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Category: Law

  • MIL-OSI Global: Even if Putin and Zelenskyy do go face-to-face, don’t expect wonders − their one meeting in 2019 ended in failure

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Anna Batta, Associate Professor of International Security Studies, Air University

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrive at the Elysee Palace in Paris in 2019. Ian Langsdon/Pool Photo via AP

    Delegations from Ukraine and Russia met for a second time in Istanbul in a month on June 2, 2025. Missing, again, were the country’s two leaders.

    For a fleeting moment ahead of the first meeting in mid-May 2025, there existed the faintest prospect that Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine would join, sitting down in the same room for face-to-face talks.

    But it didn’t happen; few expected it would. On that occasion, Putin refused Zelenskyy’s offer of face-to-face talks in Istanbul.

    Even though neither leader met in the Istanbul summits, they have met before.

    In Paris in 2019, the two men sat down together as part of what was known as the Normandy Format talks. As a scholar of international relations, I have interviewed people involved in the talks. Some five years on, the way the talks floundered and then failed can offer lessons about the challenges today’s would-be mediators now face.

    Initial hopes

    The Normandy Format talks started on the sidelines of events in June 2014 commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The aim was to try to resolve the ongoing conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist groups in the country’s Donbas region in the east. That conflict had recently escalated, with pro-Russian separatists seizing key towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk after Russia illegally annexed the peninsula of Crimea in February 2014.

    The talks continued periodically until 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Until that point, most of the discussion was framed by two deals, the Minsk accords of 2014 and 2015, which set out the terms for a ceasefire between Kyiv and the Moscow-armed rebel groups and the conditions for elections in Donetsk and Luhansk.

    By the time of the sixth meeting in December 2019, the only time Zelenkyy and Putin have met in person, some still hoped that the Minsk accords could form a framework for peace.

    Under discussion

    Zelenskyy was only a few months into his presidency. He arrived in Paris with fresh energy and a desire to find peace.

    His electoral campaign had centered on the promise of putting an end to the unrest in Donbas, which had been rumbling on for years. The increasing role of Russia in the conflict, through supporting rebels financially and with volunteer Russian soldiers, had complicated and escalated fighting, and many Ukrainians were weary of the impact of internally displaced people that it caused.

    By all accounts, Zelenskyy went into Paris believing that he could make a deal with Putin.

    “I want to return with concrete results,” Zelenskyy said just days before meeting Putin. By then, the Ukrainian president’s only contact with Putin had been over the phone. “I want to see the person and I want to bring from Normandy understanding and feeling that everybody really wants gradually to finish this tragic war,” Zelenskyy said, adding, “I can feel it for sure only at the table.”

    One of Putin’s main concerns going into the talks was the lifting of Western sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea.

    But the Russian president also wanted to keep Russia’s smaller neighbor under its influence. Ukraine gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. But in the early years of the new century, Russia began to exert increasing influence over the politics of its neighbor. This ended in 2014, when a popular revolution ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and ushered in a pro-Western government.

    More than anything, Russia wanted to arrest this shift and keep Ukraine out of the European Union and NATO.

    Those desires – Ukraine’s to end the war in Donbas, and Russia’s to curb the West’s involvement in Ukraine – formed the parameters for the Normandy talks.

    And for some time, there appeared to be momentum to find compromise. French President Emmanuel Macron said that the 2019 Paris talks had broken years of stalemate and relaunched the peace process. Putin’s assessment was that the peace process was “developing in the right direction.” Zelenskyy’s view was a little less enthusisastic: “Let’s say for now it’s a draw.”

    Talking past each other

    Yet the Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in 2019 ultimately ended in failure. In retrospect, both sides were talking past each other and could not reach agreement on the sequencing of key parts of the peace plan.

    Zelenskyy wanted the security provisions of the Minsk accords, including a lasting ceasefire and the securing of Ukraine’s border with Russia, in place before proceeding with regional elections on devolving autonomy to the regions. Putin was adamant that the elections come first.

    The success of the Normandy talks were also hindered by Putin’s refusal to acknowledge that Russia was a party to the conflict. Rather, he framed the Donbas conflict as a civil war between the Ukrainian government and the rebels. Russia’s role was simply to push the rebels to the negotiating table in this take – a view that was greeted with skepticism by Ukraine and the West.

    As a result, the Normandy talks stalled. And then in February 2022, Russian launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Way forward today?

    The nascent negotiations between Ukraine and Russia that began in Istanbul in May 2025 represent the first real attempt to bring high-level delegations of both sides together since 2019.

    Many of the same challenges remain. The talks still revolve around the issues of security, the status of Donetsk and Luhansk, and prisoner exchanges – that last point being the only one in which common ground appears to be found, both in 2019 and now.

    But there are major differences – not least, three years of actual direct war. Russia can no longer deny that it is a party of the conflict, even if Moscow frames the war as a special military operation to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine.

    And three years of war have changed how the questions of Crimea and the Donbas are framed.

    In the Normandy talks, there was no talk of recognizing Russian control over any Ukrainian territory. But recent U.S. efforts to negotiate peace have included a “de-jure” U.S. recognition of Russian control in Crimea, plus “de-facto recognition” of Russia’s occupation of nearly all of Luhansk oblast and the occupied portions of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

    Another major difference between the negotiation process then and now is who is mediating.

    The Normandy negotiations were led by European leaders – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Macron of France. Throughout the whole Normandy talks process, only Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia were involved as active participants.

    Today, it is the United States taking the lead.

    And this suits Putin. A constant issue for Putin of the Normandy talks was that Germany and France were never neutral mediators.

    In President Donald Trump, Putin has found a U.S. leader who, at least at first, appeared eager to take on the mantle from Europe.

    But like the Europeans involved in the Normandy talks, Trump too is encountering similar barriers to any meaningful progress.

    Members of Ukrainian and Russian delegations attend peace talks on June 2, 2025, in Istanbul.
    Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Getty Images

    The Istanbul negotiations on May 16, 2025, were less productive than many people hoped. A proposed 30-day ceasefire agreement didn’t come to fruition; instead the parties agreed on a prisoner-exchange deal. Follow-up talks on June 2 ended after barely an hour, according to Turkish officials. Again, one point agreed on was a prisoner swap.

    The Paris peace talks, too, led to a prisoner exchange – but little more. It appears that getting the leaders of Ukraine and Russia to agree on anything more ambitious is as elusive now as it was when Putin and Zelenskyy met in 2019.

    The views expressed in this article represent the personal views of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Department of Defense or of the Department of the Air Force.

    – ref. Even if Putin and Zelenskyy do go face-to-face, don’t expect wonders − their one meeting in 2019 ended in failure – https://theconversation.com/even-if-putin-and-zelenskyy-do-go-face-to-face-dont-expect-wonders-their-one-meeting-in-2019-ended-in-failure-257093

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: People with severe mental illness are waiting for days in hospital EDs. Here’s how we can do better

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Rosenberg, Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra, and Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

    Matthew Ashmore/Shutterstock

    On ABC’s 4 Corners this week, psychiatrists and nurses have warned New South Wales’ mental health system is in crisis. They report some patients with severe mental distress are waiting two to three days in emergency departments for care.

    The program highlighted chronic failures in NSW’s mental health system, but the shortfalls are being felt across the nation.

    Just over 7% of the nation’s health budget is spent on mental health. But together with alcohol and drug issues, mental health accounts for around 15% of the nation’s burden of disease.

    Problems in mental health go beyond under-funding: it’s also about how the resources we do have are spent.

    So how did we get here? And what can we do to fix it?

    It wasn’t supposed to be like this

    Back in the 1980s, psychiatric deinstitutionalisation promised to replace treatment provided in the old psychiatric institutions with mental health services and care in the community. Too often, these institutions failed to promote recovery, and delivered improper care and even abuse.

    Many of these institutions were indeed closed. But the shift in mental health care over the past 40 years has not been from asylums to the community, but rather to the mental health wards of Australia’s general public hospitals and the emergency departments (EDs) which operate in them.

    Hospitals are expensive and often traumatic places to provide mental health care. We know this from frequent statutory inquiries and reports.

    Deinstitutionalisation aimed to treat patients in the community rather than hospital.
    Shutterstock

    For presentations to EDs, all the indicators are heading in the wrong direction. More people are seeking care for their mental health in EDs, they are arriving sicker (according to their triage category) and they wait longer for care.

    Hospitals account for more than 80% of total state and territory spending on mental health. In 2022–23, A$6.5 billion of the states and territories’ total spend of $8bn on mental health was directed towards hospital-based care. Just $1bn was provided outside hospitals.

    Evidence indicates community-based care can reduce reliance on EDs for mental health care.

    Yet community mental health services now often comprise little more than a phone call to check if a client is taking their medication. Of the 9.4 million community mental health service contacts in 2022–3, 4 million lasted less than 15 minutes.

    Mental health clinical staff spend just 20% of their time with consumers.

    What are the solutions?

    The solutions are already at hand, but haven’t been pursued or scaled up. These include:

    • multidisciplinary models such as assertive community treatments, which provide mixed specialist clinical and psychosocial support in the community, in people’s homes

    • service models the Australian College of Emergency Medicine have proposed as alternatives to hospital ED care. These include safe havens, mental health nurse liaison services and dedicated homelessness teams. These services can provide the care required to divert patients away from hectic emergency departments, in calmer, more therapeutic spaces

    • NSW programs such as the Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative provide community based, clinical and psychosocial support to people with severe mental health needs. This program reduced admissions due to mental health by 74% over two years

    • Adelaide’s Urgent Mental Health Care Centre, which operates as an alternative to EDs and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This clinic was designed in collaboration with the community, including people with a lived experience of a mental health crisis, and offers a welcoming, safe environment

    • Step-Up Step-Down services, which can effectively meet the needs of some of “the missing middle”. These are people whose mental health needs are too complex for primary care but not assessed as a big enough risk to themselves or others to “qualify” for hospital admission.

    Community-based care for mental illness and social support can reduce reliance on EDs.
    Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

    Funding support for psychosocial services remains tiny. It accounts for about 6% of total spending on mental health care by states and territories.

    As a result, almost half a million Australians with either severe or moderate mental health needs are currently unable to access necessary psychosocial care. This impacts their recovery.

    It also leaves clinical services without a viable “psychosocial partner”. So people needing mental health care might be able to get a prescription, but are much less likely to receive assistance with unstable housing, employment support or help getting back to school.

    Working together

    There is already concern to address identified workforce shortages and psychiatrists’ pay disputes.

    The next round of mental health planning must also discuss and clarify the complementary roles in mental health care, as people with more complex mental health needs typically benefit from multidisciplinary, team-based care. This includes psychiatrists, psychologists, allied health professionals, nurses, peer workers, social service providers, GPs, justice, school and housing services and others such as drug and alcohol services. Who is best placed to plan and coordinate this care?

    Reducing our over-reliance on hospital-based mental health care and EDs needs agreement by all Australian governments to explicitly prioritise the principles of early intervention, community-based mental health care and hospital avoidance in mental health.

    These steps, together with more personalised approaches to treatment and better accountability, will help us achieve systemic quality improvement in mental health care.



    Read more:
    Police aren’t properly trained for mental health crises – but they’re often the first responders. Here’s what works better

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

    – ref. People with severe mental illness are waiting for days in hospital EDs. Here’s how we can do better – https://theconversation.com/people-with-severe-mental-illness-are-waiting-for-days-in-hospital-eds-heres-how-we-can-do-better-257971

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: A two-state solution is gaining momentum again. Does it have a chance of success?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin University

    As Israel’s devastating war in Gaza has ground on, the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was thought to be “dead”. Now, it is showing signs of life again.

    French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly pressing other European nations to jointly recognise a Palestinian state at a UN conference in mid-June, focused on achieving a two-state solution. Macron called such recognition a “political necessity”.

