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  • MIL-OSI Security: Poplar woman sentenced to prison for making false statements

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

    GREAT FALLS – A Poplar woman who provided false statements to federal law enforcement was sentenced today to 9 months in prison to be followed by 2 years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

    Annie Lee Kirn, 27, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of making a false statement.

    Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.

    The government alleged in court documents that on the evening of November 21, 2023, Kirn returned with her elderly friend to his residence on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Shortly thereafter, two men broke into the home. Armed with an assault rifle, the men assaulted the homeowner and another man and demanded money and access to a wall safe.

    During an interview with federal law enforcement officers, Kirn said she saw the would-be robbers outside before the robbery and one of them kept trying to grab her, she then saw the gun and freaked out. She also told law enforcement the armed man told her to run, that she ran, and then he fired three or four times.

    Law enforcement recovered and reviewed surveillance video from the home that showed a car with five people following Kirn’s truck into the yard. Two men, one of whom was armed with a rifle, approached the house while Kirn was getting out of the truck. After the homeowner went into the house, Kirn returned to the yard and visited with the two men. During that time, they discussed her relationship with the homeowner, Kirn offered to share a joint with the man armed with the rifle, they whispered about cash, and talked about the location of a safe. At one point, Kirn asked about the rifle, the armed man handed it to her, and she held it at the ready position before handing it back to the man. While they were outside, the man fired seven rounds from the rifle, primarily into the air.

    In an interview in September 2024, law enforcement followed up with Kirn about the night of the robbery. When asked directly if she ever handled the firearm, Kirn said “hell no.” When asked if she had any conversations with the robbers, she said, “No…I didn’t talk with them at all.”

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Kalah Paisley prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by the FBI, ATF, and Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

    XXX

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Violent Offender Sentenced To Seven Years In Prison For Drug Trafficking

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

    LAS VEGAS – A serial offender with a violent criminal history, including attacking women, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Miranda M. Du to 84 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

    “Public safety is at the forefront of ATF’s mission,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Alex Buenaventura, San Francisco Field Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “Protecting the public from violent offenders is our duty as law enforcement. The criminal background of the defendant in this case is astounding. Today’s sentencing ensures that a repeat offender will be taken off the streets. The Las Vegas community is now a safer place.”

    Anthony Chrysanthis, Deputy Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Los Angeles Division, which oversees Las Vegas, said, “The methamphetamine epidemic continues to threaten the health and safety of Americans. Today’s sentencing serves as a stern warning to drug distributors: When you unleash deadly poison in our communities, we will track you down and ensure you face the full force of the law.”

    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, on or about September 12, 2021, Damien Patillo, 41, of Las Vegas, possessed 16 grams of pure methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Methamphetamine is a Schedule II controlled substance.

    Patillo’s prior convictions includes brutally attacking six different women, 38 convictions, and 10 domestic violence convictions.

    Following a four-day trial in January 2025, a jury convicted Patillo of one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

    United States Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada, Acting Special Agent in Charge Alex Buenaventura for ATF’s San Francisco Field Division, and Deputy Special Agent in Charge Anthony Chrysanthis for DEA’s Los Angeles Division made the announcement.

    This case was investigated by the ATF and DEA. Assistant United States Attorney David Kiebler prosecuted the case.

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    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why Kissinger would have been a Fortnite champ − and other foreign policy lessons from the gaming world

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Michael A. Allen, Professor of Political Science, Boise State University

    Charlemagne, the medieval King of the Franks, has taken control of modern-day America and is looking to expand his borders by invading your neighboring country.

    Now, I’m not a historian. But the above example makes perfect sense to me as both a gamer and a professor of international relations.

    It is a possible outcome in the recently released video game Civilization VII, or Civ 7, in which different historical figures can govern people far removed – both in time and geography – from their actual historical role. In this case, Charlemagne has become displeased with the little empire you control due to friction along a shared border and is likely to invade soon.

    I have been an avid player of games like Civ 7 my entire life. I tend to play strategic games, be they video, card, board or role-playing games. And I’m not alone. An estimated 190.6 million people in the U.S. regularly play video games in some form.

    While my primary reason for playing may be enjoyment, they also inform the discipline I teach. In fact, I just published a book, “The Gamer’s Guide to International Relations,” that explains how some of the most popular games around include lessons for people seeking to understand how diplomacy works and how different nations interact.

    A visitor walks past the booth of Civilization VII at the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 21, 2024.
    Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

    While Civ 7 may seek to emulate this world of conflict and cooperation, other games with no apparent connection to geopolitics can also provide lessons. In particular, Fortnite, League of Legends and Minecraft invite gamers to interact with the world in a way that models how leaders, governments and countries behave.

    Here are three ways in which games create worlds that model key concepts from international relations:

    1. Fortnite as realpolitik

    Fortnite, a video game focused on crafting weapons and survival that launched in 2017, can be used as an introduction to the concept of realpolitik.

    The core part of Fortnite is its battle-royale, third-person shooting game. In a battle royale, you are fighting against 99 other players to be the last person standing.

    The “everyone for themselves” ethos can be chaotic and challenging, with death and defeat lurking in every shrub.

    It brings to mind the thinking behind the international relations theory of realism. Realists see the world as anarchic, with no overarching moral or physical authority telling states what to do – in other words, one with no world government.

    It is a self-help system where states survive, thrive or die based on accruing power, finding security and using force to resolve disputes.

    The theory of realism hearkens back to the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who famously noted that the “strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

    That phrase has become a central tenet of foreign policy realists. Henry Kissinger, secretary of state under U.S. President Richard Nixon, saw foreign policy as a strategic enterprise based on power, while largely ignoring other imperatives such as human rights and justice.

    Even in international anarchy, however, cooperation can be attractive to a realist. Kissinger, for example, sought positive relations with China and foresaw that by working with China the U.S. could exploit a growing division between the Soviet Union and China.

    From Kissinger’s perspective, it mattered less that China was communist and more that it was powerful and distrustful of the Soviet Union.

    How does this apply to Fortnite? Well, in the game, you may come across two players fighting. When this happens, a player must quickly decide to either retreat or join the fray. If you enter the fight, you could either team up with the weaker player and eliminate a stronger foe or join the strong and remove the weak.

    In Fortnite, and occasionally in international politics, whomever you choose as your temporary ally will become your rival immediately after – so you have to choose wisely. The enemy of your enemy is not going to stay your friend forever.

    LoL and enduring allies

    League of Legends, known as LoL or League to fans, is a game that offers a deceptively simple idea: A team of five players battles another to destroy their base.

    Mastering the game is far from simple. Along the way, you can pick up valuable international relation lessons on the importance of forging lasting alliances.

    Fans watch the final of an esports competition to determine the winner of South Korea’s largest online game.
    Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

    Players remain anonymous and can be pretty toxic toward each other – tending to blame a team’s failings on anyone but themselves.

    If you join as a solo player, you will join four other people you do not know and spend the next 30 minutes either winning or losing a game.

    You’ll build a rapport with some teammates and want to keep playing with them. Other times, you find someone who complements your skills, and you can join a ranked competition as a pair and work together toward victory.

    In this, LoL is more akin to the international relations theory of liberalism. Liberalism, which should not be confused with the political identity in U.S. politics, holds realism’s view of the world to be limited. Instead, it teaches that cooperation can endure beyond pure power politics.

    Instead of a temporary alliance that falls apart immediately after you achieve your goal, liberalism suggests that alliances can mutually benefit two countries in the long run.

    Take for example the United States and the United Kingdom. The two countries allied during the crises of two worlds wars. By the end of World War II, they had established a long-term partnership, resulting in the establishment of international institutions that have endured for 80 years.

    Liberalism argues that countries can find solutions where both sides benefit without one side being disadvantaged. This contrasts with realism’s views of the world as zero-sum – where one side benefits at the other’s expense.

    Under both liberalism and League of Legends, interactions can create positive-sum outcomes for both parties.

    Minecraft and constructing the world

    Turning to Minecraft, one of the most popular games in the world, we find valuable lessons on a third international relations concept: constructivism.

    Constructivism argues that the world is socially constructed. That is, the rules of international politics are something that humans and countries have created, chosen to abide by and are willing to enforce.

    And this works well with Minecraft. People of all ages can enjoy it – but it is up to players to choose how to play. You can build houses or castles, or you can choose to find and defeat the Ender Dragon. Or you can turn on creative mode and decide to make art or large engineering projects.

    Constructing a love for all things foreign policy.
    Georg Wendt/picture alliance via Getty Images

    The point is that it’s up to you and your friends to determine joint goals or collectively decide to pursue your own interests – and that concept is at the heart of constructivism. States can decide to create a more liberal world by jointly signing treaties or joining international organizations that alter what nations can and cannot do. Alternatively, states may see such ventures as facades and decide that the most important things are power and security. Both realist and liberal states can exist in the same world.

    Like players in Minecraft, states may view the world as one where everyone is a threat, in line with realism. Or they may view the world as one where institutions and cooperation provide a better experience for everyone.

    In Minecraft as in international politics, the goals, rules and punishments for those who deviate are determined collectively.

    Digging deeper

    Games such as Minecraft, League of Legends and Fortnite may seem to many as a pastime rather than a learning experience. But they can help people connect with concepts that attempt to explain a vast and confusing world. Being able to grasp the arcane and complicated world of international relations can make the world slightly more manageable.

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

    – ref. Why Kissinger would have been a Fortnite champ − and other foreign policy lessons from the gaming world – https://theconversation.com/why-kissinger-would-have-been-a-fortnite-champ-and-other-foreign-policy-lessons-from-the-gaming-world-253594

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: EUAA hosts its first Tabletop Exercise under the Asylum Reserve Pool

    Source: European Asylum Support Office

    The EUAA has just finished hosting a 3-day event during which, together with relevant National Contact Points, it held a first crisis management-related Tabletop Exercise using the  EUAA Asylum Reserve Pool (ARP). The Asylum Reserve Pool is a mechanism introduced under the strengthened EUAA Regulation and helps foster the Union’s rapid response capacity to support any Member State whose asylum and / or reception systems are under disproportionate pressure.

    The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has just successfully concluded its first crisis management related exercise, in the form of a Tabletop Exercise (TTX), involving the Agency’s National Contact Points responsible for organising the rapid deployment of asylum and reception experts made available in the EUAA Asylum Reserve Pool (ARP). The pool is one of the novelties under the Agency’s strengthened mandate.

    The Asylum Reserve Pool numbers of around 500 experts, and acts as a buffer to ensure the EU’s asylum and reception systems remain resilient in times of increased pressure. Mandatory and binding on Member States, it is composed of a variety of technical profiles ensuring that the Agency can respond effectively and quickly to the needs identified in a Member State which considers that its asylum or reception systems have come under disproportionate migratory pressure. The Asylum Reserve Pool is a tangible commitment of operational solidarity among EU countries.

    This week’s tabletop exercise involved representatives of several Member States, together with EUAA staff members responsible for various aspects of the Agency’s operational support to EU countries, and sought to:

    • Assess the readiness and responsiveness of the Asylum Reserve Pool to provide operational support in situations of crisis and / or disproportionate pressure;

    • Reinforce intra-agency coordination among different teams across the EUAA to work seamlessly together in emergency situations, particularly upon the activation of the Asylum Reserve Pool;

    • Foster effective and efficient collaboration between National Contact Points and EUAA personnel, to ensure the rapid deployment of asylum or reception experts within the short deadlines set out in the EUAA Regulation (max. 7 working days, if needed);

    • Collect feedback and identify the lessons learned to improve and optimise administrative procedures, to ensure that the EU can respond in a potential moment of crisis.

    Background

    Under the EUAA Regulation, the Agency is required to set up an Asylum Reserve Pool of around 500 experts provided by the Member States, and who are capable of being deployed rapidly to any EU country. Experts within the pool need to be deployable within 7 working days, following the conclusion of an Operational Plan with a Member State that considers itself under disproportionate pressure. The number of experts that each Member State must provide to the Agency is outlined in Annex I of the Regulation.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Awards ceremony celebrates Plymouth’s best care workers

    Source: City of Plymouth

    More than 40 of Plymouth’s best and most dedicated care workers and teams were honoured at an awards ceremony last weekend.

