black women in music. She is a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands and combines her music career with supporting many local community projects.

    Professor Stuart Croft is the Vice-Chancellor and President of The University of Warwick and has been part of this key part of city life since 2007. He has dedicated his whole life to supporting, promoting, and delivering higher education and academia, and has been instrumental in bringing inclusive economic growth to Coventry. He has overseen the university’s work to be a part of city life and a good neighbour, and has helped build links with local communities, charities and residents.

    Sybil Hanson has spent over 50 years making a significant contribution to education in Coventry, including 25 years at Blue Coat CE School. In her retirement, Sybil has served on the Board of Directors for the Inspire Education Trust, the Diocesan Board of Education, and the Schools Forum. At the age of 85, she continues to play a role in education in Coventry. Her contribution is highly valued by the many organisations with which she works.

    Councillor Abdul Salam Khan began his career in local government in 2007 and has been a member of the city’s Cabinet for 15 years and Deputy Leader of the Council since 2015. He demonstrates a profound commitment to inclusivity and respect and believes the strength of our city lies in its diversity. He represents the city around the world as he helps lead Coventry’s work as a city of peace and reconciliation, telling its story and inspiring others towards friendship.

    Mark Robins took over at the helm of Coventry City Football Club in 2017 when the club, along with its fanbase, was at an all-time low. He took a club that was at one of its lowest points in its history and restored its pride. He not only made it a better team, he helped re-establish the club as a true part of the city. He took players and staff into the community, built links with local groups, supported work in diversity and equality, and instilled a real sense of togetherness and pride in the city. 

    Jon Sharp is a true Coventrian who was born in Hillfields and developed his love for rugby while a student at Bablake Grammar School. After building a successful career in the aero industry, John returned home to take over at Coventry Rugby Club as it was on the verge of bankruptcy. The club is now in its best place for a generation and Jon has built strong community links with schools and local clubs, and launched “Project 500’, which has helped over 6,000 children enjoy activities and hot meals.
     

    Congratulating the six winners, Leader of Coventry City Council, Cllr George Duggins, said: “The Award of Merit is not awarded often, it is not an annual presentation, but only given when people have  shown outstanding commitment to our city and those who live here.

    “The six people we are honouring are wonderful examples of that dedication and I am delighted that they are being recognised. They have not only excelled in their own chosen fields, they have taken their pride in Coventry and love for their city and used their skills to give something back.

    “The nominations for these latest winners show the great amount of outstanding and selfless work they have carried out. They all come from different backgrounds and have different talents, but they all have something in common – their desire to help others and make Coventry a better place.

    “Thank you to them all for everything they have done for our city. They are great Coventrians, and very worthy recipients of this great honour.”

    Pauline Black, said: “I have always tried to place Coventry and its wonderful community of people at the centre of my life and It is an absolute honour to be nominated for such a prestigious award.”

    The six will officially receive their Awards at a ceremony later this year.

    To find out more about the Coventry Award of Merit and previous winners, visit the website – The Coventry Award of Merit – Coventry City Council

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Maintaining mobility with aging means planning ahead

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Brenda Vrkljan, Professor of Occupational Therapy, School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University

    Older people often miss or ignore signs that their own mobility is waning, because it typically happens gradually. (Shutterstock)

    Winter weather makes it hard for everyone to get around. But for many, especially older people, the whole world can feel like an icy sidewalk every day of the year, particularly if they already have problems with their mobility that puts them at higher risk of falling.

    For people who have trouble getting around, stairs, bathrooms and kitchens are among the most treacherous features of typical homes, loaded with potential hazards, such as hard surfaces, slippery floors, accessing high and low cupboards, elevation changes and more.

    The danger is worse at night, especially for older people due in part to changes in vision and certain medications.

    Vehicles are another major challenge for people with mobility issues, especially getting into and out of them, let alone driving them.

    Pope Francis showed his own vulnerability in early February when he stumbled after his walking stick broke. He managed to stay upright but had fallen twice in the preceding weeks. When we don’t move around as much, other health issues can arise, requiring hospitalization.

    The Pope’s public stumble and slow recovery triggered concerns over the 88-year-old’s health and gave the rest of us good reason to consider our own vulnerability.

    Recognizing risks

    As a professor of rehabilitation science who researchers and teaches occupational therapy with a focus on optimizing mobility in later life, I spend my working days thinking about how to make life better by keeping seniors living well and reducing the risks they face.

    In my personal life, I do my best to help my mother stay healthy. I recognize that some of the adapted features we made to her daily activities and living space are helpful to me knowing, as her primary caregiver, that her environment is set up to support her independence.

    Older people often miss or ignore signs that their own mobility is waning, because it typically happens gradually. We may not be conscious of how much we’re using our arms to get out of a chair, that we’re leaning against the wall of the shower while washing, hesitating to pick up a dropped item, or less comfortable driving at night or at higher speeds.

    These are some of the early signs we may need help. Since it’s easy to miss them, it’s important to think consciously and deliberately to avoid a fall or a collision that results in major injury like a broken hip, wrist or worse.

    No one takes pleasure in admitting it might be time for a grab bar or a cane, but assistive devices can prevent injury. Even those who already use such devices may not recognize that their needs change over time, or that their equipment — even a cane — may need maintenance or replacement.

    Failing to take precautions, though, can have severe and lasting repercussions, so it’s vital to be honest with ourselves.

    Prevention and risk reduction

    The upside of taking stock of our situation is that by preventing falls and driving safely, we can continue to participate fully for much longer than was possible even a generation ago.

    For people who have trouble getting around, stairs, bathrooms and kitchens are among the most treacherous features of typical homes.
    (Shutterstock)

    There is plenty of research to show, of course, that diet and exercise can make a significant difference in preserving and even improving mobility while reducing vulnerability, but people don’t always pause to consider their physical environment and other strategies until after an injury.

    Here are some ways you can help yourself or someone in your life whose mobility may be waning:

    • Install low lighting — even a plug-in night light or two can help — that illuminates the path from bedroom to bathroom.

    • Add a second handrail to cover both sides of staircases inside and outside of the home, especially steep stairs that lead to the basement or attic.

    • Stay up-to-date with vision and hearing tests. Always use the eyeglasses and hearing aids, as prescribed.

    • Install “tall” toilets that make sitting and standing up easier.

    • Scan the house for tripping hazards, such as throw rugs, and remove them.

    • Re-organize cupboards to put the most frequently used items in easy reach.

    • Use non-slip footwear made with safety in mind. The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute has done some helpful studies on footwear and safety, including in ice and snow.

    • Schedule a home visit from a licensed occupational therapist who can make recommendations suited to your mobility needs, including taking a look at your mobility devices to be sure they are still suitable and are in good working order. An occupational therapist together with a qualified contractor can ensure grab bars, ramps and other features are installed appropriately.

    • Plan ahead for the time when you can no longer drive by considering alternative transit options and lifestyle changes that might be necessary.

    Mobility matters because it allows us to live independently and participate fully in our everyday activities. By proactively addressing potential hazards, we can enhance our quality of life and continue to enjoy the freedom that mobility provides.

    Brenda Vrkljan has recieved funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, AGE-WELL – A Network of Centres of Excellence, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

    – ref. Maintaining mobility with aging means planning ahead – https://theconversation.com/maintaining-mobility-with-aging-means-planning-ahead-251589

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Tennessee Man Pleads Guilty to Fraudulent Investment Scheme

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

    KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Tennessee man was convicted for running a Ponzi scheme that victimized individuals across the country.

    According to court documents, Alcides Roman, 66, of Lebanon, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. 

    While operating Remain in Control LLC, Roman defrauded a victim in Overland Park, Kansas, after offering investment opportunities and attractive returns.

    From June 2020 to October 2020, the victim made multiple wire transfers into Roman’s company bank account and subsequently received “returns” that were in reality partial amounts from the victim’s own investment funds. When the victim stopped receiving payments and inquired, Roman made excuses and sought to lull the victim into a false sense of security. 

    Other victims of Roman’s investment fraud scheme included individuals in New York, New York, Houston, Texas, and Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. 

    The total known loss, based on victims identified to date, is $1,977,857.88. 

    Roman used funds from his schemes to pay for his personal living expenses, buy vehicles and land, send money to numerous foreign and domestic companies, and to make purported “returns” to other victim investors. 

    Roman is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. 

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Huschka is prosecuting the case.

    If you believe you have been victimized by this defendant, please contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation by calling 816-512-8200 or visiting https://tips.fbi.gov/home.

    ###
     

    MIL Security OSI –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Museums and libraries set to receive a share of over £30 million of funding to improve access to arts and culture

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Museums and libraries set to receive a share of over £30 million of funding to improve access to arts and culture

    Over £30 million of funding available to support museums and libraries with maintenance repairs and upgrades to their buildings

    • Expressions of interest to open in May for the Museum Estate and Development Fund and the Libraries Improvement Fund
    • Support to boost people’s access to art and culture, delivering Government’s Plan for Change to increase opportunities for all

    Museums and libraries will soon be able to apply for a share of over £30 million of funding as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to arts and culture in the places they call home. 

    The funding will support museums and libraries’ vital maintenance repairs and upgrades, ensuring they can continue to tell the story of our nation’s rich history and providing spaces for people from all walks of life to access books, work and learn. For example, funding could be used to refurbish tired buildings, increase accessibility, offer more workshops, open new exhibitions, or buy specialist equipment.

    The Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) will open for expressions of interest on Tuesday 6 May 2025, followed by the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) opening for expressions of interest on Monday 12 May 2025. Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply can be found on Arts Council England’s website. 

    Public libraries across England are encouraged to apply for a share of the £5.5 million Libraries Improvement Fund as part of the Government’s commitment to ensure libraries are able to upgrade their physical and digital infrastructure to adapt to changing user needs and can be enjoyed by future generations. 

    Likewise accredited museums across England will be able to apply for a share of £25 million to undertake vital infrastructure projects and tackle urgent maintenance backlogs, protecting important collections and buildings, whilst improving the visitor experience and museums’ resilience. Grants from £50,000 to £5 million will be available, to ensure museums can continue to share the stories of our rich regional and national history with visitors for many years to come. 

    It follows the announcement from the Culture Secretary last month of the £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, which aims to support economic growth and increase opportunities for people across the country.

    Arts Minister, Sir Chris Bryant said: 

    Local museums are the storytellers of our nation’s rich history and creative heritage, providing precious civic spaces that attract millions of visitors every year, whilst public libraries play a key role in communities by providing access to spaces where everyone can work and learn. 

    Our Plan for Change will support these vital institutions to boost opportunity for all. I’m delighted that this investment into museums and libraries will fund repairs and upgrades to their infrastructure, improving the experience for visitors and ensuring they can be enjoyed for generations to come.

    Arts Council England Chief Executive, Darren Henley said:

    Museums and libraries are cherished cultural spaces in villages, towns and cities across the country where people come together, share ideas and make discoveries. This new investment in museums and libraries will help secure their future for years to come.

    Notes to editors

    • In February, Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy announced more than £270 million in funding for arts venues, museums, libraries and the heritage sector in a major boost for growth. 

    • Arts Council England delivers these funds on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Guidance has been published today by Arts Council England to provide further information for museums and libraries considering making an application to these schemes. 

    • The online portal to register Expressions of Interest for LIF opens on Tuesday 6th May 2025. Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply can be found on Arts Council England’s website. 

    • The online portal to register Expressions of Interest for MEND opens on Monday 12th May 2025.  Full guidance, including eligibility criteria and details of how to apply can be found on Arts Council England’s website.

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    Published 25 March 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Bake Off’s Josh gets growing for Leicester!

    Source: City of Leicester

    A FAMILIAR face for fans of The Great British Bake Off has helped to launch Leicester’s seed library for the spring growing season.

    Dr Josh Smalley – who made it all the way to the finals of the Great British Bake Off in 2023 – is a former student and now postdoctoral research associate and science communication champion for the university.

    This year, the university has joined the seed library through the Universities Partnership programme.

    Members of Leicester Libraries or the University of Leicester library can order free seeds so that they can grow fresh, tasty, healthy veg at home. And if you want some inspiration, later in the year Josh will be posting some online recipes using what he’s grown from the seed library.

    Chemistry graduate Josh – who now works at the university – said: “I can’t wait to pick up and get growing with my seeds from Leicester seed library! This is such a great initiative and you don’t even need a garden for it, as the seeds available are suitable for planting in pots or on a window ledge. So anyone can get involved!

    “As I grow along I will be posting photos of the progress, then when harvesting time comes I will share few recipes that will hopefully inspire people on how to use their produce.

    “It just goes to show that gardening is for everyone – and whether you’re a student, a seasoned grower or a novice, all you need is library membership to be able to get your hands on some free seeds and get started.”  

    Assistant city mayor Cllr Vi Dempster, who is responsible for libraries, public health, allotments and community growing, said: “Our seed library has been running for three years now and it’s great to be able to welcome the University of Leicester on board.

    “This initiative is also an important part of the Let’s Get Growing community growing programmes that take place across the city, which we know not only provide people with healthy, home-grown produce, but are also hugely valued as a great way to boost your mental wellbeing, keep active and meet other people.

    “Using your library membership to get growing means you can also take advantage of other library resources, such as our wide range of books, e-books and magazines that offer tips and advice on gardening.

    “We’re very grateful to The Conservation Volunteers for helping us select the seeds to provide, and to Josh and the University of Leicester for joining the scheme.”

    Dr Simon Dixon, associate director for community and heritage in the library and learning services at the university, said: “Our library members come to us to feed their minds, but now they can feed their bodies too, thanks to the Seed Library.

    “There’s no better diet than one that consists of home-grown, fresh, tasty, healthy veg and thanks to the city council and The Conservation Volunteers, more people will have the opportunity to grow their own.”

    The offer is open to anyone living in the city, you just need to be a library member – it’s free and easy to join. Choose up to three packets of seeds, with the current spring selection including spring onions, edible flowers and dwarf French beans.  

    To claim your free seeds, call 0116 454 0290, visit your local library or visit the University of Leicester library to place your order. Find all the information you need at www.leicester.gov.uk/seedlibrary

    To find out more about community growing in Leicester, visit www.leicester.gov.uk/allotments

    ENDS

    Picture shows l-r Emma Foskett from Leicester Libraries, Leicester City Council; Dr Josh Smalley from University of Leicester; Daxa Ralhan from Public Health at Leicester City Council, Professor Daniel Ladley, Dean of University of Leicester School of Business; Lee Warner, head of neighbourhood services, Leicester City Council.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Banning foreign purchases of established dwellings

    Source:

    On 16 February 2025, the Government announced that it will impose a temporary ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings for at least 2 years and crack down on land banking.

    From 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027, foreign persons, including temporary residents and foreign-owned companies, cannot apply to buy an established dwelling in Australia unless an exception applies. These limited exceptions will include investments that significantly increase housing supply or support the availability of housing supply, and for the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.

    Other existing exceptions remain in place, such as for purchases by:

    • permanent residents
    • New Zealand citizens
    • spouses of Australian citizens, permanent residents or New Zealand citizens (when purchased as joint tenants).

    A review will be undertaken to determine if the ban should be extended beyond 31 March 2027.

    We will enforce the ban through enhanced screening of foreign investment proposals relating to residential properties.

    We will carry out a full audit of current foreign investment approvals for vacant residential land development.

    We will also take a tougher stance on compliance of foreign investment approvals for vacant residential land development. This will help ensure that foreign investors who have bought or want to buy vacant residential land meet development conditions.

    For more information see:

    MIL OSI News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Albuquerque Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Drug Trafficking and Firearms Charges

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

    ALBUQUERQUE – An Albuquerque man has pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking and firearms charges, agreeing to forfeit multiple weapons, vehicles, and over $64,000 in cash seized during a raid on his residence.

    According to court records, on March 23, 2023, the FBI SWAT team executed a search warrant at Jerry Bezie‘s residence in the South Valley. During the operation, agents seized more than 16 pounds of methamphetamine and approximately 11,400 grams of fentanyl pills, multiple firearms, ammunition, and other items indicative of drug trafficking activities. In his plea agreement, Bezie admitted to possessing these substances with the intent to distribute and admitted that, as a convicted felon, he was legally prohibited from possessing firearms.

    As part of his plea agreement, Bezie has agreed to forfeit numerous items, including:

    • Firearms: A Glock 19 9mm pistol, a Glock 29 10mm pistol, an FN Five-seven 5.7×28 caliber pistol, a Sig Sauer P229 .357 sig caliber pistol, and a Steyr-Daimler Puch Aug/SA .223 caliber rifle.
    • Ammunition and Accessories: Three .223 caliber magazines, approximately 308 rounds of .223 caliber cartridges, two 5.7×28 magazines, approximately 46 rounds of 5.7×28 cartridges, approximately 106 rounds of 9mm cartridges, two 9mm magazines, two 9mm casings, three 10mm magazines, and approximately ten rounds of 10mm cartridges.
    • Vehicles and Trailers: A 2006 Hummer 4T vehicle, a 2018 Polaris Slingshot motorcycle, a 2018 Canam ATV, an Interstate Kingman Enclosed Trailer, and a 1984 Dump trailer.
    • Cash and Jewelry: Approximately $64,333.93 in U.S. currency and certain jewelry seized on or about March 23, 2023, excluding specific items belonging to others.

    2006 Hummer 4T vehicle

    2018 Polaris Slingshot motorcycle

    2018 Canam ATV

    Firearms, ammunition and jewelry

    The FBI’s investigation linked Bezie to Julian Leyba, with both men allegedly supplying fentanyl sold along Central Avenue in Albuquerque. On March 23, 2023, the FBI raided Leyba’s residence in Northeast Albuquerque as well. While no drugs were seized from Leyba’s home, investigators found six firearms, including a machine gun, which he was prohibited from possessing due to prior felony convictions.

    Leyba pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession a machine gun on May 2, 2024, and was sentenced to 70 months in prison followed by three years of supervise release.

    At sentencing, Bezie faces a mandatory 60 months for drug trafficking and an additional 60 months for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, for a total of 120 months, and up to life in prison. This sentence will be followed by not less than four years of supervised release. Additionally, Bezie faces a fine not to exceed $5 million or twice the pecuniary gain to the defendant.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Holland S. Kastrinand Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, made the announcement today.

    The FBI’s Violent Gang Task Force (VGTF) investigated this case with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and New Mexico State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Paul Mysliwiec is prosecuting the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Mexican National Caught Dealing Drugs and Guns Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

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

    Stash house in Vancouver, WA used by defendant contained seven pounds of fentanyl, 43 pounds of methamphetamine, an assault rifle & grenade launcher

    Tacoma – A 49-year-old Vancouver, Washington resident was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 10 years in prison for drug and gun trafficking, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Juan Onofre Flores Carrillo, 49, and his co-defendant Jesus Daniel Valenzuela Ayala, 24, were arrested in March 2024 when law enforcement raided their stash house and seized more than seven pounds of fentanyl, 43 pounds of methamphetamine and an assault rifle equipped with a grenade launcher. At the sentencing hearing Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo said, “These controlled substances create significant problems for the community. There are individuals who overdose and die from these substances and those who don’t become addicted and become a drain on everyone.”

    According to the criminal complaint, Flores Carrillo aka “El Cholo,” was identified in early 2023 as a significant fentanyl pill dealer in southwest Washington. For over a year, working with confidential informants, law enforcement made a series of significant drug buys from Flores Carrillo. In one instance Flores Carrillo sold an informant 3,000 fentanyl pills. On another occasion he sold the informant a kilogram of crystal methamphetamine. Twice Flores Carrillo sold the informant high-powered firearms: an AR-type rifle that was a “ghost gun” with no serial number, and a Norinco Mak-90 rifle.

    In January and February 2024, law enforcement worked to identify the stash house where Flores Carrillo kept his drugs. Flores Carrillo continued to make drug sales of heroin as well as fentanyl. On March 13, 2024, Flores Carrillo agreed to sell 10,000 fentanyl pills. Shortly after he turned over the drugs he was arrested.

    On November 13, 2024, Flores Carrillo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

    In asking for a ten-year sentence prosecutors wrote to the court, “Firearms are a tool of the drug trade, and the danger of drug trafficking comes not only from the effect of drugs on users but from the violence associated with drug trafficking. The firearms that Flores Carrillo possessed and sold to…a person he believed to be a drug trafficker, are highly dangerous and not intended to be in the hands of drug users or drug traffickers.” In imposing sentence, Judge Estudillo commented, “If there’s firearms involved [in drug trafficking], violence could occur among drug dealers and innocent people could get hurt.

    Codefendant Valenzuela Ayala was the only occupant of the stash house and was arrested. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Both men are citizens of Mexico who will likely be deported following their prison terms.

    The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Unit, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI).

    The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Zachary Dillon and Max Shiner.

    MIL Security OSI –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Meeting between NDB President Dilma Rousseff and President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto

    Source: New Development Bank

    On March 25, 2025, H.E. Mrs. Dilma Rousseff, President of the New Development Bank (NDB) met with President of Indonesia H.E. Prabowo Subianto at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia.

    The Presidents discussed potential collaboration opportunities. During the meeting, President Subianto announced that Indonesia will join the New Development Bank.

    President Rousseff said that it is a great honor to have Indonesia as a new member country, recognizing the importance of Indonesia for the region, for the world, and for the BRICS.

    “We are a bank from the Global South, for the Global South. NDB respects the sovereignty of each member country and for that we are demand-led. We rely on the guidance of the strategies, plans, projects and priorities of each country to do a better job. Indonesia has all of these laid down in its Development Strategy: 2025 – 2045, its National Medium-Term Development Plan: 2025 – 2029, and its National Strategic Projects List, with 77 projects that provide investment opportunities,” said President Rousseff, adding that Indonesia’s participation in the NDB would open an enormous potential for a long-term partnership.

    President Rousseff added that NDB and Indonesia share the same priorities, mainly logistics infrastructure (railways, roads, ports and airports) and digital connectivity. We both aim to invest in sustainable development, energy transition, especially in renewables, and in urban modernization (water and sanitation, treatment of waste and electricity distribution). Our common commitment also includes projects that address inequality, overcome hunger and extreme poverty, and enhance education, health and housing.

    “Development is crucial for all EMDCs to reduce their dependency on commodities and avoid the middle-income trap. Catching up to the advanced economies, in the era of fourth industrial and technological revolution, requires investment in technology and innovation, which are a common objective of NDB and Indonesia,” said President Rousseff.

    Photo source: detiknews

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Christodoulos Patsalides: Current landscape and future challenges

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests, colleagues,

    It is a great pleasure to welcome you today to this conference, jointly organized by the Central Bank of Cyprus and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). I extend my sincere gratitude to our distinguished speakers and participants for joining us today to engage in an important discussion on the structural transformation of the Cypriot economy over the recent years.

    Cyprus stands at a pivotal moment in its ongoing economic evolution. Over the past decade, we have witnessed significant shifts in our economic and banking models, from the recovery following the financial crisis of 2013 to a more diversified and resilient economy today. At the same time, global and regional developments-including geopolitical and trade tensions, technological advancements, and climate imperatives- are shaping a new economic reality that requires strategic adaptation and agile forward-looking policies, but they are also fueling uncertainty that warrants vigilance and agility.

    The ESM has played a crucial role in safeguarding financial stability in the euro area and has been a key partner in Cyprus’s economic recovery and resilience. Its role in ensuring a robust macroeconomic and financial performance is as relevant today as it was during the crisis years. However, stability and robustness alone are not enough-we must also ensure that our economy is built on a foundation of sustainability, innovation, and inclusiveness.

    The Banking Sector: a pillar of economic stability

    A critical component of our economic transformation has been the strengthening of our banking sector. Over the past decade, Cyprus has made remarkable progress in enhancing financial stability, reducing non-performing loans, and improving regulatory oversight. The banking sector today is resilient and enjoys stronger capital and  liquidity buffers, among the highest in the euro area. These reforms have positioned our financial institutions to support economic growth more effectively.

    Looking ahead, the continued modernization of our banking system will be crucial. Embracing digitalization, strengthening financial literacy, and ensuring access to financing for businesses and households are key priorities. Additionally, aligning with European banking standards and sustainability frameworks will further enhance the sector’s role in fostering long-term economic stability. The resilience and adaptability of our financial institutions will be instrumental in supporting Cyprus’s broader economic transformation.

    Structural Changes: the future of the Cypriot economy

    Cyprus has made substantial progress in bolstering its financial system and expanding its economic diversification. However, structural challenges persist, and our discussions today will center on effective strategies to tackle them. I will now mention some of the key areas of transformation that have strengthened Cyprus’s ability to withstand external shocks, whether from financial market fluctuations, geopolitical shifts, or supply chain disruptions:

    We have reduced reliance on traditional sectors and expanded our footprint on industries such as technology, fintech, and renewable energy.

    The adoption of digital financial services enhanced productivity, and promoted  innovation.

    We have aligned our economy with European and global sustainability goals, thus ensuring that growth is both environmentally responsible and economically viable.

    As regards labour market and skills development, we have adopted demographic changes by fostering lifelong learning, and ensuring that our workforce is equipped with the skills necessary for the jobs of the future.

    Structural reforms and the Stability and Growth Pact

    Structural changes are not just a necessity for economic modernization, they are also closely linked to the European framework for fiscal and economic governance. The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) sets the rules for sound public finances in the euro area, ensuring that fiscal policies support economic stability and sustainable growth. As Cyprus continues its path of economic transformation, it is imperative that our structural reforms are aligned with the principles of fiscal responsibility, debt sustainability, and macroeconomic resilience. The budget surplus for 2024, which reached 4,5% of GDP, illustrates our commitment to fiscal responsibility. Furthermore, the trajectory of public debt, which reached 61,9% in January 2025, reinforces the country’s progress toward long-term financial stability.

    The SGP framework emphasizes structural reforms that enhance productivity, competitiveness, and economic resilience. For Cyprus, this means:

    • Strengthening public finances further while supporting growth-enhancing reforms in key sectors.
    • Ensuring that investments in digital and green transformation are conducted in a fiscally sustainable manner.
    • Enhancing the efficiency of public administration and regulatory frameworks, fostering an environment that supports private sector growth and innovation.

    At the Central Bank of Cyprus, we recognize the importance of the balance between fiscal prudence and strategic investment in long-term growth. Our policies must safeguard that Cyprus continues to comply with the European fiscal framework while creating the conditions for sustainable economic progress.

    A shared responsibility for the future

    While challenges remain, Cyprus has repeatedly exhibited through time endurance and its ability to adapt, reform, and progress. It is now the time to navigate the next steps in this journey, identifying policy priorities, investment opportunities, and regulatory frameworks that will further shape a healthy and prosperous future of our economy. A research and policy center has been recently established at the Central Bank of Cyprus, dedicated to conducting in-depth analysis and research to inform and guide our policy decisions.

    I encourage an active engagement in today’s discussions, exchange of ideas, and exploring solutions that will enable Cyprus to position itself as a dynamic, competitive, and resilient economy within the euro area and beyond.

    Once again, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to our ESM colleagues for their collaboration and I wish you all a productive and insightful participation.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Dimitar Radev: Bulgaria currently fulfils unconditionally all nominal convergence criteria

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Dear colleagues and guests,

    Thank you for inviting me to open today’s conference. It is taking place at a particularly dynamic and challenging moment for both the global and the Bulgarian economy. Such forums are extremely useful for the exchange of analyses, opinions and ideas at a time when the need to adapt economic processes to new realities is becoming increasingly clear.

    Let’s start with the geopolitical context. In my opinion, at least for the last 35 years, it has not been as important for the economic and financial, but also for the political development of Bulgaria, as it is now.

    The key words for today’s geopolitical context are uncertainty and unpredictability about what lies ahead or, as the President of the ECB very well put it these days, quoting Paul Valéry: “The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.”

    The obvious question is, what to do in such an environment? Politicians are facing it, but not only them. It is not my job to give advice on what should be done on the political front, at least not in my capacity. I shall therefore confine myself to one sentence: Active participation in strengthening and developing the European project in today’s geopolitical context is the surest guarantee for Bulgaria’s good prospects.

    I will focus more on the economic and financial aspects.

    Developments in Ukraine and the Middle East, the increasing trade conflicts between leading economies and the process of geopolitical fragmentation, as well as the boom in digital technology development are triggering significant structural transformations in global supply chains with uncertain duration, depth and consequences.

    These developments are already having a tangible impact on international trade, leading to increased volatility in commodity prices and forcing a number of countries to adapt their economic and, in particular, industrial policies to rising protectionism worldwide. In pursuit of economic security, many economies are reviewing their dependence on external suppliers and taking measures to localise critical industries, restructuring their production chains.

    These developments are likely to have an increasing impact on Europe, which remains one of the most vulnerable economies in the context of global geopolitical uncertainties, especially with regard to energy resources. For us, this vulnerability is an even more serious risk factor, given that our country remains one of the most energy-intensive economies in Europe. Breaking long-standing energy dependencies, soaring gas and electricity prices and the need for accelerated energy transformation pose serious challenges to European economies. Energy costs continue to be significantly higher than in the US and some Asian economies, creating serious structural challenges for the competitiveness of European industry.

    In this complex global environment, Bulgaria’s starting macroeconomic position is actually not at all bad. In 2024, the country’s real GDP grew by 2.8%, i.e. above expectations, and according to the latest BNB forecast, economic growth will remain stable on positive territory, standing at 2.5% this year and 3.0% in 2026. Growth will be supported primarily by domestic demand in a context of historically very low unemployment and the absence of macroeconomic imbalances.

    The performance of our banking sector remains robust, with capital buffers, liquidity coverage and profitability above the EU average.

    Despite the deterioration of fiscal indicators in recent years, our country still has manoeuvrability, both in terms of the fiscal space available and in terms of the opportunities to restore the fiscal buffers exhausted by the recent budgets.

    Last but not least, our country currently fulfils unconditionally all nominal convergence criteria, including the price stability criterion, with which we have had problems in recent years.

    For a small and open economy like ours, which is highly integrated into global supply chains, geopolitical developments also pose a number of risks, mostly related to:

    • a continued decline in foreign demand for Bulgarian goods and services, especially in view of the deepening structural challenges faced by some of our main euro area trading partners; and
    • increased fluctuations in the prices of key energy and non-energy raw materials, which affect business production costs and household disposable income.

    In an environment of such risks, it is essential that the economy is well prepared for unexpected shocks affecting the aggregate supply of goods and services. Macroeconomic preparations mainly consist of maintaining sufficient buffers in the banking and fiscal sectors. On the one hand, the existence of such buffers would contribute to cushioning the effect of materialisation of risks and, on the other hand, to adapting to and potentially benefiting from changes in the global economy, such as the restructuring of global production chains. A good example in this regard in recent years is the relatively smooth transition of the Bulgarian economy through the COVID crisis. The high levels of fiscal reserve and bank capitalisation maintained at that time allowed our country to recover relatively quickly from the crisis and without the need for external financial support.

    In such an environment, it is extremely important to break the momentum of quantitative and structural deterioration of our fiscal position and restore fiscal buffers. I will give the following example. By the end of 2024, the fiscal reserve reached its historical low, both as a percentage of GDP (4.7%) and as a percentage of total budgetary expenditure under the Consolidated Fiscal Programme (12.3%). For comparison, the average values of these indicators for the last two decades amounted to 8.8% and 24.4%, respectively. The consolidation of the fiscal stance will remain a serious medium-term challenge against the objective need for higher public investment and military expenditure.

    Let me also say a few words about the role of the BNB. In this uncertain environment, the BNB will continue to apply conservative supervisory and regulatory policies, introducing preventive measures to ensure the resilience of the banking system. The consistency and predictability of the policies we pursue are key to the confidence of the banking sector, businesses and investors.

    Our approach will continue to include:

    • maintaining high capital and liquidity buffers that ensure the resilience of the banking system;
    • strict supervision of lending to avoid the accumulation of excessive risks on banks’ balance sheets; and
    • policy flexibility so that we can respond adequately to new challenges, including in terms of anticipatory economic growth objectives.

    In other words, we not only want to ensure stability, but also to create a predictable environment in which economic actors can plan and invest with greater confidence.

    Finally, of course, I will also touch on the subject of the country’s accession to the euro area.

    This topic unites more strongly than before the current issues we are discussing from geopolitics to economics and finance.

    We have, indeed, one final step left. I am convinced that we are able to do it with dignity and self-confidence. It is not by chance that I emphasised that at the moment our country meets all the convergence criteria.

    As a central bank, we are focused both on the successful implementation of this final step and on our full readiness to work in the context of the shared monetary sovereignty of the euro area. This includes two main groups of tasks.

    The first relates to the operationalisation of the existing capacity to operate in the euro area, including the performance of functions that we cannot perform in a currency board environment. These functions relate both to the participation in defining the Eurosystem’s monetary policy, which required the building of strong analytical capacity, and to the implementation of the common monetary policy at national level through its main instruments, including the conduct of open market operations, the preparation of conditions for participation and the technical provision of access for Bulgarian banks to the ECB’s standing facilities. In addition to our participation in the process of creating and distributing the money supply, the BNB will also act as a lender of last resort, providing extraordinary liquidity support to Bulgarian banks in case of need.

    The second task is related to logistics and technical preparation of the process of exchange and functioning of the banking system in the context of the euro area. What has been done so far is truly unprecedented for the bank and the country in terms of scale and technical complexity. It includes construction and renting of areas; supply of machinery, equipment and materials; providing in practice a new fleet of armoured and security vehicles; creation of a qualitatively new payment and IT infrastructure; development and approval of transport schemes and security systems; full readiness to mint Bulgarian euro coins and deliver the necessary euro banknotes; obtaining the necessary licences and certificates; carrying out a large number of public procurements. I am making this incomplete enumeration to underline two things: first that we have been working hard on this topic and not since yesterday or today; and second, that the BNB and the banking sector are very ready to join and operate within a euro area context.

    Allow me to finish with a few conclusions:

    • First, geopolitical uncertainty is one of the main risks to the country’s economy and finances and requires the maintenance of buffers in the banking and fiscal spheres and readiness to implement adaptive policies;
    • Second, the banking sector is well prepared to face the risks stemming from the external macroeconomic environment and can play an important role in the materialisation of potential development opportunities for key sectors of the economy by channelling credit resources to them;
    • Third, unlike the banking sector, public finances need to restore fiscal buffers in the medium term while preserving the long-term sustainability of government debt; and
    • Fourth, joining the euro area has enormous potential to become a catalyst for the country to navigate successfully in the face of global uncertainty. And this potential needs to be exploited.

    Thank you for your attention and I wish you interesting and fruitful discussions!

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Tiff Macklem: Navigating tariff uncertainty

    Source: Bank for International Settlements

    Introduction

    Good morning. It’s a pleasure to be here in Alberta. I want to thank Calgary Economic Development for the invitation. The last time I spoke in Calgary was about 18 months ago-September 2023. The post-pandemic crisis was easing, but uncertainty remained. Inflation was still above 3%, and the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate was 5%. Canadians were being squeezed by still-elevated inflation and higher interest rates. Could we get inflation back to our 2% target without tipping the economy into recession?

    As 2024 closed out, this question was largely resolved. Inflation was on target, and economic growth had picked up. The Canadian economy was in good shape.

    Inflation came down through the first half of last year and had been close to 2% since last summer. As the Bank’s Governing Council became more confident that inflation was on track to return to target, we began reducing our policy interest rate, starting last spring. Substantial rate cuts through the rest of the year boosted household spending, and economic growth picked up to 2.2% in the third quarter and 2.6% in the fourth. Employment growth also strengthened in November through January, and the unemployment rate came down.

    The Canadian economy managed a soft landing. Unfortunately, we’re not going to stay on the tarmac for long.

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Uganda’s lions in decline, hyenas thriving – new findings from country’s biggest ever carnivore count

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University

    For nearly 15 years almost no information was available on the population status of Uganda’s large carnivores, including those in its largest national park, Murchison Falls. These species represent a critical part of Uganda’s growing tourism economy. The country is home to the famed tree-climbing lions, which are much sought after for this unique behaviour. Together, lions and leopards generate tens of thousands of dollars annually from safari viewing and allied activities.

    Keeping an eye on the proverbial prize could not be more critical for the country. When wildlife isn’t monitored rigorously, populations can disappear within just a few years, as tigers did in India’s Sariska tiger reserve.

    But many people working in conservation discourage monitoring. They argue that a “bean counter” approach to conservation overlooks the funds and actions that save animals. Others simply say that it is a hard thing to do at scale and particularly for animals that are naturally shy, have big home ranges (sometimes over multiple countries), and occur in very low numbers.

    Even in a comparatively small African country – Uganda ranks 32nd in size out of 54 countries – how does one cover enough ground to see how populations of carnivores are faring? This has been the challenge of our work in Uganda for nearly a decade now, monitoring African lions, leopards and spotted hyenas.

    Our two recent studies in Murchison Falls and six protected areas across the country sought to address the problem by drawing on a wide range of local and international experts who live and work in Uganda. Working with the Ugandan government’s Uganda Wildlife Authority research and monitoring team, we set out to identify and bring together independent scientists, government rangers, university students, lodge owners and conservation managers in the country’s major savanna parks.

    We hoped to cover more ground with people and organisations that wouldn’t traditionally work together. Doing so exposed many of these individuals for the first time to the science and field skills needed to build robust, long term monitoring programmes for threatened wildlife.

    The result is the largest, most comprehensive count of African lions, leopards and spotted hyenas. We found spotted hyenas to be doing far better than we expected. But lions are in worrying decline, indicating where conservation efforts need to be focused. Beyond that, our count proved the value of collaborating when it comes to generating data that could help save animals.

    Our unique approach

    Inspired by Kenya’s first nationwide, science-based survey of lions and other carnivores in key reserves, the first important step of this study was to secure the collaboration of the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s office of research and monitoring. Together, we identified the critical conservation stakeholders in and around six protected areas. These are Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve, Kidepo Valley, Toro Semliki, Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls. Leopards and hyenas occur in some other parks (such as Mount Elgon and Rwenzori National Park) but resource constraints prevented us from surveying these sites.

    We had no predisposed notions of who could or would participate in our carnivore surveys, only that we wanted people living closest to these species in the room.

    We shortlisted lodge owners, government rangers, independent scientists, university students from Kampala, NGO staff and even trophy hunters. All came together for a few days to learn about how to find carnivores in each landscape, build detection histories and analyse data. We delivered five technical workshops showing participants how to search for African lions in the landscapes together with mapping exactly where they drove.

    We also taught participants:

    • how to identify lions by their whisker spots in high-definition photographs – these are the small spots where a cat’s whiskers originate on their cheeks

    • how to determine identity in camera trap images of leopard and spotted hyena body flanks

    • post data collection analysis techniques

    • a technique to estimate population densities and abundance.

    More than 100 Ugandan and international collaborators joined in the “all hands on deck” survey, driving over 26,000km and recording 7,516 camera trap nights from 232 locations spanning a year from January 2022 to January 2023.



    Read more:
    Counting Uganda’s lions: we found that wildlife rangers do a better job than machines

    Our scientific approach focused on how to achieve the best possible counts of carnivores. In the process we identified some of the biggest shortcomings of previous surveys. These included double counting individual animals and failing to incorporate detection probability. Even worse was simply adding all individual sighted animals and not generating any local-level estimates.

    What our results tell us

    As expected, our results painted a grim picture in some areas, but marked hope for others.

    • In the majestic Murchison Falls national park, through which the River Nile runs east-west, we estimated that approximately 240 lions still remained across some 3,200km² of sampled area. This is the highest number in Uganda and at least five to 10 times higher than in the Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth parks.

    • In Queen Elizabeth national park, home to the tree-climbing lions, we found a marked decline of over 40% (just 39 individuals left in 2,400km²) since our last survey in 2018.

    • In the country’s north, Kidepo Valley, the best estimate is just 12 individual lions across 1,430km², in stark contrast with the previous estimate of 132 lions implemented nearly 15 years ago.

    In contrast, leopards appeared to continue to occur at high densities in select areas, with Lake Mburo and Murchison Falls exhibiting strong populations. Pian Upe and Queen Elizabeth’s Ishasha sector recorded the lowest densities.

    Spotted hyenas have proven far more resilient. They occur at densities ranging from 6.15 to 45.31 individuals/100km² across surveyed sites. In Queen Elizabeth, their numbers could be rising as lion populations decline, likely due to reduced competition and ongoing poaching pressure targeting lions.

    These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted conservation interventions, particularly for lions in Uganda’s struggling populations.

    Value beyond numbers

    Our approach shared the load of data collection, and gave people an opportunity and skills to engage in wildlife science. For many emerging conservationists in the country, this was their first chance to be authors on a scientific paper (an increasingly important component of postgraduate degree applications). Even if many of the people we worked with disagree on how to save large carnivores in Uganda, they could at least agree on how many there are as they had a hand in collecting the data and scrutinising it. Since we have embraced a fully science-based approach, we recognise that our surveys too should improve over time.

    Aggrey Rwetsiba, senior manager, research and monitoring at Uganda Wildlife Authority, contributed to the research on which this article is based.

    Duan Biggs receives funding from Northern Arizona University and is a member of the IUCN (World Conservation Union).

    Alexander Richard Braczkowski and Arjun M. Gopalaswamy do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Uganda’s lions in decline, hyenas thriving – new findings from country’s biggest ever carnivore count – https://theconversation.com/ugandas-lions-in-decline-hyenas-thriving-new-findings-from-countrys-biggest-ever-carnivore-count-249724

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Women are south Asia’s ‘silent contributors’ – changing that could transform economies

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nirma Sadamali Jayawardena, Assistant Professor in Marketing, University of Bradford

    Whether it’s selling at a market or working in the home or in the field, south Asian women are contributing to their economies. Florian Augustin/Shutterstock

    As a child, I lived with my grandmother in a rural village in Sri Lanka where women often played an active economic role – working in sectors like farming, technology, sewing, household work or some other area. These days across South Asia, businesses led by women are on the rise, with online platforms making it easier for entrepreneurs to start with minimal investment.

    If more women could be encouraged into employment in the region, it would, of course, bring wider benefits. For instance, it’s estimated that if women’s participation in India’s workforce reached 50% from its current level of 31%, the country’s annual growth rate could increase by 1.5 percentage points.

    Female entrepreneurs in South Asia have been described as “silent contributors”, as their input to the economy and society is still not properly understood. And when their contributions go unrecognised, women can be denied access to education and career development.

    Not only that, but it can lead to women having fewer opportunities for leadership roles, financial security, and professional growth. It may discourage the participation of other women, or limit their progress in industries and societies that could benefit from greater female representation.

    Research often points to factors such as a lack of education, technical expertise, gender discrimination and low self-esteem as reasons female entrepreneurs may be demotivated.

    But after reviewing several studies, I realised there’s a deeper, more complex issue. I identified a three-pillar effect that discourages women from entrepreneurship.

    These are socio-cultural barriers, which include traditional gender roles and societal expectations; economic and financial constraints such as limited access to funding; and regulatory and institutional challenges like legal obstacles and a lack of support systems.

    These three pillars create significant hurdles for women who are trying to build their businesses.

    A study looking at Mumbai, India, found that limited affordable transport can significantly reduce women’s chances of entering the workforce or starting a business.

    For example, some Indian and Sri Lankan women are expected to stay close to home to take care of children or elderly relatives. This limits their ability to travel to markets or participate in other work. There is also the issue of poor access to education and technical skills that can hold women back in terms of development and building a business.

    These barriers are starting to receive more recognition and were depicted in the award-winning film The Great Indian Kitchen. This 2021 film in the Malayalam language tells the story of a young woman who is expected to follow traditional gender roles after her marriage. The film highlights the social norms that often deter women from working or seeking education.

    The Great Indian Kitchen trailer.

    Most women entrepreneurs in South Asia work in the informal sector. This includes street vending, agriculture, retail and home-based industries like sewing. But these sectors and enterprises often remain unregistered and are not captured in official economic data.

    For example, women in cities like Delhi in India and Colombo in Sri Lanka sell products like vegetables or handmade jewellery on the streets. Often, these women do not have legal businesses or commercial registration numbers. This limits their access to loans, social security and more formal markets. Across South Asia, only 25% of women have a bank account, compared with 41% of men – the biggest gender gap in the world.

    Nepal, however, has made strides in financial inclusion, particularly in closing the gender gap. According to Nepal’s financial inclusion report in 2023, women’s access to formal financial services the previous year was at 89% while men’s stood at 90% – showing that change is possible.

    The barriers for women

    The lack of education and technical training often restricts women’s ability to develop skills and entrepreneurial nous. But it can also expose them to exploitation by officials who can prey on their lack of legal knowledge, forcing them to face bureaucratic hurdles and corruption.

    Another thorny issue is that in some cultures it is unacceptable for women to hold seniority or authority over men. Often, government policies and programmes focus on male entrepreneurs, overlooking women’s issues. These include childcare needs or safety concerns.

    In Sri Lanka, female-owned businesses face significant challenges in accessing key government incentives simply because of limited awareness. A big issue is that women in rural areas often do not hear about funding programmes, grants and financial schemes.

    South Asian women’s economic contributions continue to be damaged by social, cultural and institutional limitations. It is vital to recognise these contributions and bring them into the formal economic system. This should ensure that female entrepreneurs get their rightful place in the broader economic arena.

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

    – ref. Women are south Asia’s ‘silent contributors’ – changing that could transform economies – https://theconversation.com/women-are-south-asias-silent-contributors-changing-that-could-transform-economies-251881

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: New deal struck on EU driving licence rules

    Source: European Union 2

    Parliament and Council negotiators agreed new driving licence rules, introducing a mobile licence, a probation period for new drivers, and “accompanied” driving.

    The agreement on an update of EU driving licence directive reached on early Tuesday morning is intended to improve road safety in Europe, with almost 20,000 lives lost on EU roads annually.

    Training on phone usage and driving in dangerous conditions

    MEPs managed to insert new requirements so that drivers are better prepared for real driving situations and develop sufficient risk awareness of pedestrians, children, cyclists and other vulnerable road users. To qualify for a licence, a driver will have to learn about safe phone usage while driving, blind spot risks, driver-assistance systems, the safe opening of doors, and driving in snow and slippery conditions.

    Mobile driving licence

    A digital driving licence, available on a smartphone with EU-wide digital wallet technology, will become the main format in the EU, under the new rules. Member states will have five years and six month following the entry into force of the new rules to implement this. However, MEPs made sure drivers will continue to have the right to request a physical driver’s licence.

    Two-year probation for new drivers, alcohol limit

    For the first time, EU rules will set a probationary period of at least two years for new drivers. Novice drivers will be subject to stricter rules and sanctions for driving under the influence of alcohol and driving while not using safety belts or child-restraint systems. MEPs secured an encouragement in the text for EU countries to pursue a zero tolerance policy on alcohol and drugs, that would ban consumption for all drivers.

    Lowering the eligibility age for professional licences, introduction of accompanying drivers

    To mitigate a shortage of professional drivers, the minimum age whereby a driver can obtain a truck licence will be lowered from 21 to 18, and for a bus driving licence from 24 to 21, provided the applicant holds a certificate of professional competence. EU countries may allow 17-years-old to drive a truck or van on their territory only, if accompanied by an experienced driver. This system of accompanied drivers will apply more widely across the EU for car drivers.

    Validity and health checks

    Negotiators agreed that driving licences should be valid for 15 years for motorcycles and cars. EU countries may reduce this period to 10 years if the licence can be used as a national ID, while truck and bus licences will have to be renewed every five years. EU countries can shorten the validity of driving licences of older drivers (65 years and older).

    Before they are issued with first licence, a driver should pass a medical check, including of their eyesight and cardiovascular condition. However, for car drivers or motorcycle riders EU countries may opt to substitute the medical check by self-assessment forms or, in case of driving licence renewal, other alternative measures. At the initiative of MEPs, national authorities will be encouraged to enhance the public awareness of minimum standards of physical and mental fitness for driving.

    Quote

    EP rapporteur Jutta Paulus (Greens, DE) said: “The new driving license directive makes people’s lives easier – more digital, more flexible, and with less bureaucracy. At the same time, we are sending a clear signal for greater road safety in line with Vision Zero: fewer accidents, fewer injuries, and fewer fatalities on our roads.

    Additionally, we introduce uniform standards across Europe and make it easier for young people to enter the driving profession. On top, we strengthen our volunteer civil protection services and tackle the shortage of skilled workers in the transport sector. Finally, we ensure that no one’s right to drive is restricted due to long processing times.”

    Next steps

    The preliminary deal still needs to be approved by Council and Parliament. EU countries will have four years to transpose new provisions into national law and prepare for its implementation.

    Background

    Revised EU driving licence rules are part of a road safety package presented by the Commission in March 2023, which aims to improve safety for all road users and to move as close as possible to zero fatalities in EU road transport by 2050 (“Vision Zero“). The same package also contains driving disqualification rules on which Parliament and Council negotiators are working to find an agreement.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Uganda’s lions in decline, hyenas thriving – new findings from country’s biggest ever carnivore count

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Research Fellow at the Centre for Planetary Health and Resilient Conservation Group, Griffith University

    For nearly 15 years almost no information was available on the population status of Uganda’s large carnivores, including those in its largest national park, Murchison Falls. These species represent a critical part of Uganda’s growing tourism economy. The country is home to the famed tree-climbing lions, which are much sought after for this unique behaviour. Together, lions and leopards generate tens of thousands of dollars annually from safari viewing and allied activities.

    Keeping an eye on the proverbial prize could not be more critical for the country. When wildlife isn’t monitored rigorously, populations can disappear within just a few years, as tigers did in India’s Sariska tiger reserve.

    But many people working in conservation discourage monitoring. They argue that a “bean counter” approach to conservation overlooks the funds and actions that save animals. Others simply say that it is a hard thing to do at scale and particularly for animals that are naturally shy, have big home ranges (sometimes over multiple countries), and occur in very low numbers.

    Even in a comparatively small African country – Uganda ranks 32nd in size out of 54 countries – how does one cover enough ground to see how populations of carnivores are faring? This has been the challenge of our work in Uganda for nearly a decade now, monitoring African lions, leopards and spotted hyenas.

    Orin Cornille and Bosco Atukwatse, field coordinaotrs from the Volcanoes Kyambura Lion Project, set remote camera traps for leopards in Kidepo Valley National Park, Uganda. Alex Braczkowski

    Our two recent studies in Murchison Falls and six protected areas across the country sought to address the problem by drawing on a wide range of local and international experts who live and work in Uganda. Working with the Ugandan government’s Uganda Wildlife Authority research and monitoring team, we set out to identify and bring together independent scientists, government rangers, university students, lodge owners and conservation managers in the country’s major savanna parks.

    We hoped to cover more ground with people and organisations that wouldn’t traditionally work together. Doing so exposed many of these individuals for the first time to the science and field skills needed to build robust, long term monitoring programmes for threatened wildlife.

    The result is the largest, most comprehensive count of African lions, leopards and spotted hyenas. We found spotted hyenas to be doing far better than we expected. But lions are in worrying decline, indicating where conservation efforts need to be focused. Beyond that, our count proved the value of collaborating when it comes to generating data that could help save animals.

    Our unique approach

    Inspired by Kenya’s first nationwide, science-based survey of lions and other carnivores in key reserves, the first important step of this study was to secure the collaboration of the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s office of research and monitoring. Together, we identified the critical conservation stakeholders in and around six protected areas. These are Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve, Kidepo Valley, Toro Semliki, Lake Mburo, Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls. Leopards and hyenas occur in some other parks (such as Mount Elgon and Rwenzori National Park) but resource constraints prevented us from surveying these sites.

    We had no predisposed notions of who could or would participate in our carnivore surveys, only that we wanted people living closest to these species in the room.

    We shortlisted lodge owners, government rangers, independent scientists, university students from Kampala, NGO staff and even trophy hunters. All came together for a few days to learn about how to find carnivores in each landscape, build detection histories and analyse data. We delivered five technical workshops showing participants how to search for African lions in the landscapes together with mapping exactly where they drove.

    Makerere University students and Karamoja Overland Safari staff set solar powered trail cameras with the lead author in Lake Mburo (left) and Pian Upe (right) as part of the national carnivore survey.

    We also taught participants:

    • how to identify lions by their whisker spots in high-definition photographs – these are the small spots where a cat’s whiskers originate on their cheeks

    • how to determine identity in camera trap images of leopard and spotted hyena body flanks

    • post data collection analysis techniques

    • a technique to estimate population densities and abundance.

    More than 100 Ugandan and international collaborators joined in the “all hands on deck” survey, driving over 26,000km and recording 7,516 camera trap nights from 232 locations spanning a year from January 2022 to January 2023.

    Read more: Counting Uganda’s lions: we found that wildlife rangers do a better job than machines

    Our scientific approach focused on how to achieve the best possible counts of carnivores. In the process we identified some of the biggest shortcomings of previous surveys. These included double counting individual animals and failing to incorporate detection probability. Even worse was simply adding all individual sighted animals and not generating any local-level estimates.

    What our results tell us

    As expected, our results painted a grim picture in some areas, but marked hope for others.

    • In the majestic Murchison Falls national park, through which the River Nile runs east-west, we estimated that approximately 240 lions still remained across some 3,200km² of sampled area. This is the highest number in Uganda and at least five to 10 times higher than in the Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth parks.

    • In Queen Elizabeth national park, home to the tree-climbing lions, we found a marked decline of over 40% (just 39 individuals left in 2,400km²) since our last survey in 2018.

    • In the country’s north, Kidepo Valley, the best estimate is just 12 individual lions across 1,430km², in stark contrast with the previous estimate of 132 lions implemented nearly 15 years ago.

    In contrast, leopards appeared to continue to occur at high densities in select areas, with Lake Mburo and Murchison Falls exhibiting strong populations. Pian Upe and Queen Elizabeth’s Ishasha sector recorded the lowest densities.

    Spotted hyenas have proven far more resilient. They occur at densities ranging from 6.15 to 45.31 individuals/100km² across surveyed sites. In Queen Elizabeth, their numbers could be rising as lion populations decline, likely due to reduced competition and ongoing poaching pressure targeting lions.

    These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted conservation interventions, particularly for lions in Uganda’s struggling populations.

    Value beyond numbers

    Our approach shared the load of data collection, and gave people an opportunity and skills to engage in wildlife science. For many emerging conservationists in the country, this was their first chance to be authors on a scientific paper (an increasingly important component of postgraduate degree applications). Even if many of the people we worked with disagree on how to save large carnivores in Uganda, they could at least agree on how many there are as they had a hand in collecting the data and scrutinising it. Since we have embraced a fully science-based approach, we recognise that our surveys too should improve over time.

    Aggrey Rwetsiba, senior manager, research and monitoring at Uganda Wildlife Authority, contributed to the research on which this article is based.

    – Uganda’s lions in decline, hyenas thriving – new findings from country’s biggest ever carnivore count
    – https://theconversation.com/ugandas-lions-in-decline-hyenas-thriving-new-findings-from-countrys-biggest-ever-carnivore-count-249724

    MIL OSI Africa –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Samsung Launches Bespoke AI Laundry Combo™, Innovative All-in-One Laundry Solution in South Africa

    Source: Samsung

     

     
     
    Samsung launches the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo to the South African Market. This washing machine is redefining laundry with AI Technology. The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo features advanced technology that learns and adapts to users’ laundry habits, providing personalised washing and drying cycles for optimal results. With its intuitive interface and smart connectivity, users can easily control and monitor their laundry from anywhere using the SmartThings app.
     
    Elevating the Laundry Experience at Home With AI
    The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo is designed to increase space without compromising functionality. This all-in-one combo seamlessly integrates a washer and dryer into a single unit, providing a space-saving and efficient laundry solution with broad functionality. It performs as effectively as two separate machines while conserving valuable space, and more importantly eliminates the need to transfer laundry between a washing machine and a dryer after the wash cycle finishes.
     
    For users, this means they don’t have to keep checking the wash cycle’s progress in the attempt to prevent unpleasant odours and can use their time more flexibly. A key feature of the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo is the AI Wash & Dry,[1] which sets a new standard for laundry efficiency. This advanced system uses a range of sensors to optimise both washing and drying for each load, freeing users from having to determine the optimal settings for each cycle.
     
    Upon sensing the weight of the laundry, it dispenses the right amount of water and detergent. It also detects the fabric and monitors the level of soiling during the cycle, adjusting wash time and detergent use accordingly. After the wash cycle, the technology optimises the drying process based on the weight and fabric [2] – ensuring excellent cleaning and drying results. With AI Wash & Dry, users benefit from a thorough, more efficient[3] and personalised laundry experience.
     
    Seamless, Efficient User Experiences
    The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo offers an enhanced user experience with the AI Home,[10]  an intuitive 7” wide LCD display that serves as a central control hub for laundry, and moreover the entire home. The wide display delivers substantial information about the laundry including cycle details, remaining amount of detergent and energy consumption. When showing cycles, the combo uses machine learning to remember user habits and recommend cycles[11] based on periodic and seasonal needs.[12]
     
    When the cycle is finished, it provides an energy and water consumption report that can be viewed on the 7-inch LCD display or the SmartThings App.[13] Additionally, users have clear view of the 3D Map View, which shows all connected appliances within the home and enables users to seamlessly monitor and control them.
     
    With Bespoke AI Laundry Combo you can now enjoy the updated Bixby[14] which comes with better understanding capabilities allowing for more responsive interaction than before. Through AI, Bixby can understand complicated and casual conversations – allowing users to give multi-intended, complex commands.[15]
     
    Upon using the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo , users can ask “What’s the weather like?” and then say: “Start the wash cycle and lower the living room temperature,” and have their requests finished in one sequence. Bixby provides support for Device Q&A as well, assisting users when they have questions about certain features on their appliances. When an error is displayed on the LCD display, users can ask directly what this means – instead of having to look through the user manual or search on their phones.
     
    Lastly, an exclusive offer for customers who purchase the Bespoke AI Laundry Combo in South Africa. For a limited time, customers can redeem a Galaxy Watch Ultra worth R9 999 when they buy the innovative all-in-one laundry solution. The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo offers seamless ease of use between the appliance and other Samsung devices. With the Samsung SmartThings app, users can control and monitor their laundry from anywhere, and now, with the Galaxy Watch Ultra, they can take their laundry experience to the next level. Users can naturally say: ‘Open the washing machine door’ to the watch and then get a prompt response and see the action carried out.
     
    Availability
    The Bespoke AI Laundry Combo is available here: https://www.samsung.com/za/washers-and-dryers/washer-dryer-combo/wd8000dk-combo-all-in-one-combo-super-speed-18kg-gray-wd18db8995bzfa/. For more information on Samsung refrigerators and other home appliances, please visit www.samsung.com/za.
     
    [1]Detection and sensing capabilities are based on our deep learning models trained using predefined set of data and may yield inaccurate or incorrect results. New datasets may be introduced to our learning models from time to time to enhance its accuracy.[2]To prevent wear, wash like fabrics together.[3] Based on AI-based algorithm and internal testing using the AI Wash & Dry cycle on an IEC 8lb load. A turbidity sensor operates for all weights, while fabric sensing operates for 8lbs and under. Actual results may vary depending on individual use.[10] Does not mean all services available on the AI Home are AI or generate information or outcome using AI. AI Smart Dial, AI Wash & Dry, Voice enabled with Bixby accessible through the AI Home utilise AI-based algorithms, which be updated periodically to improve accuracy. AI-based algorithms may generate incomplete or incorrect information.[11] Messages with cycle suggestions are displayed on the control panel or a smartphone with the SmartThings App. Detection and sensing capabilities are based on our deep learning models trained using predefined set of data and may yield inaccurate or incorrect results. New datasets may be introduced to our learning models from time to time to enhance its accuracy.[12] Messages with cycle suggestions are displayed on the control panel or a smartphone with the SmartThings App.[13] The SmartThings App is available on Android and iOS devices. A Wi-Fi connection and a Samsung account are required.[14]Bixby is Samsung’s brand of Internet of Things (IoT) voice assistant. Bixby service availability may vary depending on country. Bixby recognises selected languages and certain accents/dialects. The user interface may change and differ by device. The availability of Bixby features and content providers may vary depending on the country/carrier/language/device model/OS version. A Samsung account log-in and data network connection (Wi-Fi or data network) are required. Users must agree to the update to use this function.[15] This function may produce inaccurate results and will be updated periodically to improve accuracy.

    MIL OSI Economics –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/INDONESIA – The Carmelites in Flores: rooted in pastoral, educational and spiritual service

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Ende (Agenzia Fides) – The Carmelite charism continues to expand in eastern Indonesia and will strengthen its service to the population on the island of Flores.Today, March 25, 2025, when the universal Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation, the Carmelite Order of the Province of Indonesia announced the creation of a new province on the island of Flores, within the East Nusa Tenggara region. The new province has chosen Saint Titus Brandsma as its patron.The first Carmelite religious arrived in Flores in 1969 to begin their mission. Over time, their presence was consolidated through the establishment of formation houses for candidates for religious life. Today, that presence has reached a new level of institutionalization with the creation of the new province. The General Council of the Carmelite Order in Rome has appointed Friar Marselinus Barus OCarm as its first Prior. “With this new province, we hope that the Carmelite mission in eastern Indonesia will continue to grow. My wish is that the Carmelites here, anchored in Christ, will continue to build fraternity and cooperation,” the Prior declared. The impact of the Carmelite presence in Indonesia is evident in three key areas: education, pastoral care, and spiritual accompaniment. In the field of education, the Carmelites seek not only intellectual formation (ratio), but also the formation of the heart and spiritual growth. Therefore, Carmelite schools are deeply marked by the spirituality of the Order. Currently, the Carmelites run two schools in Java, two in Flores, and one in Sumba, in addition to seven dormitory schools distributed throughout these regions. In the pastoral sphere, the religious are present in numerous parishes and dioceses, where their contemplative charism enriches the work of evangelization. In addition to preaching the Word of God, the Carmelites foster fraternal life and promote a concrete commitment to justice. Their presence is valued in dioceses such as Medan, Padang, Palembang, Jakarta, Bandung, Malang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Maumere, Ende, Ruteng, Weetebula, Pontianak, Palangkaraya, Banjarmasin, Makassar, and Sorong Manokwari.In the spiritual sphere, the Carmelites are recognized as masters of prayer and guides in the spiritual accompaniment of the faithful. They organize retreats, formation courses, study days, and seminars on Christian and Carmelite spirituality, often in collaboration with the Indonesian Carmelite Institute (IKI) and utilizing various retreat houses. The Carmelites have also extended their work to the fields of culture and communication.Through their publishing house, “Karmelindo,” they publish books, magazines, bulletins, biblical reflections, and theological texts, with the aim of strengthening catechesis and spiritual formation. More recently, they have promoted multimedia projects, with the creation of “Carmel Vision” and “Radio Carmel,” platforms through which they produce audiovisual and informative content to evangelize and spread Carmelite spirituality.Finally, in its commitment to the most vulnerable, the Carmelite Province in Indonesia founded the NGO “Darma Laksana,” which promotes assistance and cooperation projects for the poor and destitute, bringing a message of hope and salvation to those most in need. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 25/3/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/LAOS – A new Bishop for the small Church: the new Apostolic Vicar of Vientiane consecrated

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Tuesday, 25 March 2025

    Vientiane (Agenzia Fides) – The small but vibrant Catholic community of Laos has joyfully welcomed its new bishop. Msgr. Anthony Adoun Hongsaphong, a priest of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pakse, received episcopal ordination at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Vientiane, during a solemn Eucharist celebrated on March 25, 2025. His appointment as Apostolic Vicar of Vientiane was announced by Pope Francis in December 2024. The ceremony was attended by the prelates of the Episcopal Conference of Laos and Cambodia (CELAC), gathered in the Laotian capital for their annual assembly.Msgr. Anthony Adoun Hongsaphong, 61, succeeds Cardinal Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, who turned 80 in April 2024. Fr. Hongsaphong was a professor at the National Major Seminary of Thakeh and responsible for pastoral care in the 11 mission stations of the Apostolic Vicariate of Paksé, his hometown. Ordained a priest in 1994, he completed his studies at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and the Pontifical Angelicum University in Rome. He carried out pastoral service in Thailand and then in 2005, he began contributing to the Laotian Catholic community (a total of 51,000 people) by dedicating himself to the formation of young people at the Pastor Bonus preparatory seminary in Paksé.Among the prelates from Cambodia, Jesuit Father Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang, highlights “the great hope of the Church in Laos,” highlighting “the vitality of a small but vibrant ecclesial community.” Despite the government ban on the presence of foreign missionaries, the local Church shows signs of growth. Laos has 20 priests in total, but there is a flourishing vocational program that inspires confidence for the future: some 50 Laotian boys and young men are on their way to the priesthood (about 20 in the minor seminary, 10 in the preparatory year, and 20 in the major seminary).The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a socialist state with 7.5 million inhabitants, a Buddhist majority. The Catholic Church in Laos originated within the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Siam and is currently organized into four apostolic vicariates: Vientiane, Pakse, Luang Prabang, and Savannakhet. Since the official recognition of the Church by the Lao Front for National Development in 1979, relations with the government have improved, particularly in terms of religious freedom, recognized in the 1991 Constitution, which allows four religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha’i Faith. However, in some provinces, Christianity is still viewed as a “foreign faith.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 25/3/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor’s Columns Support Key Initiatives; Align with Actions Taken by President Trump

    Source: US State of Nebraska

    . Trump.  The Governor’s latest column was published in The Federalist just prior to his attendance at last week’s White House signing ceremony promoting efforts to right size the U.S. Department of Education and boosting state and local control.  

    The editorial points out: “Since the Department of Education was formed as a standalone department in 1980, we’ve seen its budget and workforce bloat — but we haven’t seen improved outcomes for students, parents, or teachers. We clearly aren’t getting what we’re paying for.

    There is a simpler, better path forward. By sending education back to states, we let those nearest to the student have the biggest influence. This is a pro-kid, pro-parent, pro-teacher, pro-school position. No matter the style of schooling families choose — public, private, homeschool, or hybrid — our lessons should be focused on helping our youth succeed, and you don’t need federal government mandates to do that.”

    The entire column can be found here: https://governor.nebraska.gov/gov-pillen-editorial-supports-us-department-education-changes-praises-nebraska-teachers.

    The benefit of youth sports and providing protections to girls and women was the focus of another column in which Gov. Pillen said: “Data show that youth sports are a gold mine for those that participate. Student athletes are more likely to excel academically and graduate at a higher rate than non-athletes. They learn teamwork, communication, and leadership skills that are hard to replicate in just about any classroom. They become more disciplined by juggling practices and schoolwork. They form friendships and find role models, like coaches, who can inspire.

    Youth sports have especially benefited girls, who before the enactment of Title IX in the 1970s, had many fewer sports opportunities than boys. Now, those benefits are threatened by the rise of a movement to allow biological boys to participate in girls’ sports.”

    Gov. Pillen was part of the White House celebration at which President Trump signed the executive order Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports. At the start of the legislative session, he and Senator Kathleen Kauth stood with female athletes to introduce the Stand With Women Act (LB89), which was voted out of committee last week.

    In his column (https://governor.nebraska.gov/legislative-update-values-sports-teach-our-kids) the Governor said:  “Just like most Nebraskans, I want to keep politics as far from the field as possible, but this conversation – taken over by a vocal minority – needs a dose of common sense and straightforward policy. The reality is that this issue is NOT political – it’s simply about protecting our girls and standing up for our values.”

    Supporting actions by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to combat avian flu and reduce egg prices, Gov. Pillen shared with FoxNews.com that strong leadership and effective management of animal disease were key.  

    “Nebraska’s fields and pasture lands are expansive – about 90% of our land is devoted to farming and ranching. I’ve seen it firsthand: as rural goes, so goes agriculture. Secretary Rollins believes this, and she is an advocate for us. I’ve heard her articulate a vision for rural economic prosperity and development that will go a long way in giving our families and communities a boost.

    We need to work with our federal partners to help build this roadmap for American agriculture. We know our potential is second to none. We have the best people and plentiful water, crops, and livestock.  With great optimism and renewed partnerships, this season of leadership and newfound opportunity will lead to a long-lasting period of abundance – and cheaper eggs – for the American people.”

    That editorial is available at: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/smart-policy-cheaper-eggs-trump-rollins-team-good-farmers-us-consumers.

    Gov. Pillen has also been vocal in his support of targeted tariff’s implemented by President Trump, which are designed to combat trade imbalances with countries around the world.  

    “Trade hinges on the idea of mutual economic benefit — it’s a great goal, and it’s good for everyone. But we aren’t playing in a “free trade” space anymore, certainly not with foreign adversaries and trade manipulators such as China on the scene. Agriculture has to rely on trade. We know it, and we depend on it. However, the status quo just isn’t working.

    We aren’t victims, but U.S. farmers and ranchers need a boost. We’re problem solvers who know how special it is to fulfill our calling. That’s why this conversation matters. Agriculture across this country deserves free and fair trade because if we get it, we know the U.S. is going to win big. I’ll bet the farm on it.”

    The Governor’s column can be found here: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/3324484/trump-trade-policy-will-save-farmers/.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI China: Shanghai home to 4 industrial clusters at the trillion-yuan level

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

    SHANGHAI, March 25 — China’s Shanghai Municipality has nurtured four industrial clusters at the trillion-yuan level in the fields of electronics and information technology, automobiles, high-end equipment, and software and information services, according to the Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference, which opened on Tuesday.

    In 2024, the scale of the city’s electronics and information technology sector reached 1.2 trillion yuan (about 167 billion U.S. dollars). Shanghai’s automotive cluster reported a scale of 1.1 trillion yuan last year, with nearly 280,000 local plates issued for NEVs during the period.

    The city has also been engaged in the development of other key industrial chains, including integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, fashion consumer goods, advanced materials, and new energy and green low-carbon solutions.

    The conference offered 15.42 million square meters of space, supported by 50.9 billion yuan in industrial ecosystem funding, for investment projects. Through policy incentives, resource matching and favorable services, the city is providing global innovators and enterprises with first-mover scenarios and project opportunities.

    “Shanghai is not only home to Otis China’s headquarters but also our global R&D center,” said Judy Marks, chair, CEO and president of Otis, an elevator industry leader. “We have full confidence in our development in the Chinese market and are committed to long-term growth here.”

    MIL OSI China News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Mexican National Sentenced to 8 Years in Federal Prison for Transporting Aliens

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    EL PASO, Texas – A Mexican national was sentenced in a federal court in El Paso to 97 months in prison for conspiracy to transport aliens.

    According to court documents, Victor Ubaldo Hernandez-Ortega, 33, of Durango, worked as a load driver for a known human smuggler. As such, he would pick up illegal aliens in El Paso and transport them to other locations in El Paso or to a predetermined location in Albuquerque, New Mexico in exchange for $100 to $500 per alien. Additionally, Hernandez-Ortega was recruited to oversee two stash houses, between which more than 200 illegal aliens were harbored.

    Hernandez-Ortega had previously been granted four voluntary departures, most recently on June 9, 2024, through Santa Teresa, New Mexico. He was arrested Aug. 21, 2024, and pleaded guilty Dec. 20, 2024.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.

    Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Border Patrol investigated the case.

    Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Dearden prosecuted the case.

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

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: EquityZen Partners with Yahoo Finance to Broaden Access to Private Market Data

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, March 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EquityZen, the leading pre-IPO marketplace for individual accredited investors, is excited to partner with Yahoo Finance to empower individual investors with the information they need to invest in private markets. Through the partnership, EquityZen will be Yahoo Finance’s exclusive provider of proprietary firm data and private market insights, enabling their users to delve into leading companies, opportunities, and trends in private markets.

    Investors seeking information on private companies can now find EquityZen’s key summaries and facts about individual private companies on Yahoo Finance’s platform. In addition, Yahoo Finance will show EquityZen’s ticker symbols, private market comparables, sector data, and more across Yahoo Finance’s individual private company pages, index pages, and Private Markets Hub.

    “We’re proud to partner with Yahoo Finance as an industry leader in informing and empowering the millions of individual investors who find data and insights on their platform. This partnership represents a leap forward in our mission to make private markets more accessible to the wider public,” said Atish Davda, CEO at EquityZen.

    “At EquityZen over the last 10 plus years, we’ve seen the private markets become the proven home of innovation. Our goal has always been to arm both investors and shareholders with the information, data, and tools needed to make smart investment decisions in private companies,” Mr. Davda added. “Through our partnership with Yahoo Finance, an even broader set of investors will now have access to EquityZen’s proprietary private market data, derived from over 45,000 private market transactions that we’ve enabled in nearly 500 pre-IPO companies since 2013.”

    “We’re thrilled to partner with EquityZen, a longtime leader in the private markets space,” says Tapan Bhat, President and General Manager of Yahoo Finance. “Through this new partnership, investors can now track both public and private markets in one place, gaining access to historically hard-to-find private company information in a place they already know and trust. As companies stay private longer, this is undoubtedly an emerging sector that shouldn’t be ignored and, together with EquityZen, we look forward to unlocking even more opportunities for investors moving forward.”

    With the abundance of capital available to growing private companies, many companies are delaying their IPO plans and staying private longer. This means that public market investors are missing out on the growth opportunities happening in the private markets, in industries ranging from AI to fintech, cybersecurity, and green energy.1 EquityZen continues its pursuit to solve this by offering investments in leading pre-IPO companies for accredited investors. EquityZen’s platform offers investment minimums as low as $5,000 for qualified individuals while also supporting trades for institutional investors as large as over $20 million.

    Knowledge is crucial to level the playing field and allow individual accredited investors to participate in the investments that are core to most institutional and ultra high net worth portfolios. EquityZen is dedicated to surfacing data and insights to empower individuals within the private markets – from the Private Market Map, a visual representation of the private market ecosystem2, to bespoke capitalization table analysis and exclusive EquityZen Insights.

    To learn more about EquityZen and private market investing, join today.

    About EquityZen
    Since 2013, the EquityZen marketplace has enabled the buying and selling of shares in private companies. EquityZen brings together over 700,000 investors and shareholders, providing liquidity to early shareholders and private market access to accredited investors for as little as $5,000 up to well over $5 million. Having completed more than 45,000 private placements in more than 450 private companies, EquityZen leads the way in delivering “Private Markets for the Public”.

    Media Contact
    Deborah Kostroun, Zito Partners
    deborah@zitopartners.com
    +1 (201) 403-8185

    1 Not all pre-IPO companies will go public or be acquired, and not all IPOs or acquisitions are or will become successful investments. There are inherent risks in pre-IPO investments, including the risk of loss of the entire investment, illiquidity, and fluctuations in value and returns. Investors must be able to afford the loss of their entire investment.

    2 The Private Market Map is intended for reference only and does not constitute a recommendation or personal financial advice. Use of this information is at the user’s discretion and risk.

    The MIL Network –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The capital’s municipal vehicles have been switched to summer operating mode

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    Specialists from the city services complex have switched road cleaning equipment to summer mode. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement Petr Biryukov.

    “Due to the established positive average daily air temperature, the entire fleet of municipal vehicles has been switched to summer maintenance mode. To ensure daily cleaning of the city, watering equipment has been installed on the vehicles,” noted Petr Biryukov.

    The main part of municipal equipment works all year round thanks to attachments, which are changed depending on the specifics of seasonal work. Now brushes, plows, rotors, anti-icing material distributors have been removed from road cleaning machines. After that, diagnostics and scheduled maintenance were carried out. Equipment that was not used in winter was de-preserved and brought into readiness.

    Containers with emergency supplies of anti-icing materials were taken to temporary storage warehouses and installed at dangerous sections of roads, near transport, social and commercial facilities.

    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.

    Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

    https: //vv.mos.ru/nevs/ite/151774073/

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Ames Nurse Practitioner and Business Owner Sentenced to Life in Prison for Sexually Abusing and Trafficking Dozens of Children and Adults

    Source: United States Department of Justice (Human Trafficking)

    DES MOINES, Iowa – An Ames man was sentenced today to life in federal prison on each of fifteen counts of sex trafficking by fraud and coercion.

    According to public court documents and evidence presented at sentencing, Carl Dale Markley, 45, from at least 2001 to April 2023, used fraud and coercion to cause dozens of teenage boys and young men, and a few young women, to engage in sex acts in exchange for money or some other benefit. Markley was a nurse practitioner in Ames and owned several businesses. Over a course of years, Markley used his professions and position in the community to befriend and gain the trust of victims, and then groom and repeatedly sexually abuse them. For a number of victims, Markley placed hidden cameras in locations to record this abuse.

    Markley exploited the trust his victims placed in him. He lied to victims that sex acts and sexual contact were needed because, among other things, he was conducting research for various research institutions or sexual-health companies, his insurance company required victims to undergo physicals which he could perform, or he was obtaining advanced degrees. None of Markley’s justifications were true.

    The criminal investigation into Markley’s activities began in December 2022, when the Ames Police Department received a complaint that Markley had been conducting physicals on minor male children without parental consent. Ultimately, the Ames Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses, completed roughly thirty-five search warrants, and obtained documents and other materials from various research institutions and sexual-health-related entities. They also seized and searched dozens of electronic devices, including seven cellphones and ten computers determined to be Markley’s and on which they located the hidden-camera materials Markley had created, internet-based child pornography, including images depicting children under the age of twelve, and other evidence of Markley’s crimes.

    At sentencing, Markley continued to provide false justifications for his behavior. Chief District Judge Stephanie M. Rose described Markley’s claims as “delusional.”

    In November 2023, Markley was charged with 17 federal crimes, including 15 counts of sex trafficking by fraud and coercion, one count of sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a child, and one count of possession of child pornography. In November 2024, Markley pleaded guilty to the 15 sex-trafficking counts.

    “This case is a stark reminder that those who abuse positions of trust for personal gain will be held accountable,” said Ames Police Department Police Chief Geoff Huff. “We commend the bravery of the victims who came forward and the relentlessness of our officers and partner agencies in bringing this perpetrator to justice.”

    FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said, “Carl Markley used trust and manipulation to exert control over his victims and fulfill his criminal sexual fantasies. His young victims suffered reprehensible abuse. The FBI and our local, state, and federal partners are committed to bringing sexual predators to justice, holding them accountable for their crimes and helping to provide a path towards healing for survivors.”

    DCI Assistant Director Don Schnitker said, “Today marks a significant victory in Iowa’s ongoing fight against human trafficking.  The survivors in this case showed immense bravery in coming forward, and today’s outcome ensures that Markley will never harm another person again.”

    “Markley’s life sentence was absolutely warranted and necessary to permanently prevent anyone from being victimized by him again,” said United States Attorney Richard Westphal. “His defiance and failure to accept responsibility only exemplifies what a monstrous sexual predator he is. Our gratitude to the courage of the victims in this investigation and the dedication of the law enforcement personnel who identified and proved Markley’s horrendous acts of sex trafficking and abuse.”

    United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This criminal case was investigated jointly by the Ames Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Kyle J. Essley and Amy L. Jennings prosecuted the case with the assistance of Victim Witness Specialist Charlotte Kovacs.

    Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of youth under the age of 18 for commercial sex; the exploitation of adults for commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion; and the exploitation of any individual for compelled labor. Human trafficking does not require the transportation of individuals across state lines, or that someone is physically restrained. Signs that a person is being trafficked can include working excessively long hours, unexplained gifts, physical injury, substance abuse issues, running away from home, isolation from others, or having a person in their life controlling them or monitoring them closely. Victims particularly susceptible to being trafficked include those with criminal histories, a history of physical or sexual abuse, uncertain legal status, and dependency on controlled substances.

    Anyone who suspects human trafficking is occurring, be it a minor engaging in paid sex acts, or anyone being coerced into prostitution or labor, is urged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. If anyone has information about this case, they are urged to call the Ames Police Department, FBI, or Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation, or call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

    MIL Security OSI –

    March 26, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Nokia to showcase latest optical innovations to network the cloud for the AI era at OFC50

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Press Release
    Nokia to showcase latest optical innovations to network the cloud for the AI era at OFC50

    • New optical networking powerhouse to demonstrate bolstered product portfolio and pioneering innovations.
    • Nokia offers solutions and industry firsts to help network operators more efficiently address capacity demands driven by rapid growth in data center builds and AI workloads.
    • Nokia to hold executive briefing at OFC50 to provide optical insights in the era of AI.

    25 March 2025
    Espoo, Finland – Nokia announced today that it will be showcasing its comprehensive set of networking solutions designed to help operators network the cloud and meet the connectivity challenges of the artificial intelligence (AI) era at the OFC50 conference in San Francisco to be held March 30 to April 3, 2025.

    The increasing prevalence of cloud-based services and applications, notably AI workloads, is driving significant increases in data center capacity. New AI services delivered by cloud service providers, including hyperscale and webscale operators, internet exchange and colocation providers, and CSPs who are building dedicated managed optical fiber networks and data centers in support of AI initiatives, all require optimized solutions that can enable simple network scaling while minimizing power consumption.

    “The solution to challenges posed by AI and cloud-based connectivity demands starts with scale, but it certainly doesn’t end there. Nokia’s expanded portfolio of optical network solutions and technology capabilities delivers tangible network value that supports our customers’ long-term business success. At OFC50, it’s our pleasure to show these off publicly for the first time. Visitors to this iconic show will find Nokia occupying two booths; because there’s simply too much innovation to fit into just one,” said James Watt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Optical Networks at Nokia.

    The Nokia solutions portfolio, which includes several new pioneering innovations, will help network operators more efficiently address capacity demands driven by rapid growth in data center builds and AI workloads, while driving down power per bit, simplifying network architectures, and increasing automation and security.

    Nokia will showcase its latest optical networking innovations and industry-firsts at this year’s OFC, including:

    • New Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) Optical Line System: optimized for high-capacity data center interconnection (DCI). A new highly integrated C+L and feature rich WDM optical line system with enhanced optical client optical management facilitating seamless support of a wide variety of input wavelengths including lower power coherent pluggables – ideal for providing maximum scalability for DCI with cost-effective, and operationally efficient connectivity.
    • Pluggable Optimized Muxponder and Transponder (X-Ponder) Line Cards: A new series of line cards for Nokia’s compact modular transport platforms utilizing high-performance 400Gb/s and 800Gb/s pluggable coherent optics supporting efficient transponder and muxponder aggregation capabilities.
    • Multi-Haul 800Gb/s Coherent Pluggables: Live demonstration of the industry’s first multi-vendor interoperable multi-haul 800Gb/s pluggable coherent optics in industry standard form-factors including QSFP-DD800 and OSFP. Supporting a wide variety of deployment configurations including transponders and coherent routing, these solutions offer network operators a low-cost and power efficient solution for applications up to 2000km.
    • Intra-Data Center Connectivity Solutions: Live demonstration of Nokia’s ultra-low power 1.6Tb/s intra-datacenter optical connectivity solutions that can drive down the power required for high-speed connectivity by as much as 70%. This innovative technology can be seamlessly integrated into fully retimed, half-retimed, and linear drive pluggable solutions to support any intra-data center connectivity requirements.

    In addition, Nokia will demonstrate its comprehensive multi-layer networking solutions, featuring industry-leading solutions, including:

    • Embedded Optical Solutions: The industry’s leading and record-setting 1.2Tb/s embedded coherent optics operating over C+L line systems, enabling operators to scale fiber capacity up to 76.8Tb/s in the C+L bands.
    • Enhanced Network Security Solutions: Innovative Quantum-Safe Networking solutions for optical and IP networks, to provide the highest level of network protection against existing and future hacking threats.
    • AI Powered Network Automation: Enabling automated management, coordination and service activation with unified network visualization across IP, optical and cross-domain layers to simplify network operations, increase resiliency, and monetize networks with new and faster service deployment.
      • Routing & Switching: High-performance data center switching and flexible Coherent Routing interconnectivity solutions delivering automated operations with un-matched reliability, scalability, and flexibility.
        • Broadband Fiber Access Solutions: For 25G and 50G passive optical networks (PON) and coherent solution overlays for PON networks to deliver 100G business services.

    Nokia will hold an executive investor, analyst and media briefing at OFC50 on April 2 from 8:30 – 9:30am PDT in the Moscone Center, Level 3, Room #314. The Optical leadership team will be on stage to discuss evolving industry trends and how Nokia’s expanded portfolio of optimized optical networking solutions is solving critical network operator challenges in the era of AI and hyperscale cloud-based connectivity. The event will be publicly available via live webcast and replay on the Investor Relations section of Nokia’s website, under Events.

    For more information on Nokia’s participation at OFC, visit us at OFC50 | Nokia.com.

    Multimedia, technical information and related news 
    Web Page: Optical Network Solutions
    Web Page: Nokia at OFC50

    About Nokia
    At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.

    As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, which is celebrating 100 years of innovation.

    With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future.

    Media inquiries
    Nokia Press Office
    Email: Press.Services@nokia.com

    Follow us on social media
    LinkedIn X Instagram Facebook YouTube

    The MIL Network –

    March 26, 2025
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