    Countries outside Europe are feeling the pressure, too. Australia has reaffirmed its view that recognition of Palestine should be a “way of building momentum towards a two-state solution”.

    During Macron’s visit to Indonesia in late May, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto made a surprising pledge to recognise Israel if it allowed for a Palestinian state.

    Indonesia is one of about 28 nations that don’t currently recognise Israel. France, Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea are among the approximately 46 nations that don’t recognise a Palestinian state.

    The UN conference on June 17–20, co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, wants to go “beyond reaffirming principles” and “achieve concrete results” towards a two-state solution.

    Most countries, including the US, have supported the two-state solution in principle for decades. However, the political will from all parties has faded in recent years.

    So, why is the policy gaining traction again now? And does it have a greater chance of success?

    What is the two-state solution?

    Put simply, the two-state solution is a proposed peace plan that would create a sovereign Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state. There have been several failed attempts to enact the policy over recent decades, the most famous of which was the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s.

    In recent years, the two-state solution was looking less likely by the day.

    The Trump administration’s decision in 2017 to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there signalled the US was moving away from its role as mediator. Then, several Arab states agreed to normalise relations with Israel in the the Abraham Accords, without Israeli promises to move towards a two-state solution.

    The Hamas attacks on Israel – and subsequent Israeli war on Gaza – have had a somewhat contradictory effect on the overarching debate.

    On the one hand, the brutality of Hamas’ actions substantially set back the legitimacy of the Palestinian self-determination movement in some quarters on the world stage.

    On the other, it’s also become clear the status quo – the continued Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank following the end of a brutal war – is not tenable for either Israeli security or Palestinian human rights.

    And the breakdown of the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the return of heavy Israeli ground operations in May and reports of mass Palestinian starvation have only served to further isolate the Israeli government in the eyes of its peers.

    Once-steadfast supporters of Israel’s actions have become increasingly frustrated by a lack of clear strategic goals in Gaza. And many now seem prepared to ignore Israeli wishes and pursue Palestinian recognition.

    For these governments, the hope is recognition of a Palestinian state would rebuild political will – both globally and in the Middle East – towards a two-state solution.

    Huge obstacles remain

    But how likely is this in reality? There is certainly more political will than there was before, but also several important roadblocks.

    First and foremost is the war in Gaza. It’s obvious this will need to end, with both sides agreeing to an enduring ceasefire.

    Beyond that, the political authority in both Gaza and Israel remains an issue.

    The countries now considering Palestinian recognition, such France and Australia, have expressly said Hamas cannot play any role in governing a future Palestinian state.

    Though anti-Hamas sentiment is becoming more vocal among residents in Gaza, Hamas has been violently cracking down on this dissent and is attempting to consolidate its power.

    However, polling shows the popularity of Fatah – the party leading the Palestinian National Authority – is even lower than Hamas at an average of 21%. Less than half of Gazans support the enclave returning to Palestinian Authority control. This means a future Palestinian state would likely require new leadership.

    There is almost no political will in Israel for a two-state solution, either. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been shy about his opposition to a Palestinian state. His cabinet members have mostly been on the same page.

    This has also been reflected in policy action. In early May, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a plan for Israel to indefinitely occupy parts of Gaza. The government also just approved its largest expansion of settlements in the West Bank in decades.

    These settlements remain a major problem for a two-state solution. The total population of Israeli settlers is more than 700,000 in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank. And it’s been increasing at a faster rate since the election of the right-wing, pro-settler Netanyahu government in 2022.

    Settlement is enshrined in Israeli Basic Law, with the state defining it as “national value” and actively encouraging its “establishment and consolidation”.

    The more settlement that occurs, the more complicated the boundaries of a future Palestinian state become.

    Then there’s the problem of public support. Recent polling shows neither Israelis nor Palestinians view the two-state solution favourably. Just 40% of Palestinians support it, while only 26% of Israelis believe a Palestinian state can “coexist peacefully” alongside Israel.

    However, none of these challenges makes the policy impossible. The unpopularity of the two-state solution locally is more a reflection of previous failures than it is of future negotiations.

    A power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland was similarly unpopular in the 1990s, but peace was achieved through bold political leadership involving the US and European Union.

    In other words, we won’t know what’s possible until negotiations begin. Red lines will need to be drawn and compromises made.

    It’s not clear what effect growing external pressure will have, but the international community does appear to be reaching a political tipping point on the two-state solution. Momentum could start building again.

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

    – ref. A two-state solution is gaining momentum again. Does it have a chance of success? – https://theconversation.com/a-two-state-solution-is-gaining-momentum-again-does-it-have-a-chance-of-success-257890

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: In first-of-its-kind initiative, California deploys mobile air monitoring to protect underserved communities from pollution

    Source: US State of California Governor

    Jun 3, 2025

    What you need to know: The state will use specially equipped vehicles to collect block-by-block air quality data in 64 communities heavily burdened by pollution. The results will help create local solutions to improve air quality and public health. 

    SACRAMENTO – While the Trump administration rolls back pollution protections across the country, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the launch of California’s Statewide Mobile Monitoring Initiative (SMMI), a first-of-its-kind program delivering hyper-local air pollution data to guide air quality improvement efforts in California.

    “While the federal government threatens to take us back to the days of smoggy skies and clogged lungs, California continues to lead the way. We’re deploying first-of-their-kind vehicles to monitor pollution levels at a block-by-block level, delivering critical air quality information to communities across the state.”

    Governor Gavin Newsom

    Starting in June, the pilot project will deploy mobile air monitoring equipment to 64 communities throughout the state, with a particular focus on communities that have long faced environmental disparities. The project spearheaded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will use sensor-equipped vehicles from Aclima and mobile laboratories operated by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Riverside, and Aerodyne to collect and analyze data on local pollution levels.

    The initiative is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide effort that puts billions of Cap-and-Invest dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.

    More than 60% of the mobile monitoring will serve priority populations, including low-income communities and communities facing disproportionate pollution burdens. The 64 communities were consistently nominated for focused action under the Community Air Protection Program, underscoring the state’s commitment to protecting the health of Californians in areas most burdened by air pollution.

    “By meeting communities where they are and listening to their concerns, we’re building an air quality monitoring system that integrates the lived experiences of the people most impacted by air pollution,” said CARB Executive Director Dr. Steven Cliff. “The Statewide Mobile Monitoring Initiative represents an unprecedented opportunity to gather the detailed information we need to better protect public health in neighborhoods that have historically borne the brunt of environmental injustice.”

    Monitoring will take place in the 64 communities over the next year. The project is expected to end in June 2026, when the collected data will become publicly available.  Final results will be shared with the 64 communities, the general public, and the Board. CARB, local air districts, stakeholders, and community stakeholders will use the data to help guide efforts to address existing and emerging pollution concerns. The data is also expected to inform future regulatory programs, academic research, and applications for grants such as the Community Air Grants Program.

    The program is guided by a robust community engagement framework. More than 40 community-based organizations across California have partnered with CARB to identify local air quality concerns and ensure community voices shape monitoring efforts from the ground up. 

    California’s clean air leadership

    Over the last 50 years, the state’s clean air efforts have saved $250 billion in health costs through reduced illness and reduced diesel-related cancer risk by nearly 80 percent.

    The state continues to set clean energy records. Last year, California ran on 100% clean electricity for the equivalent of 51 days – with the grid running on 100% clean energy for some period two out of every three days. Since the beginning of the Newsom Administration, battery storage is up to over 15,000 megawatts – a 1,900%+ increase.

    Press releases, Recent news

    Recent news

    Jun 2, 2025

    News To the People of California,Recent years have seen a troubling spike in reported hate crimes and manifestations of bigotry. In response, California launched a robust anti-hate agenda that includes significant investments and actions to support and protect all the…

    Jun 1, 2025

    News SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom and Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis issued the following statement regarding the death of Baldwin Park Police Department Officer Samuel Riveros:“We mourn the tragic loss of one of California’s brave law enforcement officers,…

    May 31, 2025

    News Sacramento, California – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring May 2025, as “Mental Health Awareness Month.”The text of the proclamation and a copy can be found below: PROCLAMATIONDuring Mental Health Awareness Month, we recognize the…

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: June 03, 2025 Lawmakers Call for an Increase in Federal Funding toFully Support Urban Search & Rescue Efforts Washington, D.C. – A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is calling for more robust federal support to help ensure that when a disaster strikes, members of the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System (US&R) can respond. These heroic task forces… Read More

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Kevin Mullin California (15th District)

    Washington, D.C. – A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is calling for more robust federal support to help ensure that when a disaster strikes, members of the National Urban Search & Rescue Response System (US&R) can respond. These heroic task forces deploy to communities across America that need additional help during dangerous crises like wildfires, hurricanes and building collapses, but their work has been underfunded for years.

    For the second year in a row, a coalition of lawmakers led by Representatives Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Young Kim (CA-40), and Jill Tokuda (HI-02) – and which has grown to over 40 members of Congress from across the country – are urging Congress to include a modest, but desperately-needed, $16 million increase for a total of $56 million in funding for US&R.

    America’s US&R Response System includes 28 task forces strategically located across 19 states, and are composed of highly-trained emergency personnel from local fire departments. They are expected to respond to devastating national disasters well beyond their border without commensurate funding from the Federal government to maintain their operations.

    US&R task force members respond to the 911 terrorist attacks in 2001.

    US&R has helped communities receive immediate, life-saving assistance during catastrophic events such as the Maui and Los Angeles wildfires, Hurricanes Milton and Katrina, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Northridge Earthquake, and many other extreme crises. These task forces play a vital role in national disaster response efforts and the lawmakers are seeking full funding for the task forces in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget to properly support this heroic work. Last year, the House passed an Appropriations bill with the requested level of funding, but Congress ultimately did not pass full-year spending bills. They are repeating the effort this year.

    “Ensuring our US&R task forces are fully funded means ensuring communities across America can depend on them when disaster strikes,” said Rep. Kevin Mullin. “I’m proud that California Task Force 3 is based out of Menlo Park Fire in my congressional district. The time and effort that is put into hosting and maintaining a task force for deployment at a moment’s notice is no small task. These teams represent the gold standard in emergency response and provide lifesaving services to those who are experiencing an unfathomable emergency. Their readiness comes at a cost, and providing adequate federal funding will help us stay prepared and save lives.”

    “Urban Search and Rescue teams from across the country are often among the first to help communities and families during times of great loss. Nearly two years after the devastating Maui wildfires, I can still vividly recall US&R teams entering the burn zone while the ground was still hot enough to melt shoes,” said Rep. Jill Tokuda. “I will always be grateful for the comfort and closure they provided, which is why I’m so proud to have joined my colleagues Representatives Kevin Mullin and Young Kim in advocating for increased funding for the US&R system in this year’s appropriations bills. We never know when disaster will strike, but when it does, all Americans deserve to know that US&R will come to their aid.”

    “First responders need the proper resources to keep our communities safe during a major disaster, including deadly wildfires and flood events,” said Rep. Young Kim. “The National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Response System consists of 28 vital task forces made up of federal, state, and local emergency personnel who are on call for rapid deployment to provide emergency medical care and search collapsed buildings. I support our US&R task forces’ lifesaving work and appreciate Orange County Fire Authority Chief Fennessy’s leadership as Western Representative for 9 US&R task forces. I will do my part to protect this program that saves lives.”

    US&R task force members during Hurricane Katrina.

    US&R Leaders Speak Out for Federal Support

    “When disaster strikes, our US&R assets are the backbone of the response effort,” said Joseph R. Downey, Chief of Rescue Operations with Fire Department of the City of New York (NY-TF1), and US&R Task Force Representative-National. “With our extensive training and experience, we form a reliable and adaptable force that operates at the heart of every federal disaster response. New York City, with the largest Fire and Police Departments in the country, received much needed assistance from US&R task forces in response to the 9-11 attacks on the WTC and Hurricane Sandy. Our task forces have consistently gone above and beyond to support the mission, but the lack of funding is hindering our ability to respond effectively. With increased labor and equipment costs, along with the expansion of our mission scope and more frequent deployments, we need your help now more than ever.”