    Winners at the Celebrating Excellence in Care Awards

    The Celebrating Excellence in Care Awards is run by Plymouth City Council’s Commissioning Team and aims to shine a light on the incredible work taking place every day within the adult social care sector.

    A range of award categories recognise people working in all areas of the sector, including those based in care homes, supported living provision, day centres and domiciliary care (supporting people to remain living in their own homes).

    Councillor Mary Aspinall, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “I’d like to congratulate every single one of our winners and say a big well done to everyone who was nominated. The work you do is so important and often underappreciated.

    “These awards are a fantastic opportunity for us to shine a light on all the hard work that takes place every single day across the city to make sure adults with care needs are supported, looked after and helped to live fulfilling, healthy lives.”

    Nominations for the awards opened earlier this year and more than 400 were received from employers, colleagues, adult social care clients and their families. The nominations were then reviewed by an independent panel of judges who chose the winners.

    The full list of award winners is:

    • Deputy of the Year (Domiciliary Care): Tendai Madume, Indiana Healthcare Services
      • Highly Commended: Kimberly Tucker, Your Choice Care and support
    • Manager of the Year (Domiciliary Care): Rebecca Pannell, @PlymouthCare
      • Highly Commended: Emma Bonney, Prestige Healthcare
    • Nurse of the Year (Domiciliary Care): Vanessa Schaben, Prestige Nursing and Care
    • Team of the Year (Domiciliary Care): Tamar Care
      • Highly Commended: @PlymouthCare
    • Care Worker of the Year (Domiciliary Care): Rafie Sodiq, Indiana Healthcare Services
      • Highly Commended: Arron Marley, @PlymouthCare
    • Care Worker of the Year (Day Services): Fiona James, Tamar Homecare
      • Highly Commended: Holly Ewings, Alpha Care
    • Care Worker of the Year (Supported Living): Katie Bartlett, Achieve Together
    • Care Worker of the Year (Care Home): Deepak Barnes, Greenacres Care Centre
      • Highly Commended: Aleisha Smith, Chatsworth Home  
    • Deputy of the Year (Care Home): Sarah McCaffrey, Butterfly Lodge Dementia Home
      • Highly Commended: Hayley Cook, Astor Hall Care Home
    • Manager of the Year (Care Home): Jamie Graham, Abbeyfield Tamar House
      • Highly Commended: Marie Claire, Seymour Court Nursing Home  
    • Nurse of the Year (Care Home): Ursula Sheriff, Darbyshire Care – Hamilton House
      • Highly Commended: Jennifer Curtis, Meadowside and St Francis Care Centre  
    • Team of the Year (Care Home): Greenacres Care Home, Mannamead Care
      • Highly Commended: Alpha Care SW
    • Care Home Activity Coordinator: James Gooding, Devonshire House and Lodge
      • Highly Commended: Catherine Britton, Merafield View Nursing Home
    • Culinary Care Team: Phil Jane, Brunel House
      • Highly Commended: Lottie Fisher, Merafield View Nursing Home
    • Ancillary Worker of the Year: Kim Crook, Merafield View Nursing Home
      • Highly Commended: Kristen Bradbury, Butterfly Lodge  
    • Commitment to Workforce Development: Gemma Parnell and Katie Spring, Alpha Care SW
      • Highly Commended: Merafield View Nursing Home
    • Contribution to Care: Kelly Hawkins, Prestige Nursing and Care
      • Highly Commended: Lisa Willis, Merafield View Nursing Home
    • Excellence in Dementia Care: Butterfly Lodge Dementia Home
    • Excellence in Learning Disability Care: Allison Nicholls, Jan Ltd
      • Highly Commended: Mark Peard, IOTA Care
    • Excellence in End-of-life Care: Seymour Court Nursing Home
    • Innovation in Technology: Leon Bulbin, Support’ed
    • Innovative Partnership Working: Gillian Fordham, Seymour Court
    • Promoting Independence Champion: Maggie Overill, Astor Hall
    • Rising Star: Theresa Benjamin, Achieve Together
      • Highly Commended: Lexie Witcher, Tamar House Abbeyfield
    • Service User Involvement: Prestige Nursing & Care
    • Service User Story: Ian Bullen, Prestige Nursing & Care
    • Volunteer of the Year: Nicola Daniels, Jan Ltd
    • People’s Choice Award – Care Home: Teresa Warren at Butterfly Lodge and Sally Hutchings, District Nurse team for care homes
    • People’s Choice Award – Day Services: Plymouth Highbury Trust
    • People’s Choice Award – Domiciliary Care: District Healthcare
    • People’s Choice Award – Supported Living: John Knight, Highbury Trust.

    The awards support the work of Caring Plymouth, a city-wide health and social care partnership, which works to address recruitment and retention challenges in adult social care. The partnership not only wants to encourage more people to work in the sector, but support and celebrate those already doing so.

    If you’re interested in working in adult social care, find out more at www.plymouth.gov.uk/workincare.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Major improvements completed on key city route

    Source: City of Derby

    Road users in Derby will see significant improvements following the completion of a major upgrade scheme along Derby Road and Nottingham Road through Spondon and Chaddesden.

    Part of the Transforming Cities programme, these works have delivered enhanced sustainable transport infrastructure and a full road resurfacing.

    Both roads have been given a makeover, while new infrastructure has been added to make active travel, such as walking and cycling easier. This includes new cycle lanes and improved pedestrian crossings.

    Cyclists will enjoy a safer and more convenient journey thanks to new shared use and segregated cycle lanes between the Spondon Island and the Chaddesden Park Road junction.

    Pedestrians will find it easier to move along the route thanks to new pedestrian crossings installed at Spondon Island and the entrance to Asda. These crossings are also synchronised to allow more efficient journeys and provide priority to buses, meaning less congestion and improved air quality.

    These works, delivered by Balfour Beatty, are part of Nottingham and Derby’s Transforming Cities programme to create more sustainable, better-connected cities.

    Working in partnership, the two authorities secured £161 million to invest in local transport infrastructure that will improve sustainable transport, support growth, and encourage more low carbon journeys.

    Councillor Carmel Swan, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Transport and Sustainability, said: 

    It’s great to see this scheme come to an end and our Transforming Cities Programme edge closer to completion. With these upgrades, we have made travel along this route easier and greener for all road users.

    I also want to express my thanks to the Chaddesden ward councillors for their support of this scheme. It’s important that we deliver the best services for the people of Derby and that means listening to those at the heart of our communities.

    David Hough, Project Manager at Balfour Beatty said: 

    We are proud to see the completion of these key improvements, which will make sustainable travel safer and more accessible for the travelling public.

    By enhancing infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians while improving overall transport efficiency, we are helping to build a more sustainable future for the communities we serve.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Reps. Cleaver, Lawler Reintroduce Bipartisan HUD Legislation to Ensure Annual Oversight

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II (5th District Missouri)

    (Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-05) and Mike Lawler (NY-17) reintroduced the HUD Accountability Act of 2025, a bipartisan measure that would require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to testify before Congress on an annual basis. The bill aims to strengthen transparency and ensure HUD leadership is held accountable amid an ongoing housing affordability crisis. 

    “Whether a Republican or Democratic administration, it is imperative that the people’s representatives have an opportunity to provide oversight of the Executive Branch on behalf of the public, which includes bringing Cabinet officials before Congress to explain their policymaking actions and motivations,” said Congressman Cleaver. “I was proud to support this bipartisan legislation last Congress, and I’m happy to reintroduce it with Congressman Lawler as we seek to lower housing costs and ensure transparency for the American people.”

    “With families in New York and across the country being crushed by skyrocketing housing costs, Congress needs to take this crisis seriously, and that starts with oversight,” said Congressman Lawler. “In the past, there have been long gaps between appearances by the HUD Secretary before the Financial Services Committee. That lack of regular oversight isn’t acceptable. Our bill simply ensures that the Secretary provides annual testimony on the Department’s programs, finances, and priorities. Last Congress, I hosted the first congressional field hearing in Rockland County in years to hear directly from constituents about how high housing costs are affecting their lives. Whether it’s addressing the workforce housing crunch or improving HUD oversight, I’m focused on bringing greater transparency and accountability to programs meant to serve the American people.”

    The HUD Accountability Act, which passed committee last Congress with bipartisan backing, would require the HUD Secretary to testify annually for five years before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. The legislation outlines key areas for testimony, including:

    • Progress in addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crises
    • The condition and performance of HUD programs, including public housing
    • Oversight efforts to combat waste, fraud, and abuse
    • The financial status of FHA’s mortgage insurance funds
    • The capacity of the Department to deliver on its statutory mission

    Official text of the HUD Accountability Act of 2025 is available here.

     

    Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Cleaver Awarded 2025 Shirley Chisholm Award for Housing by National Urban League

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II (5th District Missouri)

    Rep. Cleaver, Ranking Member of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, accepted the award after decades of work to expand access to safe, decent, and affordable housing

    (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver has been awarded the 2025 Shirley Chisholm Award for Housing by the National Urban League, given to a lawmaker whose commitment and work has expanded access to fair and affordable housing in the United States. In a ceremony this month, Cleaver accepted the prestigious award from National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial at the organization’s 2025 Empowerment Summit in Washington, DC. The National Urban League is the nation’s largest historic civil rights and urban advocacy organization.  

    “Since my first days on the City Council in Kansas City, my strongest passion and highest priority has been the work to expand housing opportunity for everyday families,” said Congressman Cleaver. “I understand what it means to live in a shack with no electricity or running water, and I know firsthand the challenges that come with America’s underinvestment in housing that is truly accessible and affordable, which is why I’ve spent my career working to protect and strengthen housing programs that serve low- and middle-income families of all backgrounds. To receive this award, named in honor of the great civil rights champion Shirley Chisholm, is extraordinarily meaningful to me. Just as her work helped pave the way for families like mine to rise out of poverty, I hope the work I’ve done in Kansas City and Washington will continue to change the trajectory of families who are every bit as deserving of the American dream.”

    Since coming to Washington, Congressman Cleaver has fought tirelessly to bring housing investments to Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District and passed multiple bipartisan overhauls of America’s federal housing programs. 

    The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 destroyed trillions in home equity and over half the wealth of the African American households in the United States. As a new member on the House Financial Services Committee, Congressman Cleaver was instrumental in national recovery efforts through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the creation of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which helped stabilize the housing market in Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, and the Green Impact Zone, which targeted more than $125 million of federal investment into the urban core in Kansas City, MO. 

    Following the crisis, Congressman Cleaver worked on the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which included, but was not limited to, the creation of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB), tasked with protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive financial practices, including predatory mortgage lending.     

    In the 115th Congress, Cleaver was elected by his colleagues to serve as the head Democrat on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance. As Ranking Member, Cleaver teamed up with then-Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) to co-author the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), which introduced a massive set of changes and reforms to federal housing programs. The most sweeping housing bill in 20 years, HOTMA was passed with unanimous support by Congress and was signed into law by President Obama. 

    The following Congress, Rep. Cleaver introduced the Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act with Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI) to help low-income families who rely on housing vouchers to move out of poverty and into neighborhoods with better opportunities. The legislation was passed with bipartisan support by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. 

    In the 117th Congress, Cleaver was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance during the COVID-19 eviction and foreclosure crisis. In that capacity, Chairman Cleaver helped lead the effort to pass legislation providing federal funds to address housing and homelessness including the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which represented the largest single-year investment in preventing and ending homelessness in U.S. history. Through ARPA and other appropriations, Cleaver helped secure more than $46.6 billion in emergency rental assistance and more than $10 billion for the Homeowner Assistance Fund to ensure that families could remain safely housed. Cleaver also helped secure more than $5 billion in homelessness funds through ARPA which included, for the first time in the nation’s history, Emergency Housing Vouchers for families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Cleaver’s Stabilizing Rural Homeowners During COVID Act, which provided desperately needed assistance to families living in US Department of Agriculture-supported housing was also signed into law. 

    Cleaver also worked with the Biden Administration on key initiatives of the Administration to expand access to fair and affordable housing. In April 2021, Cleaver introduced the Real Estate Valuation Fairness and Improvement Act to address bias in home valuations. Cleaver’s legislation served as the framework for the Biden Administration’s Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE Task Force), the first-ever interagency effort to combat discrimination in the home appraisal process. In 2022, the Task Force released the PAVE Action Plan, and the Biden Administration announced the most wide-ranging actions ever taken to advance equity in the home appraisal process. 

    Cleaver also invited several members of the Biden Administration to Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District to discuss housing and other federal investments, including discussions related to Parade Park Homes. Since 2022, Cleaver has worked with US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Fudge, HUD Acting Secretary Todman, HUD officials, and local officials to stabilize the property and chart a path forward to ensure the health of residents and the community. Earlier this year, Congressman Cleaver successfully secured $15.5 million in federal grant funding to support the rehabilitation of Parade Park Home, the oldest Black-owned housing cooperative in the nation, with more than 500 affordable housing units in the heart of the 18th & Vine Jazz District.

    Last Congress, Cleaver invited Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Sandra Thompson to Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District for a convening between the FHFA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, tenant advocates, and community leaders for in-depth discussions on issues impacting tenants in federally backed properties. Following the convening, the FHFA accepted Cleaver’s call to adopt the first-ever tenant protections for renters in multifamily properties with Enterprise-backed mortgages. Participants also heard reports of unacceptable living conditions at Independence Towers and shortly thereafter, Cleaver secured $1,350,000 from Fannie Mae to address desperately needed repairs at the apartment complex.

    Cleaver has received several awards for his work on housing, including reception of the inaugural Terwilliger Bipartisanship in Housing Award from the Bipartisan Policy Center last year. The award recognized Cleaver’s long-standing leadership and bipartisan work on housing, including on bipartisan legislation such as the Choice in Affordable Housing Act and the Rural Housing Service Reform Act. The 2025 Shirley Chisholm Award for Housing is further recognition of Cleaver’s commitment and longstanding work. 

    “In my view, access to affordable housing has the potential to open doors and unlock opportunities that allow entire families to climb the economic ladder—just like it did for mine,” said Congressman Cleaver. “I’m proud of the work I’ve done on this issue since my first days on the City Council, and I look forward to continuing this work on behalf of Missouri families in the years to come.”

    Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Reps. Kustoff and Cohen, Senators Blackburn and Duckworth Introduce Legislation to Improve Roadways Around Airports

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative David Kustoff (TN-08)

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), along with Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) introduced the Don’t Miss Your Flight Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would use existing federal funding to create an incentive for surface transportation projects at and within five miles of an airport. This will help improve access and reduce congestion around our busiest airports. 

    “Memphis International Airport is the second busiest cargo airport in the world. It is imperative that shipments can get in and out of Memphis quickly and effectively,” said Congressman Kustoff. “The Don’t Miss Your Flight Act is critical legislation that will ensure federal funding is used to modify surface transportation around our nation’s busiest airports and help carry us further into the 21st century.”

    “Improving access and reducing congestion to our nation’s airports through our next surface transportation reauthorization bill makes good economic sense,” Congressman Cohen said. “Our Memphis International Airport, the nation’s busiest cargo airport, is at the confluence of river, rail and highway circuits we call ‘America’s Distribution Center.’ Updates to the ground infrastructure in Memphis and around the country through grants authorized under the Don’t Miss Your Flight Act will modernize and improve the air traveler’s experience.”

    “Our nation’s airports are working overtime to meet growing passenger demand, and our airports in Tennessee are no exception,” said Senator Blackburn. “The Don’t Miss Your Flight Act would use existing federal funding to boost infrastructure projects at and near airports to reduce congestion and make it easier for Americans to catch their flights.”

    “We’ve all been there—you’re rushing to the airport but then get stuck in traffic outside while worrying that your flight is going to take off without you,” Senator Duckworth said. “Airports like Chicago O’Hare and so many others are building to keep up with the growing passenger demand, but our surface transportation leading into and out of our airports needs to keep pace. That’s one reason why I’m proud to introduce the Don’t Miss Your Flight Act to help make it easier, faster and more reliable for traveling Americans to get into and out of our airports.”

    Background:
    The Don’t Miss Your Flight Act would create a discretionary grant program using existing Highway Trust funds for road, bridge, tunnel, passenger rail or transit projects that make improvements at and within 5 miles of a public airport that reduce congestion, expand capacity, expand access or rehabilitate surface transportation infrastructure. The Highway Trust Fund is an existing federal account under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.
     
    This legislation is endorsed by the Air Line Pilots Association, Airports Council International, American Association of Airport Executives, Allied Pilots Association, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Association of Professional Flight Attendants and Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.
     

    Click here for the full text of the bill. 

     

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    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Williams Introduces Resolution to Designate July as ‘American Patriotism Month’

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Roger Williams (25th District of Texas)

    Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Roger Williams (TX-25) introduced a resolution expressing support for the designation of July as ‘American Patriotism Month.’ This resolution seeks to celebrate patriotic pride and supports efforts to teach and display patriotism by highlighting heroic acts made by brave men and women throughout American history. 

    “Throughout American history, patriots have stepped up to protect and defend the American people and uphold the values that make our country the greatest in the history of the world,” said Congressman Williams. “We have created holidays for many groups but fail to adequately celebrate the patriots who made our freedoms possible. American Patriotism Month is an opportunity to reflect on the history of our great country and honor the men and women who carried out the heroic acts that shaped the land we love and call home.”

    Read the bill text here. 

    Original Cosponsors: Reps. Donalds, McCormick, McDowell, McGuire, Bice, Luna, Norman, and Fleischmann.

    ### 

    Congressman Roger Williams is the Chairman of the House Small Business Committee and member of the House Financial Services Committee. He proudly represents the 25th Congressional District of Texas.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Quigley Questions Trump FAA Administrator on Plane Noise, Reduction of Safety Personnel

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05)

    Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) questioned the Trump administration’s Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau. During a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Quigley asked Rocheleau how the FAA is reducing airplane noise and how the agency can function with Trump’s recent reduction in critical safety workers. 

    As Vice-Chair of the Congressional Quiet Skies Caucus, Quigley advocates for reducing plane noise from O’Hare International Airport, which plagues his constituents in areas like Park Ridge and Big Oaks.

    “In last year’s FAA reauthorization bill, the Quiet Skies Caucus worked hard to include bipartisan measures to address aviation noise. These measures, like the creation of an aviation noise officer and regional officers, and a requirement that the FAA review and revise noise standards, were in direct response to my constituents’ needs. Despite this accomplishment, we still don’t know if the administration is fulfilling these requirements,” said Quigley. “I’m hoping we can receive an update from the FAA soon, and that we can have a bipartisan discussion with the Caucus.”

    “We’re also hearing that 12% of informational specialists — critical safety personnel who update our maps, charts, and data after disturbances in our airspace — have left or are planning on leaving the FAA,” Quigley added. “Who is performing these critical functions in the meantime?”

    To watch Quigley’s exchange with Trump’s FAA Administrator, click here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Quigley Statement on Recent Antisemitic Attacks

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05)

    Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley released the following statement on the recent antisemitic terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. and Boulder, Colorado:

    “This weekend, I was horrified to learn about the targeted attack on Jewish protestors in Boulder, Colorado. This weekend’s victims were calling for the release of innocent civilians from captivity and were themselves holding a peaceful demonstration. Violence is simply never the way to resolve political differences, and these antisemitic attacks are a direct threat to the values of justice, dignity, and equality that form the foundation of our democracy. I am grateful to law enforcement and bystanders in each of these incidents who acted quickly to prevent further harm, and I hope the perpetrators face swift justice.

    “The recent rise in antisemitic violence is unacceptable. Instead of hate, we must choose unity. That means speaking out when we witness bigotry, against any group, and taking action. I stand with my Jewish neighbors and reaffirm our collective responsibility to build a world where everyone can live without fear.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by FS at French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong Gala Dinner (English only) (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong Gala Dinner this evening (June 6):

    Consul General (Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, Mrs Christile Drulhe), Alain (President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong, Mr Alain Li), friends from the French business community, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ‘Big Ugly’ Reconciliation Bill Will Devastate New York Families

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today issued a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune outlining the potentially disastrous impact that the House’s proposed budget would have on New Yorkers. If enacted, the bill would gut New York’s healthcare system, strip families of crucial nutrition benefits, trigger billions in economic losses through the removal of clean energy tax credits and continue to unfairly tax hard-working New Yorkers by failing to fully repeal the SALT cap.

    The House bill slashes $13.5 billion in funding for our healthcare economy through cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace, putting nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers at risk of losing their health insurance. Safety net hospitals in rural and low-income areas could be forced to shutter their doors permanently and doctors and health care providers would face financial jeopardy. The bill also significantly shrinks federal support for SNAP nutrition and food benefits, making it more difficult for the nearly three million New Yorkers who rely on SNAP to put food on the table for their families.

    In addition, the House bill would put the safety and reliability of our power grid at risk by repealing tax credits that support major renewable and energy storage projects with an estimated loss of $25 billion in clean energy investments. The bill would also curtail efforts to reduce housing energy costs and improve resilience by eliminating the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, an important resource to retrofit affordable housing stock. Other proposed measures include gutting student loan programs, levying outrageous taxes on nonprofits and universities, eliminating the popular direct-file program to simplify the tax process, and prohibiting state AI regulation.

    The proposed budget would inflict all of these harms while still failing to deliver on a key promise made by New York Republicans in Congress to their constituents: a full repeal of the SALT cap. Congressional Republicans’ decision to impose a new, permanent SALT cap upholds a double-tax on New York taxpayers and unfairly burdens middle-class households.

    The full text of the letter is below:

    Dear Majority Leader Thune and Minority Leader Schumer:

    As Governor of New York, I am writing to you ahead of the Senate’s consideration of the House reconciliation legislative package to underscore the detrimental impact this bill would have on my state. If enacted, the proposed bill would gut New York’s healthcare system, strip families of crucial nutrition benefits, trigger billions in economic losses through the removal of clean energy tax credits, stagnate growth in education and critical technology sectors, and continue to unfairly tax hard-working New Yorkers by failing to fully repeal the SALT cap. Passage of this legislation would worsen the affordability crisis and inject further instability into an already fragile economy.

    Restricting Access to Healthcare: The House bill slashes $13.5 billion in funding for our healthcare economy through cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. Make no mistake: if the Senate passes this legislation and it is signed into law, nearly 1.5 million people in New York will lose their health insurance. Over $3 billion will be lost to our hospitals, with safety net hospitals in rural and low-income areas at significant risk of shuttering their doors permanently. These closures will harm all New Yorkers, regardless of their insurance coverage.

    Reducing Food Security: The bill also significantly shrinks federal support for SNAP nutrition and food benefits, making it more difficult for the nearly three million New Yorkers who rely on SNAP to put food on the table for their families. The bill places significant administrative burdens on our state and counties and will create headaches for eligible families in receiving their benefits. States have always played a key role in SNAP; this bill decimates the longstanding federal-state partnership by penalizing states with recurring annual costs. We expect the House-passed bill to cost New York State alone over $2.1 billion annually.

    Undermining Energy Modernization and Resilience: The House reconciliation package would put the safety and reliability of our power grid at risk by repealing tax credits that support major renewable and energy storage projects. The financial impact to New York from the loss of the investment tax credit alone would be $25 billion to the state’s current portfolio of large-scale clean energy investments and would further make new projects more expensive for businesses and threaten good-paying union jobs. Added fees on electric vehicles, canceled IRA transportation funding, and the rollback of EV and home energy credits would also drive-up costs statewide. The bill would also curtail efforts to reduce housing energy costs and improve resilience by eliminating the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), an important resource to retrofit our nation’s affordable housing stock.

    Education Undermined, Disparities Widened: The House bill threatens to dismantle essential supports for low-income and nontraditional students by imposing restrictive eligibility changes for working, part-time learners; establishing harsh institutional penalties; and eliminating key federal loan programs. In New York, where nearly half of community college students attend part-time and rely heavily on Pell Grants, these changes could force thousands to drop out or incur deeper debt. Additionally, the bill eliminates some subsidized student loans and forces loan risk onto education institutions. Taken together, these provisions represent a regressive shift that threatens to widen educational disparities, destabilize community colleges and minority-serving institutions and undermine national efforts to promote affordable higher education.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) Moratorium: The House legislation also includes a highly-problematic and broad prohibition on state AI regulation for a decade. States like New York have passed laws to both invest in the incredible potential of AI and thoughtfully address potential AI harms in the face of federal inaction. Under my leadership, New York has enacted several first-in-the-nation AI safety measures, including the Safe for Kids Act to curb the addictive nature of social media for kids, and safeguards for AI Companion chatbots to reduce harmful interactions. If this federal prohibition remains in reconciliation, the impact is not merely a bureaucratic moratorium; it undermines the states’ fundamental right and responsibility to protect the safety, health, privacy, and economic vitality of its citizens.

    Unfair Tax Burdens: Not only does this bill guarantee higher costs, it also fails to deliver on a key promise made by New Yorkers in your caucus to their constituents: a full repeal of the SALT cap. House Republicans’ decision to impose a new, permanent SALT cap upholds a double-tax on New York taxpayers and unfairly burdens households. The bill also levies outrageous taxes on nonprofits including universities, and eliminates the popular direct-file program that simplifies the tax filing process – all in an effort to cut taxes for the richest Americans.

    These are just some of the more egregious harms this bill would inflict on my constituents. If New York Republicans in the House refuse to advocate for the best interests of their state, I will. As Governor, I must stand up for middle-class New Yorkers who cannot afford the consequences of this budget. I urge you to reject the House proposal and instead work with Leader Schumer on a bipartisan reconciliation package that delivers for working families, invests in the future, and reflects the real needs of the people we serve.

    Sincerely,

    Governor Kathy Hochul

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/SRI LANKA – Tourism is experiencing a robust recovery: the country sees the light at the end of the tunnel

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Foto di Daniel Klein su Unsplash

    Colombo (Agenzia Fides) – “Tourism in Sri Lanka is experiencing a robust recovery. This is a benefit for the entire country: we are showing the beauty of our island. We see that the general trend in the country’s economy and society is now positive. It will take some time to fully overcome the crisis of the last three years, but there are encouraging prospects,” Fr. Basel Fernando, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Sri Lanka, told Fides. According to official figures from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, the country will welcome a record number of visitors in 2025: 250,000 visitors in January alone, a new record, and in May 2025, tourism grew by 20% compared to the previous year. In the first five months of 2025, the authority predicts that total visitors exceed the 1 million mark, with a forecast of more than 2 million compared to the previous year. Father Fernando notes to Fides: “We are in a phase of recovery and hope, which is evident at the political, social, and economic levels,” Father Fernando continued. “The new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, elected last fall, has a large majority in parliament; the people supported him primarily to stop corruption. The serious crisis we have plunged into was also due to corruption, with its roots in past mismanagement,” he noted. “Now,” he continued, “the country is saving money, there is no waste of public funds, and there is more prudence.” In addition, “the government has allocated a larger share of the budget to areas such as education and poverty reduction: the poor are receiving greater attention, and thanks to the gradual economic recovery, inflation is under control and the purchasing power of wages is stable. All these social and economic developments create a positive climate and give people real hope for greater prosperity.” Hope, however, according to the National Director, “also shapes the spiritual sphere, the inner being of every person: we see this in the Catholic community when we celebrate the Jubilee of Hope,” he says. “We are here at the level of an inner and spiritual renewal: we are rediscovering hope in our hearts so that we can transmit hope beyond the Church to society, working for peace, justice, goodness, and the witness of charity. It is a time of inner renewal, but then the effects of this hope are felt in our relationships with our neighbors, externally. Let us remember the Jubilee of the Year 2000 and renew the commitment we made at the beginning of the new millennium: to proclaim the Gospel to all creation.”Father Fernando concludes: “The renewal of the Church and of humanity begins with each individual, with the personal conversion of each person, with closeness and personal fidelity to Christ. Here in Sri Lanka, we feel the effects of secularization in the Church and in society as well. The Jubilee, therefore, begins with the transformation of the heart of each person.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 6/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: VATICAN – Foreign debt, a burden that oppresses the poorest Countries

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – There are 48 States that spend more on interest payments than on education or healthcare. This is according to the report “A World of Debt” by the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Debt service, i.e., the payment of interest on loans received, thus has a major impact on the lives of the poorest countries, as the funds allocated to education, healthcare, and subsidies for the purchase of basic goods and fuel are cut. The protests that took place in Nigeria and Kenya in 2024, primarily among young people, are closely linked to this debt mechanism. In order to pay the interest and reduce their countries’ overall debt, the Kenyan and Nigerian governments had presented financial laws that provided for tax increases and subsidy cuts. During his audience with participants in the conference “Debt Crisis in the Global South” organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on June 5, 2024, Pope Francis said: “In the wake of mismanaged globalization, and in wake of the pandemic and wars, we find ourselves faced with a debt crisis that mainly affects the countries of the global South, causing misery and distress, and depriving millions of people of the possibility of a dignified future.” The Pope expressed hope that the Holy Year 2025 will pave the way for “a bold and creative new international financial architecture.” The UNCTAD report agrees with Pope Francis when he states: “The global financial architecture is no longer able to meet the needs of the world in the 21st century. This is a major challenge for sustainable development.” Therefore, creativity and courage are needed to overcome a financial structure that further widens the gap between rich and poor. According to the UNCTAD report, “Developing countries struggle with an international financial architecture whose deeply entrenched asymmetries exacerbate the impact of successive crises on sustainable development. This system exacerbates their debt burden by limiting their access to finance for sustainable development and forcing them to borrow from more costly external sources.” Recent events have exacerbated this challenge. Rising global interest rates since 2022 have further strained developing countries’ public finances. High interest payments outpace growth in basic public spending such as health, education, and climate change mitigation. In developing countries, home to 3.3 billion people, one in three countries spends more on interest payments than on these key areas of human development. “Debt service for public external debt totaled USD 365 billion in 2022, corresponding to 6.3% of export earnings. By comparison, the 1953 London Agreement on German war debt limited the share of export earnings that could be spent on servicing external debt (public and private) to 5% to avoid undermining the recovery,” states the UNCTAD report, highlighting the different treatment of poorer countries today. It notes, in particular, that 61% of developing countries’ debt is held by private creditors who are subject to little political constraint when demanding interest payments. For this reason, the call Pope Francis made on December 16, 2024, during a meeting with representatives of the banking sector, resonates strongly: “The imminent Jubilee reminds us of the need to forgive debts. It is the condition for fostering hope and future in the life of many people, especially the poor. I encourage you to sow hope. Do not tire of accompanying and keeping the level of social justice high.” (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 6/6/2025)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: AMERICA/PERU – State and Church united to respond to the educational emergency in the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramón

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Oventeni (Agenzia Fides) – Approximately 120 students between the ages of 12 and 18 from the 48 indigenous Ashéninka communities in Gran Pajonal are hosted during the school year at the Oventeni student residence, in the province of Atalaya, within the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramón. “We have two pavillons for girls and two for boys. The state pays for the cooks, the maintenance staff, and the educational assistants who spend most of their time with the children, as well as two psychologists,” says Father Luis Alfonso Tapia Ibáñez, parish priest and coordinator of the ‘Keshiki’ student residence in the parish of San Pascual Bailón.The teachers are appointed by the Apostolic Vicariate of San Ramón and employed by the state. “We form a big family. This is their second home,” the priest affirms. The residence provides adolescents with the opportunity to continue their studies and overcome extreme poverty, both material and educational. Gran Pajonal, located in the central Peruvian jungle, has approximately 38 primary schools. However, the long distances—between 4 and 10 hours on foot over difficult roads—prevent many students from accessing secondary education. Therefore, at the request of parents, a bilingual secondary school was created to promote the students’ cultural identity. During the week, the adolescents reside there and return to their families at weekends.””A large part of the Vicariate is inhabited by native communities made up mostly of children,” emphasizes Gerardo Antón Zerdin, OFM, Bishop of San Ramón, in the latest bulletin of the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood, which supports this initiative. “Childcare is a priority due to the poverty and enormous educational deficiencies faced by these remote communities in the Amazon,” he adds. “The Vicariate directly administers five educational centers (preschool, primary, and secondary), and another fifteen schools are under the responsibility of religious congregations present in the Vicariate area.” These schools are the result of a joint effort between the State and the Church and offer free education. Regular subjects are taught there and the activities of the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood are promoted. However, students face serious risks, such as family instability, criminal gangs, drug use, and various forms of abuse, both within and outside the family environment. “The residence is a great opportunity for young people to get to know God, little by little, and become friends with Jesus at their own pace,” explains Father Tapia Ibáñez, “it is a wonderful opportunity to hear about God, to get to know him little by little, and to become friends of Jesus, each in his own time. The first step is friendship and the example of life. As always, we approach the children and their parents to awaken in them an interest in the Church and the Gospel. Last year, 21 students requested baptism and prepared to receive it.” (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 6/6/2025)
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  • MIL-OSI Security: Around the Air Force: US Air Force Academy Commencement, Modernizing Pilot Training, Hurricane Hunters

    Source: United States Air Force

    In this week’s look Around the Air Force, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink delivers a commencement address to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s class of 2025, the T-7A Red Hawk is the future of pilot training, and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters are ready for the Atlantic hurricane season.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: iPower Launches New Joint Venture, United Package NV LLC

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — iPower Inc. (Nasdaq: IPW) (“iPower” or the “Company”), a tech and data-driven ecommerce services provider and online retailer, today announced the formation of United Package NV LLC (“United Package”), a new joint venture (“JV”) that marks the first full-scale implementation of its “Made in USA” module within the Company’s proprietary SuperSuite Supply Chain Platform.

    This milestone represents iPower’s commitment to building a resilient, localized manufacturing infrastructure in the United States. United Package will focus on the domestic production of packaging materials to serve the rapidly growing demands of U.S. businesses seeking reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective supply chain solutions without reliance on offshore manufacturing.

    “The launch of United Package is a significant step toward reshoring critical manufacturing capabilities and building a more robust, diversified supply chain infrastructure,” said Lawrence Tan, CEO of iPower. “This JV reinforces our long-term strategy to empower brands with faster lead times, lower logistics risk, and higher operational agility, right here in the U.S. We look forward to continue building out our ‘Made in USA’ module as we add further depth to our domestic production footprint, strengthen supplier partnerships, and expand our value-added service offerings to meet the evolving needs of our partners and customers.”

    By integrating United Package into the SuperSuite ecosystem, iPower aims to provide customers with:

    • Faster turnaround times from production to delivery
    • Reduced exposure to global shipping volatility
    • Enhanced sustainability with lower carbon footprints
    • Transparent vendor collaboration via the SuperSuite digital dashboard
    • Improved inventory responsiveness and demand forecasting

    The “Made in USA” module of SuperSuite is designed to provide end-to-end support to manufacturing initiatives across the country — offering legal and regulatory guidance, facility planning, local workforce development, and immediate access to iPower’s nationwide distribution and e-commerce infrastructure.

    United Package is only the beginning. iPower plans to expand its “Made in USA” initiative by forming additional strategic ventures and supporting a new wave of domestic manufacturers across various categories.

    About iPower Inc. 

    iPower Inc. is a tech and data-driven online retailer, as well as a provider of value-added ecommerce services for third-party products and brands. iPower’s capabilities include a full spectrum of online channels, robust fulfillment capacity, a nationwide network of warehouses, competitive last mile delivery partners and a differentiated business intelligence platform. iPower believes that these capabilities will enable it to efficiently move a diverse catalog of SKUs from its supply chain partners to end consumers every day, providing the best value to customers in the U.S. and other countries. For more information, please visit iPower’s website at www.meetipower.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    All statements other than statements of historical fact in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that iPower believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. iPower undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although iPower believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and iPower cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results and performance in iPower’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the SEC on September 20, 2024, its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as filed with the SEC on November 14, 2024, February 14, 2025 and May 15, 2025, and in its other SEC filings.

    Media Contact

    Media Team
    Ipw.media@meetipower.com

    Investor Relations Contact

    Sean Mansouri, CFA or Aaron D’Souza
    Elevate IR
    (720) 330-2829
    IPW@elevate-ir.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Turtle Beach Corporation to Participate in Oppenheimer 25th Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN DIEGO, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Turtle Beach Corporation (Nasdaq: TBCH), a leading gaming accessories brand, today announced that Cris Keirn, Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Weinswig, Chief Financial Officer, will virtually participate in the Oppenheimer 25th Annual Consumer Growth and E-Commerce Conference, on June 9-11.

    Chief Executive Officer Cris Keirn will host a fireside chat on Tuesday, June 10 at 11:15a.m. ET, and management will also be available for meetings during the conference.

    A live webcast of the event will be available through the “Events & Presentations” section of TBCH’s website at corp.turtlebeach.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the investor relations website for 90 days.

    About Turtle Beach Corporation
    Turtle Beach Corporation (the “Company”) (corp.turtlebeach.com) is one of the world’s leading gaming accessory providers. The Company’s namesake Turtle Beach brand (www.turtlebeach.com) is known for designing best-selling gaming headsets, top-rated game controllers, award-winning PC gaming peripherals, and groundbreaking gaming simulation accessories. Innovation, first-to-market features, a broad range of products for all types of gamers, and top-rated customer support have made Turtle Beach a fan-favorite brand and the market leader in console gaming audio for over a decade. Turtle Beach Corporation acquired Performance Designed Products LLC (www.pdp.com) in 2024. Turtle Beach’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq Exchange under the symbol: TBCH.

    Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
    This press release includes forward-looking information and statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Except for historical information contained in this release, statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements regarding assumptions, projections, expectations, targets, intentions, or beliefs about future events. Statements containing the words “may”, “could”, “would”, “should”, “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “estimate”, “target”, “goal”, “project”, “intend” and similar expressions, or the negatives thereof, constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are only predictions and are not guarantees of performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. The inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any person, that the objectives of the Company will be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current beliefs and expectations, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management.

    While the Company believes that its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurances that its goals and strategy will be realized. Numerous factors, including risks and uncertainties, may affect actual results and may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements made by the Company or on its behalf. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, risks related to trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs on imported goods and other trade restrictions, the release and availability of successful game titles, macroeconomic conditions affecting the demand for our products, logistic and supply chain challenges and costs, dependence on the success and availability of third-parties to manufacture and manage the logistics of transporting and distributing our products, the substantial uncertainties inherent in the acceptance of existing and future products, the difficulty of commercializing and protecting new technology, the impact of competitive products and pricing, general business and economic conditions, risks associated with the expansion of our business including the integration of any businesses we acquire and the integration of such businesses within our internal control over financial reporting and operations, our indebtedness, liquidity, and other factors discussed in our public filings, including the risk factors included in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and the Company’s other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Company is under no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement after the date of this release whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

    CONTACTS

    Investors:
    tbch@icrinc.com

    Public Relations & Media:
    MacLean Marshall
    Sr. Director, Global Communications
    Turtle Beach Corporation
    (858) 914-5093
    maclean.marshall@turtlebeach.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Safe Harbor Financial to Participate in the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference on June 8–10, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    DENVER, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — SHF Holdings, Inc., d/b/a Safe Harbor Financial (Safe Harbor or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: SHFS), a fintech leader in facilitating financial services and credit facilities to the cannabis industry, announced that Terry Mendez, Safe Harbor’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey Kay, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Dominic Marella, Vice President of Business Development, and Michael Regan, Head of Investor Relations & Data Science will participate in the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference being held on June 8–10, 2025, at the Marriott Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Illinois.

    Terry Mendez, will join a panel discussion titled “The CFO, The CPA & The CEO: How To Make Your Business Financially Resilient” on Monday, June 9, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. CT on the Main Stage on Floor 5 (Chicago Ballroom ABCD). The panel will explore the critical role of financial leadership, tax strategy, and capital structure in navigating the volatile cannabis market.

    Safe Harbor will host one-on-one meetings throughout the conference. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact ir@SHFinancial.org.

    About Safe Harbor: 
    Safe Harbor is among the first service providers to offer compliance, monitoring and validation services to financial institutions that provide traditional banking services to cannabis, hemp, CBD and ancillary operators, making communities safer, driving growth in local economies and fostering long-term partnerships. Safe Harbor, through its financial institution clients, implements high standards of accountability, transparency, monitoring, reporting and risk mitigation measures while meeting Bank Secrecy Act obligations in line with FinCEN guidance on cannabis-related businesses. Over the past decade, Safe Harbor has facilitated more than $25 billion in deposit transactions for businesses with operations spanning more than 41 states and US territories with regulated cannabis markets.

    Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
    Certain information contained in this press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included herein may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to trends in the cannabis industry, including proposed changes in U.S and state laws, rules, regulations and guidance relating to Safe Harbor’s services; Safe Harbor’s growth prospects and Safe Harbor’s market size; Safe Harbor’s projected financial and operational performance, including relative to its competitors and historical performance; success or viability of new product and service offerings Safe Harbor may introduce in the future; the impact volatility in the capital markets, which may adversely affect the price of Safe Harbor’s securities; the outcome of any legal proceedings that have been or may be brought by or against Safe Harbor; and other statements regarding Safe Harbor’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “outlook,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would,” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Safe Harbor’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Safe Harbor undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

    Safe Harbor Investor Relations Contact: 
    Mike Regan, Head of Safe Harbor Investor Relations
    ir@SHFinancial.org

    Safe Harbor Media Relations Contact:
    Ellen Mellody
    570-209-2947
    safeharbor@kcsa.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Cyabra Report Reveals Disinformation Campaign Against Target’s DEI Initiatives, Featured in USA Today

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York, NY, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  Cyabra Strategy Ltd. (“Cyabra”), a leading AI platform for real-time disinformation detection, has released a groundbreaking new report exposing a sophisticated campaign to artificially inflate online backlash against Target’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

    The investigation analyzed thousands of social media conversations between January to June, 2025, and uncovered how bot networks manufactured outrage to spark a boycott movement. The report reveals how misinformation targeting Target’s DEI programs was deliberately amplified by bad actors to manipulate public perception and damage brand reputation.

    Cyabra’s report was prominently featured in USA Today’s June 4 article, “What fueled the Target DEI boycott? The answer may surprise you.” The coverage highlights Cyabra’s key findings, including that 27% of the social media accounts analyzed were fake and played a significant role in amplifying the viral backlash. The report also revealed a 764% surge in inauthentic sentiment following Target’s announcement that it was scaling back its diversity initiatives.

    While not solely responsible, the presence of fake accounts amplifying negativity from both sides – whether promoting or opposing the boycott – helped shape a toxic narrative that ultimately eroded overall brand perception, coinciding with a $12 billion drop in Target’s market value by late February 2025. The full report can be viewed here.

    The report underscores Cyabra’s ability to detect weaponized disinformation targeting brands. In today’s volatile digital environment, brands face growing risks from coordinated campaigns designed to manufacture outrage, damage trust and brand reputation, and trigger real-world consequences like boycotts and stock volatility. These attacks often appear organic but are driven by fake profiles and bot networks. Cyabra’s real-time intelligence platform helps executives distinguish authentic sentiment from manipulation, enabling faster, smarter decisions that protect brand reputation, guide crisis response, and maintain stakeholder confidence.

    “The Cyabra report uncovered a strategic operation designed to look like a viral movement,” said Dan Brahmy, CEO & Co-founder of Cyabra. “Disinformation, namely fake accounts and false narratives, are being weaponized against brands. We are proud that our disinformation detection tools are able to shine a light on how bad actors manipulate online sentiment to attack corporate values.”

    Cyabra has entered into a business combination agreement with Trailblazer Merger Corporation I (NASDAQ: $TBMC), a blank-check special-purpose acquisition company.

    About Cyabra
    Cyabra is a real-time AI-powered platform that uncovers and analyzes online disinformation and misinformation by uncovering fake profiles, harmful narratives, and GenAI content across social media and digital news channels. Cyabra’s AI solutions protect corporations and governments against brand reputation risks, election manipulation, foreign interference, and other online threats. Cyabra’s platform leverages proprietary algorithms and NLP solutions, gathering and analyzing publicly available data to provide clear, actionable insights and real-time alerts that inform critical decision-making. Cyabra uncovers the good, bad, and fake online.

    For more information, visit www.cyabra.com.

    Media Contact:
    Jill Burkes
    Jill@cyabra.com
    Signal Contact: Jillabra.24

    Investor Relations Contact:
    Miri Segal
    MS-IR
    msegal@ms-ir.com

    About Trailblazer
    Trailblazer is a blank check company formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, recapitalization, reorganization, or other similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. For more information, visit: www.trailblazermergercorp.com

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to certain products and services that are the subject of a proposed transaction (the “Business Combination”) between Trailblazer and Cyabra. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including statements regarding Cyabra’s business strategy, products and services, research and development costs, plans and objectives of management for future operations, and future results of current and anticipated product offerings, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to, the following risks relating to the proposed transaction: the ability to complete the Business Combination or, if Trailblazer does not consummate such Business Combination, any other initial business combination; expectations regarding Cyabra’s strategies and future financial performance, including its future business plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, revenues, products and services, pricing, operating expenses, market trends, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and Cyabra’s ability to invest in growth initiatives and pursue acquisition opportunities; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Business Combination Agreement; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Trailblazer or Cyabra following announcement of the Business Combination Agreement and the transactions contemplated therein; the inability to complete the proposed Business Combination due to, among other things, the failure to obtain Trailblazer stockholder approval; the risk that the announcement and consummation of the proposed Business Combination disrupts Cyabra’s current operations and future plans; the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the proposed Business Combination; unexpected costs related to the proposed Business Combination; the amount of any redemptions by existing holders of Trailblazer’s common stock being greater than expected; limited liquidity and trading of Trailblazer’s securities; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; the size of the addressable markets for Cyabra’s products and services; the possibility that Trailblazer and/or Cyabra may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; the ability to obtain and/or maintain the listing of the combined company’s common stock on Nasdaq following the Business Combination; operational risk; and the risks that the consummation of the proposed Business Combination is substantially delayed or does not occur.

    Important Information for Investors and Stockholders
    In connection with the Business Combination, Trailblazer Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Trailblazer (“Holdings”) has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 (the “Registration Statement”) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which includes a preliminary proxy statement/prospectus, and certain other related documents, which will be both the proxy statement to be distributed to holders of shares of Trailblazer’s common stock in connection with its solicitation of proxies for the vote by its stockholders with respect to the Business Combination and other matters as may be described in the Registration Statement, as well as the prospectus of Holdings relating to the offer and sale of its securities to be issued in the Business Combination. . After the Registration Statement is declared effective, the proxy statement/prospectus will be sent to all Trailblazer stockholders so that they may vote on the Business Combination.

    INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS OF TRAILBLAZER ARE URGED TO READ CAREFULLY THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS, AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE BUSINESS COMBINATION AND THE PARTIES INVOLVED.

    Trailblazer stockholders are currently able to obtain copies of the preliminary proxy

    statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC that are incorporated by reference therein, and will be able to obtain the definitive proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC that will be incorporated by reference therein, once available, in all cases without charge, at the SEC’s web site at www.sec.gov, or by directing a request to: Trailblazer at 510 Madison Avenue, Suite 1401, New York, NY 10022, Telephone: 646-747-9618.

    Participants in the Solicitation
    Cyabra, Trailblazer, and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from Trailblazer stockholders regarding the proposed Business Combination. Information about Trailblazer’s directors and executive officers and their ownership of Trailblazer’s securities is set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus pertaining to the proposed Business Combination.

    No Offer or Solicitation
    This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval. No sale of securities shall occur in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful before registration or qualification under applicable laws.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Global Value Investment Corporation Named to PSN Top Guns List of Best Performing Strategies for Q1 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    MILWAUKEE, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global Value Investment Corporation (GVIC) announced today it has been named to the celebrated PSN Top Guns List of best performing separate accounts, managed accounts, and managed ETF strategies for Q1 2025. The highly anticipated list, published by Zephyr, remains one of the most important references for investors and asset managers.

    “Q1 2025 presented a fascinating market narrative marked by significant rotation and global shifts. Success demanded adaptability, deep market understanding, and strategic positioning,” says PSN Product Manager Nick Williams. “PSN Top Guns managers demonstrated exceptional skill in navigating these complex dynamics, where value sectors outperformed growth, international markets showed strength, and policy shifts created both challenges and opportunities. Their expertise in reading and responding to these evolving market conditions continues to showcase the enduring value of active management in separately managed accounts.”

    GVIC’s recognition across multiple categories reflects the firm’s disciplined approach to value investing and its ability to identify opportunities where price dislocations create long-term value potential. The awards demonstrate the effectiveness of GVIC’s investment philosophy over a multi-year period that rewarded patience, disciplined fundamental analysis, and contrarian positioning.

    “These awards validate our commitment to principled, value-oriented investing and our belief that rigorous fundamental analysis coupled with concentrated portfolios creates an information advantage that enables superior long-term performance,” said JP Geygan, CEO and President of Global Value Investment Corporation. “In a quarter marked by significant market volatility, our strategies demonstrated resilience through disciplined security selection and our long-term investment horizon. We remain focused on building generational wealth for our clients through thoughtful capital allocation and our unwavering commitment to investing excellence.”

    Through PSN’s proprietary performance screens, the PSN Top Guns awards products in six proprietary categories across more than 75 universes based on continued performance over time.

    GVIC’s Concentrated Equity Value Strategy (CEVS) and Total Return Value Strategy (TRVS) were named to PSN Top Guns 3-Year Category awards, meaning each strategy had one of the top ten returns for the three-year period. Below are the honors that were awarded for each strategy.

    Concentrated Equity Value Strategy (CEVS):

    • 3-Year Micro Cap Universe
    • 3-Year US Value Universe

    Total Return Value Strategy (TRVS):

    • 3-Year US Balanced Universe

    The Concentrated Equity Value Strategy focuses on capital concentration in a limited number of high-conviction equity investments, allowing GVIC’s investment team to devote substantial time to understanding the determinants of long-term value realization. This approach leverages the firm’s exhaustive knowledge of portfolio investments to create significant information advantages.

    The Total Return Value Strategy applies value-oriented investment principles across a diversified portfolio of individual equity and corporate debt securities, and is designed to deliver long-term capital appreciation while managing risk through thoughtful asset allocation and security selection.

    Both strategies reflect GVIC’s belief that short-term market inefficiencies create opportunities for disciplined investors willing to arbitrage dislocations between price and intrinsic value, and that value-creating initiatives often bear fruit over periods measured in years, not quarters.

    GVIC did not provide any compensation to PSN, Zephyr, or Informa Intelligence, Inc. for this ranking. The complete list of PSN Top Guns and an overview of the methodology can be located at https://psn.fi.informais.com/.

    About Global Value Investment Corporation

    Founded in 2007, GVIC is an investment management firm that deploys patient capital to build generational wealth. GVIC is a fundamental value manager with a long-term investment horizon that conducts intensive fundamental research to identify and invest in undervalued companies. Investment research and portfolio management services are offered to individual institutional clients through separately managed accounts and private fund investments. GVIC is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm is 100% employee owned.

    For more information about GVIC and its investment strategies, please visit GVIC’s website: www.gvi-corp.com/. 

    About PSN

    For more than four decades, PSN has been a top resource for investment professionals. Asset managers rely on Zephyr’s PSN to effectively reach institutional and retail investors. Over 2,800 firms, 285 universes, and more than 21,000 products comprise the PSN SMA database showing asset breakdowns, compliance, key personnel, ownership diversity, ESG, business objectives and strategy, style, fees, GIC sectors, fixed income ranges and full holdings. Unique to PSN is its robust historical database of over 40 Years of Data Including Net and Gross-of-Fee Returns. PSN Mid-Year Outlook provides insight and trends about the SMA industry. You can view it online here.

    Visit PSN online to learn more.

    Media Contact:  
    Kristin Mastantuono, Marketing Director 
    Global Value Investment Corporation 
    Email: Kristin.Mastantuono@gvi-corp.com  
    Phone: (262) 478-0656 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Heidelberg Pharma to Present at the Life Sciences Virtual Investor Forum June 12th

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LADENBURG, Germany, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Heidelberg Pharma AG (XETRA: HPHA), a clinical-stage biotech company developing innovative Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs), today announced that Andreas Pahl, CEO of Heidelberg Pharma, will present live at the Life Sciences Virtual Investor Forum hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on June 12th, 2025.

    Heidelberg Pharma’s lead candidate, HDP-101, a BCMA-targeting ADC with the novel payload Amanitin, is being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory Multiple Myeloma. HDP-101 is showing promising results, including a prolonged complete response in a patient who had undergone extensive prior treatment. The patient has received continuous treatment with HDP-101 alone for over 19 months, showing excellent tolerability of the drug.

    In addition, promising biological activity and objective improvements were observed in several patients, underscoring the potential of HDP-101 as a treatment option for Multiple Myeloma. Dose escalation is continuing, and the study is advancing in cohort 8.

    Furthermore, the second candidate, HDP-102, a CD-37-targeting ADC with the novel payload Amanitin, has recently entered clinical development and the first patient has been dosed in a Phase I study for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

    DATE: June 12th
    TIME: 10:00 AM ET
    LINK: REGISTER HERE
    Available for 1×1 meetings: June 12th and 13th

    This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

    It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

    Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

    Recent Company Highlights

    About Heidelberg Pharma

    Heidelberg Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company working on a new treatment approach in oncology and developing novel drugs based on its ADC technologies for the targeted and highly effective treatment of cancer. ADCs are antibody-drug conjugates that combine the specificity of antibodies with the efficacy of toxins to fight cancer. Selected antibodies are loaded with cytotoxic compounds, the so-called payloads, that are transported into diseased cells. Inside the cells, the toxins then unleash their effect and kill the diseased cells.

    Heidelberg Pharma uses several compounds and has built up an ADC toolbox that overcomes tumor resistance via numerous pathways and addresses different types of cancer using various antibodies. The goal is to develop targeted and highly effective ADCs for the treatment of a variety of malignant hematologic and solid tumors.

    Heidelberg Pharma is the first company to use the compound Amanitin from the green death cap mushroom in cancer therapy. The biological mechanism of action of the toxin represents a new therapeutic modality and is used as a compound in the Amanitin-based ADC technology, the so-called ATAC technology.

    The company is based in Ladenburg, Germany, and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: ISIN DE000A11QVV0 / WKN A11QVV / Symbol HPHA. More information is available at www.heidelberg-pharma.com.

    ATAC® is a registered trademark of Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH. ITAC™, ETAC™ are pending trademark applications of Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH.

    About Virtual Investor Conferences®
    Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

    Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access.  Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

    CONTACTS:
    Heidelberg Pharma AG
    Sylvia Wimmer
    Director Corporate Communications
    Tel.: +49 89 41 31 38-29
    E-mail: investors@hdpharma.com 
    Gregor-Mendel-Str. 22, 68526 Ladenburg

    Virtual Investor Conferences
    John M. Viglotti
    SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
    OTC Markets Group
    (212) 220-2221
    johnv@otcmarkets.com 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Blockchain and Digital Assets Virtual Investor Conference: Presentations Now Available for Online Viewing

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Virtual Investor Conferences, the leading proprietary investor conference series, today announced the presentations from the Blockchain and Digital Assets Virtual Investor Conference, held June 5th are now available for online viewing.

    REGISTER AND VIEW PRESENTATIONS HERE

    The company presentations will be available 24/7 for 90 days. Investors, advisors, and analysts may download investor materials from the company’s resource section.

    Select companies are accepting 1×1 management meeting requests through June 10.

    June 5thPresentations

    To facilitate investor relations scheduling and to view a complete calendar of Virtual Investor Conferences, please visit www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

    About Virtual Investor Conferences®

    Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

    Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

    Media Contact: 
    OTC Markets Group Inc. +1 (212) 896-4428, media@otcmarkets.com

    Virtual Investor Conferences Contact:
    John M. Viglotti
    SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
    OTC Markets Group
    (212) 220-2221
    johnv@otcmarkets.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Sagteс Ignites AI Commercialization Surge with US$5 Million in Contracts, Targeting US$50 Million Pipeline in 12 Months

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, June 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sagtec Global Limited (NASDAQ: SAGT) (“Sagtec” or the “Company”), the next-generation provider of customizable AI and automation platforms, today announced the signing of two major commercial contracts totaling US$5 million less than one week after the official launch of its AI-powered robotics platform.

    These early wins underscore an accelerated go-to-market approach and build momentum toward a commercial pipeline exceeding US$50 million over the next 12 months. This positions Sagtec as a rising leader in AI automation across the Asia-Pacific region.

    Key Highlights:

    • US$2 Million Robotics Deployment

    Sagtec will deploy over 100 autonomous robotic units to a leading multi-brand restaurant group in Malaysia. This marks the initial phase of a nationwide rollout, expected to generate more than US$20 million in cumulative revenue over the next year under a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model.

    • US$3 Million CRM Platform Contract

    The Company also secured a significant Customer Relationship Management (CRM) project with a prominent F&B operator. The solution features modules for loyalty management, points and credits tracking, inventory control, and workforce administration. This contract is projected to add over US$30 million in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) revenue pipeline through regional expansion.

    Both contracts are powered by Sagtec’s modular, full-stack AI platform, which integrates voice-activated robotics, POS systems, and real-time analytics. These milestone deployments validate Sagtec’s dual-engine monetization strategy across RaaS and SaaS, generating scalable, high-margin recurring revenue.

    Strategic Outlook:

    With demand for automation accelerating in high-volume service sectors, Sagtec is actively expanding commercial engagements across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets. The global service robotics market is projected to surpass US$90 billion, and Sagtec is strategically positioned to lead as a platform-native AI solution provider at scale.

    Momentum Metrics – Past 7 Days

            •        2 contracts signed worth US$5M
            •        100+ robotic units deployed
            •        Targeting US$50M revenue pipeline
            •        Enterprise client base expansion across 3 regions
            •        New verticals in hospitality, retail, and foodtech unlocked

    “This is more than early traction. It marks the beginning of an exponential monetization curve. Our combined RaaS and SaaS model is engineered for rapid scaling with enterprise adoption. By embedding AI directly into day-to-day operations, we are unlocking repeatable revenue at the infrastructure level, from robotics to real-time CRM analytics,” said Kevin Ng, Chairman, Executive Director, and Chief Executive Officer of Sagtec.

    About Sagtec Global Limited

    Sagtec is a leading provider of customizable software solutions, primarily serving the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector. The Company also offers software development, data management, and social media management to enhance operational efficiency across various industries. Additionally, Sagtec operates power-bank charging stations at 300 locations across Malaysia through its subsidiary, CL Technology (International) Sdn Bhd.

    For more information on the Company, please log on to https://www.sagtec-global.com/.

    Contact Information:

    Sagtec Global Limited Contact:
    Ng Chen Lok
    Chairman, Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer
    Phone: +6011-6217 3661
    Email: info@sagtec-global.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: ‘The Eternal Queen of Asian Pop’ sings one last encore from beyond the grave

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Xianda Huang, PhD student in Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles

    Teresa Teng, who died in 1995, still has legions of fans around the world. Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty Images

    Several years ago, an employee at Universal Music came across a cassette tape in a Tokyo warehouse while sorting through archival materials. On it was a recording by the late Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng that had never been released; the pop ballad, likely recorded in the mid-1980s while Teng was living and performing in Japan, was a collaboration between composer Takashi Miki and lyricist Toyohisa Araki.

    Now, to the delight of her millions of fans, the track titled “Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night” will appear on an album set to be released on June 25, 2025.

    Teng died 30 years ago. Most Americans know little about her life and her body of work. Yet the ballads of Teng, who could sing in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indonesian, continue to echo through karaoke rooms, on Spotify playlists, at tribute concerts and at family gatherings across Asia and beyond.

    I study how pop music has served as a tool of soft power, and I’ve spent the past several years researching Teng’s music and its legacy. I’ve found that Teng’s influence endures not just because of her voice, but also because her music transcends Asia’s political fault lines.

    From local star to Asian icon

    Born in 1953 in Yunlin, Taiwan, Teresa Teng grew up in one of the many villages that were built to house soldiers and their families who had fled mainland China in 1949 after the communists claimed victory in the Chinese civil war. Her early exposure to traditional Chinese music and opera laid the foundation for her singing career. By age 6, she was taking voice lessons. She soon began winning local singing competitions.

    “It wasn’t adults who wanted me to sing,” Teng wrote in her memoir. “I wanted to sing. As long as I could sing, I was happy.”

    At 14, Teng dropped out of high school to focus entirely on music, signing with the local label Yeu Jow Records. Soon thereafter, she released her first album, “Fengyang Flower Drum.” In the 1970s, she toured and recorded across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming one of Asia’s first truly transnational pop stars.

    Teng’s career flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s. She released some of her most iconic tracks, such as her covers of Chinese singer Zhou Xuan’s 1937 hit “When Will You Return?” and Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan’s “The Moon Represents My Heart,” and toured widely across Asia, sparking what came to be known as “Teresa Teng Fever.”

    In the early 1990s, Teng was forced to stop performing for health reasons. She died suddenly of an asthma attack on May 8, 1995, while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the age of 42.

    China catches Teng Fever

    Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Teng’s story is that Teng Fever peaked in China.

    Teng was ethnically Chinese, with ancestral roots in China’s Shandong province. But the political divide between China and Taiwan following the Chinese civil war had led to decades of hostility, with each side refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the other.

    Teng speaks at a press conference in Hong Kong in 1980.
    P.Y. Tang/South China Morning Post via Getty Images

    During the late 1970s and 1980s, however, China began to relax its political control under Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening Up policy. This sweeping initiative shifted China toward a market-oriented economy, encouraged foreign trade and investment, and cautiously reintroduced global cultural influences after decades of isolation.

    Pop music from other parts of the world began trickling in, including Teng’s tender ballads. Her songs could be heard in coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Shanghai, inland cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, and even remote regions such as Tibet. Shanghai’s propaganda department wrote an internal memo in 1980 noting that her music had spread to the city’s public parks, restaurants, nursing homes and wedding halls.

    Teng’s immense popularity in China was no accident; it reflected a time in the country’s history when its people were particularly eager for emotionally resonant art after decades of cultural propaganda and censorship.

    For a society that had been awash in rote, revolutionary songs like “The East is Red” and “Union is Strength,” Teng’s music offered something entirely different. It was personal, tender and deeply human. Her gentle, approachable style – often described as “angelic” or like that of “a girl next door” – provided solace and a sense of intimacy that had long been absent from public life.

    Teng performs ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ in Taipei in 1984.

    Teng’s music was also admired for her ability to bridge eras. Her 1983 album “Light Exquisite Feeling” fused classical Chinese poetry with contemporary Western pop melodies, showcasing her gift for blending the traditional and the modern. It cemented her reputation not just as a pop star but as a cultural innovator.

    It’s no secret why audiences across China and Asia were so deeply drawn to her and her music. She was fluent in multiple languages; she was elegant but humble, polite and relatable; she was involved in various charities; and she spoke out in support of democratic values.

    A sound of home in distant lands

    Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States grew to over 1.1 million. Teng’s music has also deeply embedded itself within Chinese diasporic communities across the country. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, Chinese immigrants played her music at family gatherings, during holidays and at community events. Walk through any Chinatown during Lunar New Year and you’re bound to hear her voice wafting through the streets.

    Teng visits New York City’s Chinatown during her 1980 concert tour in the U.S.
    Wikimedia Commons

    For younger Chinese Americans and even non-Chinese audiences, Teng’s music has become a window into Chinese culture.

    When I was studying in the U.S., I often met Asian American students who belted out her songs at karaoke nights or during cultural festivals. Many had grown up hearing her music through their parents’ playlists or local community celebrations.

    The release of her recently discovered song is a reminder that some voices do not fade – they evolve, migrate and live on in the hearts of people scattered across the world.

    Teresa Teng’s music is still celebrated in Chinatowns across the U.S.

    In an age when global politics drive different cultures apart, Teng’s enduring appeal reminds us of something quieter yet more lasting: the power of voice to transmit emotion across time and space, the way a melody can build a bridge between continents and generations.

    I recently rewatched the YouTube video for Teng’s iconic 1977 ballad “The Moon Represents My Heart.” As I read the comments section, one perfectly encapsulated what I had discovered about Teresa Teng in my own research: “Teng’s music opened a window to a culture I never knew I needed.”

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

    – ref. ‘The Eternal Queen of Asian Pop’ sings one last encore from beyond the grave – https://theconversation.com/the-eternal-queen-of-asian-pop-sings-one-last-encore-from-beyond-the-grave-255560

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: AmeriCorps is on the chopping block – despite research showing that the national service agency is making a difference in local communities

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pamela Paxton, Professor of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin

    Many AmeriCorps crews, like this one seen at work in Maine in 2011, restore and renovate public parks. John Patriquin/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

    Hundreds of thousands of U.S. nonprofits provide vital services, such as running food banks and youth programs, supporting public health initiatives and helping unemployed people find new jobs. Although this work helps sustain local communities, obtaining the money and staff they require is a constant struggle for many of these groups.

    That’s where AmeriCorps often comes in. The independent federal agency for national service and volunteerism has facilitated the work of approximately 200,000 people a year, placing them through partnerships with thousands of nonprofits that provide tutoring, disaster relief and many other important services.

    But Americorps’ fate is now uncertain. In April 2025, the Trump administration canceled more than 1,000 grants, suddenly ending the stipends that were supporting more than 32,000 AmeriCorps volunteers. On June 5, a judge ordered that these grants be restored in Washington D.C. and 24 states in response to a lawsuit they had filed. The judge also ordered that all volunteers who had been deployed in those places be reinstated “if they are willing and able to return.”

    The Trump administration has also put most of AmeriCorps administrative staff on leave and indicated that it wants to eliminate the independent agency, along with its US$1.2 billion annual budget. AmeriCorps doesn’t appear in a detailed 2026 budget request the administration released on May 30.

    I’m a sociology and public affairs professor who has studied nonprofits and volunteering for decades. My research suggests that dismantling AmeriCorps would harm the organizations that rely on national service members and take a toll on the communities that benefit from their work.

    AmeriCorps explains what the independent national service agency does.

    What AmeriCorps does

    AmeriCorps traces its roots to the mid-1960s, when Volunteers in Service to America, known as VISTA, was founded as a domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps. Several earlier service programs were consolidated when Congress passed the National and Community Service Trust Act in 1993. AmeriCorps was officially launched in 1994 – and VISTA became one of its programs.

    Since then, AmeriCorps members have built housing and infrastructure, delivered disaster relief, tutored in low-income schools, provided health care and helped older adults age with dignity in both urban and rural communities across the nation.

    AmeriCorps includes a variety of programs, each designed to address specific public needs. Some AmeriCorps volunteers provide direct services, such as tutoring, food delivery and in disaster response efforts. Others focus on building the long-term capacity of local nonprofits through volunteer recruitment, fundraising strategy and community outreach.

    AmeriCorps volunteers, whom the agency calls “members,” are placed in thousands of nonprofits, schools and local agencies. Many of them are recent college graduates or early-career professionals. Some programs specifically ask people over 55 to serve. Those “senior” volunteers support children through the Foster Grandparents program, volunteer for organizations or assist other older people through the Senior Companions program.

    Many AmeriCorps volunteers are paid a modest allowance for this work that runs about $500 per week. AmeriCorps senior volunteers receive smaller sums in hourly stipends to offset the costs of volunteering.

    Fox40 News in Sacramento, Calif., covers the Trump administration’s reduction of AmeriCorps’ ranks in April 2025.

    Helping nonprofits gain traction

    AmeriCorps has long funded research that assesses its impact.

    One such study found that every dollar invested in national service generates $11.80 in benefits for society, such as higher earnings, better mental and physical health, and economic growth. Additionally, every federal dollar spent on national service produces $17.30 in savings across other government programs through reductions in public assistance, health and criminal justice spending.

    As part of AmeriCorps’ research grants program, I have received funding to study civic engagement and AmeriCorps programming.

    In one of those studies, which I conducted with two former colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, we found that VISTA volunteers were able to help nonprofits gain volunteers. After two years, an organization with that support had 71% more volunteers than those that didn’t participate in the VISTA program.

    We also found that the longer a nonprofit had a staffer supported by the VISTA program, the more its overall pool of volunteers increased.

    Nonprofits with VISTA volunteers also had three times as many donations two years later, compared with nonprofits without VISTA service members. But the total value of donations the nonprofit obtained didn’t always rise. That is, we found that VISTA builds people power, but not necessarily fundraising revenue.

    Findings like these indicate that AmeriCorps hasn’t just helped the people it serves or the people who volunteer through the program. It also strengthens nonprofits and increases engagement within local communities, reinforcing the civic fabric that knits communities together.

    As members of Congress and the White House decide whether to preserve AmeriCorps, I hope they consider the evidence that demonstrates this worthwhile program’s positive impact.

    Pamela Paxton has received funding from the Office of Research and Evaluation at AmeriCorps.

    – ref. AmeriCorps is on the chopping block – despite research showing that the national service agency is making a difference in local communities – https://theconversation.com/americorps-is-on-the-chopping-block-despite-research-showing-that-the-national-service-agency-is-making-a-difference-in-local-communities-257430

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: US health care is rife with high costs and deep inequities, and that’s no accident – a public health historian explains how the system was shaped to serve profit and politicians

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Zachary W. Schulz, Senior Lecturer of History, Auburn University

    Concessions to the private sector are one reason why health care is so costly. FS Productions/Tetra images via Getty Images

    A few years ago, a student in my history of public health course asked why her mother couldn’t afford insulin without insurance, despite having a full-time job. I told her what I’ve come to believe: The U.S. health care system was deliberately built this way.

    People often hear that health care in America is dysfunctional – too expensive, too complex and too inequitable. But dysfunction implies failure. What if the real problem is that the system is functioning exactly as it was designed to? Understanding this legacy is key to explaining not only why reform has failed repeatedly, but why change remains so difficult.

    I am a historian of public health with experience researching oral health access and health care disparities in the Deep South. My work focuses on how historical policy choices continue to shape the systems we rely on today.

    By tracing the roots of today’s system and all its problems, it’s easier to understand why American health care looks the way it does and what it will take to reform it into a system that provides high-quality, affordable care for all. Only by confronting how profit, politics and prejudice have shaped the current system can Americans imagine and demand something different.

    Decades of compromise

    My research and that of many others show that today’s high costs, deep inequities and fragmented care are predictable features developed from decades of policy choices that prioritized profit over people, entrenched racial and regional hierarchies, and treated health care as a commodity rather than a public good.

    Over the past century, U.S. health care developed not from a shared vision of universal care, but from compromises that prioritized private markets, protected racial hierarchies and elevated individual responsibility over collective well-being.

    Employer-based insurance emerged in the 1940s, not from a commitment to worker health but from a tax policy workaround during wartime wage freezes. The federal government allowed employers to offer health benefits tax-free, incentivizing coverage while sidestepping nationalized care. This decision bound health access to employment status, a structure that is still dominant today. In contrast, many other countries with employer-provided insurance pair it with robust public options, ensuring that access is not tied solely to a job.

    In 1965, Medicare and Medicaid programs greatly expanded public health infrastructure. Unfortunately, they also reinforced and deepened existing inequalities. Medicare, a federally administered program for people over 64, primarily benefited wealthier Americans who had access to stable, formal employment and employer-based insurance during their working years. Medicaid, designed by Congress as a joint federal-state program, is aimed at the poor, including many people with disabilities. The combination of federal and state oversight resulted in 50 different programs with widely variable eligibility, coverage and quality.

    Southern lawmakers, in particular, fought for this decentralization. Fearing federal oversight of public health spending and civil rights enforcement, they sought to maintain control over who received benefits. Historians have shown that these efforts were primarily designed to restrict access to health care benefits along racial lines during the Jim Crow period of time.

    Bloated bureaucracies, ‘creeping socialism’

    Today, that legacy is painfully visible.

    States that chose not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are overwhelmingly located in the South and include several with large Black populations. Nearly 1 in 4 uninsured Black adults are uninsured because they fall into the coverage gap – unable to access affordable health insurance – they earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to receive subsidies through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.

    The system’s architecture also discourages care aimed at prevention. Because Medicaid’s scope is limited and inconsistent, preventive care screenings, dental cleanings and chronic disease management often fall through the cracks. That leads to costlier, later-stage care that further burdens hospitals and patients alike.

    Meanwhile, cultural attitudes around concepts like “rugged individualism” and “freedom of choice” have long been deployed to resist public solutions. In the postwar decades, while European nations built national health care systems, the U.S. reinforced a market-driven approach.

    Publicly funded systems were increasingly portrayed by American politicians and industry leaders as threats to individual freedom – often dismissed as “socialized medicine” or signs of creeping socialism. In 1961, for example, Ronald Reagan recorded a 10-minute LP titled “Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine,” which was distributed by the American Medical Association as part of a national effort to block Medicare.

    The health care system’s administrative complexity ballooned beginning in the 1960s, driven by the rise of state-run Medicaid programs, private insurers and increasingly fragmented billing systems. Patients were expected to navigate opaque billing codes, networks and formularies, all while trying to treat, manage and prevent illness. In my view, and that of other scholars, this isn’t accidental but rather a form of profitable confusion built into the system to benefit insurers and intermediaries.

    President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts would reduce Medicaid spending by about US$700 billion.

    Coverage gaps, chronic disinvestment

    Even well-meaning reforms have been built atop this structure. The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, expanded access to health insurance but preserved many of the system’s underlying inequities. And by subsidizing private insurers rather than creating a public option, the law reinforced the central role of private companies in the health care system.

    The public option – a government-run insurance plan intended to compete with private insurers and expand coverage – was ultimately stripped from the Affordable Care Act during negotiations due to political opposition from both Republicans and moderate Democrats.

    When the U.S. Supreme Court made it optional in 2012 for states to offer expanded Medicaid coverage to low-income adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level, it amplified the very inequalities that the ACA sought to reduce.

    These decisions have consequences. In states like Alabama, an estimated 220,000 adults remain uninsured due to the Medicaid coverage gap – the most recent year for which reliable data is available – highlighting the ongoing impact of the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid.

    In addition, rural hospitals have closed, patients forgo care, and entire counties lack practicing OB/GYNs or dentists. And when people do get care – especially in states where many remain uninsured – they can amass medical debt that can upend their lives.

    All of this is compounded by chronic disinvestment in public health. Federal funding for emergency preparedness has declined for years, and local health departments are underfunded and understaffed.

    The COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how brittle the infrastructure is – especially in low-income and rural communities, where overwhelmed clinics, delayed testing, limited hospital capacity, and higher mortality rates exposed the deadly consequences of neglect.

    A system by design

    Change is hard not because reformers haven’t tried before, but because the system serves the very interests it was designed to serve. Insurers profit from obscurity – networks that shift, formularies that confuse, billing codes that few can decipher. Providers profit from a fee-for-service model that rewards quantity over quality, procedure over prevention. Politicians reap campaign contributions and avoid blame through delegation, diffusion and plausible deniability.

    This is not an accidental web of dysfunction. It is a system that transforms complexity into capital, bureaucracy into barriers.

    Patients – especially the uninsured and underinsured – are left to make impossible choices: delay treatment or take on debt, ration medication or skip checkups, trust the health care system or go without. Meanwhile, I believe the rhetoric of choice and freedom disguises how constrained most people’s options really are.

    Other countries show us that alternatives are possible. Systems in Germany, France and Canada vary widely in structure, but all prioritize universal access and transparency.

    Understanding what the U.S. health care system is designed to do – rather than assuming it is failing unintentionally – is a necessary first step toward considering meaningful change.

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

    – ref. US health care is rife with high costs and deep inequities, and that’s no accident – a public health historian explains how the system was shaped to serve profit and politicians – https://theconversation.com/us-health-care-is-rife-with-high-costs-and-deep-inequities-and-thats-no-accident-a-public-health-historian-explains-how-the-system-was-shaped-to-serve-profit-and-politicians-256393

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the red planet

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Matthew Shindell, Curator, Planetary Science and Exploration, Smithsonian Institution

    Camille Flammarion’s work imagined what might exist beyond Earth in the universe. Three Lions/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

    Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and unreachable world. And yet, before the invention of the rocket, astronomers who wanted to explore Mars beyond what they could see through their telescopes had to use their imaginations.

    As a space historian and author of the book “For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet,” I’ve worked to understand how people in different times and places imagined Mars.

    The second half of the 19th century was a particularly interesting time to imagine Mars. This was a period during which the red planet seemed to be ready to give up some of its mystery. Astronomers were learning more about Mars, but they still didn’t have enough information to know whether it hosted life, and if so, what kind.

    With more powerful telescopes and new printing technologies, astronomers began applying the cartographic tools of geographers to create the first detailed maps of the planet’s surface, filling it in with continents and seas, and in some cases features that could have been produced by life. Because it was still difficult to see the actual surface features of Mars, these maps varied considerably.

    During this period, one prominent scientist and popularizer brought together science and imagination to explore the possibilities that life on another world could hold.

    Camille Flammarion

    The 19th-century astronomer and writer Camille Flammarion.
    Av Ukjent/The New York Public Library Digital Collections

    One imaginative thinker whose attention was drawn to Mars during this period was the Parisian astronomer Camille Flammarion. In 1892, Flammarion published “The Planet Mars,” which remains to this day a definitive history of Mars observation up through the 19th century. It summarized all the published literature about Mars since the time of Galileo in the 17th century. This work, he reported, required him to review 572 drawings of Mars.

    Like many of his contemporaries, Flammarion concluded that Mars, an older world that had gone through the same evolutionary stages as Earth, must be a living world. Unlike his contemporaries, he insisted that Mars, while it might be the most Earth-like planet in our solar system, was distinctly its own world.

    It was the differences that made Mars interesting to Flammarion, not the similarities. Any life found there would be evolutionarily adapted to its particular conditions – an idea that appealed to the author H.G. Wells when he imagined invading Martians in “The War of the Worlds.”

    An illustrated plate from ‘Astronomie Populaire – Description Generale du Ciel’ by Camille Flammarion. This map of Mars shows continents and oceans. In this, his best-selling epic work, Flammarion speculated that Mars was ‘an earth almost similar to ours [with] water, air, showers, brooks and fountains. This is certainly a place little different from that which we inhabit.’
    Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

    But Flammarion also admitted that it was difficult to pin down these differences, as “the distance is too great, our atmosphere is too dense, and our instruments are not perfect enough.” None of the maps he reviewed could be taken literally, he lamented, because everyone had seen and drawn Mars differently.

    Given this uncertainty about what had actually been seen on Mars’ surface, Flammarion took an agnostic stance in “The Planet Mars” as to the specific nature of life on Mars.

    He did, however, consider that if intelligent life did exist on Mars, it would be more ancient than human life on Earth. Logically, that life would be more perfect — akin to the peaceful, unified and technologically advanced civilization he predicted would come into being on Earth in the coming century.

    “We can however hope,” he wrote, “that since the world of Mars is older than our own, its inhabitants may be wiser and more advanced than we are. Undoubtedly it is the spirit of peace which has animated this neighboring world.”

    A plate from ‘Les Terres du Ciel’ (The Worlds of the Sky) written by Camille Flammarion. The plate is an artist’s impression of how canals on Mars might have looked.
    Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

    But as Flammarion informed his readers, “the Known is a tiny island in the midst of the ocean of the Unknown,” a point he often underscored in the more than 70 books he published in his lifetime. It was the “Unknown” that he found particularly tantalizing.

    Historians often describe Flammarion more as a popularizer than a serious scientist, but this should not diminish his accomplishments. For Flammarion, science wasn’t a method or a body of established knowledge. It was the nascent core of a new philosophy waiting to be born. He took his popular writing very seriously and hoped it could turn people’s minds toward the heavens.

    Imaginative novels

    Without resolving the planet’s surface or somehow communicating with its inhabitants, it was premature to speculate about what forms of life might exist on Mars. And yet, Flammarion did speculate — not so much in his scientific work, but in a series of novels he wrote over the course of his career.

    In these imaginative works, he was able to visit Mars and see its surface for himself. Unlike his contemporary, the science fiction author Jules Verne, who imagined a technologically facilitated journey to the Moon, Flammarion preferred a type of spiritual journey.

    Camille Flammarion looking through the telescope at the Observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge.
    duncan1890/iStock via Getty Images Plus

    Based on his belief that human souls after death can travel through space in a way that the living body cannot, Flammarion’s novels include dream journeys as well as the accounts of deceased friends or fictional characters.

    In his novel “Urania” (1889), Flammarion’s soul visits Mars in a dream. Upon arrival, he encounters a deceased friend, George Spero, who has been reincarnated as a winged, luminous, six-limbed being.

    “Organisms can no more be earthly on Mars than they could be aerial at the bottom of the sea,” Flammarion writes.

    Later in the same novel, Spero’s soul visits Flammarion on Earth. He reveals that Martian civilization and science have progressed well beyond Earth, not only because Mars is an older world, but because the atmosphere is thinner and more suitable for astronomy.

    Flammarion imagined that practicing and popularizing astronomy, along with the other sciences, had helped advance Martian society.

    Flammarion’s imagined Martians lived intellectual lives untroubled by war, hunger and other earthly concerns. This was the life Flammarion wanted for his fellow Parisians, who had lived through the devastation of the Franco-Prussian war and suffered starvation and deprivation during the Siege of Paris and its aftermath.

    Today, Flammarion’s Mars is a reminder that imagining a future on Mars is as much about understanding ourselves and our societal aspirations as it is about developing the technologies to take us there.

    Flammarion’s popularization of science was his means of helping his fellow Earth-bound humans understand their place in the universe. They could one day join his imagined Martians, which weren’t meant to be taken any more literally than the maps of Mars he analyzed for “The Planet Mars.” His world was an example of what life could become under the right conditions.

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

    – ref. Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the red planet – https://theconversation.com/early-visions-of-mars-meet-the-19th-century-astronomer-who-used-science-fiction-to-imagine-the-red-planet-254005

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –