Source: Microsoft
Headline: Microsoft invests an additional ZAR 5.4bn in South Africa, launches program for digital skills
Category: housing
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MIL-Evening Report: US trade wars with China – and how they play out in Africa
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Johnston, Associate Professor, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney
Since taking office, US president Donald Trump has implemented policies that have been notably hostile towards China. They include trade restrictions. Most recently, a 20% tariff was added to all imports from China and new technological restrictions were imposed under the America First Investment Policy. This isn’t the first time US-China tensions have flared. Throughout history the relationship has been fraught by economic, military and ideological conflicts.
China-Africa scholar and economist Lauren Johnston provides insights into how these dynamics may also shape relations between Africa and China.
How has China responded to hostile US policies?
First, China tends to have a defiant official response. It expresses disappointment, then states that the US policy position is not helpful to any country or the world economy.
Second, China makes moves domestically to prioritise the interests of key, affected industries.
Third, China will sometimes impose retaliatory sanctions.
In 2018, for instance, China imposed a 25% tariff on US soybeans, a critical animal feed source. The US Department of Agriculture had to compensate US soybean farmers for their lost income.
Another example is how, following US tech sanctions, China took a more independent technology path. It has channelled billions into tech funds. The goal is to make financing available for Chinese entrepreneurs and to push technological boundaries in areas of US sanction, such as semiconductors. These efforts are backed up by subsidies and tax reductions. In some cases, the Chinese state will invest directly in tech companies.
More recently, China retaliated to the US trade war by
announcing tariffs on 80 US products. China is set to place 15% tariffs on certain energy exports, including coal, natural gas and petroleum. An additional 10% tariffs will be placed on 72 manufactured products including trucks, motor homes and agricultural machinery.Agricultural trade has been hard hit. The day the US announced a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, China announced “an additional 15% tariff on imported chicken, wheat, corn and cotton originating from the US”. Also, “sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits, vegetables and dairy products will be subject to an additional 10% tariff”.
How have these Chinese responses affected Africa?
We can’t say for certain that China’s response to US trade tensions has explicitly affected its Africa policy, but there are some notable coincidences.
Less than one month after Trump’s return to the White House in 2025, and soon after the first tariffs were slapped on China’s exports to the US, China announced new measures to foster China-Africa trade efforts. The policy package aims to “strengthen economic and trade exchanges between China and Africa.”
This is the latest in a series of Chinese actions.
In January 2018 trade hostilities began to escalate after Trump imposed a first round of tariffs on all imported washing machines and solar panels. These had an impact on China’s exports to the US.
Later the same year, China imposed 25% tariffs on US soy bean imports and took steps to reduce dependence on US agricultural products. China also took steps to expand trade with Africa, agricultural trade in particular.
In September 2018, Beijing hosted the Forum on China and Africa Cooperation summit, a triennial head of state gathering. It was announced that China would set up a China-Africa trade expo and foster deeper agricultural cooperation. In the days after the summit, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs was already acting on this. A gathering of African agricultural ministers took place in Changsha, Hunan province.
Hunan province has since taken centre stage in China-Africa relations. It’s now the host of a permanent China-Africa trade exhibition hall and a larger biennial China-Africa economic and trade exhibition (known as CAETE).
Hunan also hosts the pilot zone for In-Depth China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation. The zone has numerous initiatives designed to overcome obstacles to China-Africa trade and investment, like support in areas of law, technology and currency, and vocational training.
Finally, the zone is located in a bigger free-trade zone that is better connected to Africa by air, water and land corridors. African agricultural exports to China pass through Hunan, where local industry either uses these imports or distributes them across the country to retailers.
Companies in Hunan are well placed to play a key role in supporting China-Africa trade, capitalising on the opportunities left by China-US hostilities.
Hunan’s agritech giant Longping High-Tech, for instance, is investing in Tanzanian soybean farmers.
Hunan is also home to China’s construction manufacturing and electronic transportation frontier. This includes global construction giant Sany, which produces heavy industry machinery for the construction, mining and energy sectors. China’s global electronic vehicle manufacturing BYD and its electronic railway industry are also in Hunan. They have deep and increasing interests in Africa and can also support China’s key minerals and tech race with the US.
As US-China hostility enters a new era, what are the implications for China-Africa relations?
As my new working paper sets out, African countries are, for example, responding to the new opportunities from China.
At the end of 2024, while the world waited for Trump’s second coming, various African countries made moves to strengthen economic ties with China, Hunan province especially.
In December 2024, Tanzania became the first African country to open an official investment promotion office in the China-Africa Cooperation Pilot Zone in Changaha.
In November 2024, both the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Africa and the China Engineering Technology Exhibition were held in Abuja, Nigeria. Equivalent events were hosted in Kenya.
Early in 2025 in Niamey, Niger, a joint pilot cooperation zone was inaugurated , and which is direct partner of the China-Africa Pilot zone in Hunan.
As China moves away from US agricultural produce, for instance, African agricultural producers can benefit. Substitute African products and potential exports will enjoy a price boost, and elevated Chinese support.
China’s newly elevated interest in African development and market potential will bring major prospects. The question will be whether African countries are ready to grasp them, and to use that potential to foster an independent development path of their own.
Lauren Johnston 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. US trade wars with China – and how they play out in Africa – https://theconversation.com/us-trade-wars-with-china-and-how-they-play-out-in-africa-249609
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MIL-Evening Report: DOGE threat: How government data would give an AI company extraordinary power
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allison Stanger, Distinguished Endowed Professor, Middlebury
Elon Musk has simultaneous control of DOGE and his AI company xAI. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has secured unprecedented access to at least seven sensitive federal databases, including those of the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. This access has sparked fears about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy violations. Another concern has received far less attention: the potential use of the data to train a private company’s artificial intelligence systems.
The White House press secretary said government data that DOGE has collected isn’t being used to train Musk’s AI models, despite Elon Musk’s control over DOGE. However, evidence has emerged that DOGE personnel simultaneously hold positions with at least one of Musk’s companies.
At the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX employees have government email addresses. This dual employment creates a conduit for federal data to potentially be siphoned to Musk-owned enterprises, including xAI. The company’s latest Grok AI chatbot model conspicuously refuses to give a clear denial about using such data.
As a political scientist and technologist who is intimately acquainted with public sources of government data, I believe this potential transmission of government data to private companies presents far greater privacy and power implications than most reporting identifies. A private entity with the capacity to develop artificial intelligence technologies could use government data to leapfrog its competitors and wield massive influence over society.
Value of government data for AI
For AI developers, government databases represent something akin to finding the Holy Grail. While companies such as OpenAI, Google and xAI currently rely on information scraped from the public internet, nonpublic government repositories offer something much more valuable: verified records of actual human behavior across entire populations.
This isn’t merely more data – it’s fundamentally different data. Social media posts and web browsing histories show curated or intended behaviors, but government databases capture real decisions and their consequences. For example, Medicare records reveal health care choices and outcomes. IRS and Treasury data reveal financial decisions and long-term impacts. And federal employment and education statistics reveal education paths and career trajectories.
What makes this data particularly valuable for AI training is its longitudinal nature and reliability. Unlike the disordered information available online, government records follow standardized protocols, undergo regular audits and must meet legal requirements for accuracy. Every Social Security payment, Medicare claim and federal grant creates a verified data point about real-world behavior. This data exists nowhere else with such breadth and authenticity in the U.S.
Most critically, government databases track entire populations over time, not just digitally active users. They include people who never use social media, don’t shop online, or actively avoid digital services. For an AI company, this would mean training systems on the actual diversity of human experience rather than just the digital reflections people cast online.
A security guard prevented U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., from entering an EPA building on Feb. 6, 2025, to see DOGE staff working there.
Al Drago/Getty ImagesThe technical advantage
Current AI systems face fundamental limitations that no amount of data scraped from the internet can overcome. When ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini make mistakes, it’s often because they’ve been trained on information that might be popular but isn’t necessarily true. They can tell you what people say about a policy’s effects, but they can’t track those effects across populations and years.
Government data could change this equation. Imagine training an AI system not just on opinions about health care but on actual treatment outcomes across millions of patients. Consider the difference between learning from social media discussions about economic policies and analyzing their real impacts across different communities and demographics over decades.
A large, state-of-the-art, or frontier, model trained on comprehensive government data could understand the actual relationships between policies and outcomes. It could track unintended consequences across different population segments, model complex societal systems with real-world validation and predict the impacts of proposed changes based on historical evidence. For companies seeking to build next-generation AI systems, access to this data would create an almost insurmountable advantage.
Control of critical systems
A company like xAI could do far more with models trained on government data than building better chatbots or content generators. Such systems could fundamentally transform – and potentially control – how people understand and manage complex societal systems. While some of these capabilities could be beneficial under the control of accountable public agencies, I believe they pose a threat in the hands of a single private company.
Medicare and Medicaid databases contain records of treatments, outcomes and costs across diverse populations over decades. A frontier model trained on new government data could identify treatment patterns that succeed where others fail, and so dominate the health care industry. Such a model could understand how different interventions affect various populations over time, accounting for factors such as geographic location, socioeconomic status and concurrent conditions.
A company wielding the model could influence health care policy by demonstrating superior predictive capabilities and market population-level insights to pharmaceutical companies and insurers.
Treasury data represents perhaps the most valuable prize. Government financial databases contain granular details about how money flows through the economy. This includes real-time transaction data across federal payment systems, complete records of tax payments and refunds, detailed patterns of benefit distributions, and government contractor payments with performance metrics.
An AI company with access to this data could develop extraordinary capabilities for economic forecasting and market prediction. It could model the cascading effects of regulatory changes, predict economic vulnerabilities before they become crises, and optimize investment strategies with precision impossible through traditional methods.
Elon Musk’s xAI company is well financed. Infrastructure and urban systems
Government databases contain information about critical infrastructure usage patterns, maintenance histories, emergency response times and development impacts. Every federal grant, infrastructure inspection and emergency response creates a data point that could help train AI to better understand how cities and regions function.
The power lies in the potential interconnectedness of this data. An AI system trained on government infrastructure records would understand how transportation patterns affect energy use, how housing policies affect emergency response times, and how infrastructure investments influence economic development across regions.
A private company with exclusive access would gain unique insight into the physical and economic arteries of American society. This could allow the company to develop “smart city” systems that city governments would become dependent on, effectively privatizing aspects of urban governance. When combined with real-time data from private sources, the predictive capabilities would far exceed what any current system can achieve.
Absolute data corrupts absolutely
A company such as xAI, with Musk’s resources and preferential access through DOGE, could surmount technical and political obstacles far more easily than competitors. Recent advances in machine learning have also reduced the burdens of preparing data for the algorithms to process, making government data a veritable gold mine – one that rightfully belongs to the American people.
The threat of a private company accessing government data transcends individual privacy concerns. Even with personal identifiers removed, an AI system that analyzes patterns across millions of government records could enable surprising capabilities for making predictions and influencing behavior at the population level. The threat is AI systems that leverage government data to influence society, including electoral outcomes.
Since information is power, concentrating unprecedented data in the hands of a private entity with an explicit political agenda represents a profound challenge to the republic. I believe that the question is whether the American people can stand up to the potentially democracy-shattering corruption such a concentration would enable. If not, Americans should prepare to become digital subjects rather than human citizens.
Allison Stanger receives funding from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University.
– ref. DOGE threat: How government data would give an AI company extraordinary power – https://theconversation.com/doge-threat-how-government-data-would-give-an-ai-company-extraordinary-power-250907
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MIL-Evening Report: Russia launching ‘suicide missions’ across strategic Dnipro river as pause in US aid hampers defence
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronika Poniscjakova, Deputy Director, Porstmouth Military Education Team, University of Portsmouth
After publicly belittling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in a White House meeting, Donald Trump has suspended US military aid to Ukraine and paused intelligence sharing. It is now clear that Ukraine is in trouble in both its political and military situations, and the latter will only worsen as the effects of the US aid suspension hit.
Trump’s outburst has, to some extent, reinvigorated European support for the war-torn country. But Zelensky’s recent statement that “Ukraine is ready to negotiate about an end to the conflict” suggests that he recognises how precarious the situation has become.
In Trump’s address to the US Congress on February 4, the US president welcomed this shift, and claimed that Russia was also ready for a truce.
What would a negotiated peace look like? The side that holds the upper hand, both politically and militarily, will have a stronger position at the negotiating table.
At the moment, the advantage is overwhelmingly with Russia, which is striving to press home its battlefield advantage and occupy as much territory as it can before a potential ceasefire. This is likely to mean a freezing of the conflict on its current lines of contact.
The war has now lasted more than three years, and since Ukraine’s failed summer 2023 counteroffensive, there have been no major changes on the battlefield, except for Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August 2024. Kyiv had hoped that seizing this territory could serve as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.
But even this has not gone according to plan, as Russia has been steadily reclaiming the area, aided by North Korean troops.
Recent battlefield developments reaffirm the ongoing stalemate. According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) (as of March 4), Russian forces continued offensives along various key strategic points in the east and south. While Russian advances continue to be slow, it’s a situation that could change quickly, particularly with the dramatic shutdown of US assistance.
One of the key areas where Russia is now putting intense pressure on Ukrainian troops is in the Kherson oblast in the south of the country. Russian forces are reportedly attempting to cross the Dnipro river, aiming to establish footholds on the west (right) bank at four locations to allow them a clear run at the strategically important port city of Kherson.
Russia has successfully negotiated river crossings during the three-year war, but this time, the situation seems more challenging. Recent reporting from the frontlines has described Russian assaults on Dnipro crossings as “suicide missions”, causing heavy Russian casualties.
A high Russian body count is nothing new in this conflict. But why is Russia willing to sacrifice so many of its soldiers, particularly when the political prospects favour Putin and the Russians?
Oleksandr Prokudin, the governor of Kherson, suggests that Russia is desperate to establish a foothold as crossing the Dnipro would open up Kherson oblast for further advances and could be used in negotiations to strengthen Russia’s claim over the entire region. The occupation of Kherson was listed by Russian defence minister, Andrei Belousov, as a key strategic goal for 2025.
Strategic barrier
Crossing the Dnipro will not be easy. Ukraine has tried and failed in the opposite direction on several occasions for example, in April and August 2023.
At that stage, as part of the (ultimately unsuccessful) spring-summer offensive, Kyiv hoped crossing the river would be a major breakthrough that would lead to easier access to Crimea. This now looks like a lost cause – at least militarily.
State of the conflict in Ukraine, March 5 2024.
Institute for the Study of WarThe Dnipro is not only a natural barrier dividing the country into two parts. It’s also vital as a transport artery through the country and its dams provide energy.
Russia realises this, and it has seen the river as one of Ukraine’s “centres of gravity”. On day one of the invasion, Russian forces made a beeline for the Dnipro, crossing and taking up positions that they were later forced to abandon as Ukraine fought back.
Now, as Prokudin observed, Russia is once again throwing its troops at the river. A series of assaults in December 2024 were successfully repelled, but things have changed even in the few months since. Ukraine is in an increasingly difficult position.
Ukraine’s military is facing increasingly critical troop shortages and has a far smaller population to draw on than Russia – something which is beginning to tell.
And each day seems to bring further bad news. The US decision to pause intelligence sharing will mean its forces in the field will be virtually deaf and blind and at the mercy of Russian attacks on their positions (although there is reason to believe the pause may be reasonably shortlived).
But, with the decision to halt military aid, it’s an indication of the Trump administration’s determination to force Kyiv into a peace deal – whether or not it’s acceptable to Ukraine.
At this stage it looks almost inevitable that Ukraine will be unable to reclaim all the territory it has lost to Russia since 2014. Its best chance may be to secure what it still does control and go all-out to prevent further Russian advances. One of the ways it needs to do that right now is to ensure Russia does not establish a foothold across the Dnipro river.
Veronika Poniscjakova 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. Russia launching ‘suicide missions’ across strategic Dnipro river as pause in US aid hampers defence – https://theconversation.com/russia-launching-suicide-missions-across-strategic-dnipro-river-as-pause-in-us-aid-hampers-defence-251439
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MIL-Evening Report: Trudeau’s record may be spotty, but his biggest accomplishment was a national child-care program
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Naomi Lightman, Associate Professor of Sociology, Toronto Metropolitan University
As Canada prepares to close the book on the Justin Trudeau era, some will be happy to watch him go. But in Canada’s haste to see him out the door, let’s not forget his government’s significant achievements.
His strong performance in the ongoing showdown with United States President Donald Trump, for example, may have led Canadians to view him in a distinctly more positive light.
But what’s undoubtedly been his single greatest achievement — prodded in no small part by the NDP — was the introduction of a national child-care program: The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) system, colloquially known as $10-a-day child care.
As scholars of social policy — as well as a mother and grandfather — we believe this program is the biggest improvement to Canada’s welfare state since the initial implementation of medicare in 1966-67, updated via the Canada Health Act in 1984.
Somehow, however, amid all the negative Trudeau headlines, this major contribution has been seemingly forgotten.
Gender equality
Trudeau’s child-care program is a massive advancement for gender equality and should be celebrated by all women, parents and — more broadly — people who care about reducing social inequalities.
By freeing parents — mostly women — from the need to stay home with their children or from having to rely on ageing and often frail grandparents, evidence suggests Canada will experience substantial benefits to children, parents and society as a whole.
The program allows highly skilled and motivated workers to join the paid labour force and could also affect fertility decisions in some cases if, for example, families decide to have more children due to reduced child-care costs.
Just as importantly, formal child care benefits children developmentally, particularly in the case of disadvantaged and single-parent households.
In purely fiscal terms, study after study shows that a dollar invested in child care yields a greater financial return over a lifetime than any other expenditure of public funds.
Massive uptake rates
The CWELCC program committed more than $30 billion federally to support early learning and child care, with specific funds dedicated to Indigenous child care.
To date, it has created 150,000 new spaces, with a goal of creating an additional 100,000 new spaces by March 2026. All provinces and territories have participated, with uptake rates among child-care centres starting at 92 per cent in Ontario and rising higher elsewhere across the country.
Notably, the road to implementing national child care in Canada has neither been short or easy.
In 2004, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin was unable to bring national child care to fruition, despite gaining bilateral child-care agreements with all 10 provinces.
When Stephen Harper replaced Martin in 2006, among the first acts of his Conservative government was to cancel these agreements. Instead, he offered the Universal Childcare Benefit that delivered $100 per child to parents monthly, but did nothing to address the lack of available child-care spaces.
It did, however, ensure that a rhetoric of “choice” and cash in hand for in-home care for children was prioritized over women’s equal participation in the labour market. Internationally, there is consistent evidence that care allowances offered in lieu of a publicly funded child-care services reinforce traditional gendered divisions of labour and reduce female employment rates.
All provinces/territories signed up
By contrast — and no small feat in terms of negotiation skills — Trudeau’s team was able to persuade each and every province and territory to sign an Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.
Major reductions in child-care fees for eligible families followed, with all territories and four provinces at $10-a-day as of 2024 (with New Brunswick and Alberta only slightly higher, while Nova Scotia] will be at $10-a-day as of March 1, 2026.)
Even in Ontario, where rates are higher, costs now average about $23 a day.
Trudeau managed to carry out this program by starting his efforts early in his tenure, unlike with the dental and pharmacare initiatives, and building consensus across a diverse and often contentious Canadian landscape.
Supply issues
It’s not all roses, of course. Some Canadians are frustrated about the slow expansion of subsidized child-care spaces. And the program remains plagued by serious supply (availability) issues, especially in rural and remote communities.
Early childhood educators still do not receive fair pay for the essential work they do, and staff retention is a serious issue.
But as we look towards the next federal election, Conservative Leader Pierre Polievre has had little to say about the national child-care program except for vague references to “flexibility” and a suggestion about replacing it with tax credits. This should set alarm bells ringing across the country.
Read more:
The baffling indifference of Canadian voters to child-care proposals
Fortunately, Trudeau has set up a framework that will be difficult to dismantle in the future. There has been massive buy-in from users, providers, funders and much of the general public.
We urge whoever replaces Trudeau as prime minister to highlight what’s been accomplished in child care over the last few years, and to prioritize the further expansion of the program in the years ahead.
This would be Trudeau’s proudest legacy.
The authors 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. Trudeau’s record may be spotty, but his biggest accomplishment was a national child-care program – https://theconversation.com/trudeaus-record-may-be-spotty-but-his-biggest-accomplishment-was-a-national-child-care-program-251318
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MIL-OSI Canada: Feeding families and children in need
[. Since 2020, Alberta’s government has invested more than $31 million to help food banks and community organizations support Albertans in need. This funding has been crucial to meeting the challenge of food insecurity and helping put nutritious food on tables across the province. If passed, Budget 2025 would continue this important funding by providing an another $5 million in food security funding to help meet the needs of Alberta’s rapidly growing population.
“No family should have to choose between buying groceries and paying their bills. Through the funding in Budget 2025, Alberta’s government will continue to support organizations across the province that provide nutritious food to Albertans every day.”
Food banks play a critical role by offering those in vulnerable situations the immediate support they need to feed their families. That’s why over the past five years, Alberta’s government has invested much of its food security funding into supporting the province’s food banks. Last year, Alberta’s government invested in a partnership with Food Banks Alberta to strengthen its existing programs to ensure the province’s network of food banks can respond to Albertans’ needs. This partnership ensured that food banks across the province could provide culturally appropriate food, established a program to support food banks during emergency situations, and assisted food banks with covering their core operating costs. Budget 2025 would meet the challenge of food insecurity by providing funding to further strengthen and continue to build on this recent progress.
“We would like to extend our thanks to the Government of Alberta for its continued action in addressing the urgent issue of food insecurity within our province. Through collaboration and partnership such as this, we can make a difference for every Albertan in need.”
It is critical that efforts to reduce hunger evolve to provide long-term solutions that meet the challenges facing Albertans in need. Looking to the future, this means offering those in vulnerable situations the immediate support they need to feed their families, while also providing long-term support by educating families and children on how to shop for, prepare and enjoy healthy food. The self-empowering model used by the Community Kitchen Program of Calgary is a great example of how to do exactly that. They help individuals and families eat healthier at a lower cost in the long-term by teaching them how to stretch their food budget further, lower their grocery bills and prepare cost-effective, nutritious meals. This emphasis on practical skills helps individuals and families gain more control over their food security in the long-term by teaching them how to create and maintain life-long healthy habits so they can feed themselves and their families.
“I would like to thank the Alberta government, Minister Nixon and Food Banks Alberta for their continued support of our collaborative efforts in making life better for Albertans living in poverty and food insecurity.”
In addition to the $5 million in funding dedicated to food security, Budget 2025 would ensure that no kid has to go to school with an empty stomach by providing $20 million for Alberta’s school nutrition program if the budget passes. With this funding, school jurisdictions across the province provide about 58,000 students with a daily nutritious meal. Budget 2025 would also provide $105 million in funding this year for the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) program, which supports local preventative services and programming across the province in partnership with local municipalities and Metis Settlements. Through the FCSS program, Alberta’s government provides community organizations, such as the Community Kitchen Program of Calgary, with funding so they can continue to improve the lives of Alberta’s families, children and communities.
“Affordability and food security are deeply interconnected. More and more, Calgary Food Bank clients are individuals with full-time jobs who are unable to afford groceries for their families due to insufficient income. Our analysis shows that for every dollar invested in food security, there is a social return of $9.84, meaning taxpayer dollars have nearly a 10x impact when allocated to food banks. Direct support for food banks, coupled with policies that allow Calgarians to retain more of their hard-earned income, are initiatives that the Calgary Food Bank strongly supports.”
Alberta’s government remains focused on ensuring the province is the best place to live, work and raise a family. By providing dedicated food security funding, Alberta’s government is meeting the needs of the province’s rapidly growing population by providing Albertans – including families, seniors, and the vulnerable – with quality supports and services.
“Edmonton’s Food Bank distributes food to more than 380 schools, shelters, food banks and community food programs. The last couple of years has placed tremendous stress on Edmonton’s Food Bank and food banks across Alberta. In October of 2024, we provided hampers to more than 47,000 individuals. We are seeing and serving record numbers of people. Moving forward, we are very concerned with world events and believe that we are entering a time of more uncertainty and increased community needs. Any financial support that we receive from the Government of Alberta through Food Banks Alberta will help us provide better services. Because of this support, we will be able to put food on the tables of our neighbors in need.”
“Strong communities are built on the foundation of well-being, and access to nutritious food is a key part of that. FCSS continues to witness the growing concern of household food insecurity in our communities and recognize the crucial role of food security in prevention and long-term stability. By investing in both immediate supports and preventive services, we can work together to create healthier, more resilient communities for all Albertans.”
Budget 2025 is meeting the challenge faced by Alberta with continued investments in education and health, lower taxes for families and a focus on the economy.
Quick facts
- Since 2020, Alberta’s government has invested more than $31 million to support food security for Albertans in need.
- Budget 2025 invests $5 million in food security funding, $105 million in funding for Family and Community Support Services, and $20 million in funding for Alberta’s school nutrition program.
Related information
- Food Banks Alberta
- Community Kitchen Program of Calgary
- Food security | Alberta.ca
- School Nutrition Program | Alberta.ca
- Family and Community Support Services | Alberta.ca
Multimedia
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MIL-OSI Security: Columbus Men Sentenced to Decades in Prison for Their Roles in Drug and Human Trafficking Rings, Overdose and Violent Deaths
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two Columbus men were sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 25years and 23 years in prison for drug crimes, sex trafficking crimes and their roles in the deaths of a local man and woman. The defendants are two of nearly two dozen individuals charged in a case involving large-scale drug and human trafficking rings, the overdose death of at least one individual and the violent death of a second victim.
Dustin A. Speakman, 35, of Columbus, was sentenced to 276 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in March 2024 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 of an elementary school. As part of his plea, Speakman admitted to his role in the violent death of one victim that occurred during the time he was operating a drug distribution house.
Tyler Bourdo, 31, of Columbus, was sentenced to 300 months in prison. He also pleaded guilty in March 2024 to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances within 1,000 of an elementary school, as well as distributing fentanyl and cocaine that resulted in death and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Speakman and Bourdo are two of 23 defendants charged in a narcotics and human trafficking case that involves at least two deaths. Two of the defendants were found guilty following a jury trial last month. All 23 defendants have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
According to court documents, from 2008 until June 2022, lead defendants Patrick Saultz and Cordell Washington ran a large-scale drug trafficking organization in Columbus that included sex trafficking, labor trafficking and money laundering.
Court documents detail that the drug trafficking organization brought large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, oxycodone, alprazolam and marijuana into Columbus. These drugs were sold or used to coerce individuals into sexual activity for some members of the drug ring and their profit.
Speakman joined the drug trafficking organization after being released from jail in 2022, where he was housed with Saultz. Speakman was a mid-level drug distributor for the group out of residences on South Ogden and South Warren.
As part of his guilty plea, Speakman admitted to severely beating one of his drug runners in May 2022 and then providing him with free drugs to make up for the attack. Witnesses said the male was beaten by Speakman and then given cocaine and fentanyl as compensation. Shortly after, the victim began to seize and foam at the mouth and did not respond to Narcan. The victim was driven to an alley near Grant Hospital where he was found unconscious by Columbus Fire Department personnel with severe trauma to the face and head. His cause of death was ultimately determined to be blunt force trauma caused by Speakman.
Bourdo supplied and oversaw the drug distribution at one of the stash houses on North Warren. He was providing the property’s owners approximately $100 in illegal narcotics per day for use of the residence.
According to Bourdo’s plea agreement, on Oct. 14, 2021, an individual was found deceased in an alley between Bourdo’s primary residence and a drug distribution house. The woman was found with a needle in her hand and another needle in her pocket and had been dead for approximately 18 hours.
Further investigation revealed that, on Oct. 10, 2021, the woman had overdosed on crack cocaine and fentanyl at one of the organization’s drug houses that Bourdo supplied on North Warren. Witnesses on site immediately placed the woman in a bathtub and soaked her in cold water. The witnesses provided multiple rounds of Narcan, CPR and chest compressions, eventually resuscitating her. The woman left and, over the next 48 hours, met up with Bourdo on more than one occasion to get and use more drugs.
Video surveillance of the alley shows Bourdo walking to the deceased woman’s body just moments before police personnel arrived to attempt (unsuccessfully) to obtain her phone to prevent further investigation into her death.
As part of his plea, Bourdo admitted to coercing adult drug-addicted females into performing commercial sex acts by using violence as well as providing and then withholding or threatening to withhold narcotics and lodging.
Acting U.S. Attorney Kelly A. Norris commended the investigation coordinated by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes Columbus Division of Police Chief Elaine Bryant; Jared Murphey , Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit; and Andrew Lawton, Acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Other agencies that have assisted the task force with the investigation include the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, HIDTA Task Force, IRS-Criminal Investigation, FBI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI), Ohio National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, Pickerington Police Department, New Albany Police Department, and the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team.
Assistant United States Attorneys Timothy Prichard and Emily Czerniejewski are representing the United States in this case.
This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. More information about OCDETF can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
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MIL-OSI: Peer Global Inc. Raises $10.5M to Transform Gaming and Social Media with World’s First True Metaverse Game Engine and Launch of 3D Personal Planets
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Peer Global Inc., redefining gaming and social media with the world’s first true metaverse game engine, announced today that it has raised a $10.5M round of funding, bringing its total funding to date to $65.5M – all from angel investors. The Family Office of Tommy Mai was the sole investor of this round. Previous investors include the LA area Family Offices of Dr. Hannah Vu, Dr. Paul Duong, Dr. Quan Nguyen, Dr. Trina Nguyen, Khanh Van Nguyen and Jan Nguyen.
Peer will use the funds to fuel hiring and accelerate AI product development as it publicly launches personal planets today with a dynamic, AI-powered world where exploration, creativity, and social connection come together—all built on Peer’s platform, the first true metaverse game engine that enables developers to create multiple games that can be connected to one another.
While legacy social media sites are built around linear timelines and feeds—designed to create FOMO and addiction—Peer is a persistent 3D world that combines the exploration of Pokémon GO with the creativity and user-generated experiences of Roblox. Tony Tran, founder of Peer, started the company after seeing firsthand how social media addiction was affecting kids, as they chased the next high from apps engineered to maximize engagement.
In a traditional social media feed, content appears as a flat, linear stream of posts or updates. Users scroll through images, videos, and text organized chronologically or algorithmically, and interactions are mostly limited to likes, comments and shares with just a glimpse or keyhole peek at information. It’s a passive experience: content is presented to users, and they consume it one piece at a time. Peer offers a dynamic space where social interaction is immersive, not addictive, with the belief that social connection is moving beyond text, photos and videos.
In Peer’s spatial social network, instead of scrolling through disconnected posts, users are greeted by a living, dynamic 3D simulation of the world, giving them the ability to post recent experiences and connections in its natural, relatable context. For example, a photo you took during a hike is displayed on a virtual trail in a mountain environment resembling the actual location. The trail isn’t static; Peer aims to use various AI models to apply layers of immersion, to recreate what was captured such as the sound of rustling leaves, expands on the beauty of the surroundings, and even highlights trivia or history about the area. No other social network can do this.
Peer based its inspiration on 3D metaverse films like “Ready, Player, One” but users can now do all of this from their phones on the Peer app with AI driving the creation of content. According to Tran, “This is the holy grail of gaming – metaverse games that are connected and players can traverse games and bring other people, AIs and assets with them. This is the first step toward a gamified immersive internet that Ready, Player, One portrayed but we’re starting with phones so that everyone can be part of it.”
“Websites, social networks, and digital brand experiences today are flat. People have short attention spans,” said Peer investor Tommy Mai. “AI will push everything into spatial experiences, and Peer is leading the way. We’re really excited about the potential for this technology and think Tony and team are the ones to get this right.”
With today’s personal planet launch, Peer introduces the 3D version of a social home page, in the form of a 3D planet. If your friends are on your planet and moving about, you actually see them doing just that—just like you would in a video game. Your mini planet has longitude and latitude coordinates that mirror that of Earth. This means if you post a picture on your planet, it will be placed on your planet according to wherever it was taken geospatially. So if you posted an image taken at the North Pole, it will be placed at the corresponding position on your planet. Users are given a library to build out their own planet—flora, fauna, rocks, houses etc.—just like how you used to build out your profile page.
Influencers and brands can also create their own worlds with AI prompts. Brands can advertise directly on the world map – building games, sponsoring digital assets such as clothing for avatars – and in users’ experiences.
“People are sick of scrolling endlessly. It’s time for a better way to get online and experience a unified digital and physical world,” said Tran. “Peer is pioneering a new kind of digital frontier where AI and 3D technology come together to deliver vast, immersive and interactive spaces. This isn’t just a platform—it’s a reinvention of how we connect, explore, and create, offering a transformative alternative to the status quo.”
Download the Peer app today at the App Store, Google Play or peer.inc. Peer will launch its game developer tool later this year.
About Peer
Peer Global Inc. is redefining gaming and social media with the world’s first social game engine. Peer is a persistent 3D world that combines the exploration of Pokémon GO with the creativity and user-generated experiences of Roblox, where people can create their own personal online planets populated by the people, experiences, places and brands they love. With its proprietary online game engine and native 3D map, Peer replaces the addictive news feed with a real-time global environment where users explore instead of scroll, bringing AI and 3D together in an entirely new way for people to connect. More than 1M users are already building their new social network in 3D using Peer. Visit peer.inc.Media contact:
Kerry Metzdorf
Big Swing
kerry@big-swing.com
978-609-0766A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9aa8c838-6103-4cbf-8587-4a79d0636bf1
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MIL-OSI USA: President Trump’s Deregulation Effort Has Already Saved Families Thousands of Dollars
US Senate News:
Source: The White House
TO: WHITE HOUSE COMMS STAFFFROM: CEA STAFFSUBJECT: PRESIDENT TRUMP SAVES AMERICAN FAMILIES $2,100 EACH BY HALTING COSTLY BIDEN REGULATIONS
SummaryPresident Biden piled on nearly $2 trillion in new regulations over his four years in office, dramatically increasing costs for everyday working people and businesses — and left billions of dollars more in proposed rules still in the pipeline. Upon taking office, President Trump immediately blocked these proposed rules and has initiated an aggressive deregulatory agenda that requires substantial cuts in existing regulations for each new agency rule. President Trump is committed to cutting senseless red tape that will lower costs, lead to higher growth, and usher America into its Golden Age.
Since returning to office, President Trump has saved Americans over $180 billion, or $2,100 per family of four, by halting proposed Biden-era regulations.
The Biden Administration added more than $1.8 trillion, or $21,090 per family of four, in new regulatory costs, far surpassing any other administration on record.
72% of these new regulatory burdens ($1.3 trillion or $15,457 per family of four) were the result of new EPA rules.
Rolling back just automobile-related rules will save consumers over $1.134 trillion.
In 2024, the Biden Administration set an all-time record by publishing 107,262 pages of final rules, proposed rules, and other public notices in the Federal Register.
This stands in stark contrast to President Trump, who recently announced a bold deregulation initiative that requires the elimination of ten existing rules or guidance documents for every new regulation.
Details
Notable regulatory actions by President Trump via executive order include:
Among finalized Biden EPA rules, the following edicts were the most expensive:
$870 billion: Mandated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and a 50% reduction in other pollutant emissions from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 and beyond.
$180 billion: Mandated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2023 and beyond.
$106.19 billion: Unnecessary water regulations.
$39 billion: Mandated the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter emissions in heavy-duty engines.Other notable costly Biden Administration regulations include:
Department of the Treasury
$84.1 billion: New mandates that certain entities disclose their beneficial owners to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).Department of Transportation
$45.2 billion: New mandates for increased fuel efficiency in passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2027 and beyond, and increased fuel efficiency for vans and heavy-duty pickups for model years 2030 and beyond.Department of Health and Human Services
$43.15 billion: New mandates for Medicare and Medicaid Programs, increased nursing staffing levels in nursing homes, and additional reporting requirements for certain institutional services.
$27.77 billion: New Medicaid and CHIP Program mandatesDepartment of Defense
$42.26 billion: New mandates to protect Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and Federal Contract Information (FCI).In addition to the expensive regulations highlighted above, the Biden Administration also excelled at producing ridiculous regulations:
A U.S. Postal Service regulation “requiring mailers to solely use the Cremated Remains shipping supplies provided by the Postal Service when mailing human or animal cremated remains, also referred to as cremains or ashes, domestically or internationally.”
A Federal Trade Commission regulation “requiring manufacturers of home audio amplifiers making power-related claims to calculate power output using uniform testing methods to allow consumers to easily compare amplifier sound quality. -
MIL-OSI Security: Former Olympian Wanted for Running Transnational Drug Enterprise and Ordering Several Murders Added to FBI’s List of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
At present, Wedding is wanted for allegedly running a transnational drug trafficking network that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes.
Wedding’s placement on the top ten list marks the 535th addition to the FBI’s list of notorious fugitives. Wedding will replace Alexis Flores who is wanted by FBI Philadelphia. Although Flores is being removed from the list today, he will remain on the FBI’s website on its Most Wanted page.
“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger.”
Additionally, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced that it is offering a $10-million-reward for information leading to Wedding’s arrest and/or conviction. The reward was authorized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under the Narcotics Rewards Program (NRP), which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally and bring fugitives to justice. This reward offering supplements the FBI’s current offering of $50,000 for information leading to Wedding’s apprehension, arrest, and extradition, and further, is jointly being offered with assistance from the Canadian and Mexican governments as part of a unified effort to bring Wedding to justice.
In June 2024, Wedding and his second-in-command Andrew Clark, 34, also Canadian, were charged in an indictment out of the Central District of California with running a continuing criminal enterprise; committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes; and conspiring to possess, distribute, and export cocaine. Clark, who was arrested last October by Mexican authorities, was among the 29 fugitives whom Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced had arrived in the United States from Mexico last week.
In September 2024, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a superseding indictment naming 14 additional defendants and including, among other counts, an attempted murder charge against Wedding and Clark. The superseding indictment alleges that Wedding, Clark, and others conspired to ship bulk quantities of cocaine – weighing hundreds of kilograms – from Southern California to Canada through a Canada-based drug transportation network run by Hardeep Ratte, 46, of Ontario, Canada, and Gurpreet Singh, 31, of Ontario, Canada, from approximately January 2024 to August 2024. The cocaine shipments were transported from Mexico to the Los Angeles area, where the cocaine trafficking organization’s operatives stored the cocaine in stash houses, before delivering it to the transportation network couriers for delivery to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, defendant Ryan Wedding – a former Olympian – led a transnational criminal organization that murdered innocent people and put thousands of kilograms of narcotics on our streets,” said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. “The reward offered today will help bring this defendant to justice in the United States. We urge anyone with information about Wedding to contact law enforcement and help us get Mr. Wedding into custody.”
The superseding indictment also alleges that Wedding and Clark’s organization resorted to violence – including multiple murders – to achieve its aims. Wedding and Clark allegedly directed the November 20, 2023, murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada, in retaliation for a stolen drug shipment that passed through Southern California. Another member of that family survived the shooting but was left with serious physical injuries. Wedding and Clark allegedly also ordered the murder of another victim on May 18, 2024, over a drug debt. In addition, Clark and Malik Damion Cunningham, 23, a dual Canadian-American citizen, are charged with the April 1, 2024, murder of another victim in Ontario, Canada.
“The RCMP is committed to working with our international partners in the fight against transnational criminals,” said Liam Price, Director General, Royal Canadian Mounted Police International program. “It’s imperative that Ryan Wedding faces justice for the charges against him. We will continue to stand with and support our US and Mexican partners in this and other investigations to protect the public.”
If convicted, Wedding and Clark would face a mandatory minimum penalty of life in federal prison on their respective continuing criminal enterprise charge. The murder and attempted murder charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The drug trafficking charges carry mandatory minimum penalties of 10 to 15 years in prison.
“The former Canadian snowboarder unleashed an avalanche of death and destruction, here and abroad,” said Matthew Allen, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division. “He earned the name ‘El Jefe’, becoming boss of a violent transnational drug trafficking organization. Now, his face will be on ‘The Top 10 Most Wanted’ posters. He’s unremitting, callous and greed-driven. Today’s announcement beams an even brighter searchlight on him. We ask that you help us find him.”
The FBI urges anyone with information as to Wedding’s whereabouts to call the FBI via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram at +1-424 495-0614. These are neither government-operated nor government-controlled platforms. Callers may also contact their local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. Confidentiality will be granted to anyone who calls with information.
Investigators believe that Wedding is residing in Mexico but have not ruled out his presence in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, or elsewhere. Wedding is further described as follows:
Aliases: James Conrad King, Jesse King
DOB: September 14, 1981
Hair: Brown, may wear a beard and/or mustache
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 240 lbs. (may vary)
Nationality: Canadian
Place of Birth: Thunder Bay, Canada
Monikers: “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “El Jefe”Photographs and reward information about Wedding will be posted on digital billboards in key locations, as well as on fbi.gov, and on the FBI’s social media platforms. Additional information about Wedding and other Top Ten Fugitives is available at this link: Top Ten Fugitives.
The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list was established in March 1950. Since its inception, 535 fugitives have been placed on the list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” 496 of whom were apprehended or located; 163 were due to citizen cooperation.
The FBI is investigating Wedding and Clark’s drug trafficking enterprise with the Los Angeles Police Department, DEA Los Angeles, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – Federal Policing. In addition, significant assistance has been provided by U.S. law enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations – Detroit, and United States Customs and Border Protection – Buffalo; Canadian law enforcement partners, including Niagara Regional Police Service, Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto Police Service, and Peel Regional Police; Mexican law enforcement partners; and Colombian law enforcement partners, including Colombian National Police – Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol, Special Interagency Investigation Group (Policía Nacional de Colombia – Dirección de Investigación Criminal e Interpol, Grupo Especial de Investigación Interagenciales).
Assistant United States Attorneys Lyndsi Allsop and Maria Jhai of the Violent and Organized Crime Section and Ryan Waters of the Asset Forfeiture and Recovery Section are prosecuting this case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
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MIL-OSI Security: Henderson Man Sentenced to Over Five and a Half Years on Firearm Charge After Daytime Shootout at Gas Station
Source: Office of United States Attorneys
RALEIGH, N.C. – Jaymon Gibson, of Henderson, was sentenced today to 71 months in prison for possessing a firearm as a felon. Gibson, 26, pled guilty to the charges on October 10, 2024.
According to court documents and other information presented in court, law enforcement investigated two gang-related shooting incidents where Gibson possessed or fired guns. On May 10, 2022, at around 11:15 pm, the Henderson Police Department (HPD) responded to reports of a gunshot wound at a house on Powell Street in Henderson. The 911 caller led officers to Gibson, who was sitting in a car with gunshot wounds to his left arm. The 911 caller reported that she had seen someone shooting at Gibson from a black sedan. Officers canvassed the area and found a Glock 19 9mm handgun with an American flag pattern on it lying in the yard. They also found a 50-round drum magazine. Doorbell camera footage from the home showed Gibson walking with the Glock 9mm.
The next day, co-defendant Monica Ellis called HPD and reported that a Glock 19 and a drum magazine had been stolen from her car. Officers later confirmed with a firearms store that Ellis had purchased the firearm on March 8, 2022. Gibson was in prison in March 2022, following a state conviction for voluntary manslaughter, and officers were able to obtain jail calls between him and Ellis. These calls revealed that Gibson had directed Ellis to straw purchase the Glock 9mm for him, even placing a three-way phone call with Gibson and a gun store clerk.
On May 28, 2022, eighteen days after the Powell Street shooting, the HPD responded to a shots-fired call at the Gate City Foods gas station. Surveillance video revealed that a little after 4 p.m., a car with Gibson driving and a juvenile male in the front passenger seat pulled into a gas pump away from the store. A few minutes later, a white car with four occupants arrived and pulled up to a gas pump closer to the store. The front passenger, later identified as Jordan Turnage, walked into the store. Then a rear passenger, a juvenile, stepped out of the white car holding a long gun with a drum magazine. Gibson, who had moved to the front passenger seat, then stepped out of the car also holding a firearm. Moments later, gunfire erupted. Turnage fired a handgun from inside Gates City Foods through the window towards Gibson. At the same time, from the middle of the parking lot, the juvenile with the long gun began firing toward Gibson. The white car’s driver also stepped out with a long gun and shot several rounds, striking himself in the foot in the process. Gibson returned fire, shooting several rounds while crouching behind his car. Both groups then fled from the scene. Later investigation found that gunshots had damaged multiple nearby cars and apartments, including one gunshot that had struck a bedroom window while a resident was sleeping. Miraculously, no one was hurt in the incident. Five days later, law enforcement located and arrested Gibson at an apartment in Durham. They found a 22-caliber rifle with a high-capacity magazine that matched shell casings from where he had been parked at Gates City Foods.
“Keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals that endanger public safety remains a top priority for our office,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Bubar. “We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute those that are the most significant contributors to violence.”
“Our partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina has been vital in our ongoing efforts to combat gun violence in our community,” said Henderson Police Chief Marcus W. Barrow. “Throughout my tenure as Chief of Police, the ATF has maintained a steadfast presence in Henderson, demonstrating unwavering support and commitment to our shared goals. Their consistent presence is having a profound and lasting impact on our region. This case serves as yet another testament to our collective dedication in the fight against gun violence, and we remain resolute in our commitment to securing a safer future for all.”
Co-defendant Monica Ellis pled guilty to a felony offense of lying to a federal agent for statements she made related to straw-purchasing the Glock firearm. On March 14, 2024, she was sentenced to time served and two years of supervised release. Jordan Turnage, who was not a felon at the time of the shooting, was prosecuted in state court for related felony offenses and received an active sentence of 38 to 58 months.
Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Henderson Police Department, Durham Police Department, and N.C State Bureau of Investigation investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake D. Pugh prosecuted.
Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:23-cr-0043-D.
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MIL-OSI Security: 25 Metropolitan Detention Center Inmates, Their Associates and a Former Correctional Officer — Charged in a Dozen Criminal Cases at the Federal Jail in Brooklyn
Source: Office of United States Attorneys
Charges Include a Range of Violent Assaults and Contraband Smuggling in Continued Effort by Law Enforcement to Combat Crime Inside the Prison
Today the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced criminal charges against 25 defendants in 12 separate cases relating to violence and contraband smuggling at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC-Brooklyn) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. These include charges against 15 inmates for violent assaults against other inmates from May 2024 to the present; a former correctional officer for attempting to smuggle contraband into the facility on January 21, 2025; an inmate for orchestrating a contraband smuggling operation between April and June 2024; an inmate for smuggling ceramic scalpels into the facility on October 12, 2024; an inmate for possession of contraband and continuing to commit fraud while detained at MDC-Brooklyn; and an MS-13 gang associate for attempting to smuggle a large package of contraband, including 18 cellphones and marijuana, to other MS-13 gang members incarcerated at MDC-Brooklyn.
Previously, nine inmates at MDC-Brooklyn were charged by the Office in September 2024 for violence and contraband smuggling. In addition, the Office, in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO-SDNY) and more than a dozen law enforcement partners, assisted in October 2024 with a week-long multi-agency operation aimed at detecting and seizing contraband from MDC-Brooklyn.
John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Leslie R. Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI) and Kathleen Toomey, Associate Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, announced the charges.
“The safety and security of our federal detention facilities is paramount,” stated United States Attorney Durham. “As alleged, in several separate charging instruments, inmates viciously attacked fellow detainees, a correctional officer betrayed his duty by attempting to smuggle drugs into the facility, several inmates orchestrated elaborate contraband smuggling operations and yet another inmate continued to engage in fraud schemes while detained. These actions undermine the order and security of MDC-Brooklyn and endanger everyone within its walls. My Office is working tirelessly to hold accountable those who commit violent acts or introduce contraband into the prison, whether they are inmates or staff. These charges serve as a warning to those who would engage in criminal conduct behind bars, and anyone else who facilitates those crimes: your conduct will be uncovered, and you will be held accountable.”
Mr. Durham thanked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the FBI New York Field Office for their investigative work in these cases, as well as the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General for their assistance.
“These 25 defendants, an array of inmates and a former correctional officer, allegedly committed numerous violent attacks against fellow inmates and orchestrated various schemes to smuggle contraband into the prison,” stated FBI Acting Assistant Director in Charge Backschies. “These cases reflect the alleged extreme disregard for adhering to the rules designed to protect the other inmates and correctional staff within the institution. The FBI will never tolerate any individual, regardless of their incarceration status, who engages in deviant behavior that threatens the safety and stability of our federal facilities.
“The Federal Bureau of Prisons would like to thank the FBI and the EDNY for their partnership and support to further prevent and prosecute violence and contraband in our facilities, through our unified efforts we are making our facilities safer for our employees and those in our custody,” stated Federal Bureau of Prisons Associate Deputy Director Toomey.
A summary of the cases follows:
U.S. v. Mike Josie
Mike Josie has been charged by indictment with assault in a federal detention facility in connection with his participation in an assault of another inmate at MDC-Brooklyn on May 26, 2024. As alleged, Josie brutally attacked another inmate in his housing unit who was sitting at a table in a common area of the unit. Josie approached the victim from behind and made several slashing motions towards the victim’s face. After the assault, the victim was taken to a nearby hospital to treat lacerations to his neck and face. If convicted, Josie faces up to10 years in prison. Josie is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Taryn A. Merkl. Assistant United States Attorney Sean Fern is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Daryl Campbell, Ian Diez, Jonathan Guerrero, Abel Mora and Mayovanex Rodriguez
Daryl Campbell, Ian Diez, Jonathan Guerrero, Abel Mora and Mayovanex Rodriguez are charged by complaint with conspiracy to smuggle contraband into MDC-Brooklyn. As alleged, between April and June 2024, Campbell used a contraband cell phone to conspire with others to smuggle contraband into MDC-Brooklyn. In several voice recordings found on the phone, Campbell explained his method of throwing a “line” out of a window of MDC-Brooklyn for a co-conspirator on the outside to “hook” or attach contraband, which could then be pulled back inside. On June 30, 2024, Diez, Guerrero, Mora, and Rodriguez attempted to execute Campbell’s scheme by pulling a rope through the window of the recreation room in their housing area. At the other end of that rope, correctional officers found what appeared to be suboxone, marijuana, a scalpel, a phone charger, lighters, and cigarettes. If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorneys Russell Noble and Elizabeth D’Antonio are in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Sean Smith, Rasheed Chapman and Antwan Mosley
Sean Smith, Rasheed Chapman and Antwan Mosley have been indicted by a grand jury for the June 2, 2024 assault of another inmate at MDC-Brooklyn. The defendants violently assaulted the victim, slashing him across the face and neck and causing serious lacerations. The victim was then chased through the housing unit and struck repeatedly by his assailants. If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Kamil Ammari is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Adil Duran
Adil Duran has been charged in an indictment with assault with a dangerous weapon, assault resulting in serious bodily injury and possessing contraband in prison. As captured on video surveillance footage, on July 11, 2024, Duran slashed another inmate in the face and neck with a sharpened weapon, causing serious lacerations that required sutures. If convicted, Duran faces up to 20 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Kate Mathews is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Erik Steadman and Javaughn Horton
Erik Steadman and Javaughn Horton have been charged by complaint with assault in a federal detention facility for the September 5, 2024 assault of another inmate at MDC-Brooklyn. As alleged, Horton and Steadman approached another inmate in their unit and began punching him repeatedly in the face until he fell to the ground. The defendants continued punching and kicking the victim in the face, causing a significant laceration to his face. If convicted, the defendants face up to 10 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Molly Delaney is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Angel Villafane
Angel Villafane, a member of the gang Valentine Avenue Crew, has been indicted for possession of 21 ceramic scalpels smuggled into MDC-Brooklyn on October 12, 2024. As alleged, while sitting in the visiting room at MDC-Brooklyn, Villafane removed a ball full of ceramic scalpels from a bag of Doritos chips and placed them in his shirt. Correctional officers later discovered the scalpels during a search. If convicted, the defendant faces up to five years in prison. Department of Justice Trial Attorney Margaret P. Mortimer is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Juan Lopez and Jose Rivera
Juan Lopez and Jose Rivera have been indicted for assaulting another inmate and possessing contraband weapons. As alleged, on November 11, 2024, Lopez and Rivera slashed and stabbed another inmate in their housing unit. The victim was seated at a table when Rivera snuck up behind him and slashed him multiple times in the head and neck with a sharp object. As the victim ran to seek help, Lopez tried to prevent him from reaching the correctional officers’ station by swinging his own weapon, stabbing the victim in the arm. The victim suffered three lacerations to the back of his head, one laceration to his neck and a puncture wound to his forearm. If convicted, the defendants face up to 15 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Russell Noble is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Tyquan Robinson
Tyquan Robinson has been charged in a five-count superseding indictment with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and possession of contraband in prison. Robinson was originally detained at MDC-Brooklyn for his alleged role in defrauding a court-appointed criminal defense attorney by obtaining a stolen $125,000 Treasury check issued to the attorney as payment for representing indigent defendants and stealing his identity. In October 2024, officers at the MDC performed a search of Robinson’s cell. Inside his locker, the officers discovered that Robinson had hidden a contraband cellphone inside of a box of Raisin Bran cereal. An examination of this contraband cellphone revealed that even while incarcerated at the MDC, Robinson was participating in a separate fraud scheme from his original charges by discussing stealing checks issued to others, opening multiple bank accounts, and exchanging third parties’ personally identifiable information. If convicted, Robinson faces up to 30 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney James R. Simmons is in charge of the prosecution with the assistance of Special Agent Anthony Cunder.
U.S. v. Jairon Ortega-Corea
Jairon Ortega-Corea, an MS-13 gang associate, was charged by indictment with attempting to provide contraband to inmates at MDC-Brooklyn. He was arrested on March 3, 2025 in Minnesota. The charges stem from the December 2, 2024 discovery, by MDC-Brooklyn employees, of a package on the fourth-floor roof of the jail containing 18 cellular telephones, approximately 345 grams of marijuana and one liter of drinking alcohol, among other items. The prior evening, a witness had observed the attempted smuggling of the package into MDC-Brooklyn, when it was pulled up by a rope dangled out of the window of an empty cell within the unit that houses MS-13 members. An investigation subsequently revealed that the defendant, who is related to a high-ranking MS-13 member housed at MDC-Brooklyn, purchased several of the contraband items at a local Walmart the day prior to the discovery. At the time of the purchase, Ortega-Corea was communicating with MS-13 inmates at MDC-Brooklyn who were using a different contraband phone. If convicted, Ortega-Corea faces up to 20 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorneys Megan E. Farrell, Paul G. Scotti and Justina L. Geraci are in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Najee Jackson
Najee Jackson, a former correctional officer at MDC-Brooklyn, has been indicted by a grand jury for attempting to smuggle contraband into the facility. On January 21, 2025, Jackson, who was employed as a correctional officer, arrived at MDC-Brooklyn to begin working a night shift. After making several failed attempts to clear the metal detector in the staff screening area, Jackson removed his Bureau of Prisons-issued protective vest, which was found to contain vacuum‑sealed bags of marijuana and cigarettes. Jackson resigned from the Bureau of Prisons two days later. If convicted, the defendant faces up to five years in prison. Assistant United States Attorneys Turner Buford and Russell Noble are in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Devone Thomas
Devone Thomas, who was previously charged with the June 7, 2024 killing of Uriel Whyte inside of the MDC Brooklyn, is now additionally charged by complaint with possession of a contraband weapon. On February 28, 2025, Thomas was transported to federal court in Brooklyn for a status conference in connection with his murder case. Upon his return to MDC-Brooklyn after the court appearance, a blade was found in Thomas’s groin area. If convicted, the defendant faces up to five years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth D’Antonio is in charge of the prosecution.
U.S. v. Brian Castro, Franklin Gillespie, Juan Lopez, Jowenky Nunez Jr., Hugo Rodriguez and Elvis Trejo
Brian Castro, Franklin Gillespie, Juan Lopez, Jowenky Nunez Jr., Hugo Rodriguez, and Elvis Trejo have been charged by complaint with assault in a federal detention facility for their roles in what became a unit-wide fight between inmates at MDC-Brooklyn. As alleged, on February 22, 2025, Castro, Lopez, Nunez, Rodriguez and Trejo, along with other as-yet uncharged individuals, approached another inmate in their unit, armed with weapons, and began chasing and stabbing him. The victim was stabbed 18 times and required hospitalization for his injuries. The brawl ultimately resulted in at least five inmates, including the victim, requiring transportation to a local hospital for further treatment. Gillespie, who was not a part of the initial group attacking the victim, joined the brawl after it began, and, also armed with a weapon, assaulted a fellow inmate in the course of the fight. The fight resulted in more than 20 inmates requiring medical assessments, and at least 10 inmates appeared to have wounds consistent with being stabbed or slashed. If convicted, each defendant faces up to 10 years in prison. Assistant United States Attorney Stephen Petraeus is in charge of the prosecution.
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The Office’s General Crimes Section is principally responsible for handling these cases, with substantial contributions from the Public Integrity Section, the Organized Crime and Gangs Section and the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section. In addition to the Assistant United States Attorneys and Special Agent listed above, Special Agent Danielle Williams, Law Enforcement Coordinator Specialist Herbert Martin and Paralegal Specialists Matias Burdman and Erin Payne have provided substantial support on these cases.
The charges in the indictments and complaints described above are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The Defendants:
MIKE JOSIE
Age: 25E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-76 (FB)
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DARYL CAMPBELL
Age: 39IAN DIEZ
Age: 20JONATHAN GUERRERO
Age: 34ABEL MORA
Age: 23MAYOVANEX RODRIGUEZ
Age: 30E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-MJ-72
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SEAN SMITH
Age: 34RASHEED CHAPMAN
Age: 21ANTWAN MOSLEY
Age: 23E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-58
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ADIL DURAN
Age: 23E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-9 (ARR)
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ERIK STEADMAN
Age: 24JAVAUGHN HORTON
Age: 30E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-MJ-70
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ANGEL VILLAFANE
Age: 40E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-71 (HG)
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JUAN LOPEZ
Age: 26JOSE RIVERA
Age: 20E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-72 (CBA)
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TYQUAN ROBINSON
Age: 30E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-51 (AMD)
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JAIRON ORTEGA-COREA
Age: 23E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-83
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NAJEE JACKSON
Age: 32E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-CR-67 (OEM)
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DEVONE THOMAS
Age: 25E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-360 (EK)
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BRIAN CASTRO
Age: 24FRANKLIN GILLESPIE
Age: 34JUAN LOPEZ
Age: 68JOWENKY NUNEZ JR.
Age: 22HUGO RODRIGUEZ
Age: 29ELVIS TREJO
Age: 24E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 25-MJ-73
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MIL-OSI Security: Mexican National Pleads Guilty, Faces 10 Years to Life in Federal Prison for Attempting to Smuggle Fentanyl and Cocaine into U.S.
Source: Office of United States Attorneys
DEL RIO, Texas – A Mexican national pleaded guilty in a federal court in Del Rio to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl.
According to court documents, Federico De Los Rios Rios, of Durango, Mexico, attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico through the Eagle Pass port of entry on Oct. 26, 2024. Accompanied by his wife and child, De Los Rios Rios presented a U.S. Visa to Customs and Border Protection officers and was referred to secondary inspection. A scan of the vehicle revealed anomalies, and a canine inspection resulted in a positive alert.
CBP officers inspected the rear of the vehicle and located a trap door under a seat, which contained multiple bundles wrapped in electrical tape. One set of bundles weighed 2.14 kgs and was consistent with the properties of fentanyl. A second set of bundles weighed a total of 11.16 kgs and was consistent with the properties of cocaine. A Drug Enforcement Administration laboratory test confirmed the substances to be fentanyl and cocaine.
De Los Rios Rios admitted that he had been instructed to drive the vehicle from his home in Durango to Orlando, Florida, had been given $700 up front, and anticipated he would be paid an additional $10,000 once he arrived at the destination.
De Los Rios Rios pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl. He faces 10 years to life in prison with a maximum $10 million fine. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.
Homeland Security Investigations is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Kass is prosecuting the case.
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MIL-OSI Global: Modern workplaces were never designed for mothers, and it’s time for that to change
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Erica Pimentel, Assistant Professor, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Ontario
Close to 80 per cent of mothers work outside the home, yet they are are consistently paid less for their work and passed up for job opportunities.
A recent survey from the United States found that two-thirds of mothers considered leaving the workforce in 2024 due to the stress and cost of child care — an issue most pronounced among Gen Z mothers, with 82 per cent reporting these concerns.
Our recent research study calls for recognition of the physical and emotional toll of motherhood on women at work. The essay draws on a combination of personal experience and academic research to examine situations where mothers are pulled between work and family obligations.
We found that many working mothers are faced with the impossible trade-off of balancing full-time work with full-time mothering. It’s no wonder that many mothers feel like they don’t belong in the workplace.
An impossible trade-off
The demands of the modern workplace are at odds with contemporary expectations of motherhood. Today, mothers spend twice as much time with their children as they did in the 1970s.
Contemporary mothers are expected to practise “intensive mothering,” a parenting style that requires them to be intimately involved in the minutiae of their children’s lives, like attending multiple after-school activities.
On the other hand, professional workplaces are becoming increasingly demanding of all workers. American sociologist Alison Wynn coined the term “everwork” to refer to the “combination of overwork, face time, constant availability, and unpredictability” that have become the norm in professional workplaces.
The demands of the modern workplace are at odds with contemporary expectations of motherhood.
(Vitolda Klein/Unsplash)Wynn refers to mothers as “tightrope walkers” trying to balance personal and professional responsibilities under the conditions of everwork, with the potential to fall at any time. Worse still, mothers who try to reconcile their personal and professional obligations by leveraging flexible working options are often penalized with more intense workloads and lost opportunities for professional development.
The simultaneously increasing demands of motherhood and professional life are untenable. Women are expected to work in spaces where performance expectations are simply inconsistent with the reality of family life. Naturally, this is taking a toll: almost half of Canadian mothers report they’ve reached their “breaking point,” meaning they feel overworked, overwhelmed and undervalued.
Struggling to fit into workplaces
Not only do many women believe workplaces are hostile to motherhood, but many also feel that their bodies are not welcome there. Societal norms dictate how women should look and dress at work.
This stress only intensifies during pregnancy. Sociologist David J. Hutson explains how pregnant women oscillate between concealing their bodies in early pregnancy to learning how to deal with unwanted comments and uninvited touching in later maternity.
Many pregnant women are expected to endure this uncomfortable behaviour as a form of emotional labour, a term coined by U.S. sociologist Arlie Hochschild to describe the way women are taught to manage their emotions to make others feel better.
Many mothers feel like their bodies are not welcome in the workplace.
(Shutterstock)Although laws exist to protect pregnant women from discrimination, this doesn’t prevent colleagues from engaging in practices that make pregnant women feel like they do not belong.
Many mothers also struggle with the physical realities of having a postpartum body in the workplace, such as dealing with leaky breast milk overflows from engorged breasts, unpredictable menstrual cycles and other postpartum changes. While some workplaces provide breastfeeding spaces, this is far from the norm, leaving women to adapt to the rhythms and spaces of the office on their own.
Even long after giving birth, women must remain attentive of their appearance at work. Researchers shows that women who look too “mothering” risk being taken less seriously at work. Dressing like a mom is sometimes used as an insult to describe women who choose an easy to manage hairstyle, don’t wear makeup or prioritize comfort over fashion when choosing their clothes.
Women are expected to control and manage their bodies to conform to workplace norms before, during and after pregnancy — expectations that are at odds with their biology.
Making workplaces work for mothers
As experts in motherhood and mothers ourselves, we are adamant that things need to change. Our recent research outlined a three-pillar call to action to make workplaces more inclusive and equitable toward mothers.
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Enlist allies and resist negative attitudes about motherhood. Much of modern motherhood has become a logistical battle. Workplaces should implement institutional policies that recognize these logistical challenges, such as a four-day work week or flexible hours. Mothers must also build strong support networks, especially in places like the workplace where positions of power are often occupied by those who aren’t mothers.
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Recognize the physical toll of mothering and normalize maternal bodies. Workplaces must break down taboos surrounding maternal bodies by creating dedicated spaces for breastfeeding and breast pumping, and running awareness campaigns to normalize these needs. Workplaces should also hire more women — particularly mothers — into leadership roles. When maternal bodies become a common and accepted presence at work, they will no longer be a subject of scrutiny.
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Recognize the emotional cost of mothering. The emotional burden of parenting, like imbuing children with good values and guiding their decision-making, is the most taxing part about being a parent. Workplaces should acknowledge this by redesigning performance evaluations to account for the time and energy needed for caregiving. This could also mean considering parental and caregiving roles in annual performance evaluation criteria.
Mothers and those who care about them must come together to demand better workplace conditions, not just for mothers, but for others as well. Only through collective action can we create lasting change.
The authors 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. Modern workplaces were never designed for mothers, and it’s time for that to change – https://theconversation.com/modern-workplaces-were-never-designed-for-mothers-and-its-time-for-that-to-change-250584
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MIL-OSI Africa: Sugary drinks are a killer: a 20% tax would save lives and rands in South Africa
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular conditions account for over 70% of global deaths annually.
In South Africa, non-communicable diseases cause more than half of all deaths. Diabetes ranks as the second leading cause after tuberculosis.
A major contributor to rising diabetes rates is the high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including cooldrinks.
The World Health Organization recommends a tax of at least 20% on sugary drinks as an effective tool to help reduce consumption and curb related health risks.
South Africa introduced a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, officially known as the Health Promotion Levy, in 2018.
The tax applies at R0.0221 ($0.0012) per gram of sugar beyond a 4g/100ml threshold, amounting to an 8% of final selling price. The tax has increased slightly since it was introduced, but not in line with inflation. The Health Promotion Levy therefore falls short of the original 20% target as industry pressure led to a watered-down version of it.
I lead the South African Medical Research Council/Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA, which has been studying various aspects of the levy for over 10 years.
PRICELESS SA is still in the process of measuring the health and financial impact of not implementing the Health Promotion Levy at the recommended 20%. A lack of recent data adds to this challenge. But it is worth noting that the World Obesity Report shows that obesity is still a severe problem in South Africa.
Without interventions, obesity in South Africa is projected to affect 30 million adults and 10 million children by 2035. In 2019 there were 55,238 deaths in South Africa from non-communicable diseases attributable to obesity, and with an annual increase of 2.3% in obesity, deaths are going to increase.
Taxing sugary beverages is effective
Despite the sugar industry’s claims that the Health Promotion Levy is ineffective, global evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Countries that have implemented such taxes have seen significant declines in sugar consumption.
Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have been implemented in 103 countries and territories globally and have been shown to be effective in many countries.
In Ireland there was a 30.2% reduction in sugar intake through these beverages.
In California a study showed a decrease in overweight and obesity among young people living in cities where there was a sugary beverage tax.
In Mexico, a sugar-sweetened beverages tax at 1 peso ($0.05) per litre was introduced in 2014, and by 2016, sugary drinks sales had dropped by 37%.
Similarly, in the UK, a tax introduced in 2018 led to a 35.4% reduction in sugar consumption from taxed beverages.
The levy has had a positive impact in South Africa. Studies show decreased purchasing of these beverages. There were greater reductions in sales among lower socioeconomic groups and in sub-populations with higher sugary drink consumption.
Mean sugar from taxable beverage purchases fell from 16.25 g/capita per day from the pre-health promotion levy announcement to 10.63 g/capita per day in the year after implementation.
Lower-income households, which initially purchased more taxable sugary beverages than wealthier households, showed the most significant reductions in consumption after the tax was enforced.
This is particularly important as non-communicable diseases disproportionately affect poor and vulnerable populations.
Stronger taxation on sugary beverages not only decreases consumption but also encourages reformulation by manufacturers, leading to healthier products.
The levy does not cause job losses
Sugar-related industries often argue that the tax has led to massive job losses.
Our research contradicts these claims.
A recent study carried out by PRICELESS SA, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies through the University of North Carolina and the South African Medical Research Council, showed no significant association between the levy and employment levels. It showed that the levy had not been associated with job creation or job losses in sugar-related industries. These include agriculture, beverage manufacturing and commercial enterprises that sell food and beverages.
The study suggests several factors that may explain this:
Firstly, firms may reallocate labour within their operations rather than cut jobs.
Secondly, many beverage producers have responded to the tax by reformulating their products, reducing the sugar content and using non-nutritive sweeteners rather than reducing production.
Thirdly, demand for taxed sugary drinks has not declined enough to affect employment.
Finally, consumers often switch to untaxed alternatives produced by the same companies, preventing financial losses to the industry.
Increasing the levy is beneficial to the public purse
The recent delay of South Africa’s budget speech, due to disagreements within the government over the proposed value added tax increase of two percentage points, highlights the urgent need for additional and alternative revenue sources.
South Africa’s health system is experiencing a massive financial burden due to overweight and obesity, costing R33 billion (US$1.78 billion) annually. This expense accounts for 15.38% of the government’s health expenditure and 0.67% of the country’s GDP. On a per-person basis, the annual cost of overweight and obesity is R2,769 (US$150).
On the other hand, the levy generated R5.8 billion (US$313m) in revenue over its first two fiscal years.
Beyond raising funds, a higher tax rate would provide public health benefits and savings for health services.
Based on our research, increasing the levy to 20% in South Africa could reduce obesity rates by 2.4 to 3.8 percentage points, prevent 85,000 strokes, and save 72,000 lives over two decades.
These improvements potentially save over R5 billion (US$270m) in medical costs.
Unlike other taxation measures, which affect all consumers equally, the levy primarily targets discretionary purchases, making it a fairer fiscal tool.
Therefore, government must act – raise the Health Promotion Levy to 20% and cut the sugar-fuelled health crisis at its root.
Raising the levy to 20% would be a smarter tax for a healthier nation.
Darshen Naidoo, Legal Researcher and Associate Lecturer at PRICELESS SA, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg contributed to the article.
– Sugary drinks are a killer: a 20% tax would save lives and rands in South Africa
– https://theconversation.com/sugary-drinks-are-a-killer-a-20-tax-would-save-lives-and-rands-in-south-africa-251393 -
MIL-OSI USA: Cortez Masto Leads Colleagues in Demanding Answers on National Security Impacts of Trump’s Tariffs on Canadian Goods
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) led five of her Senate colleagues in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent demanding answers on the national security impacts on President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods. On Tuesday, the Trump Administration implemented a 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Canada, taxing working families for their food, energy, and car purchases.
“By targeting a partner that is critical to U.S. mineral, food, and energy security, these measures threaten to undermine American national security,” wrote the Senators. “Canada provides essential minerals that power our weapons systems, nourish our crops, and heat our homes. Blanket tariffs that restrict our ability to source these minerals and make us more reliant on adversarial partners like Venezuela, China, and Russia raise fundamental national security questions.”
Specifically, the Senators demanded answers to the following questions:
How will the administration ensure that the additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian critical minerals does not increase costs and lead to shortages or reduced supply?
How will the administration ensure that the additional 25 percent tariff on Canadian minerals such as potash [common in agricultural fertilizer] does not increase the cost of food production and impair the ability of American farmers to fill our dinner tables with affordable and abundant food?
How will the administration ensure that new tariffs on Canadian minerals and energy products do not lead the United States to increase our sourcing from China, Russia, Belarus, and Venezuela?
Are there any precautionary or preemptive actions that the administration has taken or plans to take to ensure that potential Canadian restrictions or bans on the export of critical minerals do not impair U.S. national security?
How will the administration ensure that the additional 10 percent tariff on nickel imports from Canada does not lead additional Western miners to shutter and increase U.S. reliance on Chinese companies?
How will the administration ensure that new tariffs on Canada do not work counter to delivering affordable, reliable energy to U.S. consumers?
In 2023, the United States imported $47 billion in minerals from Canada, like the nickel alloys necessary for the production of military equipment and weapons. Canadian minerals help reduce America’s reliance on trade with China.
Canada is also the world’s largest producer and exporter of potash, a critical component for fertilizer. More than 90 percent of the potash imported for use by American farmers comes from Canada, and a decrease in trade with Canada likely results in increased trade with Russia, Belarus, and China – the world’s next three largest potash producers.
Additionally, the United States relies on Canadian crude oil imports to supplement its own energy production. Reducing the importation of Canadian crude oil increases America’s reliance on less friendly foreign oil sources, such as Venezuela.
Additional signatories to the letter include Senators John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
Read the full letter here.
Senator Cortez Masto has led efforts in Congress to strengthen our national security and supply chains. She has consistently blocked burdensome taxes on mining and wrote important provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bolster Nevada’s critical mineral supply chain. She’s also introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the domestic supply chain for rare-earth magnets, which are critical components of cell phones, computers, defense systems, and electric vehicles, but are almost exclusively made in China. -
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Government pledges to protect more women from violence
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News storyGovernment pledges to protect more women from violence
This International Women’s Day, the government has reiterated its commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
This International Women’s Day, as statistics show that a woman is killed on average every 3 days in the UK, the government has reiterated its commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
For the past 10 years, Jess Phillips has read the names of women suspected of being killed by men on International Women’s Day, provided by the Femicide Census. But today she read out the names for the first time from the front benches as a Home Office Minister, and reiterated that ensuring our streets and homes are safer for women is now a top government priority.
This comes as the data shows that 1 in 5 homicides are domestic homicides and that over the last decade there were:
- 898 female victims of domestic homicides
- of these, 698 victims (78%) were killed by a partner or ex-partner
- and over 9 in 10 female homicide victims were killed by a man (92%)
These are numbers that the government has committed to change.
Following the toxic influence we have seen on and offline from misogynistic figures, Minister Phillips also pledged that the government’s milestone violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, expected to be published in the summer, will include actions specifically addressing the root causes of abuse – including underlying behaviours held by some men and boys.
Under the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, the government has already set out a number of initiatives to tackle these appalling numbers and the scourge of abuse suffered by women and girls in this country.
Work is already under way to improve the policing and criminal justice system response, relentlessly pursue dangerous perpetrators and provide enhanced support for victims, and includes:
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a cross-government approach to tackling VAWG: to deliver transformational change and ensure efforts remain coordinated and effective, we are spearheading a cross-government approach to tackling VAWG through the Safer Streets Mission Board
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Raneem’s Law: last month, domestic abuse specialists were embedded in 999 control rooms in the first five police forces under ‘Raneem’s Law’, to help improve the police response to domestic abuse – these specialists are advising on risk assessments, working with officers on the ground and ensuring that victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly
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measures to tackle spiking: in November, the Prime Minister announced a raft of measures to tackle spiking including a new criminal offence for spiking and new spiking training for up to 10,000 staff in the night-time economy to ensure they have the skills to support victims and prevent incidents
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new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders: in November, we launched these orders in select police forces and courts and in the short time since they have launched, we have seen them being used to protect victims, including those experiencing coercive and controlling behaviour – we are going even further and onboarding an additional two sites over the next two months
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measures to protect stalking victims: in December, we announced a package of new measures to protect victims of stalking, including helping ensure victims have the right to know the identity of online stalkers and widening the use of Stalking Protection Orders which can ban stalkers from going within a certain distance of victims or force them to attend behaviour programmes
Today, the Home Office lit up in the colours of green, purple and white to mark International Women’s Day across four estates in the UK in a symbol of how crucial this priority is for Keir Starmer’s government.
For the first time, each of the 95 women’s names provided by the Femicide Census were displayed in the Home Office’s headquarters in London for staff to view.
Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips said:
Today, for the first time from the front benches as a Home Office minister, I have performed the heavy task of reading out the names of women suspected of being killed by a man over the last year, provided by the Femicide Census. The statistics show that a woman is killed in the UK on average every 3 days – a number that is unacceptably high.
Each had more of their life to live and was unfairly torn away from their loved ones, and each deserves to be recognised.
The government’s commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade is not an abstract goal – it is a top priority. From embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms to launching new domestic abuse protection orders, we are taking action. But the names on today’s list remind us we must do more, and we must do it faster.
Julie Davey, Killed Women Trustee, said:
Each and every year too many women are murdered by violent men. That has to stop and we welcome the government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade and the action it is taking to stem this devastating tide.
The reading out of the names of killed women has become a sombre but important tradition – and we are pleased to see that duty move to the government front benches where it belongs. We know ministers are focussed on protecting the women we are here to fight for, and delivering justice for those whose loved ones have been cruelly snatched away.
But this must be just the beginning – we hope government will deliver urgent action to address hidden homicides so that the lives of all women are recognised in the future. We look forward to working with ministers as they work to deliver justice.
Updates to this page
Published 6 March 2025
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MIL-OSI New Zealand: Hunters urged to be extra sure this Roar
Source: New Zealand Police (National News)
With the main deer hunting season – the Roar – about to go into full swing, New Zealand’s firearms regulator is reminding hunters everywhere of the need to identify their target beyond all doubt.
Te Tari Pūreke – Firearms Safety Authority, in co-ordination with members of the Recreational Firearms User Group, is running a hunter safety advertising campaign prompting hunters everywhere to “be extra sure this Roar”.
Te Tari Pureke Director of Partnerships and Communities, Mike McIlraith, says while the campaign offers a number of simple actions related to hunter safety, the core message responds to the risk of mis-identifying a target.
“We want all hunters to have a great Roar and for everyone to come home safely,” he says. “Hunting deer whether for food or sport is an activity enjoyed by many, but we know firearms can be unforgiving.
“That’s why we are urging hunters to be 100 percent sure they have identified their target. If they have any doubts, then don’t shoot. Hunters shouldn’t feel pressured to take the shot – no meat or no trophy is better than no mate!”
Mike McIlraith says hunters are lucky to be hunting in a time of high deer numbers in many parts of New Zealand, with lots of opportunities for deer. This means hunters don’t need to be in a rush to shoot the first deer they see, they should take their time, and wait until they see the whole animal.
“Keeping themselves and others in their hunting area safe takes more than luck,” says Mike McIlraith. “We’ve boiled it down to three key reminders for hunters this year – make a plan for your hunt and stick to it; always treat every firearm as loaded; and identify your target beyond all doubt.
“Whether they are using optical or thermal imaging devices, they must follow Firearms Safety Rule 4 and identify their target beyond all doubt before firing. That’s what we mean when we say, be extra sure this Roar.”
ENDS.
Notes for Editors:
The Recreational Firearms Users Working Group was formed to help align the important messaging of the various stakeholder groups involved in recreational hunting in New Zealand.
This group consists of Department of Conservation, Federated Farmers of New Zealand, Fish & Game NZ, Game Animal Council, Mountain Safety Council, NZ Deerstalkers Association and Te Tari Pūreke.
The Roar is the name given to the time of year when hunters target Red Deer stags which are at their most vocal attracting mates.
Other great resources can be found on:
Te Tari Pūreke has a ‘Roar safety’ webpage
The Mountain Safety Council website – Big Game hunting section
The Game Animal Council of New Zealand – ‘Hunter Safety’ page
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MIL-OSI USA: $54 Million Renovation Creates 108 Affordable Homes
Source: US State of New York
overnor Kathy Hochul today announced the completion of “62 Main” in the village of Tarrytown, Westchester County — a $54 million development that transformed the former YMCA of Tarrytown into 108 affordable and energy-efficient apartments. In the past five years, New York State Homes and Community Renewal has financed more than 5,000 affordable homes in Westchester. 62 Main continues this effort and complements Governor Hochul’s $25 billion five-year Housing Plan which is on track to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide.
“My approach to tackling the housing crisis is simple: we need all types of housing options, especially in places like Westchester County,” Governor Hochul said. “Transforming this former YMCA into affordable housing will not only revitalize the building but also provide more than 100 much-needed homes. This project ensures that seniors can remain in the community they cherish, or move to this vibrant village with an essential public transit hub.”
The development is available to households earning up to 70 percent of the Area Median Income. Eighty-eight of the apartments are reserved for seniors aged 55 and older.
The project included a rehabilitation of the interior of the original YMCA facility, transforming it into modern apartments. Extensions to the facility in the rear of the property were demolished and replaced. The historic Main Street façade of the YMCA is intact, in accordance with a Memorandum of Agreement between the developer and the New York State Historic Preservation Office. The façade of the newly constructed portion of the building utilizes classic architectural themes prevalent throughout Tarrytown.
62 Main is fully-electric with energy-efficient features including geothermal heat and air conditioning, ENERGY STAR® appliances, a rooftop solar array, a green roof courtyard and electric car charging stations. The transit-oriented development is three blocks from the Metro North train station and is within walking distance to retail stores, schools, green spaces and medical facilities.
The project is supported by HCR’s Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program that generated $19 million in equity, as well as its Housing Finance Agency, which provided $10.4 million in subsidy from its Senior Housing Program and $8.4 million in tax exempt bonds. Eight of the units will receive rental assistance through Section 8 Project-Based Vouchers issued by HCR. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s New Construction – Housing Program provided $218,000.
The project is also supported by $10.1 million in loans from the Tarrytown Housing Fund – a fund of the Housing Action Council, $5 million from Westchester County’s New Homes Land Acquisition program, a $3 million permanent loan from Community Preservation Corporation Climate Capital to help finance energy efficiency improvements in the project, and $1.5 million in geothermal and solar federal tax credits. The project obtained a 30-year Payment In Lieu of Taxes Agreement with the town of Greenburgh and village of Tarrytown.
All 23 tenants who lived in the Single Room Occupancy units at the facility prior to the construction remained in the development and will continue to pay no greater than 30 percent of their household income towards their rent. The project’s developer is WBP Development, LLC. Tax credit equity was syndicated by Raymond James Affordable Housing Investments.
New York State Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas said, “This $54 million project is transforming the historic YMCA of Tarrytown site into safe, modern homes that seniors, individuals, and families can all afford. Thanks to our partners, this development epitomizes many of our top priorities and shows New Yorkers the different ways in which the State is boosting the supply of housing.”
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “Providing Westchester residents with the opportunity to live and enjoy clean, modern, and affordable living spaces like we see at 62 Main in Tarrytown will ensure more New Yorkers are benefitting from the State’s energy transition. NYSERDA is proud to support the development of all-electric housing that will help move communities across the state towards a healthier future.”
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Pro Tem Randy Simons said, “We are grateful to HCR for working with our office to preserve key historic features of the former YMCA of Tarrytown. The project is another great example of how the adaptive reuse of historic buildings can expand options for affordable housing, lift local economies, promote sustainability and preserve the heritage of our cities and towns.”
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said, “Every family in Westchester deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. I’m proud that the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit that I worked hard to protect and expand has delivered $19 million to transform the former YMCA into 108 new homes at 62 Main in Tarrytown. These brand new homes will be fully-electric and offer the community a green roof courtyard and electric car charging. High housing costs are a key driver of inflation so we must build more housing for working people to bring down those high prices. I applaud Governor Hochul’s work increasing access to affordable housing in Westchester and across New York, and I will continue working to deliver federal resources to ensure that every New Yorker has a roof over their heads.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “The completion of 62 Main in Tarrytown provides safe, affordable, and sustainable housing for seniors and families, including the 23 former residents of the Single Room Occupancy units. I commend Wilder Balter Partners Development for their commitment to ensuring that these residents were not displaced, and can now enjoy modern, energy-efficient homes that they can afford. This project required the dedication and collaboration of numerous partners, from Wilder Balter Partners to Westchester County to HCR and NYSERDA, with nearly $53 million in critical funding secured through our State Legislature’s budget allocations. As Senate Majority Leader, it remains my priority to support housing solutions that serve residents of diverse economic backgrounds while enhancing both Westchester County and New York State.”
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said, “Westchester County was proud to allocate $5 million in New Homes Land Acquisition funds for 62 Main in Tarrytown, a $54 million project that has led to the creation of 108 affordable, sustainable homes for our residents. 62 Main repurposed the former YMCA of Tarrytown into modern, transit-oriented apartments, and is the kind of investment our communities need to ensure access to high quality, affordable housing. I want to thank Governor Kathy Hochul for her leadership in bringing 62 Main to fruition.”
Assemblymember MaryJane Shimsky said, “When we talk about building inclusive communities, that includes the creation of residential options for older residents who seek to stay in the area after raising their families and winding down their careers. 62 Main offers the kind of affordable housing solution our seniors need — with cost-saving energy efficiencies, amenities that include social and fitness spaces, adaptive units for hearing and vision impairment, and walkable access to public transportation and a lively downtown. I am proud that New York State has been a partner in funding this worthy project and welcome 62 Main’s new residents to the neighborhood!”
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said, “Our community and the entire region has a severe shortage of affordable housing. I am very pleased that 108 families will be able to benefit from a beautiful, new affordable housing complex. The families will be able to enjoy living in a great village—and can walk to the theater, great restaurants, shops, the train station, supermarkets.”
Housing Action Council Executive Director Rose Noonan said, “We are pleased to serve as the non-profit partner in partnership with WB Development and to contribute to the capital stack to make this much needed housing feasible. We are particularly excited about the opportunity it afforded the individuals who lived at the YMCA residence to remain and access quality affordable housing.”
Tarrytown Mayor Karen Brown said, “This development honors Tarrytown’s past while securing its future—providing high-quality, affordable housing for seniors, incorporating cutting-edge sustainability features, and seamlessly blending into the fabric of our historic downtown. The partnership between the Village, Wilder Balter Partners, LLC, and the many agencies that made this possible is a shining example of what can be achieved when a community comes together with a shared vision. We are thrilled to welcome the new residents of 62 Main and celebrate this incredible milestone for Tarrytown.”
Wilder Balter Partners Development President William Balter said, “This development was born out of a collaboration among community members, the local merchants association, Village, Town, County and State stakeholders and several financial partners. We could not be happier with the results. In addition to providing new, energy-efficient affordable housing for seniors, Tarrytown’s vibrant downtown business district has a new municipal parking garage, the original 1912 YMCA building in Tarrytown’s historic district has been repurposed and has a restored façade, and the prior SRO tenants are now living in brand new apartments. It’s a true win-win.”
The Community Preservation Corporation CEO Rafael E. Cestero said, “The work to revitalize 62 Main has breathed new life into this former YMCA building, returning it to the community once again as a hub of activity and as a vital resource of new affordable housing. We are proud to help finance the electrification and energy efficient upgrades to the property that will provide a host of benefits for both the owner and tenants. My thanks to our partners at WBP Development, to HCR, the Town of Greenburgh and Village of Tarrytown, and to NYSERDA for their dedication and collaboration.”
Raymond James Affordable Housing Investments Director of Acquisitions Darryl Seavey said,“Raymond James is very proud to have partnered with Wilder Balter Partners, Inc. as the equity investor in the 62 Main Apartments senior housing development. The newly completed 62 Main Apartments is an extraordinarily well-designed project that helps bring high quality affordable housing opportunities to residents of Tarrytown, while at the same time preserving critical components of the historic former Tarrytown YMCA structure. Accordingly, the historic facade of the YMCA building continues to adorn the streetscape of this busy commercial corridor. Raymond James would like to congratulate the team at Wilder Balter Partners, Inc. on the successful completion of this remarkable new housing community.”
Governor Hochul’s Housing Agenda
Governor Hochul is committed to addressing New York’s housing crisis and making the State more affordable and more livable for all New Yorkers. As part of the FY25 Enacted Budget, the Governor secured a landmark agreement to increase New York’s housing supply through new tax incentives for Upstate communities, new incentives and relief from certain state-imposed restrictions to create more housing in New York City, a $500 million capital fund to build up to 15,000 new homes on state-owned property, an additional $600 million in funding to support a variety of housing developments statewide and new protections for renters and homeowners. In addition, as part of the FY23 Enacted Budget, the Governor announced a five-year, $25 billion Housing Plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations, plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes. More than 55,000 homes have been created or preserved to date.The FY25 Enacted Budget also strengthened the Pro-Housing Community Program which the Governor launched in 2023. Pro Housing Certification is now a requirement for localities to access up to $650 million in discretionary funding. Currently, 285 communities have been certified.
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MIL-OSI: WISeKey Recruits Top Space Experts to Enhance WISeSat Collaboration with the Swiss Armed Forces
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
WISeKey Recruits Top Space Experts to Enhance WISeSat Collaboration with the Swiss Armed Forces
Geneva, Switzerland – March 6, 2025 – WISeKey International Holding (“WISeKey” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX: WIHN), a leading global cybersecurity, AI, and IoT company, alongside its subsidiaries WISeSat.Space (“WISeSat”) and SEALSQ Corp (NASDAQ: LAES) (“SEALSQ”), following the successful launch of the second-generation WISeSAT satellite in January, which aimed to advance real-time testing of strategic projects with the Swiss Armed Forces, today is announcing the addition of several key space experts to its team. This expansion will further strengthen the Company’s capabilities in space operations and regulatory compliance, and enhancing its collaboration with the Swiss Armed Forces.
New team members are:
- Edward Burger, Space Regulatory Operations Specialist. Mr. Burger brings extensive experience in navigating the complex landscape of telecommunications law and regulation for space operations, ensuring projects comply with national and international requirements.
- Yiorgos Lemos, Space Operations Specialist. Mr. Lemos’ knowledge in operational processes and satellite technology will enhance WISeKey’s operational efficiency and effectiveness in mission execution.
- Eric Bottlaender, Space Technology Monitoring Specialist. Mr. Bottlaender will focus on monitoring emerging technologies and trends in the space sector, enabling WISeKey to remain at the forefront of innovation.
- Philip Haemelink, Space Project Manager & Software Engineer. Mr. Haemelink brings valuable experience from the space sector and will oversee project coordination between WiseSat and clients while leading software integration efforts.
- Vlad Dancau, Space Software Engineer. Mr. Dancau brings deep expertise in applied cryptography, network security, and telecommunications, empowering WISeKey to advance secure satellite communications.
“We are thrilled to have these talented professionals join our team,” said Carlos Moreira, CEO & Founder at WISeKey. “Their expertise will not only enhance our capabilities but also strengthen our partnership with the Swiss Armed Forces as we work towards innovative solutions in the space industry.”
WISeKey continues to lead the way in secure, advanced satellite technology, and with the addition of this expert team, we are poised to take on new challenges and opportunities in collaboration with our esteemed partners.
About WISeSat.Space
WISeSat.Space AG is pioneering a transformative approach to IoT connectivity and climate change monitoring through its innovative satellite constellation. By providing cost-effective, secure, and global IoT connectivity, WISeSat is enabling a wide range of applications that support environmental monitoring, disaster management, and sustainable practices. The integration of satellite data with advanced climate models holds great promise for enhancing our understanding of climate change and developing effective strategies to combat its impacts. As the world continues to grapple with the challenges of climate change, initiatives like WISeSat’s IoT satellite constellation are essential for creating a more resilient and sustainable future.About WISeKey
WISeKey International Holding Ltd (“WISeKey”, SIX: WIHN; Nasdaq: WKEY) is a global leader in cybersecurity, digital identity, and IoT solutions platform. It operates as a Swiss-based holding company through several operational subsidiaries, each dedicated to specific aspects of its technology portfolio. The subsidiaries include (i) SEALSQ Corp (Nasdaq: LAES), which focuses on semiconductors, PKI, and post-quantum technology products, (ii) WISeKey SA which specializes in RoT and PKI solutions for secure authentication and identification in IoT, Blockchain, and AI, (iii) WISeSat AG which focuses on space technology for secure satellite communication, specifically for IoT applications, (iv) WISe.ART Corp which focuses on trusted blockchain NFTs and operates the WISe.ART marketplace for secure NFT transactions, and (v) SEALCOIN AG which focuses on decentralized physical internet with DePIN technology and house the development of the SEALCOIN platform.
Each subsidiary contributes to WISeKey’s mission of securing the internet while focusing on their respective areas of research and expertise. Their technologies seamlessly integrate into the comprehensive WISeKey platform. WISeKey secures digital identity ecosystems for individuals and objects using Blockchain, AI, and IoT technologies. With over 1.6 billion microchips deployed across various IoT sectors, WISeKey plays a vital role in securing the Internet of Everything. The company’s semiconductors generate valuable Big Data that, when analyzed with AI, enable predictive equipment failure prevention. Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKey cryptographic Root of Trust, WISeKey provides secure authentication and identification for IoT, Blockchain, and AI applications. The WISeKey Root of Trust ensures the integrity of online transactions between objects and people. For more information on WISeKey’s strategic direction and its subsidiary companies, please visit www.wisekey.com.
Disclaimer
This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”), the FinSa’s predecessor legislation or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey.
Press and Investor Contacts
WISeKey International Holding Ltd
Company Contact: Carlos Moreira
Chairman & CEO
Tel: +41 22 594 3000
info@wisekey.com
media@wisekey.comWISeKey Investor Relations (US)
The Equity Group Inc.
Lena Cati
Tel: +1 212 836-9611
lcati@equityny.com -
MIL-OSI Global: Sugary drinks are a killer: a 20% tax would save lives and rands in South Africa
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Susan Goldstein, Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular conditions account for over 70% of global deaths annually.
In South Africa, non-communicable diseases cause more than half of all deaths. Diabetes ranks as the second leading cause after tuberculosis.
A major contributor to rising diabetes rates is the high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, including cooldrinks.
The World Health Organization recommends a tax of at least 20% on sugary drinks as an effective tool to help reduce consumption and curb related health risks.
South Africa introduced a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, officially known as the Health Promotion Levy, in 2018.
The tax applies at R0.0221 ($0.0012) per gram of sugar beyond a 4g/100ml threshold, amounting to an 8% of final selling price. The tax has increased slightly since it was introduced, but not in line with inflation. The Health Promotion Levy therefore falls short of the original 20% target as industry pressure led to a watered-down version of it.
I lead the South African Medical Research Council/Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science – PRICELESS SA, which has been studying various aspects of the levy for over 10 years.
PRICELESS SA is still in the process of measuring the health and financial impact of not implementing the Health Promotion Levy at the recommended 20%. A lack of recent data adds to this challenge. But it is worth noting that the World Obesity Report shows that obesity is still a severe problem in South Africa.
Without interventions, obesity in South Africa is projected to affect 30 million adults and 10 million children by 2035. In 2019 there were 55,238 deaths in South Africa from non-communicable diseases attributable to obesity, and with an annual increase of 2.3% in obesity, deaths are going to increase.
Taxing sugary beverages is effective
Despite the sugar industry’s claims that the Health Promotion Levy is ineffective, global evidence strongly suggests otherwise. Countries that have implemented such taxes have seen significant declines in sugar consumption.
Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have been implemented in 103 countries and territories globally and have been shown to be effective in many countries.
In Ireland there was a 30.2% reduction in sugar intake through these beverages.
In California a study showed a decrease in overweight and obesity among young people living in cities where there was a sugary beverage tax.
In Mexico, a sugar-sweetened beverages tax at 1 peso ($0.05) per litre was introduced in 2014, and by 2016, sugary drinks sales had dropped by 37%.
Similarly, in the UK, a tax introduced in 2018 led to a 35.4% reduction in sugar consumption from taxed beverages.
The levy has had a positive impact in South Africa. Studies show decreased purchasing of these beverages. There were greater reductions in sales among lower socioeconomic groups and in sub-populations with higher sugary drink consumption.
Mean sugar from taxable beverage purchases fell from 16.25 g/capita per day from the pre-health promotion levy announcement to 10.63 g/capita per day in the year after implementation.
Lower-income households, which initially purchased more taxable sugary beverages than wealthier households, showed the most significant reductions in consumption after the tax was enforced.
This is particularly important as non-communicable diseases disproportionately affect poor and vulnerable populations.
Stronger taxation on sugary beverages not only decreases consumption but also encourages reformulation by manufacturers, leading to healthier products.
The levy does not cause job losses
Sugar-related industries often argue that the tax has led to massive job losses.
Our research contradicts these claims.
A recent study carried out by PRICELESS SA, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies through the University of North Carolina and the South African Medical Research Council, showed no significant association between the levy and employment levels. It showed that the levy had not been associated with job creation or job losses in sugar-related industries. These include agriculture, beverage manufacturing and commercial enterprises that sell food and beverages.
The study suggests several factors that may explain this:
Firstly, firms may reallocate labour within their operations rather than
cut jobs.Secondly, many beverage producers have responded to the tax by reformulating their products, reducing the sugar content and using non-nutritive sweeteners rather than reducing production.
Thirdly, demand for taxed sugary drinks has not declined enough to affect employment.
Finally, consumers often switch to untaxed alternatives produced by the same companies, preventing financial losses to the industry.
Increasing the levy is beneficial to the public purse
The recent delay of South Africa’s budget speech, due to disagreements within the government over the proposed value added tax increase of two percentage points, highlights the urgent need for additional and alternative revenue sources.
South Africa’s health system is experiencing a massive financial burden due to overweight and obesity, costing R33 billion (US$1.78 billion) annually. This expense accounts for 15.38% of the government’s health expenditure and 0.67% of the country’s GDP. On a per-person basis, the annual cost of overweight and obesity is R2,769 (US$150).
On the other hand, the levy generated R5.8 billion (US$313m) in revenue over its first two fiscal years.
Beyond raising funds, a higher tax rate would provide public health benefits and savings for health services.
Based on our research, increasing the levy to 20% in South Africa could reduce obesity rates by 2.4 to 3.8 percentage points, prevent 85,000 strokes, and save 72,000 lives over two decades.
These improvements potentially save over R5 billion (US$270m) in medical costs.
Unlike other taxation measures, which affect all consumers equally, the levy primarily targets discretionary purchases, making it a fairer fiscal tool.
Therefore, government must act – raise the Health Promotion Levy to 20% and cut the sugar-fuelled health crisis at its root.
Raising the levy to 20% would be a smarter tax for a healthier nation.
Darshen Naidoo, Legal Researcher and Associate Lecturer at PRICELESS SA, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg contributed to the article.
Susan Goldstein on behalf of PRICELESS receives funding from the Bloomberg Foundation, the SAMRC and the National Institutes for Health Research
– ref. Sugary drinks are a killer: a 20% tax would save lives and rands in South Africa – https://theconversation.com/sugary-drinks-are-a-killer-a-20-tax-would-save-lives-and-rands-in-south-africa-251393
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MIL-OSI USA: Ricketts on Trump Message to Congress: “America is Back”
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), reacted to President Trump’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress. He made the following comments while on a conference call with Nebraska media:
“Last night, America heard from a President who got right to the point with the first line of his address: America is back,” said Ricketts. “President Trump is committed to ushering in a new Golden Age for the United States. I am excited about the newfound opportunities presented to all Americans because we have President Trump back in office. Americans elected President Trump to secure the border, unleash American energy, and restore American strength. Last night, the President laid out a grand vision for how we can accomplish those goals.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
Senator Ricketts: “Last night, America heard from a President who got right to the point with the first line of his address: America is back.
“President Trump is committed to ushering in a new Golden Age for the United States.
“I am excited about the newfound opportunities presented to all Americans because we have President Trump back in office.
“Americans elected President Trump to secure the border, unleash American energy, and restore American strength.
“Last night, the President laid out a grand vision for how we can accomplish those goals.
“The days of open borders, overregulation, and appeasement are over. And not a moment too soon.
“I will do all I can to help President Trump deliver prosperity and keep Americans safe.
“Our Border Patrol agents need more tools to stop drugs, crime, and illegal border crossings.
“The President made clear he will stand strong with them.
“His policies are already working. Last month, we saw the lowest number of illegal border crossings in recorded history.
“I support dozens of Senate solutions to codify his policies in federal law.
“Another key part of President Trump’s vision is unleashing American energy.
“We’re blessed with incredible natural resources here at home.
“By cutting red tape and streamlining processes, we can unleash those resources.
“We can make America energy dominant.
“That’s how we can lower energy prices and deliver prosperity for our families across the country.
“Those are my priorities as a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.
“The President also highlighted the work of DOGE and what it is doing to attack wasteful, fraudulent, and abusive federal spending.
“As a former Governor and businessman who did similar work at the state level, it was refreshing to hear what they’re doing.
“So for example, one agency had 13,000 employees and had 37,000 software licenses.
“Many of those licenses had never even been used or opened.
“Additionally, DOGE has found 22 million individuals on our Social Security rolls who are too hold to be alive.
“This is government waste in its most obvious form.
“We need to bring both business sense and common sense to cut red tape and streamline the federal bureaucracy.
“Last week, I introduced the Improper Payments Transparency Act to help identify wasteful spending.
“I’ll keep fighting for transparency and accountability with our spending.
“Lastly, we heard President Trump talk about extending his historic tax cuts.
“The Trump tax cuts brought prosperity to American families.
“I will work with the President to extend and make permanent the Trump tax cuts so that all Americans can get ahead once again.
“We can restore the American dream.
“President Trump spoke about restoring American strength on the world stage.
“Biden’s appeasement-first policy led to new conflicts.
“Now, President Trump’s strong leadership is bringing the world closer to peace.
“Our enemies will no longer doubt our resolve.
“I’m working to support those priorities on the Foreign Relations Committee.
“President Trump’s address last night was about renewing the American Dream.
“That means restoring a strong border, a strong military, and a strong energy policy.
“I will continue doing all I can to support President Trump as he works toward those goals.” -
MIL-OSI Canada: Stable, reliable funding for municipalities
Alberta’s population is growing rapidly, and there are more people relying on their municipality to deliver essential services such as roadwork, snow clearing and transit than ever before. Being able to meet the needs of the province’s rapidly growing population is a top priority for Alberta’s government and this work begins with ensuring municipalities are well-positioned to support their residents.
To strengthen municipalities’ position in accommodating the needs of Alberta’s rapidly growing population, Budget 2025, if passed, increases Grants in Place of Taxes (GIPOT) by more than $17 million in 2025. This increase in GIPOT will provide municipalities with a stable and reliable source of funding to help them deliver the essential services which their residents depend on.
“We heard clearly from municipalities that they need more stable funding to deliver local services effectively while avoiding property tax increases. Boosting GIPOT shows how our government is doing its part to help our municipal partners fund the municipal services their residents rely on.”
“Municipalities across Alberta will get more funding from the province as part of this change. It means stable and reliable funding to provide services, while their residents pay less in income taxes thanks to Budget 2025.”
As with all provinces in Canada, eligible properties belonging to provincial governments are exempt from municipal taxes. To account for this, municipalities in Alberta are paid a discretionary grant, rather than taxes, that would be applicable to provincial properties within their boundaries. These grants provide municipalities with a stable and reliable source of revenue that they can rely on while developing municipal budgets and allocating funding to municipal services and programs.
“Alberta Municipalities and its 264 member communities are pleased to see this issue has been addressed in Budget 2025. We appreciate that the provincial government heard and responded to our sustained collective call for a return to full GIPOT funding as quickly as possible.”
Through Budget 2025, funding for GIPOT is increasing from $38 million to more than $55 million, covering 75 per cent of the municipal property tax value of eligible provincial properties in 2025. In 2026, GIPOT will increase again to cover 100 per cent of the amount that would be paid if the properties were taxable, raising the total amount of funding for municipalities to be projected at over $75 million.
“The GIPOT funding increase announced in Budget 2025 is a step in the right direction for mid-sized cities across the province. As we collectively look to find ways to strengthen and foster resiliency in our municipalities, this increase helps us continue to make critical investments that support residents in growing communities.”
“The Rural Municipalities of Alberta appreciates the Government of Alberta’s increase in Grants in Place of Taxes in Budget 2025 and a commitment to fully restore funding in 2026-2027. It’s essential that the province works in partnership with all municipalities to ensure that they have the resources to deliver the essential services their residents and business communities rely on.”
Budget 2025 is meeting the challenge faced by Alberta with continued investments in education and health, lower taxes for families and a focus on the economy.
Quick facts
- GIPOT is paid to 167 municipalities across the province in urban and rural areas for provincially-owned properties such as the Alberta Legislature building, remand centres, court houses and other provincial administration buildings.
- GIPOT total funding amount:
- 2025: $55.3 million
- 2026: $75.3 million (projected)
- 2027: $79.3 million (projected)
Related information
- For more information on GIPOT, visit www.alberta.ca/grants-in-place-of-taxes-program
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MIL-OSI USA: Cantwell-Led Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill Unanimously Passes Senate
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Washington Maria Cantwell
03.06.25
Cantwell-Led Coast Guard Reauthorization Bill Unanimously Passes Senate
Bill would authorize USCG “Whale Desk” for additional 2 years to help ships steer clear of Puget Sound Orcas and other whales; Legislation would establish first-ever tribal advisor to increase collaboration with WA state tribes on native issues and conservation efforts
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Senate unanimously passed the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2025 that would reauthorize $30.45 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard for Fiscal Years 2025 and 2026. The bill was introduced last month by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee.
The bill now heads to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Ahead of the bill’s passage, Sen. Cantwell delivered a speech on the Senate floor:
“The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 provides the tools that our Coast Guard needs now to protect our shores, keep our maritime [industry] moving,” said Sen. Cantwell. “It includes [investments] in Base Seattle, the home port to our nation’s current icebreakers, the future of our heavy icebreaker fleet […] The bill also reauthorizes the Puget Sound Whale Desk for another two years, [which] helps ship steer clear of our cherished orca and whale populations, and it also increases collaboration between Washington tribes and the Coast Guard. And the bill invests in critical safety programs.”
“Moving forward, we have more to do to support the Coast Guard. They needed our help with their assets, and they need access to shipyards,” she said.
Among many important provisions, the legislation includes historic protections for service members from sexual assault and harassment, boosts workforce development programs and availability of affordable housing, increases funding to help the U.S. Coast Guard deliver on critical priorities such as icebreakers and 52-foot heavy-weather lifeboats, raises penalties for abandoned and derelict vessels, and encourages more collaboration with tribes.
The legislation authorizes $14.93 billion for FY25 and $15.51 billion for FY26. The full bill text of the bipartisan U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 is available HERE.
Sen. Cantwell secured language for programs critical to Washington state in the legislation. Among those provisions, her bipartisan legislation:
Expands Affordable Housing Opportunities: Allows the Coast Guard to acquire housing that is available both on the market and in new housing construction programs. This is particularly important in coastal areas — like Cape Disappointment, Grays Harbor, and Port Angeles — where Coast Guard families face a difficult time accessing affordable, quality housing due to competition with seasonal rentals and other challenges associated with remote units. This bill also expands the Coast Guard’s ability to enter into long-term leases for medical facilities, child development centers, and training facilities to expand access to services for Coast Guard families while reducing administrative overhead expenses and allowing for additional improvements to these facilities.
Increases Federal Funding to Deliver on Icebreakers and Heavy Weather Lifeboats: The legislation increases authorized funding by 30% compared to 2024 appropriated funding levels, which will help the Coast Guard deliver on critical priorities such as polar icebreakers, 52-foot heavy-weather lifeboats, and other priority acquisition programs.
Seattle will be home for the Coast Guard’s fleet of 3 polar icebreakers.
Sen. Cantwell recently toured U.S. Coast Guard Station Disappointment, where the future fleet of heavy-weather lifeboats will be homeported to support search and rescue missions, which is critical to safety of people working in the fishing and maritime sector in Pacific and Grays Harbor counties. In 2023, Sen. Cantwell secured a downpayment of $12 million to replace the heavy-weather boats in the 2023 Appropriations Act.
Creates the First-Ever Tribal Advisor: Creates a new senior position within the Coast Guard to advise the Commandant and other Coast Guard leaders on how the Coast Guard can work more closely with tribes. The new Special Advisor would also be charged with ensuring the Coast Guard upholds trust responsibilities to tribal governments, improving tribal engagement and consultation activities, and ensuring that tribes have a voice on Coast Guard programs that impact tribes including oil spill preparedness and response, fisheries oversight, and the protection of natural resources.
Boosts Local Tribal Partnerships to Improve Conservation: Provides the Coast Guard with new authorities to support habitat conservation and other resilience projects with state, local, and tribal governments. This important new authority would ensure tribes and other organizations can partner with the Coast Guard to protect treaty fishing rights and maintain access to cultural and natural resources.
Reauthorizes the Whale Desk: Extends the Whale Desk at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound by two years, through FY2028. Authored by Senator Cantwell in the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act of 2022, the “Whale Desk” at Sector Puget Sound gives vessel operators and mariners near real-time data about the location of whales to reduce encounters that disturb whales, including noise pollution and ship strikes. The pilot program also includes a “hotline” where callers can report whale sightings in real time. The data collected will be valuable for researchers who track whale migration patterns.
According to the Coast Guard, 75 whale sightings have been reported to the Sector Puget Sound Whale Desk since its opening in December 2023.
Sen. Cantwell helped celebrate the launch of the Whale Desk in February 2024. Photos and videos are available HERE and HERE.
Supports the Commercial Fishing and Maritime Industries: Continues to authorize the use of a satellite tracking system to mark fishing gear locations, which ensures gear is not lost and avoids potential damage by derelict gear. It also supports fishing vessels engaging in temporary towing operations as part of salmon hatchery development in Alaska. The bill also creates new training and credentialing opportunities for qualified mariners, veterans, and the general public seeking to become mariners. It also expedites processing times for merchant mariner licensing documents to help close this critical workforce gap.
Maps Arctic Maritime Routes: The Bering Sea is expected to see increased fishing, commercial, and other vessel traffic over the coming decades. As a key international trade and maritime route, this bill requires an analysis of projected traffic in the Bering Strait, and the emergency response capabilities and infrastructure needed to support this increased vessel traffic and prevent oil spills in the Bering Sea and the Arctic.
Boosts International Pacific Cooperation: Requires the Coast Guard to develop a plan to increase international training opportunities in the Pacific, including with the Taiwan Coast Guard. This coordination will strengthen American relations, combat illegal fishing, and boost international security in the Pacific.
Cracks Down on Abandoned Vessels: Improves oversight of derelict and abandoned vessels by requiring the Coast Guard to develop and maintain an inventory list of these vessels to improve tracking, management, and coordination between federal, state, tribal, and other relevant entities. It authorizes a new federal penalty of $500 a day for abandoning vessels.
Abandoned and derelict vessels pose unique and costly threats to coastal communities and ecosystems by leaking pollutants and imperiling marine traffic. According to the WA Department of Natural Resources, DNR removed 319 derelict and abandoned boats from Washington state waterways between 2021 and 2023.
Protects Personnel from Illicit Drug/Fentanyl Exposure: As the Coast Guard carries out important drug interdiction missions to stop the flow of illegal drugs, this bill requires all installations to maintain a supply of naloxone or similar medication to treat opioid or fentanyl overdoses or exposure by Coast Guard members and the public in search and rescue or response calls.
Requires Stronger Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH) Prevention and Response: The bill would establish or update numerous Coast Guard and Academy authorities and programs to improve reporting, oversight, prevention, and accountability related to sexual misconduct. These provisions were drafted in response to Operation Fouled Anchor, which revealed gross mishandling of sexual assault and sexual harassment cases of U.S. Coast Guard personnel.
A full breakdown of these protections is available HERE.
Supports Coast Guard Families Stationed in Washington:
Creates the First Vice Admiral of Personnel: To support the more than 40,000 active service members, the bill establishes a new Vice Admiral leadership position solely focused on supporting the needs of personnel and their families, from housing to health care, investments in childcare, and improving recruitment and training programs.
Jump Starts Hiring of Health and Family Service Providers Across Entire Service: Provides direct hiring authority to swiftly fill more than a hundred vacancies, including behavioral and mental health professionals, medical specialists, childcare service providers, housing supervisors, criminal investigators, and other positions to protect the health and wellbeing of Coast Guard members and their families. It also adds two new telemedicine rooms at the Coast Guard Academy.
Improves College-to-Service Career Pathways: Updates the College Student Pre-Commissioning Program to allow more colleges and universities to participate and to increase recruitment of students interested in commissioning into a Coast Guard career.
Prepares Tsunami Evacuation Plans: Requires the development of tsunami evacuation and preparedness plans for Coast Guard units in tsunami zones, including across the West Coast and Pacific Northwest. It also requires the Coast Guard to consider vertical evacuation as a lifesaving option for Coast Guard members.
Bolsters National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Supports NOAA Corps Officers: To support the hundreds of NOAA’s commissioned officers, the bill makes improvements to personnel management, education assistance programs, pilot recruitment programs, and more. NOAA Corps members help manage maritime research, support disaster response, and monitor weather forecasting including hurricanes and atmospheric rivers, as well as performing other cutting-edge weather forecast and research needs.
Modernizes NOAA Vessel Fleet: Authorizes replacement and modernization of the NOAA research vessel fleet and improves oversight of the fleet, which helps maintain our nation’s weather and scientific buoy network, conducts fisheries research, maps the ocean floor including in the Arctic, and supports other important oceanographic and conservation priorities.
Removes Aging NOAA Vessels: Allows NOAA to use the proceeds of obsolete vessel sales to support the acquisition or repair of other NOAA vessels to help make the fleet more resilient in the future.
Video of Sen. Cantwell’s speech on the Senate floor today is HERE; audio is HERE; and a transcript is HERE. -
MIL-OSI: Gevo to Delay Issuance of Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings Release and Investor Conference Call
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)
ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) (“Gevo”, the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a leading developer of cost effective, renewable hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals with reduced greenhouse gas emissions, today announced that it will delay the issuance of its fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings release and investor conference call previously scheduled for March 6, 2025.
The delay in the earnings release is required to allow additional time to finalize certain accounting treatments related to our purchase of the assets of Red Trail Energy, LLC, and the capitalization of certain other project expenses. The Company will issue a separate press release when a rescheduled date and time has been determined.
About Gevo
Gevo is a next-generation diversified energy company committed to fueling America’s future with cost-effective, drop-in fuels that contribute to energy security, abate carbon, and strengthen rural communities to drive economic growth. Gevo’s innovative technology can be used to make a variety of renewable products, including synthetic aviation fuel (“SAF”), motor fuels, chemicals, and other materials that provide U.S.-made solutions. By investing in the backbone of rural America, Gevo’s business model includes developing, financing, and operating production facilities that create jobs and revitalize communities. Gevo owns and operates one of the largest dairy-based renewable natural gas (“RNG”) facilities in the United States, turning by-products into clean, reliable energy. We also operate an ethanol plant with an adjacent carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) facility, further solidifying America’s leadership in energy innovation. Additionally, Gevo owns the world’s first production facility for specialty alcohol-to-jet (“ATJ”) fuels and chemicals. Gevo’s market-driven “pay for performance” approach regarding carbon and other sustainability attributes, helps ensure value is delivered to our local economy. Through its Verity subsidiary, Gevo provides transparency, accountability, and efficiency in tracking, measuring and verifying various attributes throughout the supply chain. By strengthening rural economies, Gevo is working to secure a self-sufficient future and to make sure value is brought to the market.
For more information, see www.gevo.com.
Media Contact
Heather Manuel
VP of Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships
PR@gevo.comInvestor Contact
Eric Frey, PhD
Vice President of Corporate Development
IR@Gevo.com -
MIL-OSI Security: Man jailed for rape of 12-year-old following Metropolitan Police investigation
Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police
A man has been jailed for 16 years for grooming and raping a child – after investigators from the Metropolitan Police Service tracked him down using only phone data and CCTV footage.
Richard Bosworth, 40 (13.07.1983), from Coalville in Leicestershire, was sentenced on Tuesday, 4 March, at Kingston Crown Court. He previously pleaded guilty on Wednesday, 23 October, 2024 to two counts of rape as well as seven other sexual offences, including sexual assault on a child under 13, engaging in sexual communication with a child, causing a child to watch a sexual act, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, meeting a child following sexual grooming, and assault by digital penetration.
Detective Inspector Kieran Curry, who led the investigation, said:
“I commend the young survivor in this case for her courage. She found the strength to confide in officers, and her account of this appalling assault proved crucial in securing Bosworth’s conviction. Her and her family’s cooperation has put this dangerous predator behind bars.
“Bosworth travelled from Leicestershire to abuse his victim in Twickenham. He is a devious offender, who ensured he left very little evidence for police to pursue.
“It is a testament to our investigative teams that they succeeded in identifying Bosworth, combing over large amounts of CCTV evidence and phone data in order to apprehend him and secure a conviction.”
On Monday, 23 September, 2024, police were contacted by the victim’s mother. She said her 12-year-old daughter had spoken to friends at school about being abused by a man who had reached out to her on the BeFriend social media platform, presenting himself as a young teenager.
Investigators spoke to the girl, who said the man picked her up in his car in the early hours of Thursday, 19 September, 2024. He used a fake profile when communicating with the victim, grooming her for a month prior to the meeting. He left little evidence of his true identity.
Officers in the case reached out to the Met’s Operation Atlas team, which specialises in digital manhunts. Having obtained the number associated with the fake BeFriend profile, investigators were able to trace the movement of a phone through London to the victim’s home, as it citied off various telecom masts. They then paired this with CCTV footage from the areas in question.
Through these enquiries, investigators were able to single out a car. This was found to belong to Bosworth. On Tuesday, 1 October, officers arrested him at his home in Coalville. On the same day, he was charged with 10 counts of rape, all relating to the same incident on Thursday, 19 September.
As well as serving 16 years in prison, Bosworth will be made to register for life as a sex offender.
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MIL-OSI Global: Europe-Nato ‘coalition of the willing’ scrambles for collective response to hostility from Trump and threat from Putin
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham
Six days after the infamous shouting match between the US president and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president is scrambling to try and repair what looked initially like a near-total breakdown in the relationship between the US and Ukraine.
Zelensky, urged by European leaders, including the British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has tried to mend his ties with Trump. The US president acknowledged as much in his first post-inauguration speech to congress on March 5, saying that he appreciated Zelensky’s readiness to work for peace under US leadership.
But that happened just 24 hours after he decided to halt all military aid to Ukraine. And since then, the new director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and national security adviser, Mike Waltz, have confirmed that intelligence sharing with Kyiv, which was critical to Ukraine’s ability to hit strategic targets inside Russia, has also been suspended.
Neither of these two moves will have an immediate game-changing effect on the war, but they certainly increase pressure on Ukraine to accept whatever deal Trump will ultimately make with Putin.
So far, so bad for Zelensky. Yet Trump’s manoeuvring does not only affect Ukraine. It has also had a profound impact on the relationship between the US and Europe. On Sunday March 2, in the aftermath of the White House debacle, Starmer convened an emergency meeting in London with a select number of European leaders, as well as the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
This “coalition of the willing”“ has been in the making for some time now. Its members straddle the boundaries of the EU and Nato, including – apart from the UK – non-EU members Norway and Turkey. Since the relatively disappointing first-ever EU meeting solely focused on defence on February 3 – which was more notable for the absence of a European vision for the continent’s role and place in the Trumpian world order – Europe has embarked on a course of more than just rhetorical change.
The UK was first out of the blocks. Ahead of Starmer’s visit to Washington, the UK government announced on February 25 an increase of defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. This was then followed on March 2 with a pledge of additional air defence missiles for Ukraine worth £1.6 billion.
Europe responds
In a crucial boost to defence spending at the EU level, the president of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the “Rearm Europe” plan on March 4. It is projected to mobilise around €800 billion (£670 million) for European defence.
This includes a “national escape clause” for EU members, exempting national defence expenditures from the EU’s deficit rules. It also offers a new loan instrument worth up to €150 billion, allows for the use of already allocated funds in the EU budget for defence projects, and proposes partnerships with the private sector through the Savings and Investment Union and the European Investment Bank.
Perhaps most significantly, in Germany, the two main parties likely to form the next coalition government announced a major shift in the country’s fiscal policy on March 5, which will allow any defence spending above 1% of GDP to be financed outside the country’s strict borrowing rules.
This marks an important point of departure for Germany. Apart from what it means in fiscal terms, it also sends an important political signal that Germany – the continent’s largest economy – will use its financial and political muscle to strengthen the emerging coalition of the willing.
Read more:
Europe will need thousands more tanks and troops to mount a credible military defence without the US
Donald Trump reads a letter from Volodymyr Zelensky during his speech to Congress, March 4. These are all important steps. Taken together, and provided that the current momentum is maintained, they are likely to accelerate Europe’s awakening to a world in which US security guarantees as no longer absolute.
The challenges that Europe faces on the way to becoming strategically independent from the US are enormous. But they are not insurmountable.
The conventional military threat posed by an aggressive and revanchist Russia is more easily manageable with the planned boost to conventional forces and air and cyber defences. Close cooperation with Ukraine will also add critical war-fighting experience which can boost the deterrent effect.
Europe for now, however, remains vulnerable in terms of its nuclear capabilities, especially if deprived of the US nuclear umbrella and faced with Russia’s regular threats to use its nuclear arsenal – the world’s largest nuclear power by warhead stockpiles.
But here, too, new strategic thinking is emerging. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has indicated his willingness to discuss a more integrated European nuclear capability. And in Germany, a country with an otherwise very complex relationship with nuclear weapons, such a European approach has been debated, increasingly positively, for some time, starting during Trump’s first term in office between 2017 and 2021.
Read more:
French nuclear deterrence for Europe: how effective could it be against Russia?
Tectonic shift
A stronger, and strategically more independent Europe, even if it will take time to emerge, is also crucial for the war in Ukraine. Increased European defence spending, including aid for Ukraine, will help Kyiv in the short term to make up for at least some of the gaps left by the suspension – and possible complete cessation – of US military support.
In the long term, however, EU accession would possibly open up the route to a security guarantee for Ukraine under article 47.2 of the Lisbon treaty on European Union.
This so-called mutual defence clause has been derided in the past for lacking any meaningful European defence capabilities. But if the current European momentum towards beefing up the continent’s defences is sustained, it would acquire more teeth than it currently has.
With the benefit of hindsight, Zelensky may have walked away less empty handed from his clash with Trump last week than it seemed initially. If nothing else, Europeans have since then demonstrated not just in words but also in deeds that they are no longer in denial about just how dangerous Trump is and how much they are now on their own.
Threatened by both Moscow and Washington, Europe is now on the cusp of a second zeitenwende, the “epochal tectonic shift” that the then German chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They may finally even have found an answer to the question he posed at the time: “How can we, as Europeans and as the European Union, remain independent actors in an increasingly multi-polar world?”
Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.
Tetyana Malyarenko 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. Europe-Nato ‘coalition of the willing’ scrambles for collective response to hostility from Trump and threat from Putin – https://theconversation.com/europe-nato-coalition-of-the-willing-scrambles-for-collective-response-to-hostility-from-trump-and-threat-from-putin-251332
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MIL-OSI Security: Rhode Island Businesswoman Sentenced for Failing to Pay Over Employee Payroll Taxes to the IRS
Source: Office of United States Attorneys
PROVIDENCE – A Rhode Island businesswoman who collected but failed to pay over to the government eight years’ worth of employee federal withholding taxes and properly report her own personal income to the IRS has been sentenced to two years of probation, the first six months to be served in home detention, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.
Gail M. Hynson, 59, president of Hynson Electrical Services, Inc., pleaded guilty in October 2024 to ten counts of failure to account for and pay over payroll taxes and three counts of filing a false tax return. In addition to a term of probation and home detention, U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., ordered Hynson to perform 100 hours of community service.
Court documents detail that from 2016 through 2024, Hynson, who also acted as the company bookkeeper, withheld employment taxes from its employees’ paychecks, to include federal income taxes, Medicare, and Social Security taxes, but failed to provide the funds to the IRS.
Much of the money deducted from her employees’ paychecks was transferred to her own personal bank accounts and used to pay for personal expenses, including her mortgage, car payments, and her daughter’s student loans.
In addition, court records provide that Gail Hynson and her husband submitted false personal tax returns to the IRS, failing to reflect their actual income, to include the employees’ withholdings she transferred to her personal bank accounts and used for personal expenses.
Between 2016 and 2024, Hyson failed to remit a total of approximately $1.22 million dollars to the IRS.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ly T. Chin and Milind M. Shah.
The matter was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
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MIL-OSI Security: Fayette County meth dealer sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment
Source: Office of United States Attorneys
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A district judge sentenced a Vandalia woman to 10 years in federal prison after she admitted to possessing methamphetamine for distribution.
Melissa P. Workman, 52, of Vandalia, pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance: meth.
“This 10-year sentence sends a strong message that federal law enforcement is combating drug crimes all over the district,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. “Because meth is highly addictive and destructive for families, knowing this dealer is headed to federal prison is a win for Fayette County, and I applaud the FBI agents who worked the case to hold her accountable.”
According to court documents, Workman sold 10 grams of meth to a confidential source working for the FBI on July 17, 2023. On July 18, 2023, agents executed a search warrant of her residence and recovered meth, a digital scale, packaging supplies and other drug paraphernalia.
“Drugs have deadly consequences, and the FBI will aggressively investigate the sale and trafficking of illegal drugs to make our communities safer places to live,” said FBI Springfield Special Agent in Charge Christopher Johnson. “This sentence underscores the consequences of distributing illegal drugs and ensures the offender is unable to cause harm to others for years to come.”
In additional investigations, agents again searched Workman’s residence on Jan. 8, 2024, and located more methamphetamine. Following her federal indictment on April 18, 2024, agents executed an arrest warrant for Workman. During her arrest, law enforcement uncovered additional amounts of methamphetamine in her home.
The FBI Springfield Field Office led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Carraway prosecuted the case.
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MIL-OSI Video: President Lagarde presents the latest monetary policy decisions – 6 March 2025
Source: European Central Bank (video statements)
Today our Governing Council decided on monetary policy, determining what’s needed to return inflation to our 2% goal in a timely manner.
Listen to President Christine Lagarde present today’s decisions. The statement also covers:
• how the economy is performing
• how we expect prices to develop
• the risks to the economic outlook
• the dynamics behind financial and monetary conditionsOur monetary policy statement at a glance, 6 March 2025 www.ecb.europa.eu/press/press_conf…ed_march.en.html
Christine Lagarde, Luis de Guindos: Monetary policy statement, 6 March 2025 www.ecb.europa.eu/press/press_conf…07bd0941.en.html
Monetary policy decisions, 6 March 2025 www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/20…340800b3.en.html
Combined monetary policy decisions and statement, 6 March 2025 www.ecb.europa.eu/press/press_conf…a4269dcc8.en.pdf
Macroeconomic projections, 6 March 2025 www.ecb.europa.eu/press/projection…6050a4fa.en.html
European Central Bank
www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.htmlYou can also listen on all major podcast platforms.
Published and recorded during our press conference on 6 March 2025.