    “FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams, sponsored by local government fire agencies like Menlo Park Fire Protection, provide vital, highly trained surge resources to communities that have been struck by catastrophic disasters,” said Mark Lorenzen, Fire Chief, Menlo Park Fire Protection District (CA-TF3). “They are critical in both life saving measures as well as helping move jurisdictions forward to recovery. The teams are struggling financially to cover increasing costs while federal funding lags well behind inflation. I am thankful for the bipartisan efforts of our legislators, including Rep. Kevin Mullin who helped lead this effort to bridge the funding gap to ensure our sustainability.”

    “Over the past eight months alone, California Task Force 5 (CA-TF5) activated on a wide range of incidents — from Hurricanes Helene and Milton on the east coast to the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles — and on each deployment, the investments made in the program were returned beyond measure in the form of lives saved, families rescued, and communities protected,” said Brian Fennessy, Fire Chief of the Orange County Fire Authority (CA-TF5). “As the home of one of only 28 such task forces in the nation, we are grateful for the elected officials, including our own Rep. Young Kim, who not only recognize the program’s importance, but also work to secure increased funding to expand its life-saving services.”

    “Ohio Task Force 1 (OH-TF1) has been deployed by FEMA nearly 40-times in the past 25 years,” said Evan W. Schumann, OFE, Program Manager (OH-TF1).  “Our canine handlers and dogs have been deployed to such events as the State of Washington landslide in 2014, the Kentucky Flooding in 2022, and the Hawaii Wildland Fire. To remain ready to respond to any disaster, OH-TF1 spent 11,696 hrs. of training in 2023 and over 2,647 hrs. of service time (doing work without compensation). The associated personnel costs of OH-TF1’s 2023 activities were almost all uncompensated by federal funding and born on the backs of OH-TF1’s Participating Agencies or team members.  I am grateful to Reps. Mullin, Kim and Tokuda for leading the charge to increase funding for the Urban Search & Rescue program that will provide us greater support.”

    Read the full letter here.

    This letter was signed by Reps. Gabe Amo (RI-01), Becca Balint (VT-At Large), Wesley Bell (MO-1), Ami Bera (CA-6), Brendan Boyle (PA-2), André Carson (In-7), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Gabe Evans (CO-8), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), Mike Flood (NE-1), Jared Golden (ME-2), Daniel Goldman (NY-10), Maggie Goodlander (KY-3), Julie Johnson (TX-32), William Keating (MA-9), Timothy Kennedy (NY-26), Jennifer Kiggans (VA-2), Young Kim (CA-40), John Larson (CT-1), Stephen Lynch (MA-8), Seth Magaziner (RI-2), Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Doris Matsui (CA-7), Dave Min (CA-47), Seth Moulton (MA-6), Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Chris Pappas (NH-1), Scott Peters (CA-50), Brittany Pettersen (C0-7), Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), Maria Salazar (FL-27), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-5), Greg Stanton (AZ-4), Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), Jill Tokuda (HI-2), Lori Trahan (MA-3), Derek Tran (CA-45), Frederica Wilson (FL-24).

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Kwong Wah Hospital announces incident of nurse suspected to have been indecently assaulted

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Kwong Wah Hospital announces incident of nurse suspected to have been indecently assaultedIssued at HKT 20:30

    The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

    The spokesman for Kwong Wah Hospital (KWH) made the following statement today (June 3) regarding an incident of a nurse suspected to have been indecently assaulted:

    A nurse was suspected to have been indecently assaulted in a ward at around 12pm today. Upon receiving the report from the nurse, the hospital reported the incident to the Police immediately. A 78-year-old male patient was subsequently arrested by the Police in the ward.

    KWH is highly concerned about the incident. The hospital strongly condemns the suspected indecent acts against its staff, resolutely adopts a zero-tolerance attitude towards this incident, and will follow up seriously while fully co-operating with the Police’s investigation. The hospital has expressed sympathy and provided support to the nurse concerned.

    The hospital has reported the incident to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System.

    Ends/Tuesday, June 3, 2025
    Issued at HKT 20:30

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Appeal for information on missing man in Sheung Shui (with photo)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Police today (June 3) appealed to the public for information on a man who went missing in Sheung Shui.

    Wong Sum-wah, aged 77, went missing after he was last seen in a shopping mall on Choi Yuen Road yesterday (June 2) afternoon. His family then made a report to Police.

    He is about 1.6 metres tall, around 60 kilograms in weight and of medium build. He has a square face with yellow complexion and short white hair. He was last seen wearing a dark blue checkered long-sleeved shirt, dark jeans and black shoes.

    Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the missing man or may have seen him is urged to contact the Regional Missing Persons Unit of New Territories North on 3661 3115 or email to rmpu-ntn-1@police.gov.hk, or contact any police station.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gov. Kemp Announces Solicitor General, Superior Court, and State Court Appointments

    Source: US State of Georgia

    Atlanta, GA – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced three appointments. Elizabeth W. Torres will serve as the Solicitor General of Worth County, filling the vacancy created by the appointment of the Honorable James “Jay” E. Crowe, Jr. as State Court Judge of Worth County; Chaundra Lewis will serve on the Superior Court of the Flint Judicial Circuit, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of the Honorable Brian J. Amero; and James Boles will serve on the State Court of Henry County, filling the vacancy created by the appointment of the Honorable Chaundra Lewis.

    Elizabeth W. Torres is currently a partner at Wilmot & Torres. She also currently serves as the solicitor for the City of Tifton and City of Lenox. Following her graduation from law school, she worked in Atlanta practicing commercial litigation for a year. She then decided to return to her hometown of Tifton, Georgia to continue her law career. In addition to her prosecutorial work, she practices a wide variety of civil litigation, including family law and matters pending in probate court.

    Torres attended the University of Georgia, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science. She then attended the University of Georgia School of Law as the Richard B. Russell Distinguished Law Fellow. Torres and her husband have two children and reside in Tift County.

    Chaundra Lewis currently serves as a Henry County State Court Judge. In addition to handling her assigned caseload, Judge Lewis also presides over the Henry County DUI/Drug Court Program. Prior to joining the Henry County State Court bench,  Judge Lewis served as deputy chief assistant in the Henry County District Attorney’s Office. She also served as the deputy chief assistant solicitor general in both Fulton and Clayton Counties. Prior to her time as a prosecutor, Judge Lewis was a state court staff attorney, as well as a civil litigator and defense attorney in private practice.

    Judge Lewis is an avid community servant, serving as a board member of Gigi’s House and also volunteering with Miracle Mission International Outreach, Inc. Judge Lewis is a graduate of Leadership Clayton, Leadership Henry and Leadership Georgia. She is also an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Jack and Jill of America, Inc. 

    Judge Lewis earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Spelman College.  She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphries School of Law. Judge Lewis and her husband of 27 years, Kevin,  live in McDonough and are the proud parents of three daughters, Kennedy, Lauryn, and Chandler.

    James D. Boles, Jr. is a trial attorney and managing partner at Sexton & Moody, P.C. Before joining the firm, he worked in a similar capacity as a sole proprietor at the Law Office of James D. Boles, LLC.

    James attended Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and graduated in 2016. He served on the board of the Public Interest Law Society, was justice of the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, and competed as a member of the Trial Competition Team. Prior to law school, James attended Kennesaw State University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s in political science.

    James and his wife, Leslie, live in Henry County, where he volunteers as a coach for the Stockbridge High School Mock Trial Team. 
     

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin To President Trump: The Whole World Is Watching To See If You Will Stand Firm Against Putin

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

    June 02, 2025

    It’s time for Leader Thune to pass the bipartisan Russia sanctions bill and prepare another Ukraine supplemental

    WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Co-Chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, warned President Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no intention to end the war in Ukraine without greater pressure. Durbin began his speech by highlighting the horrific atrocities Putin has committed over the years—starting 11 years ago when he invaded Crimea.

    “Anyone following this war can clearly see that Vladimir Putin isn’t serious about ending this bloody conflict that he started,” said Durbin. “Let’s not forget that 11 years ago, he [Putin] militarily seized Crimea and other parts of eastern Ukraine. More than three years ago Putin tried to take over Ukraine itself and install a puppet regime beholden to him.”  

    Since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian people have been resilient amid the brutal Russian onslaught, as Durbin outlined in his speech.

    “With advance warning and weapons from the United States, the brave Ukrainians defied the experts. They said the Ukrainians couldn’t last two weeks defending their country against the second largest military in the world. The experts were wrong. Those Ukrainians have protected their Independence from brutality, but at great cost in lives, destruction, and territory. The costs have been staggering—thousands of individuals have lost their lives because of this Russian invasion… Why do I revisit the obvious?  Because it has been obvious for more than a decade that Vladimir Putin isn’t interested in ending the war,” said Durbin. “Obvious to everyone perhaps except our own President.” 

    During his speech, Durbin warned President Trump not to be fooled by Putin.

    Durbin continued, “President Trump promised he would end this war first day in office. Instead, Trump and his Vice President publicly humiliated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and made embarrassing overtures to Putin. Putin’s response has been to thumb his nose at the U.S. and peace efforts. In fact, already this year civilian Ukrainian deaths from Russian attacks are higher than they were during the same period last year and assaults on civilian targets in the last two weeks alone have been relentless.”

    “I want this war to end, but it should not be a blatant giveaway to Putin or driven by any illusion about Putin’s long-term intentions to control Ukraine and weaken the NATO alliance. Nor can it come at the security expense of our Baltic and Polish allies who are also in Putin’s crosshairs. That is why Leader Thune needs to immediately put Senator Graham’s Russia sanctions bill, which I and 80 other Senators have cosponsored, on the Floor for a vote… It is also time for us to prepare another Ukraine supplemental [as] Ukraine needs the equipment and ammunition.”

    Durbin concluded, “President Trump: the whole world is watching to see if you will stand firm against Putin, especially our other adversaries. Putin is not your friend and not a friend of the United States. You do not want your legacy to be appeasement and surrender to Russia and a weakening of our transatlantic security.” 

    Durbin condemned President Trump after he publicly attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Further parroting a Kremlin propaganda point, President Trump also falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war against Russia. In the post, President Trump claimed the U.S. was “duped” into spending billions to help Ukraine defend itself following Russia’s 2022 full-scale military invasion and that President Zelenskyy is a “dictator without elections.”

    Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

    Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

    Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

      

    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Police National Security Department arrests one man and four women

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force yesterday (June 2) arrested a man and four women, aged between 24 and 38, for “conspiracy to commit terrorist activities�.

    Investigation revealed that the arrested persons were allegedly involved in making police reports via telephone, email and instant messaging applications on multiple occasions between April 29 and May 13, including content which claimed to detonate bombs planted within various offices of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong and Kai Tak Sports Park, as well as seditious message which incited Taiwan independence and Hong Kong independence.

    Police conducted searches at the arrested persons’ residences with court warrants. Some electronic communication devices suspected to be involved in the case were seized.

    The arrested man is being detained for further enquiries. The four arrested women were released on bail pending further investigations.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Flight tickets – E-000781/2025(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    Decades of liberalisation of the air services market[1] and regulation of air ticket distribution[2] have led to a mature distribution market.

    The Air Services Regulation provides for pricing freedom of air carriers and the Booking.com[3] case law has underlined the right of businesses to set differentiated prices across different channels.

    The widespread presence of flight offers in different channels is an indicator of competition. In this context, while some airlines may opt for particular intermediaries, other airlines may opt to disintermediate some of their tickets. This is a usual commercial practice seen in many competitive markets.

    Limiting airline freedom to deal with intermediaries of their choice and negotiate distribution contracts could disrupt the balance between airlines and intermediaries and may undermine competition between airlines.

    Consumer protection and passenger rights apply equally to all flight-only ticket sales, irrespective of the channel. There are also specific protections for package travel[4].

    In 2023, the Commission proposed that intermediaries, where they acquire a ticket on behalf of a passenger, shall provide the contact details of the passenger to the air carrier, so that the air carrier can comply with certain obligations it has under Union law, such as re-routing, information and provision of care[5].

    Furthermore, the Commission plans to adopt a proposal on Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) in 2025, to achieve seamless multimodal passenger transport.

    The initiative aims to set out principles to facilitate cooperation between transport operators and intermediaries and to improve the availability of flight tickets in multimodal platforms.

    • [1] Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 ( Air Services Regulation) on common rules for the operation of air services in the Community, OJ L 293, 31.10.2008, p. 3-20.
    • [2] Regulation (EC) No 80/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 January 2009 on a Code of Conduct for computerised reservation systems, OJ L 35, 4.2.2009, p. 47-55.
    • [3] European Court of Justice, Case Booking.com and Booking.com (Deutschland), C-264/23 , paras. 61 and 62 ‘so far as concerns wide parity clauses, which prohibit partner hoteliers referenced on the reservation platform from offering, on their own sales channels or on sales channels operated by third parties, rooms at a lower price than that offered on that platform, they do not appear to be objectively necessary for the main operation of providing online hotel reservation services or proportionate to the objective pursued by it. After all, there is no intrinsic link between the continued existence of the main activity of the hotel reservation platform and the imposition of such clauses, which clearly produce appreciable restrictive effects’.
    • [4] Directive (EU) 2015/2302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on package travel and linked travel arrangements, OJ L 326, 11.12.2015, p. 1-33.
    • [5] Please see COM(2023) 753 final, Art. 14a, and COM(2023) 752 final, Art. 5.
    Last updated: 3 June 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Workshops – Generative AI and copyright – 04-06-2025 – Committee on Legal Affairs

    Source: European Parliament

    Picture GenAI.PNG © Europarl

    The Committee on Legal Affairs, with the support of the Policy Department for Justice, Civil Liberties and Institutional Affairs, is organising a Workshop entitled: Generative AI and copyright. The event will take place on 4 June 2025, from 9:00 to 10:45.

    A study requested by the JURI Committee on the legal aspects of the phenomenon will be presented by its author. Two experts will address the technological and economic dimensions of the complex relationship between copyright and so-called GenAI. The event will take place on 4 June 2025, from 9:00 to 10:45, and will be followed by the exchange of views on the JURI own-initiative report on Copyright and generative artificial intelligence – opportunities and challenges, Rapporteur Axel Voss (EPP).

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Workshops – The 28th Regime: a new legal framework for innovative companies – 05-06-2025 – Committee on Legal Affairs

    Source: European Parliament

    Workshop 28th regime © europarl

    The Committee on Legal Affairs, with the support of the Policy Department for Justice, Civil Liberties and Institutional Affairs in cooperation, is organising a Workshop, entitled: The 28th Regime: a new legal framework for innovative companies. The event will take place on 5 June 2025, from 9:00 to 10:30.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Is the 2040 intermediate climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 % legally and economically feasible? – E-001551/2025(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    EU climate policies have been highly effective, with EU net territorial emissions meeting the 2020 target already in 2019 ahead of 2020 and being 37% below 1990 levels in 2023[1].

    Consumption-based emissions can be beyond the EU legislator’s jurisdiction. Still, this footprint as estimated by the Directorate-General for Statistics (ESTAT) declined by 14% between 2010 and 2022 while the gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 19%[2].

    The EU is implementing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)[3] to address carbon leakage and actively engages with partners to support them in creating effective policies to reduce their territorial emissions, including through effective carbon pricing mechanisms.

    The Impact Assessment[4] accompanying the communication on the 2040 target[5]. provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the recommended target in accordance with the Better Regulation requirements[6] and considers all the elements listed in the article 4(5) of the European Climate Law[7].

    As highlighted in the communication, investments in the energy system are estimated at about 3.2% of the GDP in 2031-2050, the majority of which would be needed in any case to modernise the EU’s energy system.

    In addition, it shows that decarbonisation of the economy will generate major co-benefits, including sharp cuts in fossil fuels imports, significantly improved economic resilience and strategic autonomy, and reduced healthcare costs and mortality due to air pollution. The cost of inaction and corresponding damages have also been assessed.

    The impact assessment also considered different global climate policy contexts depending on the evolution of climate policy by major relevant players.

    • [1] 2024 Climate Action Progress Report, COM(2024) 498 final.
    • [2] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nama_10_gdp/default/table?lang=en&category=na10.nama10.nama_10_ma.
    • [3]  Regulation (EU) 2023/956.
    • [4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52024SC0063.
    • [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2024%3A63%3AFIN.
    • [6] https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-making-process/better-regulation_en.
    • [7] Regulation (EU) 2021/1119.
    Last updated: 3 June 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Brisbane 2032 Games Coordination Commission Visit: A Collective Vision

    Source:

    Thank you Andrew for your kind introduction and welcome.

    It’s a pleasure to be here, and I thank the Brisbane 2032 OCOG for hosting this event. 

    I want to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet the Turrbal and Jagera peoples and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

    Together Australians stand on the shoulders of 1,600 generations of First Nations people, and that is our shared history.

    I also acknowledge to CO-Com, executives and the IOC delegation, particularly President-elect Kirsty Coventry and new Co-Com Chair Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski, who is all but a local… training under own Vicki Roycroft at the Brisbane Showgrounds… Mikee, please know, I view you as my Vicki Roycroft.

    Thank you to my fellow OCOG members, and AOC President Ian Chesterman and new CEO Mark Arbib… Mark’s presence means there are three Federal Sport Ministers in this room – what could go wrong.

    While our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wishes he could be here this week with you, he has just returned from the Pope’s inauguration in Rome.

    If there is one sentence that resonates long after you leave Brisbane… I hope it is this –

    The re-election of the Albanese Government ensures Australia is absolutely committed to making the Brisbane Games – a great Games, for our athletes, for Queensland, Australia and the Pacific.

    There’s a quote from outgoing President Bach that has stuck with me and lights our path to 2032…

    “Like no other human activity, sport is about bringing people together in the spirit of friendship and respect. Sport always builds bridges, it never erects walls.”

    The Australian government views Brisbane 2032 as an amphitheatre for our athletes to bring people together for greater health and social cohesion from playground to podium. 

    Because sport makes us hug strangers. And we have evidence of that right below us – on that grass.

    I understand there is a tour of this stadium later today but this venue is so much more than turnstiles and corporate boxes.

    You see, for decades that grass behind you was only known for men clashing in violent rugby contests.

    Until we hosted the Women’s Football World Cup in 2023, when just down there, three seconds changed a nation.

    A moment when a young woman called Cortnee Vine, who learned to kick a ball in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, 10 kms north of here, curled a penalty past France’s goalkeeper to send Australia through to the World Cup semi-final. 

    Our greatest World Cup achievement.

    I was sitting just up there. I cried. I launched a ferocious hug on a bewildered Prime Minister that prompted Federal Police to hover.

    Cortnee’s goal speaks to why the 2032 Games must be about sporting Moments not monoliths.

    That moment and significant funding from the Australian government led to a ten per cent increase in women’s football participation post tournament.

    That match is among the top five most watched television programs in Australian history.

    In fact, four of those five are women’s sporting events, including Cathy Freeman’s 400 metre gold in Sydney.

    This September marks 25 years since those Sydney Games transformed Australia.

    Brisbane 2032 must and will drive even greater participation and social cohesion.

    As a key Games Delivery Partner, I want to assure the Games family the Australian Government is a steadfast partner and we thank the IOC for your esteemed leadership.

    Our immediate areas of focus include governance, infrastructure, impact and legacy.

    I know how dedicated the IOC is to fostering sport through the Pacific and note your recent trip to Guam – we share that same passion.

    We will make 2032 a north star for a more inclusive sport environment throughout the region and for our Pacific family.

    From the outset the Australian Government has backed Brisbane 2032.

    We provided more than $8.6 million to the Queensland Government to support its candidature bid and its only grown from there.

    Already, our 2032 funding commitment across infrastructure, transport, high performance, major events and grass roots has exceeded $16 billion dollars. 

    This includes more than $12.4 billion dollars in Games related transport, more than $3.4 billion dollars in Games venues and in the past 18 months alone almost a billion-dollar commitment to grass roots and high-performance sport.

    Crucially, we made a two year $489 million in Olympic and Paralympic sport as we head to LA28.

    This is the largest Olympic and Paralympic sport investment ever.

    This means that 95% of Olympic and Paralympic summer sports are receiving increased funding with an average increase of 64% per year, compared to the period leading up to Paris Games.

    More sports are being supported too, with an increase from 54 to 68 summer Olympic and Paralympic programs funded in the lead-up to LA.

    We have also increased our Direct Athlete Investment Scheme – DAIS – funding, boosting it to $41.4m across two years.

    DAIS is money in the athlete’s pocket so they can spend more time training and less time fundraising.

    This means more than 1000 Australian athletes now receive DAIS funding.

    Crucially we have also doubled the money going towards Paralympic sports with an extra $54.9m over the next two years.

    The is the largest commitment an Australian government has made to Para-Sport and will shift the balance of funding from 85 per cent able bodied and 15 per cent people with a disability, to 75 per cent able bodied and 25 per cent people with a disability.

    And, while it hasn’t been announced yet, the Federal Government will invest an additional $2.1m so our Paralympians can travel to Milan Cortina to chase gold. 

    We are determined to do more – because we know 3 in 4 Australians with a disability want to play sport but only 1 in 4 have the opportunity.

    While as Minister for Sport, I am first and foremost athlete-led.

    We have also made major infrastructure commitments including a record $249m for the Australian Institute of Sport to improve our national centre of excellence where our juniors and elites train. 

    This is the biggest investment in the AIS since the early 80’s – before Kirsty and I were born.

    This is on top of our $200m Play Our Way fund for women’s and girls sport infrastructure and programs – the largest ever sport funding package to build female changerooms and women-specific sporting environments.

    And… since we came to Government Labor has funded more than $80m in Major Events as well including the Canoe World Champs that the IOC’s own Jess Fox will star in later this year.

    The Albanese Government will also invest up to $3.435 billion in Games venues in a 50/50 partnership with the Queensland Government.

    BUT – we are also funding significant Games transport.

    $12.4 billion committed for transport projects in South East Queensland already identified by the Queensland Government as necessary for the Games.

    This includes faster rail, highway upgrades, and major connection pieces that support 2032.

    So this $16 billion commitment will revitalise the AIS, boost high‑performance sport, increase participation, reduce injuries, enhance guardrails and sport safety, fund legacy arenas and the connections that allow people to visit them while improving integrity for the benefit of all Australians.

    And recent news helps us all. Last week I was honoured to be named Minister for Communications, opening greater synergies for the world’s biggest media event.

    Sport and Comms is now in the infrastructure department, and already Sport Integrity Australia have flagged a goal to embed integrity as a design principle of sport infrastructure.

    We are also continuing work on our IOC Guarantees.

    As part of the candidature process to secure hosting rights, the Albanese Government committed to a range of operational support services.

    These include communications, national security, taxation, integrity, safety and safeguarding, and visa handling.

    We are committed to delivering on these guarantees, taking a coordinated approach across all involved departments to create solutions.

    These threads I’m discussing today are hemmed through Australia’s first ever ten-year plan for sport.

    Australia’s National Sport Strategy, Sport Horizon, will capitalise on sport’s power, and outlines my government’s priorities for this sector.

    It affirms our commitment to creating a safe, fair, and sustainable sector that grows participation, drives positive social change, grows our economy and strengthens international relationships.

    It emphasises the pursuit of gender equity.

    For the first time in Australian history, sporting boardrooms across Australia must meet gender equity targets or risk government funding being withdrawn.

    I have mandated our sports sector must achieve the following governance targets by no later than 1 July 2027:

    50% of all board directors are women and/or gender diverse 

    50% of board chairs are women and/or gender diverse 

    50% of specified board sub-committee members are women and/or gender diverse.

    Because we view sport as a transponder for social change. 

    As President Bach says, sport builds bridges, never erects walls.

    And… we must remember this – 

    The Games’ most valuable treasure – is its athletes. 

    It is not about politicians or political point-scoring.

    Our job is to work with Federations to create environments where brilliance thrives, and then… get out of the way.

    Our job is to enable athletic moments to replace monoliths in 2032.

    So that grass right there conjures the next Cortnee Vine.

    So the aquatic centre a kilometre away creates history like Kirsty did in Athens and Beijing. 

    So Victoria Park is an amphitheatre for our next Cathy Freeman gold medal euphoria.

    I was born and raised in this city… 

    I am not just determined, I am obsessed. Brisbane 2032 will be a great Games.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Admiral Rock — RCMP charges a man with sexual offences against a child

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    East Hants District RCMP has charged a man with sexual offences against a child that occurred in Admiral Rock.

    Yesterday, at approximately 3:20 p.m., RCMP officers responded to a report of abduction on Mosher Rd. Officers learned that two children were riding their bicycles when a man standing at the end of a driveway flagged them down. The man, whom the children did not know, grabbed one of them by the arm, entered the nearby residence with the child, exposed himself, and uttered threats.

    The child screamed and ran out of the home to get help. The two children were not physically injured.

    RCMP officers attended the residence where the incident occurred and arrested a 34-year-old man from Admiral Rock.

    Gregory McDonald has been charged with:

    • Kidnapping
    • Invitation to Sexual Touching
    • Indecent Act – Exposure
    • Assault
    • Uttering Threats

    The investigation is ongoing.

    File #: 2025-761776

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Ohio Based Nonprofit and Affiliated Nursing Homes Agree to Pay $3.61M to Resolve False Claims Act Liability

    Source: US State of California

    American Health Foundation (AHF), its affiliate AHF Management Corporation, and three affiliated nursing homes — Cheltenham Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (Cheltenham), The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place (Wilmington Place), and Samaritan Care Center and Villa (Samaritan) — have agreed to pay $3.61 million to resolve claims related to billing Medicare and Medicaid for grossly substandard skilled nursing services between 2016 and 2018. AHF is a nonprofit corporation that is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, and owns and controls nursing homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Cheltenham is a 255-bed nursing home located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington Place is a 63-bed nursing home located in Dayton, Ohio; and Samaritan is a 56-bed nursing home located in Medina, Ohio.

    “Nursing homes are expected to provide their residents, which include some of our most vulnerable citizens, with quality care and to treat them with dignity and respect,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brenna Jenny of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department will not tolerate nursing homes — or their owners or managing entities — abdicating these responsibilities and seeking taxpayer funds to which they are not entitled.”  

    The United States’ complaint, filed in June 2022, alleged that the aforementioned three AHF nursing homes provided grossly substandard services that failed to meet required standards of care in various ways. For example, the United States alleged that each facility failed to follow appropriate infection control protocols and had problems maintaining adequate staffing levels. The United States also alleged that Cheltenham housed its residents in a dirty, pest-infested building; gave its residents unnecessary medications, including antibiotic, antipsychotic, antianxiety, and hypnotic drugs; deprived its residents of their dignity by subjecting them to verbal abuse, leaving them without meaningful activities or stimulation, and failing to safeguard their possessions, including money, clothing, and other personal items; and failed to provide needed psychiatric care. The United States similarly alleged that Wilmington Place had repeated failures relating to resident mediations, including the provision of unnecessary drugs, and persistently failed to create and maintain crucial resident care plans and assessments. Finally, the United States alleged that Samaritan had repeated failures related to resident care plans and assessments, and housed residents in a building and on grounds that often were not safe and sanitary.

    Contemporaneously with the settlement announced today, the AHF entities agreed to enter into a chain-wide, quality of care Corporate Integrity Agreement with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, which will remain in effect for five years and address quality of care and resident safety within the AHF entities’ skilled nursing facilities.

    The case is captioned United States v. American Health Foundation Inc.; AHF Management Corporation; AHF Montgomery Inc. doing business as Cheltenham Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; and AHF Ohio Inc. doing business as The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place and doing business as Samaritan Care Center and Villa, Case No. 2:22-cv-02344 (E.D. Pa.).  

    The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of an effort by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. This matter was handled by Fraud Section attorneys Ben Young and Susan Lynch.

    The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: DACA recipient and another sentenced for scheme involving firearms destined for Mexico

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    McALLEN, Texas – Two men residing in Edinburg have been sentenced for their roles in the straw purchasing of firearms, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.

    Mario Elier Leal, 22, and Rodolfo Benitez-Garza, 24, pleaded guilty in 2024.

    Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane has now ordered Leal to serve a total of 97 months in federal prison, while Benitez-Garza received 18 months. Benitez-Garza must serve three years of supervised release following the completion of his sentence. Lacking status in the United States, Leal is expected to face removal proceedings after serving his prison term.

    At the hearings, the court heard additional evidence that described how Benitez-Garza and Jesus Cristo Lopez purchased the firearms on behalf of Leal. Leal would provide the money and advise which firearms he wanted. The court noted Leal was aware the firearms were to be transported into Mexico, that he played a significant role in recruiting others to purchase firearms on his behalf and could be described as a coordinator.

    On July 12, 2024, authorities discovered a suspected straw purchasing attempt involving Benitez-Garza and Lopez who attempted to obtain three AK-47 variant rifles. Leal was circling the parking lot at that time and had previously visited the same location with Lopez.

    The investigation revealed Leal provided the money for the purchases and offered Benitez-Garza and Lopez approximately $300 for their assistance. Both falsely claimed the rifles were for personal use when they were actually intended for Leal.

    Evidence revealed Leal had recruited Lopez and directed him to find another individual. Surveillance captured Leal at multiple stores with others suspected of purchasing firearms on his behalf.

    Authorities have identified 13 other firearms suspected of being purchased for Leal. As a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, Leal is prohibited from owning a firearm per federal law.

    Benitez-Garza was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future while Leal will remain in custody.

    Lopez, 21, is set for sentencing in August.

    Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted the investigation with the assistance of Mission Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose A. Garcia prosecuted the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Felon Caught Twice with Guns and Drugs Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Tuesday sentenced a convicted felon who was caught twice with guns and drugs to 14 years in prison.

    Evidence and testimony during the February trial of Antonio Dixson, 37, of St. Louis, showed that Dixson was caught with two guns and drugs on Dec. 1, 2020, in Wentzville, Missouri. Dixson was in the rear seat of a Honda SUV that had fled from St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers two weeks earlier. When Dixson stepped out of the vehicle, a Glock pistol fell from his waist to the ground. A Taurus Judge revolver, loaded with two.45 caliber rounds and three .410 shotgun shells, was visibly protruding from his pocket. Police then found ammunition and drugs in his pockets. He had 31 tablets of clonazepam laced with PCP, 100 capsules containing a mixture of para-fluorofentanyl, fentanyl, and morphine, eight tablets containing fentanyl, 0.5 grams of cocaine and 5.5 grams of crystal methamphetamine, a sentencing memorandum says. He also had six cellular phones and over $700 cash. Due to COVID-era restrictions, Dixson was booked and released from custody, the memo says.

    Dixson was undeterred by the arrest, and was arrested again on Feb. 25, 2021, by St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers who spotted a Mercury Villager driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Officers found a .45 caliber Colt model 1911, a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol, and drugs in Dixson’s pants pockets. Those drugs included tablets containing meth, 6.76 grams of crystal meth and 0.63 grams of cocaine base.

    Both the drugs and weapons Dixson possessed presented a great danger to the public, the memo says. Dixson has also repeatedly been convicted of various crimes and “remains unrepentant even now,” the memo says, adding that in the last 19 years, Dixson has spent more than 16 years either behind bars or under court supervision.

    In February, jurors found Dixson guilty of two counts of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a defaced firearm.

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Wentzville Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Dunkel and Hal Goldsmith prosecuted the case.

    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. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Wawa Assault in January 2022 Leads to Prison Term

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

                WASHINGTON – Charles Edwards, 49, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for assaulting and pointing a gun at two individuals in a Wawa convenience store in Northwest, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department.

                Edwards was found guilty by a jury on January 2, 2024, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, unlawful possession of a firearm, and other related offenses. The Honorable Errol Arthur sentenced the defendant on June 2, 2025, to the prison term. Following his term of imprisonment, the defendant will serve a period of three years of supervised release.

                According to court documents, in the early morning hours on January 22, 2022, Edwards got into an argument with another man near the Wawa. That man ran into the store to escape Edwards, but Edwards followed him and again confronted him. A Special Police Officer (SPO) working at Wawa escorted Edwards out of the store. Minutes later, Edwards went back to the store and again chased the man around the store, and then pulled out a loaded handgun and pointed it at both that man and the Wawa’s cashier who was standing in front of him. Edwards eventually left the store, and threatened the SPO, who was on the phone with 911.

                Edwards was arrested on a warrant on August 17, 2022, and has been in custody since.

                In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Pirro and Chief Smith commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department. They acknowledged the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Toogun and Benjamin Helfand, who prosecuted the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Romanian National Sentenced for Defrauding Banks and Leaving Hundreds of Banking Customers as Victims in His Wake

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    PROVIDENCE – A Romanian national illegally present in the United States who is described in court documents as being an “undeterred serial scammer” who left hundreds of victims in his wake after stealing and using their personal banking information has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison and will face deportation proceedings, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

    Mario Demarco, a/k/a Marius Lupu a/k/a David Adamec, 30, pleaded guilty in January to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy to 33 months in federal prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Additionally, Demarco was ordered to pay restitution totaling $16,567.06.

    An immigration detainer has been lodged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Court documents reflect that for more than two years, beginning in October 2022, Demarco traveled up and down the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic installing skimming devices on ATMs. These devices intercepted hundreds of customers’ debit card and banking information, which Demarco used to create fraudulent debit cards. The bogus cards were then used to make unauthorized cash withdrawals, attempted withdrawals, and purchases.

    Throughout the course of the conspiracy, Demarco installed skimming devices on at least ten ATMs and compromised at least 952 cards. Demarco owes restitution to fifteen different banks.

    The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Taylor A. Dean and Ly T. Chin.

    The matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Warwick, RI, Police Department, Cranston, RI, Police Department, East Greenwich, RI, Police Department, North Kingstown, RI,  Police Department, East Providence, RI, Police Department, Boston, MA, Police Department, New York City Police Department, and the Stratford, CT, Police Department.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Two Interrelated Drug Rings Taken Down in Series of Arrests Following Wiretap Investigation

    Source: US FBI

    Follows earlier arrests focused on dealers in International District and “the Jungle”

    Seattle – Fourteen people were indicted in late May and eleven were taken into custody in coordinated arrests last week as part of an ongoing investigation of drug traffickers with ties to drug trafficking in Seattle’s International District and homeless encampments, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. The defendants are charged in two separate indictments with trafficking cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine from California into the Western District of Washington.  In addition to searches of Washington locations, search warrants were executed in Oregon and Southern California. The defendants have detention hearings over the next few days.

    “The indictment of five defendants in January 2025 was just the first step,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. “Now we are prosecuting fourteen additional defendants. Law enforcement partners continued to pursue drug traffickers even after the initial arrests in January to address the importation of substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine into western Washington generally and the International District in particular.” 

    “For years, this criminal organization preyed on the homeless and drug addicted. They terrorized people living and working in the Chinatown-International District and South Seattle,” said Seattle Police Chief Shon F. Barnes. “I am proud of the work our detectives and federal partners have done to put these criminals behind bars where they belong.”

    The seven defendants named in the first indictment for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin are:

    Octavio Salazar Palma, 33, of Federal Way, Washington, a U.S. citizen

    Luis Soto Lara, 47, of Vancouver, Washington

    Juan Ramirez Recinos, 41, of Burien, Washington, sought by law enforcement

    German Juarez-Otanez, 34, Bothell, Washington, sought by law enforcement

    Alexander Emilio Cozza, 42, of Seattle

    Marco Antonio Bobadilla, 33, Pacific, Washington

    Isai Gamboa Pacheco, 55, of Everett, Washington

    The seven defendants in the second indictment for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine are:

    Daniel Ibarra Loera, 31, of Kent, Washington

    Jose Garcia Corona, 61, of Seattle

    Leonardo Rojas Cruz, 53 of Federal Way, Washington

    Oscar Omar Serrano Serrano, 31, of Algona, Washington

    Juan Lopez Roblero, 43, of Tukwila, Washington

    Giovanni Antonio Garduno Garcia, 46, of Issaquah, Washington

    Sang Su, 44, Seattle, a U.S. citizen, sought by law enforcement

    In this investigation in March 2025 alone, law enforcement seized 100 pounds of methamphetamine, 111 kilos of cocaine, 19 kilos of fentanyl powder, 250,000 fentanyl pills, and four kilos of heroin. The street value of the narcotics is nearly $3 million.

    “Thanks to the sustained investigative efforts of the FBI and our partners, we are continuing the work we began in November 2023 by first intercepting the flow of dose quantities of dangerous drugs into the International District and homeless encampments in Seattle,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Since January 2025, when we arrested five Washington-based members of this organization, we followed the investigation outside of Washington state as the traffickers made frequent trips into Oregon and California. We are now reaching sources of supply, further stopping these poisons—and the violence that accompanies them—from reaching our communities.”

    On May 29, 2025, law enforcement executed 16 search warrants in Federal Way, Vancouver, Everett, Pacific, Tukwila, Kent, Issaquah, Seattle, Woodlake California and Beaverton, Oregon.  Investigators seized more than seven kilograms of cocaine, 18 kilograms of methamphetamine, more than 57,000 fentanyl pills, and 17 firearms. They also seized more than $353,000 in cash

    Due to the quantities involved some of the defendants face mandatory minimum ten-year prison terms. Federal law enforcement is still determining the citizenship status of many of the defendants in this case.

    “This trafficking group was a major supplier of deadly drugs to the International District and other communities throughout the Seattle area,” said David F. Reames.  “The fentanyl powder and pills our team seized in this case could have yielded enough lethal doses to kill everyone in Seattle twice.  I am proud of our team and would like to thank the Seattle Police, the FBI, the IRS and the Washington National Guard Counterdrug program for their amazing partnership.”

    “Illegal drug trafficking devastates lives and affects us all. It is a huge issue that requires a forceful response,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Carrie Nordyke, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Seattle Field Office. “This investigation draws from the resilience of our communities, which drives the combined efforts of our law enforcement partners and of our agency. Together, we will push back and continue to make a positive, felt impact for all our friends and neighbors.”

    The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

    The investigation was led by the FBI, Seattle Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with significant assistance from the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program (HIDTA), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Washington National Guard Counterdrug Program. Investigators also worked with the Oregon State Police and Clark County, Washington Sheriff’s Office.

    The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Casey Conzatti and Brian Wynne.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Ohio Based Nonprofit and Affiliated Nursing Homes Agree to Pay $3.61M to Resolve False Claims Act Liability

    Source: United States Attorneys General

    American Health Foundation (AHF), its affiliate AHF Management Corporation, and three affiliated nursing homes — Cheltenham Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (Cheltenham), The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place (Wilmington Place), and Samaritan Care Center and Villa (Samaritan) — have agreed to pay $3.61 million to resolve claims related to billing Medicare and Medicaid for grossly substandard skilled nursing services between 2016 and 2018. AHF is a nonprofit corporation that is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, and owns and controls nursing homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Cheltenham is a 255-bed nursing home located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington Place is a 63-bed nursing home located in Dayton, Ohio; and Samaritan is a 56-bed nursing home located in Medina, Ohio.

    “Nursing homes are expected to provide their residents, which include some of our most vulnerable citizens, with quality care and to treat them with dignity and respect,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brenna Jenny of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department will not tolerate nursing homes — or their owners or managing entities — abdicating these responsibilities and seeking taxpayer funds to which they are not entitled.”  

    The United States’ complaint, filed in June 2022, alleged that the aforementioned three AHF nursing homes provided grossly substandard services that failed to meet required standards of care in various ways. For example, the United States alleged that each facility failed to follow appropriate infection control protocols and had problems maintaining adequate staffing levels. The United States also alleged that Cheltenham housed its residents in a dirty, pest-infested building; gave its residents unnecessary medications, including antibiotic, antipsychotic, antianxiety, and hypnotic drugs; deprived its residents of their dignity by subjecting them to verbal abuse, leaving them without meaningful activities or stimulation, and failing to safeguard their possessions, including money, clothing, and other personal items; and failed to provide needed psychiatric care. The United States similarly alleged that Wilmington Place had repeated failures relating to resident mediations, including the provision of unnecessary drugs, and persistently failed to create and maintain crucial resident care plans and assessments. Finally, the United States alleged that Samaritan had repeated failures related to resident care plans and assessments, and housed residents in a building and on grounds that often were not safe and sanitary.

    Contemporaneously with the settlement announced today, the AHF entities agreed to enter into a chain-wide, quality of care Corporate Integrity Agreement with the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, which will remain in effect for five years and address quality of care and resident safety within the AHF entities’ skilled nursing facilities.

    The case is captioned United States v. American Health Foundation Inc.; AHF Management Corporation; AHF Montgomery Inc. doing business as Cheltenham Nursing and Rehabilitation Center; and AHF Ohio Inc. doing business as The Sanctuary at Wilmington Place and doing business as Samaritan Care Center and Villa, Case No. 2:22-cv-02344 (E.D. Pa.).  

    The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of an effort by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Office of Inspector General. This matter was handled by Fraud Section attorneys Ben Young and Susan Lynch.

    The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Supreme Court changes the game on federal environmental reviews

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By J.B. Ruhl, Professor of Law, Director, Program on Law and Innovation, and Co-director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt University

    A pumpjack in eastern Utah extracts oil from underground. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

    Getting federal approval for permits to build bridges, wind farms, highways and other major infrastructure projects has long been a complicated and time-consuming process. Despite growing calls from both parties for Congress and federal agencies to reform that process, there had been few significant revisions – until now.

    In one fell swoop, the U.S. Supreme Court has changed a big part of the game.

    Whether the effects are good or bad depends on the viewer’s perspective. Either way, there is a new interpretation in place for the law that is the centerpiece of the debate about permitting – the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, known as NEPA.

    Taking a big-picture look

    NEPA requires federal agencies to document and describe the environmental effects of any proposed action, including construction of oil pipelines, renewable energy and other infrastructure projects.

    Only after completing that work can the agency make a final decision to approve or deny the project. These reports must evaluate direct effects, such as the destruction of habitat to make way for a new highway, and indirect effects, such as the air pollution from cars using the highway after it is built.

    Decades of litigation about the scope of indirect effects have widened the required evaluation. As I explain it to my students, that logical and legal progression is reminiscent of the popular children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” in which granting a request for a cookie triggers a seemingly endless series of further requests – for a glass of milk, a napkin and so on. For the highway example, the arguments went, even if the agency properly assessed the pollution from the cars, it also had to consider the new subdivisions, malls and jobs the new highway foreseeably could induce.

    The challenge for federal agencies was knowing how much of that potentially limitless series of indirect effects courts would require them to evaluate. In recent litigation, the question in particular has been how broad a range of effects on and from climate change could be linked to any one specific project and therefore require evaluation.

    With the court’s ruling, federal agencies’ days of uncertainty are over.

    The cover image of the 637-page environmental impact assessment shows a view of the region where a railway is proposed to be built.
    U.S. Surface Transportation Board

    Biggest NEPA case in decades

    On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court – minus Justice Neil Gorsuch, who had recused himself – decided the case of Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, the first major NEPA dispute before the court in 20 years.

    At issue was an 85-mile rail line a group of developers proposed to build in Utah to connect oil wells to the interstate rail network and from there transport waxy crude oil to refineries in Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere. The federal Surface Transportation Board reviewed the environmental effects and approved the required license in 2021.

    The report was 637 pages long, with more than 3,000 pages of appendices containing additional information. It acknowledged but did not give a detailed assessment of the indirect “upstream” effects of constructing the rail line – such as spurring new oil drilling – and the indirect “downstream” effects of the ultimate use of the waxy oil in places as far flung as Louisiana.

    In February 2022, Eagle County, Colorado, through which trains coming from the new railway would pass, along with the Center for Biological Diversity appealed that decision in federal court, arguing that the board had failed to properly explain why it did not assess those effects. Therefore, the county argued, the report was incomplete and the board license should be vacated.

    In August 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed and held that the agency had failed to adequately explain why it could not employ “some degree of forecasting” to identify those impacts and that the board could prevent those effects by exercising its authority to deny the license.

    The railway developers appealed to the Supreme Court, asking whether NEPA requires a federal agency to look beyond the action being proposed to evalutate indirect effects outside its own jurisdiction.

    Petroleum-drilling equipment stands in the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah.
    AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

    A resounding declaration

    Writing for a five-justice majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered a ringing, table-pounding lecture about courts run amok.

    Kavanaugh did not stop to provide specific support for each admonition, describing NEPA as a “legislative acorn” that has “grown over the years into a judicial oak that has hindered infrastructure development.” He bemoaned the “delay upon delay” NEPA imposes on projects as so complicated that it bordered “on the Kafkaesque.”

    In his view, “NEPA has transformed from a modest procedural requirement into a blunt and haphazard tool employed by project opponents.” He called for “a course correction … to bring judicial review under NEPA back in line with the statutory text and common sense.” His opinion reset the course in three ways.

    First, despite the Supreme Court having recently reduced the deference courts must give to federal agency decisions in other contexts, Kavanaugh wrote that courts should give agencies strong deference when reviewing an agency’s NEPA effects analyses. Because these assessments are “fact-dependent, context-specific, and policy-laden choices about the depth and breadth of its inquiry … (c)ourts should afford substantial deference and should not micromanage those agency choices so long as they fall within a broad zone of reasonableness.”

    Second, Kavanaugh crafted a new rule saying that the review of one project did not need to consider the potential indirect effects of other related projects it could foreseeably induce, such as the rail line encouraging more drilling for oil. This limitation is especially relevant, Kavanaugh emphasized, when the effects are from projects over which the reviewing agency does not have jurisdiction. That applied in this case, because the board does not regulate oil wells or oil drilling.

    And third, Kavanaugh created something like a “no harm – no foul” rule, under which “even if an (environmental impact statement) falls short in some respects, that deficiency may not necessarily require a court to vacate the agency’s ultimate approval of a project.” The strong implication is that courts should not overturn an agency decision unless its NEPA assessment has a serious flaw.

    The upshot for the project at hand was that the Supreme Court deferred to the board’s decision that it could not reliably predict the rail line’s effects on oil drilling or use of the oil transported. And the fact that the agency had no regulatory power over those separate issues reinforced the idea that those concerns were outside the scope of the board’s required review.

    A train rolls along a stretch of track in Utah that could be connected with a proposed railway to carry oil to market.
    AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

    A split court

    Although Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that she would have reached the same end result and upheld the agency permit, her proposed test is far narrower.

    By her reading, the federal law creating the Surface Transportation Board restricted it from considering the broader indirect effects of the rail line. But her finding would be relevant only for any federal agencies whose governing statutes were similarly restrictive. By contrast, Kavanaugh’s “course correction” applies to judicial review of NEPA findings for all federal agencies.

    Though the full effects remain to be seen, this decision significantly changes the legal landscape of environmental reviews of major projects. Agencies will have more latitude to shorten the causal chain of indirect effects they consider – and to exclude them entirely if they flow from separate projects beyond the agency’s regulatory control.

    Now, for example, if a federal agency is considering an application to build a new natural gas power plant, the review must still include its direct greenhouse gas emissions and their effects on the climate. But emissions that could result from additional gas extraction and transportation projects to fuel the power plant, and any climate effects from whatever the produced electricity is used for, are now clearly outside the agency’s required review. And if the agency voluntarily decided to consider any of those effects, courts would have to defer to its analysis, and any minor deficiencies would be inconsequential.

    That is a far cry from how the legal structure around the National Environmental Policy Act has worked for decades. For lawyers, industry, advocacy groups and the courts, environmental review after the Eagle County decision is not just a new ballgame; it is a new sport.

    J.B. Ruhl 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. Supreme Court changes the game on federal environmental reviews – https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-changes-the-game-on-federal-environmental-reviews-257881

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Ukraine ‘spiderweb’ drone strike fails to register at peace talks as both sides dig in for the long haul

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

    News of the spectacular “spiderweb” mass drone attack on Russian air bases on June 1 will have been uppermost in the minds of delegates who assembled the following day for another round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. The attack appears to have been a triumph of Ukrainian intelligence and planning that destroyed or damaged billions of pounds’ worth of Russian aircraft stationed at bases across the country, including at locations as far away as Siberia.

    Ukraine’s drone strikes, much like Russia’s intensifying air campaign, hardly signal either side’s sincere commitment to negotiations. As it turned out, little of any consequence was agreed at the brief meeting between negotiators, beyond a prisoner swap, confirming yet again that neither a ceasefire nor a peace agreement are likely anytime soon.

    But the broader context of developments on the battlefield and beyond can offer important clues about the trajectory of the war in the coming months.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    At an earlier meeting in Istanbul in May, Moscow and Kyiv agreed to draft and exchange detailed proposals for a settlement. The Ukrainian proposal restated the longstanding position of Kyiv and its western allies that concessions on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country are unacceptable.

    In other words, a Russian-imposed neutrality ruling out Nato membership and limiting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces is a non-starter for Kyiv. So is any international recognition of Moscow’s illegal land-grabs since 2014, including the annexation of Crimea.

    The Ukrainian proposal is for an immediate ceasefire along the frontline as “the starting point for negotiations”. Any territorial issues would be discussed “after a full and unconditional ceasefire”.

    In substance, this is very similar to the peace plan presented by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky in late 2022. This was received warmly by Ukraine’s main western allies, but failed to get traction with the broader international community.

    Russia’s proposals, meanwhile, are also mostly old news. Russia maintains its demands for full recognition of Russian territorial claims since 2014, Ukrainian neutrality.

    These stringent Russian demands in return for even a temporary ceasefire are hardly any more serious negotiation positions from Ukraine’s perspective than Kyiv’s proposals are likely to be to Moscow. In fact, what the Kremlin put on the table in Istanbul is more akin to surrender terms.

    Ukraine is in no mood to surrender. The spiderweb drone attack against Russia’s strategic bomber fleet is a significant boost for Ukrainian morale. But, like previous drone strikes against Moscow in June 2023, it means little in terms of signalling a sustainable Ukrainian capability that could even out Russia’s advantages in terms of manpower and equipment.

    The state of the conflict in Ukraine as at June 3 2025.
    Institute for the Study of War

    Closer to the frontlines inside Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces also struck the power grid inside Russian-occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. This may delay any Russian plans to expand its control over the two regions. But, like the latest drone strikes inside Russia, it is at best an operation that entrenches, rather than breaks the current stalemate.

    There is no doubt that Ukraine remains under severe military pressure from Russia along most of the more than 1,000 mile frontline. The country is also still very vulnerable to Russian air attacks.

    But while Russia might continue to make incremental gains on the battlefield, a game-changing Russian offensive or a collapse of Ukrainian defences does not appear to be on the cards.

    International support

    Kyiv’s position will potentially also be strengthened by a new bill in the US senate that threatens the imposition of 500% tariffs on any countries that buy Russian resources. This would primarily affect India and China.

    These are the largest consumers of Russian oil and gas, and if New Delhi and Beijing decide that trade with the US is more important to them cheap imports from Russia, the move could cut Russia off from critical revenues and imports.

    But, given how indecisive Donald Trump has been to date when it comes to putting any real, rather than just rhetorical, pressure on Vladimir Putin, it is not clear whether the proposed senate bill will have the desired effect. The bill has support of over 80 co-sponsors from both the Republican and Democratic caucuses, meaning the senate could overturn a presidential veto. But any delay in imposing tougher sanctions will ultimately play into Putin’s hands.

    By contrast, European support for Ukraine has, if anything, increased in recent months. For example, EU leaders adopted their 17th sanctions package against Russia on May 20. A week later, Germany and Ukraine announced a new military cooperation agreement worth €5 billion (£4.2 billion).

    It still falls short of what Kyiv would require for a major shift in the balance of power on the battlefield. But for now it is enough to prevent Russia from becoming militarily so dominant that Moscow’s current settlement proposals would present the only option for at least some part of Ukraine to survive as an independent state.

    The war remains in a stalemate. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv appear to have the capacity to escalate their military efforts to the degree necessary that would force the other side to make substantial concessions.

    Both sides are playing for time in the hope that their fortunes may change. For Ukraine, this would mean more US military support coupled with more sanctions pressure on Russia, while Europe follows through on building up its own and Ukraine’s defence capabilities.

    Russia’s calculations will be different. Putin will need to keep his few remaining allies – China, Iran and North Korea – on side while trying to make a deal with Trump. This may be impossible to achieve.

    In this case, the Russian dictator’s best hope might be that Trump does not impose any serious sanctions on Russia or its trade partners, let alone lean into increasing military support for Ukraine.

    For both sides, a lot still hinges on Washington. The unpredictability of the Trump White House, much like the self-imposed restraint under Biden, not only makes it unlikely that the war in Ukraine moves beyond the current stalemate, it has become a major, and perhaps the decisive road block that enables both Moscow and Kyiv to dream of victory in a war that has become unwinnable.

    Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

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

    – ref. Ukraine ‘spiderweb’ drone strike fails to register at peace talks as both sides dig in for the long haul – https://theconversation.com/ukraine-spiderweb-drone-strike-fails-to-register-at-peace-talks-as-both-sides-dig-in-for-the-long-haul-257927

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The strategic defence review means three new approaches for the UK

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By David J. Galbreath, Professor of War and Technology, University of Bath

    The UK government’s new strategic defence review has laid out a blueprint aimed at making Britain “secure at home, strong abroad”.

    The review represents a change in how the government thinks about the UK’s defence amid a rapidly changing geopolitical picture. The Labour government launched the review in July 2024 shortly after taking office, as a first step in reassessing UK armed forces in the face of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged at the time: “We live in a more dangerous and volatile world.”

    The government has accepted the review’s 62 recommendations. The most eye-catching parts are investment and development of new weapons: expanding the UK’s nuclear capabilities, drone swarms and long-range missile systems, new F-35 and updated Typhoon fighter jets and autonomous weapon systems.

    Unlike past reviews, this one was conducted by experts outside of the government: former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson, former US National Security Council member and former White House adviser Fiona Hill, and retired British Army officer General Sir Richard Barrons.

    In addition to practical measures of investment and expansion, the review lays out the more difficult changes that are needed to respond to security challenges, namely Russian threats to Europe. Here are three key aspects to understand.

    1. War-fighting ready

    The review says the UK must be “ready to fight and win” a full-scale war. Importantly, it suggests that the UK is no longer in an era of going to war when it chooses – but instead is facing the possibility of being forced into war.

    Academic Mary Kaldor made the distinction between the two types of wars in her book New Wars and Old Wars, stating that old wars are “wars of necessity”, and new wars are “wars of the willing”. Published a few years after the end of the cold war, it’s easy to see why Kaldor made this distinction.

    But the strategic review paints a different picture – that wars of necessity are once again the UK’s primary security concern. This means the UK must be on a different war footing than it has been since 1991.

    As such, the government and the UK armed forces will have to change and become more innovative to meet this challenge. To do this, the review lays out plans for an “integrated force” model (rather than joint forces). It describes this approach as leading to “a more agile and lethal combat force”.

    The review also calls for a “whole society approach”, including expanding the voluntary under-18 cadet forces, protecting national infrastructure and public outreach.

    2. Pace of innovation

    The review includes a host of recommendations for digital innovation and munitions production, and suggests that the defence industry could be an even bigger contributor to growing the economy. But, it notes, the UK’s defence industry is currently “stuck in cold war-era procurement cycles” and processes.

    It points to a need to speed up planning and procurement and improve partnerships with the commercial sector.

    Many digital innovations are being driven by industry in the US and China, such as the work on AI, nanotechnologies, robotics and automation. The challenge for the UK will be how to build good relationships with those countries on innovation which does not have a strong presence in UK digital industries.

    Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey visit the warship HMS Glasgow.
    Lauren Hurley/Number 10/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

    3. Nato first

    The reelection of Donald Trump in 2024 shocked many into thinking that the trans-Atlantic relationship was fast dissolving, though the change has been going on for some time . This review acknowledges that in setting out a “Nato first” approach:

    There is an unequivocal need for the UK to redouble its efforts within the Alliance and to step up its contribution to Euro-Atlantic security more broadly – particularly as Russian aggression across Europe grows and as the United States of America adapts its regional priorities.

    It states that Europe and the transatlantic area will be the UK’s primary reference for security. This marks a shift from the previous “Indo-pacific tilt” defence focus laid out in the 2021 integrated review.

    The Nato-first approach seems to be at odds with the direction of Nato’s largest and most powerful member, the US. Since the end of the 1990s, US presidents have repeatedly sought to realign US grand strategy towards China and away from Europe. Had the Russian Federation not invaded Crimea in 2014, the Obama administration may have been able to carry out this pivot.

    As it stands, with the second Trump presidency and its repeated calls for increasing defence spending from European states (in addition to what has often been seen as less than resolute intentions towards Russia), one might think Nato should be counting its days, rather than being placed at the centre of a new strategic review.

    However, regardless of Trump’s actions, the UK will still matter for Washington for the foreseeable future, because it remains an ally and it does defence well. Nato still remains the way to do coalition-building because it has been around for so long and has built up the institutions to do high-level defence cooperation and coordination.

    The review recognises the direction of travel for Washington, and how much it requires the UK and other European governments to invest in their own defence.

    David J. Galbreath has received funding from the UKRI.

    – ref. The strategic defence review means three new approaches for the UK – https://theconversation.com/the-strategic-defence-review-means-three-new-approaches-for-the-uk-258002

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: South Texas stash house discovered by ICE Rio Grande Valley leads to the arrest of 16 illegal aliens

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    HARLINGEN, Texas — A suspected stash house in Mercedes, Texas, was uncovered June 2 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement resulting in the apprehension of 16 illegal aliens.

    On June 1, ICE received a tip from an anonymous caller reporting that multiple illegal aliens were being harbored at a residence in Mercedes. ICE contacted the Mercedes Police Department, which conducted a welfare check of the property. Authorities spoke to the owner of the property who admitted to harboring approximately 16 individuals inside the home.

    “This operation underscores the critical role that the public and local law enforcement partners play in identifying and disrupting human smuggling operations,” said ICE Homeland Security Investigations Rio Grande Valley Deputy Special Agent in Charge Mark Lippa. “Transnational criminal networks continue to endanger lives for profit. ICE will relentlessly pursue those who exploit vulnerable individuals for financial gain.”

    The 16 individuals encountered were identified as nationals of Nepal, Albania, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. Sixteen were taken into custody for immigration violations and another individual, a Mexican national, is being questioned for his role in human smuggling.

    The investigation remains ongoing. The enforcement action was supported by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations.

    Members of the public are encouraged to report suspicious activity or tips related to human smuggling by calling 866-347-2423 or by submitting an anonymous tip via the ICE online tip form.

    Follow HSI San Antonio on X at @HSI_SanAntonio to learn more about its enforcement efforts and investigations.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Don Davis Statement on Snow Hill Board of Commissioners Voting to Reinstate Police Department

    Source: US Congressman Don Davis (NC-01)

    SNOW HILL, NC — Congressman Don Davis (NC-01) released the following statement after the decision by Snow Hill commissioners to reinstate the Snow Hill Police Department:

    “The Snow Hill Board of Commissioners acted unitedly and decisively, voting 5 to 0 to stand with our police department. The vote reflects a deep commitment to the town’s well-being and will better serve the residents moving forward. By prioritizing public safety, Snow Hill is poised to be recognized not only as one of North Carolina’s most charming towns but also as one of our safest.”

     

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Your WhatsApp messages could get you sacked

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Lord, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Law, University of Salford

    Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

    It’s late evening and your phone vibrates with some banter from colleagues. You join the conversation and go to bed feeling part of the work community. You then wake up and have a feeling of apprehension as to how the messages will be perceived.

    WhatsApp might have started as a casual messaging app for friends, but it has now firmly become embedded in workplace communication – and increasingly in workplace conflicts, too.

    WhatsApp chats have also been used to corroborate or refute claims in employment tribunals. An employee might claim they were promised a pay rise or flexible hours via WhatsApp, for example. But on the other hand, employers have also used WhatsApp logs to prove misconduct. This evidence has included sharing confidential information.

    In the workplace, WhatsApp chats have replaced many casual real-life conversations. Colleagues create groups to coordinate work, message each other after hours and vent their frustrations in private messages. Although this feels informal, it can leave employees vulnerable.

    But when disputes escalate to legal action, these messages can help judges understand what really happened. Tribunals treat WhatsApp messages like any other document.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    We examined more than 2,000 cases brought to UK employment tribunal’s since 2019 that involved WhatsApp. The findings reveal a surprising range of ways in which these casual chats became evidence.

    WhatsApp conversations have increasingly played a crucial role in misconduct and discrimination disputes, being used as evidence of harassment or inappropriate behaviour. The messages are also cited in unfair dismissal and contract claims, especially where informal work communications and digital records were seen as central to the case.

    In 2018, 48 cases brought to employment tribunals involved WhatsApp messages. By 2024, that had climbed to 562. The cases span a wide range of jurisdictions, but unfair dismissal, contract breaches, harassment and discrimination were dominant. From the cases we examined, several themes were clear.

    1. Removal or exclusion from a WhatsApp group

    In the case of Ms B Djagbo v Women’s Health Dulwich Ltd, the claimant successfully brought a claim for unfavourable treatment due to pregnancy and maternity. This followed a series of incidents that took place after she informed her employer of her pregnancy.

    Several actions made her feel as though her employment was being prematurely ended, including being removed from the workplace WhatsApp group chat. The tribunal awarded her almost £20,000.

    2. Discriminatory messages or harassment via WhatsApp

    In the Mr D Robson v NGP Utilities Ltd case, the claimant is a gay man and brought a complaint of harassment. This included a series of inappropriate and offensive incidents at work, notably, a WhatsApp group message from a colleague.

    The message was part of a wider pattern of jokes targeting gay colleagues. The employment tribunal awarded him more than £36,000.

    3. Termination of employment via WhatsApp

    The case of Miss J Hodkinson v B&R Care Ltd highlights a pregnant care worker who was awarded more than £40,000 in compensation after being unfairly dismissed via WhatsApp. The fact the dismissal was carried out informally and insensitively supported the tribunal’s findings of “procedural and substantive unfairness”.

    4. WhatsApp communications submitted as evidence

    The Mr M D Black v Alain Charles Publishing Ltd tribunal noted that the claimant’s evidence was consistent with WhatsApp message screenshots included in the evidence bundle. As a result, compensation of almost £100,000 was awarded.

    Seized WhatsApp messages can provide an insight into workplace culture.
    Kafka Ibram/Shutterstock

    WhatsApp groups can also offer a window into workplace culture. Tribunals have seen examples of co-workers using WhatsApp to share sexist and racist jokes or to gossip about colleagues.

    With remote and flexible working, these chats illustrate a growing tension between constant connectivity and work burnout.

    The tribunal cases show just how deeply WhatsApp has become part of working life, blurring the line between personal and professional. Colleagues chat the way friends do.

    But when working relationships sour or rules are broken, each of these informal chats carries legal weight. What someone thought was a single throwaway remark in a private conversation can later be dissected as part of a wider body of evidence.

    There have been cases where an employer was ordered to hand over work-related WhatsApp exchanges, and others where an employee’s own messages were used against them.

    It’s a clear lesson. Privacy in digital communication is never guaranteed. Even encrypted messages can become public in a courtroom.

    WhatsApp dos and don’ts

    The volume of references to WhatsApp in tribunal cases frames some key lessons for both employees and employers. In a nutshell, if you wouldn’t write it in a company email or say it in a meeting, don’t put it into WhatsApp.

    Jokes can be misinterpreted and offensive remarks don’t just go away. Many have learned this the hard way.

    Using WhatsApp to share instructions and decisions might seem convenient, but it shouldn’t replace formal process.

    And for employers, it’s time to update communication policies, including guidelines on after-hours messaging, the use of group chats and respecting expectations of inclusivity.

    Banning WhatsApp might not be practical, but setting out expectations is important. Even a policy stating that any work-related communication on personal messaging apps should adhere to the company’s expected code of conduct is a start.

    Many people are unaware that a private chat can reappear as evidence. Knowing that a tasteless joke on WhatsApp could support a harassment claim potentially costing an unlimited fine, or that ignoring a late-night work message might be used as evidence of poor performance, will harden most people to conduct more mindful communication.

    Gordon Fletcher receives funding from InnovateUK.

    Jonathan Lord and Saad Baset do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Your WhatsApp messages could get you sacked – https://theconversation.com/your-whatsapp-messages-could-get-you-sacked-255073

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian airfields could derail Russia’s war efforts

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By James Horncastle, Assistant Professor and Edward and Emily McWhinney Professor in International Relations, Simon Fraser University

    The drone attacks by Ukrainian Operation Spider’s Web forces on Russian airfields have called into question Russia’s supposed military strength.

    Russian authorities have acknowledged damage from the June 1 attacks — an unusual admission that suggests the strikes were probably effective, given Russia’s usual pattern of downplaying or denying the success of Ukrainian operations.

    The operation’s most significant target was the Belaya air base, north of Mongolia. Belaya, like the other bases targeted, is a critical component in the Russian Air Force’s strategic strike capabilities because it houses planes capable of long-range nuclear and conventional strikes.

    It’s also in Irkutsk, approximately 4,500 kilometres from the front lines in Ukraine.



    Read more:
    Ukraine drone strikes on Russian airbase reveal any country is vulnerable to the same kind of attack

    Ukraine’s ability to successfully strike Belaya — an attempted strike at the even more distant Ukrainka air base failed — probably won’t have much of a military impact on the war. But along with successful attacks on other Russian airfields and the strike at the Kerch Bridge in Crimea, Operation Spider Web’s successes could play a strategic role in the conflict.

    These attacks could shift what has become increasingly negative media coverage and public perception about Ukraine’s chances in the war over the last year. In a war of attrition, which the conflict in Ukraine has become, establishing a belief in victory is a pre-condition for success.

    Explosions hit the Kerch Bridge in Russia on June 3, 2025. (The Independent)

    Increased pessimism

    Policymakers and pundits, instead of recognizing their expectations of a Ukrainian victory in 2023 were unrealistic, have often declared that the war is unwinnable for Ukraine.

    This perspective was even more prevalent following United States President Donald Trump’s resumption of power in January 2025. In the Oval Office spat Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in late February, he declared Ukraine did not “have the cards” to defeat Russia.

    This turned out to be false. Ukraine’s army may possess significantly less military hardware and fewer soldiers than Russia’s, but war is often a continuation of politics. Politically, Russia faces several issues that could derail its war efforts.

    Russian vulnerabilities

    Russia’s military capabilities are important to Russian nationalists, who make up Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s core constituency. Russian military forces have advanced along nearly all fronts in Ukraine over the last year.

    These advances, however, have largely been insignificant. Furthermore, they have emphasized Russia’s military weakness, which is an ongoing affront to Russian nationalists.

    Not only have Russian military advances over the last year not changed the war in a strictly military sense, but the pace of advance has been incredibly slow. Over the last year, Russian forces have captured 5,107 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory. This territory represents less than one per cent of Ukraine’s pre-war territory.

    In exchange for what amounts to negligible gains, Russian armed forces have suffered significant casualties.

    Both Russia and Ukraine carefully guard the number of casualties their forces have suffered in the war. The British Ministry of Defence, however, estimates that Russia will have suffered more than a million casualties in the war by the end of this month. The Russian casualty rate is also accelerating, with an estimated 160,000 casualties in the first four months of 2025.

    Russia attempts to compensate for this battlefield devastation in two ways.

    First, it’s isolated Ukraine by manipulating Trump’s desire for political wins and business deals. Russia, in appearing to seek an end to the conflict while offering no concessions, has stoked tensions between Zelenskyy and Trump, where there was little love lost between the two to begin with.

    Second, Russia has increased its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Large-scale bombing does little to help Russia on the battlefield. The attacks, in fact, put its forces at a disadvantage by redirecting munitions from military targets.

    Attacks on civilians

    The attacks on civilian infrastructure, however, are more about instilling fear in the Ukrainian population and demonstrating American impotence to a Russian audience.

    Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian cities also highlight Russia’s trump card: nuclear weapons. Russia, and specifically former Russian president Dimitry Medvedev, has repeatedly threatened nuclear war in an attempt to dissuade Ukraine’s supporters.

    By bombing Ukrainian cities, albeit with conventional munitions, Russia seeks to demonstrate its ability to deploy even more destructive weapons should the situation call for it.

    These Russian military missteps, combined with a Russian economy that is structurally unsound, means that Russia’s war effort is increasingly fragile.

    Weakening Asian alliances

    Ukraine’s attack on Belaya also signals Russian weakness to its nominal allies in Asia.

    Since the start of hostilities, Russia has relied on the tacit consent of China. This support has taken the form of China purchasing Russian crude oil to maintain the Russian economy and Chinese citizens unofficially fighting for Russia.

    Belaya has been a vital element of Russia’s deterrence strategy in Asia, which has come to rely more heavily on the Russian strategic nuclear threat. The inability of Russia to protect one of its key strategic assets from a Ukrainian drone attack, combined with the weakness of Russian conventional forces in Ukraine, erodes its ability to position itself as a key ally to China.

    In fact, some Russian authorities continue to view China as a major threat.

    At the same time, Operation Spider’s Web gives hope to the Ukrainian people. It may also cause Trump — who prefers to back winners — to ponder whether it’s Putin, not Zelenskyy, who lacks the cards to win the war.

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

    – ref. How Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian airfields could derail Russia’s war efforts – https://theconversation.com/how-ukraines-drone-attacks-on-russian-airfields-could-derail-russias-war-efforts-258049

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –