Source: United States Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock – Georgia
Senator Reverend Warnock Statement on Trump Administration’s Closure of Five Social Security Offices in Georgia
Social Security Offices (SSA) in BRUNSWICK, COLUMBUS, GAINESVILLE, THOMASVILLE, and VIDALIA will be permanently closed
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s announced closures of five Social Security Administration (SSA) offices throughout Georgia. The SSA offices in the following five Georgia cities will be permanently closed: Brunswick, Columbus, Gainesville, Thomasville, and Vidalia. Georgia has the highest number of SSA offices closed for any state so far.
“For millions of Georgians, Social Security provides a baseline of support and stability. It ensures our seniors, who’ve spent decades paying into the program, can afford rent, groceries, and medication. Permanently closing five Georgia Social Security offices will make it harder for Georgia seniors, especially in rural areas, to enroll in the program, solve payment issues, report fraud, and more.
As I have said before, I am all for cutting government waste and abuse, but never at the expense of hardworking Georgians, especially our retired seniors. On the Senate Aging Committee, I’ve worked to protect Georgians from bad actors looking to take advantage of seniors, and this is no different. The closure of these offices will make it significantly harder for Georgians to get access to their benefits or talk through an often confusing bureaucratic system.
Make no mistake: the money taken away from Georgia seniors will go towards tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. I will use every avenue available to fight back against this reckless action and remain focused on getting our seniors the benefits they paid for and rely on to live safe, healthy lives.”
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China’s ‘two sessions’ to offer clear policy signals for high-quality development
A journalist works at a press center for China’s annual “two sessions” in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 27, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
BEIJING, Feb. 28 — China will unveil its annual GDP growth target and policy arrangements for high-quality development at the upcoming national “two sessions” in Beijing.
Contrary to slowdown forecasts by certain Western naysayers, the Chinese economy is well-positioned to sustain its recovery and maintain steady growth this year.
During the “two sessions,” the annual meetings of China’s national legislature and top political advisory body, measures to expand domestic demand and promote sci-tech innovation and high-standard opening up are expected to be outlined.
As a priority, domestic demand will be expanded comprehensively. China has huge potential in consumption and investment. The record highs seen in the domestic Spring Festival holiday box office and the number of trips made during the 40-day festival travel rush attest to the vitality of China’s consumption and economy. More targeted steps are expected to uplift consumption further. Fruitful campaigns such as large-scale equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade-in programs will be expanded. Investment will gain steam in projects to implement major national strategies and build up security capacities in key areas.
This photo taken on Feb. 13, 2025 shows a poster for the Chinese animated film “Ne Zha 2” at a cinema in Chaoyang District of Beijing, capital of China. [Photo/Xinhua]
The private sector, in particular, is expected to gain more momentum in its healthy, high-quality development. In February, a symposium on private enterprises in Beijing lent a significant boost to morale in the sector, which contributes more than 60 percent of GDP and 80 percent of urban employment in China. The country plans to promulgate a private sector promotion law this year, which will stimulate the sector’s development momentum and promote high-quality development.
Fresh efforts are expected to develop new quality productive forces through scientific and technological innovation. Startups DeepSeek and Unitree Robotics, both of which have caught global attention, highlight China’s technological progress. Under the country’s AI Plus initiative and other programs, the integrated development of technology and industry will generate new sources of growth for the Chinese economy. China’s new energy industries and overall green transition, driven by its cutting-edge technologies, will continue to be important growth drivers.
A humanoid robot is on display in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, Feb. 5, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
Amid rising global trade protectionism, China remains committed to expanding its high-standard opening up. An action plan to stabilize foreign investment in 2025 has outlined 20 measures to attract foreign investment, such as those related to upgrading pilot free trade zones and expanding pilot programs in fields such as telecommunication and medical services. China will also work to ensure new progress in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with partner countries.
This year is important in terms of the further, comprehensive deepening of reform to advance Chinese modernization. Reform measures planned for this year are expected to boost high-quality development by optimizing resource allocation and improving the market environment.
Last year, the Chinese economy met its annual growth target of around 5 percent, outperforming other major economies and remaining the biggest engine of global economic growth. The 2025 growth target will be a key indicator of the projected operations of the world’s second-largest economy.
A central economic work conference last December set the tone for a more proactive policy stance, and called for the enrichment of the national policy arsenal this year, as well as improved policy coordination.
With the pro-growth policies rolled out since last September and a raft of new pragmatic measures for the year ahead at hand, there should be little doubt that China will be capable of navigating challenges at home and abroad, and of securing steady growth while promoting high-quality development.
Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley
Q: What ag policies are on your radar in the new Congress?
A: While work is underway on writing a new farm bill, I’m also rolling up my sleeves on legislative proposals and oversight efforts to address key issues facing the farm economy and rural communities. Since the new Congress started in January, I’m working on issues that matter to the bottom lines of Iowa farmers, including: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI); Prop 12 restrictions; foreign ownership of U.S. farmland; renewable fuels, including nationwide year-round sales of E15 and sustainable aviation fuel; and tax relief, including a permanent repeal of the death tax.
Let’s start with the HPAI outbreak that’s ravaging the livelihoods of Iowa’s poultry and egg producers and leading to egg shortages and higher prices for consumers. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I participated in two hearings in February gathering feedback from farmers and ranchers about their operations. I asked representatives from turkey growers and egg producers about the importance of vaccines for egg-laying hens and how USDA’s indemnity program helps producers stay afloat during this crisis in the farm economy. I also pushed for swift confirmation in the U.S. Senate to get Secretary Brooke Rollins at the helm of the USDA. During her first week on the job, Secretary Rollins visited an egg farm in Texas and announced a comprehensive strategy to tackle the crisis that’s wiped out 166 million laying hens since 2022. I’ll continue keeping in touch with Iowa farmers as the USDA rolls out its plan to get this outbreak behind us. I’ll also keep pushing to reduce regulatory burdens that restrict market access and add costly decisions for producers to do business in states like California and Massachusetts. California’s Prop 12, what I call its “War on Breakfast” has jacked up the price for eggs and bacon, making protein-rich nutrition unaffordable for American families. I’ll continue working to restore common sense and economic freedom to the farm economy.
Q: What is the Farmland Security Act?
A: Foreign ownership of U.S. farmland has increased 85 percent in the last 15 years. Decades ago, when I represented Iowans in the House of Representatives, I co-sponsored the first-ever reporting requirement called the Agricultural Foreign Investment Act of 1978. It required foreign persons who purchase, transfer or hold interests in crop acres to report transactions to the USDA. They must file an FSA-153 in the local Farm Service Agency office where the land is located, within 90 days of the transaction. Our bipartisan law also directed the Secretary of Agriculture to analyze the information and its impact on family farms and rural communities.
The upward trend of foreign ownership of U.S. farmland comes up regularly at my annual 99 county meetings. Farmland is finite, once it’s paved over with suburban sprawl or sold to foreign owners, America has one less acre to feed and fuel our people. In addition, foreign buyers needlessly increase competition for young and beginning farmers. There are also serious national security implications if a foreign adversary buys up farmland near U.S. military installations. Last year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report that showed as foreign investment in U.S. farmland climbs, the USDA’s processes to collect, track and report key information are flawed. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 included my bipartisan proposal that required the USDA to adopt an online submission process and public database by 2025. Currently, real-time data isn’t available for federal agencies, including the Departments of Treasury and Defense and Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review for potential national security risks.
I’ve teamed up again with Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin to beef up existing federal law. Our Farmland Security Act of 2025 builds on our previous efforts to protect America’s rural communities from shady foreign investments. It would ensure all foreign investors, including “shell companies” who buy U.S. farmland must report their holdings and strengthens penalties for those who evade or misreport their filing obligations. Plus, it invests in research to better understand the impact foreign ownership of farmland has on agricultural production. As a lifelong farmer in the U.S. Senate, I’m proud to champion the livelihoods and way of life in rural America. Food security is national security.
Source: United States Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont)
Welch Demands Explanation from Secretary Rubio
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, today sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding an urgent response to the baseless mass-firings of over 5,500 federal employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In the letter, Senator Welch demanded answers from the State Department on Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE’s, actions that directly violate funds appropriated by Congress through the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) Department of State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act.
Senator Welch released the following statement:
“I’m deeply distressed by the Trump Administration and Secretary Rubio’s reckless and illegal actions terminating thousands of experienced, dedicated USAID employees without cause or credible justification. These public servants, many of whom have spent decades serving their country and protecting U.S. interests around the world, were given less than 15 minutes to clear out their desks. It’s immoral and illegal.
“I’m also appalled by how Secretary Rubio and Elon Musk’s DOGE have unlawfully cut off funding appropriated by Congress for vital international assistance programs that protect U.S. security interests around the world. In recent weeks, Secretary Rubio has terminated billions of dollars in U.S. foreign assistance programs on which hundreds of millions of people depend for their health, safety, and well-being, in direct contravention of the law. These funds were provided on a bipartisan basis in prior appropriations acts which included many pages of provisions requiring the Administration to obligate the funds for explicit purposes. While DOGE’s mission might be to ‘save money,’ it cannot do so in ways that plainly violate federal law and the Constitution. And it should not do so if the result would undermine U.S. national interests and damage our international credibility.
“As the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, I’ll state what every American knows and DOGE needs to learn: the Constitution does not allow the President to ignore the law. Trump’s blatant disregard for the Constitution and the destruction of hard-earned goodwill around the world is beyond distressing and requires immediate action. Congress and the American people deserve answers from Secretary Rubio regarding how he intends to ensure that the State Department complies with the law.”
Under the Trump Administration, hundreds of millions of dollars in State Department programs have been illegally terminated under categories and programs explicitly required by the FY24 Department of State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. By law, funds appropriated by Congress are to be spent as specified for each of the countries, programs, projects, and activities.
By way of example, the FY24 Department of State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Act provides no less than:
$960,000,000 for food security and agricultural development programs to carry out the purposes of the Global Food Security Act of 2016, including for the Feed the Future Innovation Labs.
$451,000,000 for water supply and sanitation projects.
$365,750,000 for biodiversity conservation programs.
$300,000,000 to carry out the purposes of the Countering Russian Influence Fund, as authorized by the Countering Russian Influence in Europe and Eurasia Act of 2017.
$250,000,000 to implement a multi-year strategy to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, including efforts to combat a variety of forms of violence against women and girls.
$225,500,000 for programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
$117,040,000 to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor for programs that support good governance, credible and competitive elections, freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, human rights, labor rights, independent media, and the rule of law.
$111,000,000 for activities to combat trafficking in persons internationally, including for the Program to End Modern Slavery.
Read the full letter and watch a video of Senator Welch’s remarks on DOGE’s Unlawful USAID Firings and Termination of Billions of Dollars of in Aid.
New York, NY, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HTXMining, one of the reliable Liquidity Staking Platform and Liquidity Mining Platform, is transforming the way investors engage with cryptocurrency staking and mining. Mentioning the fact that it desires to be the Well-regarded cryptocurrency staking platform out there, HTXMining provides a great environment of transparency and feasibility for those who wish to make the most of their digital asset earnings.
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Source: The White House
Today, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance made clear to the world that the United States will not be taken advantage of — a sentiment echoed by the cabinet and members of Congress from across the country.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”
Sen. Lindsey Graham: “I’ve never been more proud of President Trump for showing the American people — and the world — you don’t trifle with this man … He wanted to get a ceasefire. He wants to end the war and Zelenskyy felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: “I am so proud of our Commander-in-Chief. Thank you President @RealDonaldTrump and @VP for standing up for America. We will not tolerate the political games and disrespect of America. America is back.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Amen, Mr. President.”
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “Thank you, President Trump, for standing up for the American people and our nation on the global stage.”
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum: “Thank you @POTUS for standing strong for America while working to end the killing abroad.”
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: “American leadership is back — in the Oval Office — and on the world stage. FEARLESS. BOLD. RELENTLESS. We will save America.”
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for the United States. The American people will not stand for disrespect of our President, Oval Office, or our generous taxpayers. Peace is only accomplished through strength and our allies need to understand that.”
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner: “President Trump is standing up for forgotten Americans, not endless foreign wars. Biden’s legacy — increased homelessness, record high interest rates, all-time highs to buy a house, and Americans footing the bill. That ended January 20th. The American people are behind @POTUS.”
Sen. Jim Banks: “Thank you President Trump for standing up for America!”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn: “Thank you President Trump and VP Vance or standing up for America.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty: “The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted. The contrast between the last four years and now could not be more clear. Thank you, Mr. President.”
Sen. Josh Hawley: “Remember: the U.S. Senate has repeatedly and for years voted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine with no strings attached and with no true oversight. It’s time for some ACCOUNTABILITY.”
Sen. Jim Justice: “Glad to have a @POTUS and @VP in charge that absolutely put America FIRST.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “Thank you for standing up for OUR COUNTRY and putting America first, President Trump and Vice President Vance!”
Sen. Bernie Moreno: “Finally we have a President who will speak the TRUTH and stand up against Washington’s endless wars. American taxpayers have been funding this war, it’s time to stop the killing and stop risking World War 3!”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin: “Under this President— the greatest, freest, and most generous nation on Earth is putting America First. I’d encourage anyone who has a problem with that to reevaluate their priorities.”
Sen. Rick Scott: “Thank you President Trump for standing up for America.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt: “It’s about time we have leaders who say what the American people are really thinking and prioritize the core national interests of America. The American taxpayer is tapped out, and President Trump and VP Vance are spot on.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville: “Thank you Mr. President and Vice President Vance for putting America first”
Majority Leader Steve Scalise: “President Trump is fighting for PEACE around the world and is putting America First as our best negotiator—he’s the only one to get Russia to the table to consider a serious and lasting peace agreement with Ukraine.”
Chairwoman Lisa McClain: “President Trump inherited this war. He has said from the beginning he wants to bring peace. @POTUS is a strong leader, and I know his negotiations will bring a deal together.”
Rep. Andy Biggs: “Gone are the days of foreign leaders walking all over us and snubbing their noses at America’s generosity. There’s a new President and Vice President in town. World leaders would be wise to humble themselves.”
Rep. Tim Burchett: “Job well done by @realDonaldTrump and our VP @JDVance. Give respect to get respect.”
Rep. Mike Collins: “Thank God we finally have a @POTUS who is willing to put America FIRST. Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Rep. Eli Crane: “America First. Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw: “If you are the leader of a country in a dire situation with no path to peace without American support, do not come into the Oval Office and argue with the President of the United States in public. Just a word of advice.”
Rep. Andrew Clyde: “President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the AMERICAN PEOPLE. Our great country will NOT be taken advantage of or disrespected.”
Rep. Byron Donalds: “This is what putting the AMERICAN PEOPLE FIRST looks like. Thank you @realdonaldtrump and @JDVance for standing up for our nation.”
Rep. Brandon Gill: “America First in action. Thank you, @realdonaldtrump and @JDVance, for prioritizing our people and for promoting peace!”
Rep. Lance Gooden: “President @realdonaldtrump and Vice President @JDVance will never allow the United States to be disrespected or taken advantage of. America First, always!”
Rep. Paul Gosar: “Thank you, Mr. President and Vice President. The days of the USA getting pushed around are clearly over.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “President Trump and Vice President Vance will put America First every single time. Putting Zelensky in his place while he disrespects the U.S. in the Oval Office is exactly what American leadership should look like. This is what We The People want to see!”
Rep. Pat Harrigan: “America’s priorities come first. @POTUS and @VP made it clear—Ukraine’s interests are not America’s interests. We’ve spent hundreds of billions with no accountability, no clear objectives, and no plan for peace. It’s time to put America first and end this war.”
Rep. Mark Harris: “Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance, for boldly defending America’s interests. This is PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH”
Rep. Diana Harshbarger: “The act displayed by Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was nothing short of a massive show of disrespect for the Trump Administration and the American people. Despite this, President Trump and Vice President Vance are holding the line and trying to end this conflict peacefully. God bless them both.”
Rep. Wesley Hunt: “You do NOT blame the people fighting to save your country! America leads—no more excuses!”
Rep. Nancy Mace: “Peace through strength live from the Oval”
Rep. Thomas Massie: “Is this the end of Zelensky’s presidency? He hitched his wagon to Biden and the deep state. They lost and now he doesn’t seem to be playing his cards well.”
Rep. Brian Mast: “American won’t be taken advantage of and America won’t be taken for granted. Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing up for America.”
Rep. Addison McDowell: “AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER ALWAYS COME FIRST”
Rep. Mary Miller: “What has happened in Ukraine is a travesty. Joe Biden threw “gas on the fire.” Ukraine lost an entire generation, and Americans hundreds of billions in tax dollars. We thank God for giving us strong leadership. Thank you @POTUS and @VP for putting America’s interests first, and working to end this terrible war.”
Rep. Riley Moore: “It is amazing to have a President and VP who put America First! Thank you President Trump and VP Vance for fighting for our country and our people!”
Rep. Troy Nehls: “President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the American people. This is America First leadership on display. Thank you POTUS and VP!”
Rep. Ralph Norman: “THIS is strong leadership that is ensuring we put the American people FIRST. Thank you @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance for standing up for our nation.”
Rep. Andy Ogles: “This is what it looks like to stand up for America.”
Rep. Mike Rulli: “You don’t have the cards!”
Rep. Keith Self: “TOUGH and FAIR. The world is witnessing American leadership back in the White House. Thank you President Trump and Vice President Vance.”
Rep. Victoria Spartz: “Zelensky is doing a serious disservice to the Ukrainian people insulting the American President and the American people – just to appease Europeans and increase his low polling in Ukraine after he failed miserably to defend his country. This is not a theater act but a real war!”
Rep. Greg Steube: “Ridiculous grandstanding by Zelensky in the Oval Office. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to defend Ukraine. And this is the thanks the American people get? It’s time to end this war.”
Rep. Marlin Stutzman: “TRUMP IS THE GREATEST NEGOTIATOR AMERICA HAS EVER HAD! AMERICA IS BEING MADE GREAT BEFORE OUR VERY EYES!”
Rep. Andy Weber: “America FIRST. Strong, unapologetic leadership on the world stage is BACK!”
Rep. Joe Wilson: “I agree with President Trump that Ukrainian soldiers have been unbelievably brave! Critical Minerals Deal a major step forward toward ending the war responsibly. More sanctions on Russia & arms for Ukraine create maximum leverage for FULL land swap Art of the Deal!”
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — James Altucher, technology forecaster known for his early predictions on major tech disruptions, is now turning his attention to what he calls the next great technological transformation: Elon Musk’s Starlink. According to Altucher, all indicators point to Musk making a historic announcement as soon as March 13, 2025, unveiling what he believes will be the largest internet transformation of the modern era.
A Revolution in Global Connectivity
Starlink, a division of SpaceX, has already upended traditional internet service providers by deploying an advanced satellite-based network. Unlike conventional broadband and 5G systems that rely on physical infrastructure, Starlink operates through a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, providing high-speed, uninterrupted internet access to even the most remote regions.
Altucher highlights several key factors fueling speculation about an upcoming major announcement:
Altucher’s Take on the Future of Internet Technology
James Altucher has built a reputation for spotting emerging tech trends before they go mainstream, and he is convinced that Starlink represents the biggest internet breakthrough of the 21st century.
“This isn’t just another telecom company; this is a full-scale reinvention of how the world connects. Mark my words: Starlink will reshape the entire global communications industry.”
James Altucher is a technology forecaster, entrepreneur, and bestselling author recognized for his ability to identify industry-defining trends before they go mainstream. With a background spanning finance, technology, and media, Altucher has founded multiple successful companies, contributed to leading financial and tech publications, and has been a sought-after expert on platforms such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC.
Media Contact:
Derek Warren Public Relations Manager Paradigm Press Group Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com
A fierce work ethic, great research, and many hours of practice helped the Husky Case Competition Club win the top prize at the 32nd Kogod Case Competition at American University earlier this month.
This is the second consecutive year that the UConn team took home the top prize. A new team competed this year, and all five participants are second-year business students who had never entered a case competition before.
“Our ideas were super niche and I think that took the judges by surprise,’’ said Sophia Viar, a finance major and the president of the club. “They were intrigued by the complexity of what we had done.’’
The team prepared for months, sometimes putting in five hours a day to fine-tune their case and improve their presentation.
“We practiced over and over in the School of Business Board Room,’’ Viar said. “We basically asked each other questions over and over. We drilled. We were ready for every question that the judges threw at us.’’
Other team members included: Maria Cayward (analytics and information management), David Lu (finance), Kabir Ramnani (finance) and Daniel Barberi (finance and economics). None of the team members knew each other well before they started the competition.
The Challenge: Using AI to Help a Fortune 500 Company
The case competition involved integrating artificial intelligence into Xylem Inc., an American water technology provider and Fortune 500 company, that does business in more than 150 countries.
In their final presentation, the Husky team proposed using Novable software, which sources startups that match a company’s needs. They also recommended exploring the offerings of Oxyle, a company with a new filter that can destroy PFAS contaminants.
“One of the judges, who works for Xylem, said, ‘You hit the nail on the head. You guys are amazing!’ ’’ Viar said. The UConn team defeated four teams from American University, as well as teams from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University. They also took the prize for Best Q&A when the competition concluded on Feb. 15 in Washington, DC.
The victory reflects the enormous effort that the team put into the project.
“We started working on the case in November and there was a lot of back and forth with the team,’’ Viar said. “We had four months to develop our idea, and we changed direction often. It was pretty rocky in the first months until we nailed it down.’’
Ramnani said the team had incredible spirit and dedication, despite some mumbling about having to work over the holiday break.
“All of us had a hunger for it. We wanted to put our best foot forward,’’ Ramnani said. “I think one of the key lessons I learned is how to articulate ideas in a concise way. If you over-speak, you overcompensate. What matters is the quality of what you say. I learned to make my answers concise and deliberate.’’
Competition Will Enhance Careers Down the Road
Viar is planning a career in management consulting and said the competition is well aligned with her career aspirations. She looks forward to discussing her case-competition achievement in job interviews.
Ramnani agreed, saying the competition highlighted the problem-solving skills of every team member.
“I really didn’t know anything about the water industry until I started working on the case competition. I had to learn so much,’’ he said. “I also learned that sometimes you have to cut your losses. If we worked on an idea for a week and it wasn’t working out, I learned not to be emotionally attached to the idea, to move on and try something new.’’
We often set ambitious goals, such as going to the gym, adopting healthier eating habits, or reducing our social media use. However, despite our best intentions, staying committed can often feel like an uphill battle.
A review of evidence published in 2024 highlights why. While understanding the benefits of behaviour change and believing in its value are important, these play only minor roles. The strongest determinant of our ability to shift how we act everyday is our habits.
As the 19th and 20th-century philosopher William James put it, we are essentially “bundles of habits”. He believed that these habits could hold people back from achieving their full potential. If he were around today, he would probably be concerned at the way some people mindlessly check their phones every five minutes.
In a recent academic review, my colleagues and I at Trinity College Dublin illustrated that habits are governed by a delicate balance between two distinct brain systems. One system drives automatic responses to familiar cues in the environment, while the other enables the control of behaviour directed towards goals.
This interplay helps explain why we might mindlessly scroll through social media when bored, yet still retain the ability to deliberately put our phones away to focus on work. We reviewed decades of research from laboratory studies and real world settings for the study. Here, we share five practical strategies to help you build positive habits and break negative ones.
1. Forget the 21-day myth
Forget the 21-day rule – there is no magic number. This rule refers to a popular perception that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Habit formation is different for every person.
In one study, habit formation such as having a piece of fruit with lunch was estimated to take 66 days on average, but it varied widely between individuals, from 18 days to 254 days.
It also depends on the specific habit itself. A study demonstrated this using a subset of AI called machine learning. The study analysed more than 12 million gym visits and 40 million instances of hospital handwashing to understand how habits form.
The research found that forming a gym habit typically takes months, while hospital staff can develop a handwashing habit in just weeks. No matter how long it takes, the key is sticking with it, even if you miss a day here and there.
2. Make rewards your ally
Your brain learns to repeat behaviour that is rewarding. One study examining people’s intake of water throughout the day found that it was more of a habit for people who perceived it as more rewarding.
The habit loop can also be reinforced through external rewards, such as treating yourself to something enjoyable after completing a workout.
Rewards are also important for breaking habits. If scrolling through social media becomes a way to unwind, try replacing it with an alternative activity that provides a similar sense of relaxation and enjoyment.
By substituting a positive behaviour, you not only avoid feeling deprived but also create a competing response to the old habit, making it easier to break the cycle.
3. Stack your habits
The brain has a natural tendency to combine different actions and respond to contextual cues – the kind that help people understand their surroundings. A strategy called habit stacking takes advantage of this by linking a desired behaviour to something you already do.
For example, research on flossing found that people who flossed immediately after brushing their teeth were more likely to establish a lasting habit. The existing cue – brushing your teeth – serves as a reminder, making the new habit – flossing – feel like a natural part of your routine.
So, if you want to start meditating, pair it with your morning coffee. Sip your coffee, then meditate for five minutes. Over time, the two types of behaviour become intertwined, making it easier to stick with your goals.
4. Watch out for stress
When life gets overwhelming, many of us find ourselves falling back into old habits, even ones we thought we had moved past. Acute and chronic stress can shift the balance away from controlled goal directed behaviour towards the automatic response system in the brain.
A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study revealed that prolonged stress in humans leads to an over-reliance on the brain’s circuits that drive habits, while suppressing the prefrontal cortex, which governs deliberate decision making.
The good news? These effects are reversible. After a six week stress-free period, participants returned to goal directed behaviour, and their brain activity normalised.
5. Plan for weak moments
We like to set new ambitious goals when we feel motivated. Motivational changes are often initiated based around time, such as the start of a new year, a phenomenon known as the “fresh start effect”. But it is important to be strategic and prepare for situations when motivation is low and we still want to work towards our goals.
A powerful strategy for overcoming these weak moments is to plan ahead for specific situations by saying, “If I find myself reaching for a snack when I’m stressed, then I will take a five-minute walk instead.” This strategy is generally referred to as “if-then” plans.
This approach helps to preemptively trigger a healthier response in those moments when bad habits might otherwise take over.
So, while it might seem difficult, if you’re looking to rid yourself of a bad habit or replace it with a good one, our research suggests it’s possible to change your behaviour using strategies based on scientific evidence.
Eike Buabang receives funding from the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme.
BANJARA COMMUNITY PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PROTECTING NATURE AND TRADITION OF THE COUNTRY: LOK SABHA SPEAKER TIME HAS COME WHEN VOICES OF MEMBERS OF BANJARA COMMUNITY WOULD BE HEARD AND THEIR CHALLENGES WOULD BE ADDRESSED: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
BANJARA COMMUNITY NEED TO BE MAINSTREAMED IN DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY OF THE COUNTRY: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
PRESENT GENERATION SHOULD FOLLOW THE FOOTSTEPS OF SHRI SEWALAL JI MAHARAJ AND SHRI ROOP SINGH JI MAHARAJ TO BUILD A BETTER SOCIETY: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
LOK SABHA SPEAKER ADDRESSES MEMBERS OF BANJARA COMMUNITY AT 286TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF SANT SEWALAL MAHARAJ AND PUNYA TITHI OF ROOP SINGH JI MAHARAJ
Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 9:34PM by PIB Delhi
New Delhi; 28 February, 2025: Emphasizing the contributions of Banjara community towards protecting nature and tradition of the country, Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla today said that the time has come when their voices would be heard and challenges would be addressed. The Banjara community, who are always at the forefront of preserving forests, need to be mainstreamed in the development journey of the country, he observed.
Shri Birla made these remarks during his address to the members of Banjara community at the 286th birth anniversary celebration of Sant Sewalal Maharaja and punya tithi of Roop Singh Ji Maharaj at Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. Mentioning that the life of the revered Saint Shri Sewalal Ji Maharaj of the Banjara community was synonymous with knowledge, penance, sacrifice and service to humanity, and Shri Roop Singh Ji Maharaj was a symbol of valor and justice, Shri Birla advised that the present generation should follow the footsteps of these saints and build a better society.
आज दिल्ली में संत श्री सेवालाल जी महाराज की जयंती और श्री रूप सिंह जी महाराज की पुण्यतिथि के उपलक्ष्य में आयोजित कार्यक्रम में सम्मिलित हुआ। बंजारा समाज के आराध्य संत श्री सेवालाल जी का जीवन ज्ञान, तप, त्याग और मानव सेवा का पर्याय रहा, तथा श्री रूप सिंह जी महाराज वीरता और न्याय… pic.twitter.com/zyyFHIMtoP
Shri Birla praised the Banjara community’s unwavering dedication to serving society, despite facing numerous challenges. He highlighted their significant contribution to the nation’s progress through their hard work and integrity in business pursuits. Shri Birla emphasized the importance of empowering the younger generation, ensuring they receive knowledge and training to lead the community and nation toward transformation. He envisioned a future where the next generation is not only educated but also equipped to lead the country across various domains. To achieve this, he stressed the need to propel the community’s youth forward, leveraging their diligence and endeavors to drive profound change.
Shri Birla placed particular importance on the education of girls within the community, recognizing that empowering them with knowledge would significantly enrich the Banjara community as a whole. The Speaker reassured the community of his unwavering support, pledging to extend all necessary assistance to aid them in their journey toward progress and prosperity.
Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla addressed to the members of Banjara community at the 286th birth anniversary celebration of Sant Sewalal Maharaja and punya tithi of Roop Singh Ji Maharaj at Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi on 28 February, 2025.
Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog hosted a special visit by Mike Massimino, former NASA astronaut and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University, to the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) today in Delhi.
The visit aimed to inspire young minds and promote scientific curiosity among students by providing them with an opportunity to interact with a veteran astronaut who has been part of two space shuttle missions and played a crucial role in servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
The dignitary was received by Ms. Alka Kapur, Principal, Modern Public School, along with students, followed by a presentation on Atal Tinkering Labs by Mr. Shubham Gupta, Innovation Lead, AIM, NITI Aayog.
During the visit, the students showcased various innovative projects developed within the lab, highlighting the impact of AIM in fostering a culture of problem-solving and critical thinking among young learners. Mr. Mike also interacted with the students who are part of famous AzaadiSat satellite launch, a joint initiative of ISRO & Spacekidz. The satellite is built by 750 girl students of 75 schools across India. The eight-kg satellite has 75 Femto experiments, selfie cameras to click pictures of its own solar panels and long-range communication transponders. Ms. Srimathy Kesan, Founder, Spacekidz also briefed Mr. Mike about this unique initiative promoting Girl students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Mike Massimino, addressing the students, shared insights from his experiences as a NASA astronaut, the challenges of space missions, and the future of space exploration. His motivational speech encouraged students to dream big and explore STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields with passion.
About Atal Tinkering Labs
Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) are an initiative under Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, designed to cultivate an innovative mindset among school students. ATL is a workspace where young minds can give shape to their ideas through hands on do-it-yourself mode; and learn innovation skills. Young children get a chance to work with tools and equipment to understand the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). ATL contains educational and learning ‘do it yourself’ kits and equipment on – science, electronics, robotics, open-source microcontroller boards, sensors and 3D printers and computers.
About Mike Massimino
Mr. Mike Massimino, a former NASA astronaut, is a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University and the senior advisor for space programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. He received a BS from Columbia University, and MS degrees in mechanical engineering and in technology and policy, as well as a PhD in mechanical engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After working as an engineer at IBM, NASA, and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, along with academic appointments at Rice University and at the Georgia Institute of Technology, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1996, and is the veteran of two space flights, the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009. Mike has a team record for the number of hours spacewalking in a single space shuttle mission, and he was also the first person to tweet from space. During his NASA career he received two NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the American Astronautical Society’s Flight Achievement Award, and the Star of Italian Solidarity.
He is the Senior Adviser for Space Programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. He is also a professor in Columbia University’s engineering school, The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
SIMPLIFICATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN FINANCIAL LAWS HAVE PROVIDED AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA: LOK SABHA SPEAKER TODAY’S INDIA WITH DEEPER DEMOCRATIC SPIRIT, STABLE GOVERNMENT AND VISIONARY LEADERSHIP, IS A LAND OF IMMENSE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN INDIA, AN EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO CHANGE COLONIAL LAWS, TO REPEAL REDUNDANT LAWS AND TO MAKE NEW LAWS IN SYNC WITH HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS OF PEOPLE: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
NEW LAWS ARE SIMPLE, TRANSPARENT, PROGRESSIVE AND INCLUSIVE: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
OUR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS COMMAND RESPECT ALL OVER THE WORLD: LOK SABHA SPEAKER
LOK SABHA SPEAKER ADDRESSES INAUGURAL SESSION OF A TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM ON ‘ADOPTION TO CHANGING LANDSCAPE: MY VIKSIT BHARAT – 2047’ ORGANISED BY THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA
Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 8:48PM by PIB Delhi
Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla today stressed that the recent initiatives in simplification and transparency in financial laws have provided an enabling environment for investment in India. Today’s India with deeper democratic spirit, stable government and visionary leadership, is a land of immense opportunities for the investors, he noted. The fastest growing economy in the world is a favourite destination for investment across the world, he added.
Shri Birla made these remarks in his inaugural address at the two day symposium on ‘Adoption to Changing landscape: My Viksit Bharat – 2047′ organized by the Northern India Regional Council, Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) at New Delhi. Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, both Members of Parliament, and other dignitaries graced the occasion.
आज दिल्ली में The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICMAI) द्वारा आयोजित दो दिवसीय सेमिनार के उद्घाटन सत्र में सम्मिलित होकर Cost management क्षेत्र के प्रोफेशनल्स और स्टूडेंट्स को संबोधित किया।
आज भारत दुनिया की तेज़ी से बढ़ती अर्थव्यवस्था के रूप में गतिमान है। पिछले कुछ… pic.twitter.com/ekJKUazm5q
Referring to legal reforms in India, Shri Birla noted that for the first time in India, an effort has been made to change colonial laws, to repeal the redundant laws and to make new laws which are in sync with the hopes and aspirations of people of New India. Mentioning about GST, proposed income tax legislation, changes in labour laws and company laws, Shri Birla emphasized that these initiates reflect the vision of the leadership to take the country on the path of progress and prosperity. New laws are not only simple, transparent and progressive but also inclusive to improve the life of the last person in the society, he observed. Progressive laws always take into consideration the changing requirements of the country and the society and the changing international scenario, he added.
Stating that developments in the fields of infrastructure, road connectivity, rail connectivity, air connectivity have augmented the capacity to bring in more investment to the country, Shri Birla observed that these investments will ultimately benefit the society at large. He also mentioned about the clarion call of the Prime Minister to pursue sustainable living for a better future. India is leading the world in inspiring the people to pursue the path of sustainable living, he added.
Mentioning that India’s financial institutions are its strength, Shri Birla noted that our financial institutions command respect all over the world. Hailing the contributions of the ICAI, Shri Birla opined that this institution not only plays an important role in ensuring transparency in financial system but also for guiding the country on mass production with minimum cost. Playing a vital role in strengthening economic potential of the country, the ICAI, with its management skills, is improving the lives of the people. He expressed hope that the two day symposium would provide a roadmap about the contributions of the ICAI to fulfill the resolve of the Prime Minister to make India a developed country by 2047 a reality.
Lok Sabha Speaker Shri Om Birla addressed the inaugural session of a two-day symposium on ‘Adoption to Changing landscape: My Viksit Bharat – 2047’ organised by The Institute of Cost Accountants of India in New Delhi on 28 February, 2025.
An India-European Union (EU) Meeting on Science & Technology Cooperation was held on 27th Feb 2025 at the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, New Delhi. The meeting was part of the various sectoral meetings being held in wake of the two-day visit of H.E. Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, to India along with the College of Commissioners. The meeting was co-chaired by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, and Ms. Ekaterina Zaharieva, EU Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
On the Indian side, the meeting saw the participation of Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr. M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Dr. Sanjay Mishra, Scientist ‘H’, DBT, Dr. Monoranjan Mohanty, Adviser, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Dr. Praveen Kumar S, Head, International Cooperation, DST, Dr. Aparna Shukla, Scientist ‘E’, MoES and Dr. Hafsa Ahmad, Scientist ‘D’, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser. From the European Commission, Ms. Zaharieva was joined by Mr. Marc Lemaître, Director-General, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Ms. Nienke Buisman, Head of Unit, International Cooperation, Ms. Sophie Alexandrova, Deputy Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Zaharieva, Mr. Ivan Dimov, Member of Cabinet to Commissioner Zaharieva, Mr. Pierrick Fillon-Ashida, First Counsellor & Head of Research & Innovation Section, EU Delegation to India, and Dr. Vivek Dham, Policy Officer, Research & Innovation Section, EU Delegation to India. The meeting aimed to strengthen India-EU research partnerships and drive innovation in critical areas such as clean energy, water, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and climate change research.
During the discussions, both sides acknowledged the long-standing India-EU Science & Technology Agreement, originally signed in 2001 and renewed in 2015 and 2020, which is now set for extension for 2025-2030. The partnership has played a pivotal role in fostering research collaborations in water resource management, smart grids, clean energy, vaccine development, and climate change & polar research. The meeting highlighted significant achievements in wastewater treatment, vaccine innovations, and deep-sea exploration, which have emerged as key areas of cooperation between the two regions.
India’s rapidly growing innovation ecosystem, which ranks third globally in startup and unicorn creation, was recognized as a driving force behind the collaboration. The discussion also focused on India’s emerging expertise in renewable energy, biopharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing & biotechnology etc.
The meeting also explored future opportunities in areas such as quantum computing, bio economy, green hydrogen, blue economy, EV & battery technology, high-performance computing, and responsible AI. Both sides emphasized the importance of joint funding mechanisms, increased scientific exchange programs, and stronger public-private partnerships to accelerate progress in these fields. In their concluding remarks, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood and Ms. Ekaterina Zaharieva reaffirmed their commitment to deepening India-EU scientific collaboration and leveraging joint expertise to address global challenges.
The meeting concluded with a networking session, where stakeholders discussed practical steps for scaling up joint projects. The India-EU Science & Technology Agreement continues to play a crucial role in strengthening this strategic partnership, fostering innovation, and enhancing mutual economic and technological benefits.
National Awards for e-Governance, 2025 aims to recognize and promote excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives 589 nominations received under 28th National Awards for e-Governance, 2025 on the closing day of nomination. i.e., 28.02.2025
Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 7:27PM by PIB Delhi
National Awards for e-Governance, 2025 aims to recognize and promote excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives. In 2025, the National Awards for e-Governance scheme includes six categories:
Category (I) – Government Process Re-engineering by Use of Technology for Digital Transformation. In this category, 4 awards would be conferred.
Category (II) – Innovation by Use of AI and Other New Age Technologies for Providing Citizen Centric Services. In this category, 3 awards would be conferred.
Category (III) – Best e-Gov Practices in Cyber Security. In this category, 3 awards would be conferred.
Category (IV) – Grassroot Level Initiatives for Deepening/ Widening of Service Delivery with Focus on Initiatives. In this category, 4 awards would be conferred.
Category (V) – Replication and Scaling up on Successful National Awarded Projects like NAeG, Prime Minister Awards in Excellence, & Awards Conferred by Central Ministries by State/UT/District. In this category, 1 award would be conferred.
Category (VI) – Digital transformation by Use of Data Analytics in Digital Platforms by Central Ministries/States/UTs. In this category, 1 award would be conferred.
The National Awards for e-Governance portal was launched on 01stJanuary, 2025. The portal was made operational for registration and submission of nomination from 07thJanuary, 2025 to 28th February, 2025.
589 nominations have been received on the National Awards for e-Governance portal on the closing day of nomination i.e., 28.02.2025. The category wise break up of nominations received were –
Government Process Re-engineering by Use of Technology for Digital Transformation- 256
Innovation by Use of AI and Other New Age Technologies for Providing Citizen Centric Services- 71
Best e-Gov Practices in Cyber Security- 23
Grassroot Level Initiatives for Deepening/ Widening of Service Delivery with Focus on Initiatives- 163
Replication and Scaling up on Successful National Awarded Projects like NAeG, Prime Minister Awards in Excellence, & Awards Conferred by Central Ministries by State/UT/District- 19
Digital transformation by Use of Data Analytics in Digital Platforms by Central Ministries/States/UTs- 57
The scheme has evoked a tremendous response from the participants. For the first time participation of Gram Panchayats/ Traditional Local Bodies with focus on deepening and widening of service delivery at grassroots level. 1,43,648 Gram Panchayats have participated across 26 States/UTs.
The evaluation of the applications for the purposes of awards would include (i) Short-listing of applications by Screening Committee, to be chaired by Joint Secretary, DARPG (ii) Spot Study of the shortlisted applications by Under Secretary level officers of Government of India. (iii) Further Evaluation by Screening Committee- II to be chaired by Joint Secretary, DARPG (iv) Final recommendation for the awards by the Jury Committee, chaired by the Secretary, DARPG.
The National Awards for e-Governance 2025 will consist of (i) Trophy (ii) Certificate (iii) Incentive of Rs. 10 Lakh for the Gold Awardee/ Incentive of Rs. 5 Lakh for the Silver Awardee to be awarded to the Department/Organization which has to be utilized for implementation of a project/programme or bridging gaps in any area of Public Welfare.
“India’s Science Budget witnessed quantum leap under visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi: Testimony of his patronage to innovation and Science” says Dr. Jitendra Singh Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh recalls Prime Minister Modi’s clarion call in Man Ki Baat to celebrate this year’s National Science Day with festive fervour
S&T Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, launches Electric Vehicle Solutions led by Startups Under the DST’s new initiative
India embarked on a bold and transformative journey to establish itself as a global hub for research, innovation, and scientific excellence to become Viksit Bharat@2047
India’s 5352 Scientists feature in Top 2 percent of Scientific Minds according to a survey shares Dr. Singh
Posted On: 28 FEB 2025 7:09PM by PIB Delhi
NEW DELHI, February 28:Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh states the quantum budgetary increase to science departments highlighting the Government’s commitment to the progress of Science Technology and innovation. He calls it the patronage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to innovation and Science during his speech at the National Science Day 2025 celebrations at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
Dr. Jitendra Singh stated that the budget allocations for various departments have seen significant growth over the years. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) received an allocation of ₹2777 crore in 2013-14, which has surged to ₹28,509 crore in 2024-25, marking a 926% increase. Similarly, the Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR) saw its budget rise from ₹2013 crore in 2013-14 to ₹6658 crore in 2024-25, reflecting a 230% increase. The Department of Space (DOS) experienced a budget growth from ₹5615 crore in 2013-14 to ₹13,416 crore in 2024-25, resulting in a 139% increase.
Addressing the celebration, Dr. Jitendra Singh recalls Prime Minister Modi’s clarion call in Man Ki Baat to celebrate this year’s National Science Day with festive fervor.
The National Science Day is celebrated on February 28th each year in India to honor the discovery of the Raman Effect by Indian physicist C.V. Raman in 1928. This discovery was a groundbreaking achievement in the field of light scattering, for which C.V. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.
During the programme, The Science and Technology Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh, launched the DST’s new initiative for Electric Vehicle Solutions, which is led by startups for component manufacturing in collaboration with the Ministry of Heavy Industries and ACMA.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space said “India embarked on a bold and transformative journey to establish India as a global hub for research, innovation, and scientific excellence to become Viksitbharat@2047”.
Reflecting on the past decade of India’s scientific journey, the minster emphasized that India has transformed into the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, with a growing base of innovative, youth-led deep-tech startups. These startups are not only addressing domestic challenges but are also creating solutions for global issues such as communication, cybersecurity, data privacy, sustainable energy, healthcare advancements, and smart manufacturing.
Dr. Singh shared that according to the survey with a cutoff date of 31st December has found that 5352 Indian Scientific Minds feature in Top 2 percent. Referring to India’s progress in the Global Innovation Index, Dr. Singh said, “In just ten years, India has ascended from 80th to 39th position, cementing its place among the world’s most innovative nations.”
Dr. Singh touched upon India’s groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs that have been a source of national pride, most notably the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole—making India the first country to achieve this extraordinary feat. He also highlighted the successful launch of ISRO’s SPADEX mission on December 30, 2024, a pioneering project in spacecraft rendezvous, docking, and undocking.
Dr. Singh underscored that India is poised to make its mark in the global quantum technology landscape, with a focus on quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum cryptography. Indian youth-led startups in deep-tech are at the forefront, developing solutions for global challenges.
Emphasizing on this year’s theme i.e. “Empowering Indian Youth for Global Leadership in Science & Innovation for Viksit Bharat,” was emphasized by Dr. Singh as a reflection of India’s growing investment in its young scientists. He also dedicated the National Science Day to the youth of the country and seeks to enable the youth to undergo capacity building and prepare them to be the architects of 2047.
In his presence, nine new institutes were included in NIDHI-iTBIs Inclusive Technology Business Incubators with 50 Institutes already present
National Engineering College, Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu
GITAM, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
Indian Institute of Management, Jammu, J&K
Sri Sri University, Cuttack, Odisha
Sanskriti University, Mathura, UP
AIIMS, Patna, Bihar
Sona College of Technology, Salem, Tamil Nadu
Assam Down Town University, Assam
Sangam University, Bhilwara, Rajasthan
An MoU was exchanged between IIT Kanpur and HAB Biomass Pvt. Ltd. on a Green Corrosion Inhibitor from Manure developed by the SHRI Cell of DST. The celebration also witnessed a technology transfer between CSIR-NBRI and Ankur Seeds, Nagpur. Dr. Singh also released the Compendium of Selected Projects of the 31st NCSTC.
Today 9 more Universities under PURSE were supported on diverse scientific themes and different geographical regions with Rs 75 Cr
In another landmark initiative, Dr. Singh shared that ₹1,000 crore venture capital fund exclusively for the space sector. Approved by the Cabinet, this fund aims to foster India’s growing base of nearly 300 space startups, positioning India as a leader in the space industry.
The government has also allocated Rs 2,000 crore for Mission Mausam, a national program focused on enhancing weather forecasting capabilities. Additionally, the launch of the Anusandhan National Research Fund (NRF) with a corpus of ₹50,000 crore marks a giant leap toward ensuring that India’s scientific advancements are driven by research excellence and innovation.
Dr. Singh reiterated the government’s commitment to fulfilling the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by developing indigenous technologies tailored to India’s unique needs. The Ministry of Science and Technology is working relentlessly to ensure that innovations move from the lab to land, benefiting local communities while positioning India as a global leader in science and technology.
Dr. Jitendra Singh emphasized the importance of collaboration between various departments of science and the private sector. The government’s efforts are focused on creating an enabling environment for scientific innovation, ensuring that research and development align with the needs of both the public and private sectors.
The celebration was graced by Prof. A.K. Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India; Dr. N. Kalaiselvi, DG-CSIR and Secretary of DSIR; Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, President of INSA; Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of DST; Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary of DBT; Sh. V. Narayanan, Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space; along with Dr. Rashmi Sharma, Head, NCSTC. Senior Officials of State S&T Councils, School & College students from 22 States across India joined the Science Day celebrations in Online mode.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today issued its response to the back-reference received from Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in respect of TRAI’s recommendations dated 18.09.2024 on ‘the Framework for Service Authorisations to be Granted Under the Telecommunications Act, 2023’.
Earlier, DoT through a reference dated 21.06.2024, under Section 11(1)(a) of the TRAI Act, 1997, requested TRAI to provide recommendations on terms and conditions, including fees or charges, for authorisation to provide telecommunication services as per the provisions of the Telecommunications Act, 2023. After a detailed consultation with stakeholders, TRAI provided its recommendations on ‘the Framework for Service Authorisations to be Granted Under the Telecommunications Act, 2023’ dated 18.09.2024 to DoT.
In this regard, DoT, through a back-reference dated 14.01.2025, informed TRAI that the recommendations of TRAI on ‘the Framework for Service Authorisations to be Granted Under the Telecommunications Act, 2023′ have been considered by the Government. DoT through the back-reference, shared its prima facie views in respect of each recommendation. Further, DoT, through the back-reference, requested TRAI to provide its reconsidered recommendations, in accordance with the provisions of Section 11(1) of the TRAI Act 1997, on the recommendations, in respect of which, the Government has reached a prima-facie conclusion that the recommendations may not be accepted or may need modification.
After examining the prima facie views of DoT, TRAI has finalized its response to the back-reference. TRAI’s response to the back-reference has been placed on the TRAI’s website (www.trai.gov.in).
For any clarification or information, Shri Akhilesh Kumar Trivedi, Advisor (Networks, Spectrum and Licensing), TRAI may be contacted at Telephone Number +91-11-20907758.
The second meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) took place in New Delhi on 28 February 2025. It was co-chaired on the Indian side by India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar; Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal; and Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw. Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Ms. Henna Virkkunen, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency Mr. Maros Šefčovič and Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ms Ekaterina Zaharieva co-chaired on the EU side.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had established the India-EU TTC in April 2022 as a key bilateral platform to address challenges at the confluence of trade, trusted technology and security. India and the European Union, as two large and vibrant democracies with open market economies, shared values and pluralistic societies, are natural partners in a multipolar world.
The deepening of bilateral relations and the growing strategic convergence between the EU and India respond to the shifting dynamics of the global geopolitical landscape and a common interest in promoting global stability, economic security, and sustainable and inclusive growth. In that respect, both sides emphasized again the importance of the rules-based international order and the full respect for the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, transparency, and peaceful resolution of disputes. The TTC reflects a shared acknowledgement between the EU and India of the increasingly critical links between trade and technology, the potential of cooperation on these issues to enhance the economies of both partners, and the need to work together on the related security challenges. Both sides note the potential of their partnership to increase resilience, strengthen connectivity and drive forward the development of green and clean technologies.
The first meeting of the India-EU TTC was held in Brussels on 16 May 2023. The TTC Ministerial Meeting provided political guidance for the way forward. Subsequently on 24 November 2023, a stock-taking meeting in virtual mode reviewed the progress made by the three TTC working groups.
Working Group 1 on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance, and Digital Connectivity
India and the European Union reaffirmed the importance of deepening their digital cooperation in line with their shared values through the Working Group 1 on Strategic Technologies, Digital Governance, and Digital Connectivity. Both sides committed to leverage their respective strengths to accelerate a human-centric digital transformation and the development of advanced and trustworthy digital technologies such as AI, semiconductors, High-Performance Computing and 6G, which will benefit both economies and societies. Both sides committed to work jointly to strengthen EU-India research and innovation for this purpose to further enhance competitiveness, while increasing their economic security. Both sides committed to promoting global connectivity in a cyber-secure digital ecosystem.
Recognizing the importance of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the development of open and inclusive digital economies and digital societies, India and the European Union agreed to collaborate on working towards interoperability of their respective DPIs that respect human rights and protect personal data, privacy, and intellectual property rights. Both sides further committed to jointly promote DPIs solutions to third countries and further emphasized the need of mutual recognition of e-signatures to enhance cross-border digital transactions and foster mutual economic growth.
Both sides emphasized their commitment to further strengthen the resilience of semiconductor supply chains and promote collaboration in the field of semiconductors. To that end, they agreed to explore joint R&D in the field of chip design, heterogeneous integration, sustainable semiconductor technologies, technology development for advanced processes for process design kit (PDK), among others. Both sides shall promote the strengthening of the EU and Indian semiconductor ecosystems to enhance technological capabilities and ensure supply chain resilience by developing sustainable, secure and diversified semiconductor production capacities. Furthermore, they committed to developing a dedicated programme that will facilitate talent exchanges and foster semiconductor skills among students and young professionals.
The two sides reiterated their commitment to safe, secure, trustworthy, human-centric, sustainable and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and to promote this vision on the international level. In addition, with a view to ensuring continued and impactful cooperation on AI, the European AI Office and India AI Mission agreed to deepen cooperation, encouraging an ecosystem of innovation and fostering information exchange on common open research questions for developing trustworthy AI. They also agreed to enhance cooperation on large language models, and to harness the potential of AI for human development and common good, including through joint projects such as developing tools and frameworks for ethical and responsible AI. These will build on the progress made under R&D collaboration on high-performance computing applications in the areas of natural hazards, climate change, and bioinformatics.
India and the EU welcomed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Bharat 6G Alliance and the EU 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association for aligning research and development priorities and creating secured and trusted telecommunications and resilient supply chains. Both sides will also enhance cooperation on IT and telecoms standardisation with a particular focus on promoting interoperable global standards.
Furthermore, the two sides agreed to work towards bridging the digital skills gap, explore mutual recognition of certifications, and promote legal pathways of skilled professionals and exchange of talent.
Both sides agreed to collaborate on the implementation of the Global Digital Compact, agreed by consensus at the UN General Assembly in September 2024, as a key instrument for delivering on their shared objectives. They noted the need to ensure that the forthcoming World Summit on Information Society +20 maintains global support for and enhances the multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance.
Working Group 2 on Clean and Green Technologies
India and the European Union recalled the importance of the priority workstreams identified under Working Group 2 on Clean and Green Technologies for achieving net zero emissions by 2070 and 2050 for India and the European Union, respectively. Achieving these targets will require significant investment in new clean technologies and standards. An emphasis on research and innovation (R&I) will foster technological collaboration and exchange of best practices between the EU and India. In parallel, supporting technological innovations for market uptake will enhance access to the respective markets by Indian and EU enterprises and facilitate wide adoption of innovative technologies. This opens perspectives for cooperation between Indian and EU incubators, SMEs and start-ups and building human resource capability and capacity in such technologies.
In this regard, both sides agreed on joint research cooperation through exceptional coordinated calls on recycling of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), marine plastic litter, and waste-to-hydrogen. The estimated total joint budget will be about EUR 60 million from the Horizon Europe programme and from matching Indian contributions. On recycling of batteries for EVs, the focus will be on battery circularity through different kinds of flexible/low cost/easy to recycle batteries. In marine plastic litter, the focus will be on developing technologies for detection, measurement and analysis of aquatic litter and for mitigation of the cumulative impact of pollution on the marine environment. On waste-to-hydrogen, the focus will be on developing technologies with greater efficiency to produce hydrogen from biogenic wastes.
The two sides recalled the importance of the substantive exchanges between experts in the identified areas of cooperation as the basis for future action. Indian experts have participated in a training and mutual learning exercise on EV interoperability and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) E-Mobility Lab in Ispra, Italy in January 2024. Furthermore, a joint hybrid workshop on EV Charging Technologies (Standardisation and Testing) was organised at the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune, India and online, to deepen the EU-Indian dialogue and the industry’s engagement in charging infrastructure standardisation processes with India. The two sides also concluded a Matchmaking Event to identify, support and organise exchanges between Indian and EU startups in technology for recycling of batteries for EVs. Experts also jointly discussed assessment and monitoring tools for marine plastic litter. Finally, an “Ideathon” fostering EU-India collaboration to co-create practical solutions involving all stakeholders for addressing marine plastic pollution effectively is in preparation.
Both sides agreed to explore cooperation on harmonising standards for EV charging infrastructure, including cooperative, pre-normative research for harmonised testing solutions and knowledge exchange in the domain of e-mobility. They also agreed to explore how to enhance collaboration in the field of hydrogen-related safety standards, the science of standards as well as the market uptake of wastewater treatment technologies as outcomes of previous jointly conducted research projects.
Working Group 3 on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains
India and the European Union noted productive discussions under Working Group 3 on Trade, Investment and Resilient Value Chains with a view to building a closer economic partnership between India and the European Union. In an increasingly challenging geopolitical context, both sides committed to work together for creating wealth and shared prosperity. The work under Working Group 3 complements the ongoing negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), an Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) and a Geographical Indications Agreement which are proceeding on separate tracks.
Both sides committed to fostering resilient and future-ready value chains by prioritizing transparency, predictability, diversification, security and sustainability. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress made on Agri-food, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and Clean Technologies sectors and agreed on work plans in these three fields with the aim of promoting value chains that can withstand global challenges.
In agriculture, India and the EU intend to collaborate on contingency planning for food security and welcomed common efforts on shared research and innovations needs regarding climate-resilient practices, crop diversification and infrastructure improvements as promoted for cooperation through the G20 framework. In the pharmaceutical sector, both sides aim to enhance transparency and security in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) supply chains by mapping vulnerabilities, promoting sustainable manufacturing, and establishing early warning systems to prevent disruptions. Clean technology cooperation centers on strengthening supply chains for solar energy, offshore wind, and clean hydrogen by exchanging information on sectoral capabilities and investment incentives and Research, Development and Innovation priorities as well as on methodologies to assess vulnerabilities, discussing approaches to minimize trade barriers and exploring possible synergies of the supply chains. Across these sectors, India and the EU are working to foster investment, exchange best practices, and mitigate risks through regular dialogues, research collaborations, and business-to-business engagements, ensuring supply chain resilience and sustainable economic growth.
Both sides acknowledged that relevant priority market access issues are being addressed through cooperation within the TTC framework. The EU side appreciated the Indian initiatives to approve the marketing of several EU plant products while the Indian side appreciated the listing of a number of Indian aquaculture establishments and taking up the issue of equivalence for agricultural organic products. Both sides agreed to pursue their efforts on these topics, under the TTC review mechanism, and to continue their engagement on remaining issues flagged by each other.
The two sides noted the exchanges regarding best practices in the screening of Foreign Direct Investments, which is an area of growing importance to foster economic security.
India and the EU strengthened their commitment towards the multilateral trading system as an anchor in the current challenging geopolitical context. At the same time, they recognized the need to bring necessary reform to the WTO so that it is able to address efficiently and effectively issues of interest to Members. Both sides also recognized the importance of a functioning dispute settlement system. For this purpose, they agreed to deepen their dialogue and engagement to help the WTO deliver concrete outcomes, including at MC14.
Both sides have held in-depth discussions on trade and decarbonization through several bilateral channels and have engaged jointly with stakeholders, especially on the implementation of the EU’s carbon border mechanism (CBAM). Both sides discussed the challenges arising out of CBAM implementation, in particular for the small and medium enterprises and agreed to continue addressing them.
The co-chairs reaffirmed their commitment to expanding and deepening their engagement under the TTC and to working together to fulfill the goals laid out in this successful second meeting of the TTC. They agreed to meet again for the third meeting of TTC within one year from now.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and President of the European Commission Ms. Ursula von der Leyen affirmed that the EU-India Strategic Partnership has delivered strong benefits for their peoples and for the larger global good. They committed to raise this partnership to a higher-level, building upon 20 years of India-EU Strategic Partnership and over 30 years of India-EC Cooperation Agreement.
President von der Leyen was on her landmark official visit as she led the European Union College of Commissioners to India on 27-28 February 2025. This is the first visit of the College of Commissioners outside the European continent since the start of their new mandate and also the first such visit in the history of India-EU bilateral ties.
As the two largest democracies and open market economies with diverse pluralistic societies, India and EU underscored their commitment and shared interest in shaping a resilient multipolar global order that underpins peace and stability, economic growth and sustainable development.
The leaders agreed that shared values and principles including democracy, rule of law, and the rules-based international order in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter make India and the EU like-minded and trusted partners. The India-EU Strategic partnership is needed now, more than ever, to jointly address global issues, foster stability, and promote mutual prosperity.
In this context, they stressed the importance of intensifying cooperation between India and Europe in trade and de-risking of supply chains, investment, emerging critical technologies, innovation, talent, digital and green industrial transition, space and geospatial sectors, defence and people-to-people contacts. They also highlighted the need to cooperate on tackling common global challenges, including climate change, the governance of Artificial Intelligence, development finance, and terrorism in an interdependent world.
The two leaders welcomed the progress made by the second ministerial meeting of the India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) that took place during the visit in fostering deeper collaboration and strategic co-ordination at the intersection of trade, trusted technology, and green transition.
They also welcomed the specific outcomes emerging from deliberations conducted between the EU College of Commissioners and their Indian counterpart Ministers.
The leaders committed to as follows:
i. Task their respective negotiating teams to pursue negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, and mutually beneficial FTA with the aim of concluding them within the course of the year, recognizing the centrality and importance of growing India EU trade and economic relations. The leaders asked the officials to work as trusted partners to enhance market access and remove trade barriers. They also tasked them to advance negotiations on an Agreement on Investment Protection and an Agreement on Geographical Indications.
ii. Direct the India-EU Trade and Technology Council to further deepen its engagement to shape outcome-oriented cooperation in areas of economic security and supply chain resilience, market access and barriers to trade, strengthening of semiconductor ecosystems, trustworthy and sustainable Artificial Intelligence, high-performance computing, 6G, Digital Public Infrastructure, joint research and innovation for green and clean energy technologies with a focus on trusted partnerships and industry linkages across these sectors, including the recycling of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), marine plastic litter, and waste to green/renewable hydrogen. In this context, they welcomed the progress in the implementation of MoU on semiconductors for boosting the semiconductor supply chains, leveraging complementary strengths, facilitating talent exchanges and fostering semiconductor skills among students and young professionals; as well as the signing of MoU between Bharat 6G alliance and the EU 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association for creating secured and trusted telecommunications and resilient supply chains.
iii. Further expand and deepen cooperation under India-EU partnerships in areas of connectivity, clean energy and climate, water, smart and sustainable urbanization, and disaster management as well as work to intensify cooperation in specific areas such as clean hydrogen, offshore wind, solar energy, sustainable urban mobility, aviation, and railways. In this context, they welcomed the agreement on holding an India-EU Green Hydrogen Forum and the India-EU Business Summit on Offshore Wind Energy.
iv. Develop new specific areas of co-operation identified during the bilateral discussions between the EU Commissioners and Indian Ministers to be reflected in the future joint Strategic Agenda to drive mutual progress.
v. Undertake concrete steps for the realization of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) announced during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, deepen their cooperation in the framework of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT 2.0), and Global Biofuels Alliance.
vi. Strengthen people-to-people ties especially in the areas of higher education, research, tourism, culture, sports, and between their youths, and create an enabling environment for enhancing such exchanges. Also to promote legal, safe and orderly migration in areas of skilled workforce and professionals in view of India’s growing human capital and taking into account EU member states’ demographic profile and labour market needs.
The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to promote a free, open, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific built on international law and mutual respect for sovereignty and peaceful resolution of disputes underpinned by effective regional institutions. India welcomed the EU joining the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI). Both sides also committed to explore trilateral co-operation including in Africa and the Indo-Pacific.
The two leaders expressed satisfaction at growing cooperation in the defence and security domain, including joint exercises and collaboration between Indian Navy and EU Maritime security entities. The EU side welcomed India’s interest in joining the projects under the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) as well as to engage in negotiations for a Security of Information Agreement (SoIA). The leaders also committed to explore a security and defence partnership. They reiterated their commitment to international peace and security, including maritime security by tackling traditional and non-traditional threats to safeguard trade & sea lanes of communication. They emphasised the need to deepen collaboration in counter terrorism and to strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism, including cross-border terrorism and terrorism financing in a comprehensive and sustained manner.
The two leaders also discussed key international and regional issues, including on the situation in the Middle-East and the war in Ukraine. They expressed support for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine based on respect for international law, principles of the UN charter and territorial integrity and sovereignty. They also reiterated their commitment to the vision of the two-State solution with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, consistent with international law.
The Leaders recognized the productive and forward-looking nature of the discussions and agreed on the following concrete steps:
(i) Expedite the conclusion of the FTA by the end of the year.
(ii) Further focused discussions on defence industry and policy to explore opportunities from new initiatives and programmes.
(iii) A review meeting with partners to take stock on the IMEC initiative.
(iv) Engage on maritime domain awareness with a view to promoting shared assessment, coordination and interoperability.
(v) Convene the next meeting of the TTC at an early date to deepen cooperation in semiconductors and other critical technologies.
(vi) Enhance the dialogue on clean and green energy between governments and industry, with a focus on green hydrogen.
(vii) Strengthening collaboration in the Indo-Pacific including through trilateral cooperation projects.
(viii) Strengthen cooperation on Disaster Management through the development of appropriate arrangements including on policy and technical level engagement for preparedness, response capacities and coordination.
Both leaders expressed confidence that this momentous visit will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of relations and reaffirmed their commitment to further expand and deepen the India-EU Strategic Partnership. They looked forward to the next India EU Summit being organized in India at the earliest mutually convenient time and to the adoption of a new joint Strategic Agenda on that occasion. President von der Leyen thanked Prime Minister Modi for his warm hospitality.
Question for written answer E-000733/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Catherine Griset (PfE)
Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence will allow well-trained AI to create music for public consumption.
The EU wants to ensure fair remuneration for cultural and creative professionals, but competition between humans and machines could undermine those efforts.
The legislator must therefore protect artists, without hindering either technological development or creative freedom and free enterprise.
From this point of view, Article 53 of the Artificial Intelligence Act[1] introduces a ‘reservation of rights’ in the area of copyright and related rights, but it is difficult to apply in practice.
Nor will a label to inform people that music has been generated by AI do anything to protect artists.
As for the distribution of broadcasting revenues by the public authority, that will be difficult to tax internationally.
In order to defend the ‘cultural exception’ and safeguard the creation of music by human artists – without hampering the unstoppable march of technology – could the Commission consider quotas for ‘human’ works in the various European music broadcasting markets, even as a precautionary measure?
BROSSARD, Quebec, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Diagnos Inc. (“DIAGNOS” or the “Corporation”) (TSX Venture: ADK, OTCQB: DGNOF, FWB: 4D4A), a leader in early detection of critical health issues using advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI), announces that it intends to amend the terms of an aggregate amount of $590,000 of unsecured convertible debentures (each a “Debenture”) issued as part of a private placement of units initially announced on March 1, 2022, as follows:
The maturity date, initially set for March 1, 2025, is extended to March 1, 2026, and
The yearly interest rate is increased from 8% to 10% for the extended period from March 1, 2025 to March 1, 2026.
All other provisions of the Debentures will remain unchanged and fully in effect during the extension period.
The amendment remains subject to the TSX Venture Exchange acceptance as well as execution of formal documentation.
All monies quoted in this press release shall be stated and paid in lawful money of Canada.
About DIAGNOS DIAGNOS is a publicly-traded Canadian corporation with a mission of developing software tools for the early detection of critical health issues through the use of Artificial Intelligence.
This news release contains forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements. DIAGNOS disclaims any intention or obligation to publically update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Attribute to Detective Senior Sergeant Kepal Richards, officer in charge of New Zealand Police Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand Team (OCEANZ):
NZ Police have been involved in a global operation targeting AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Operation Cumberland is the first operation of its kind, targeting a “professional” producer of fully AI-generated CSAM, based in Denmark, and the individuals across the world who paid for his content. Led by Danish law enforcement and supported by Europol, 25 arrests were made simultaneously across 21 countries on 26 February.
The Online Child Exploitation Across New Zealand Team (OCEANZ) are conducting enquiries into potential offending in New Zealand. At this time no arrests have been made in New Zealand.
A significant amount of work has been undertaken internationally to track and identify individuals distributing the abuse material, which showed disturbing portrayals of computer-generated children of various ages.
While there were no real-life child victims in this case, AI-generated abuse material is a growing issue for Police around the world and there is a growing focus on those responsible for its creation.
Even when imagery doesn’t depict “real” victims, the material adds to an ecosystem that incites and glorifies the sexual abuse and harm of children. AI-generated child abuse material can be so realistic that resources are diverted from identifying real-life child victims, placing those children at ongoing risk of harm.
New Zealand Police continue to work closely with our international partners to combat the exploitation of children.
In New Zealand, creating, possessing, or distributing material that tends to promote or support the sexual exploitation of children is punishable under the Films, Videos, Publications and Classifications Act and those found doing so can expect to be identified and held to account.
Source: United States Senator for Hawaii Brian Schatz
WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio regarding decisions this week to fire or place on leave virtually all USAID staff, and to terminate more than 90 percent of USAID awards and more than 60 percent of State Department awards. The Senators also requested that Secretary Rubio appear for hearings on Congress on these actions and their implications for U.S. national security.
“We are writing with grave concern regarding your decisions this week to fire or place on leave virtually all USAID staff, and to terminate more than 90 percent of USAID awards and more than 60 percent of State Department awards, including hundreds of millions of dollars for programs you exempted as critical to our interest or lifesaving,” wrote the senators. “These actions are in contravention of the law, costly, inefficient, and will harm U.S. national security.”
“The lack of compliance with the law, and the lack of communication and transparency, is unprecedented and not representative of the collaboration you professed, and we expected, when we confirmed you as Secretary of State,” continued the senators.
“As a former member of both Committees, you are keenly aware that Congress’ Constitutional oversight and appropriations mandates require regular engagement with Executive Branch Departments and Agencies about activities and expenditures,” concluded the senators. “We ask that you provide responses to our time-sensitive correspondence and set expectations with State Department and USAID staff about timely and regular engagement with Congress in response to the inquiries from our committees. Lastly, we request that you appear for hearings before our Committees on these actions and their implications for U.S. national security.”
Headline: New era of ambient intelligence is helping support healthcare providers and patients
Next time you’re in a public place, stop and look around. Notice how many people are head’s down, staring at their phones. This is one of the unintended consequences of technology: while the intent is to connect us more to the world, it often distracts us from what’s actually happening around us.
This unintended technological distraction has also had a negative impact in healthcare. Over the last decade, increasing regulations and mounting administrative burdens placed upon doctors, nurses, and radiologists, have come at a high cost to those who had dedicated their lives to caring for others. The effects of this have been well documented, with rising job dissatisfaction and burnout rates, increasing staffing shortages as clinicians leave the workforce, and the continued erosion of doctor-patient connection.1
As a technologist who has been working on cracking some of the thorniest problems in healthcare, it’s painful to know that for years, despite our best efforts, technology has seemed one step behind in being able to restore the joy of caring for patients while simultaneously providing a more connected digital experience.
That is, until the introduction of GPT. With generative AI, we’ve seen an incredibly positive and disrupting force in healthcare, and these gains will only increase as this critical innovation is applied to some of the most complex problems in healthcare. In fact, over the next three years, we will begin to see a tectonic shift in the entire user experience, moving from technology that is injected into various use cases to the pervasive infusion of AI that is seamlessly embedded into the ways we live and work.
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In healthcare, ambient intelligence will be the driving force for restoring the joy of practicing medicine and providing a better experience for patients.
The real story of ambient intelligence
There’s a lot written about technology curves and AI in healthcare, but I want to tell you the story that isn’t in the history books. The real story of how ambient intelligence was born.
Some of us are old enough to remember the original Star Trek from the 1960’s where there was a computer that would be listening to the crew have a conversation and then weigh in with any guidance related to the situation at hand. It wasn’t trying to take over, it wasn’t replacing the captain and officers on the bridge, it was just supporting the team by adding insights in real time to augment the decision-making process.
Most of us saw this as a cool sci-fi idea until one day, during a meeting with Epic, we talked about finding a way to make healthcare more intuitive, like the AI in Star Trek. The gauntlet had been thrown, and we were in.
Charting a new course in healthcare technology
Inherent in ambient intelligence are two equally important variables, accurately transcribing a conversation between the doctor and patient into a text, and then turning that transcript into a clinical note.
That was back in 2014, when there were no large language models, patient data wasn’t widely available, systems were extremely siloed, there wasn’t a way to even capture the recording and, even if those other aspects were possible, speech recognition for clinical conversations were running at about 50% word error rate (WER). This meant that the speech recognition system was getting only correctly capturing about half of the words spoken. That was essentially the state-of-the-art for ambient medical speech recognition and simply put, it didn’t work.
We weren’t sure if and when we’d ultimately be successful, but we knew the first challenge that we needed to tackle was getting more data to feed our models so that we could understand this emerging ambient workflow. We started a research program to boost recognition performance for ambient conversational medical speech because at that time, the major breakthroughs were being made in neural computing.
We then turned our attention to abstractive summarization, or essentially trying to figure out how to convert the conversational transcript between the doctor and patient into a structured clinical note, which is subject to a variety of constraints and requirements necessary for appropriate documentation.
Back then summarization was in its infancy, but the new neural summarization technology showed a lot of promise when large in-domain data sets comprised of millions of input and summarized output pairs were available. Although these data sets didn’t exist yet, there were virtual scribing workflows, where doctor-patient conversations were recorded and manually processed by human scribes. So, we made the decision to use clinical scribes to train the increasingly powerful models that were tailored to the task and then observe how their application accelerated clinical documentation. Essentially, the scribes were generating in-domain data that was then used by neural summarization machine learning to develop ambient summarization.
Given the complexities of a clinical encounter, we started with medical specialties that had highly-repetitive scenarios, like orthopedics, and then expanded to cover all ambulatory specialties across a larger population of doctors.
While we were making gains, they were incremental. To give you a sense of what this looked like, here is a chart that shows each new model revision as a plot point and you can see the percent of clinical encounters processed by AI and resulting human-in-the-loop edit rates, versus our forecast of where those figures would be.
Image source: HLS Solutions Research, January 2025
The dawn of a new era
It’s inevitable that anyone who’s tried to tackle an extremely thorny problem at some point will hit a wall where they ask themselves the question: Are we beating the problem or is the problem beating us? Although we had parity in converting a doctor-patient conversation to text, converting transcripts into customized clinical notes across specialties was challenging, and progress was slower than we would have liked. We were using a human-in-the-loop to improve the quality of our model output, which wasn’t a scalable long-term solution, and we had stalled at an error rate that would not produce automation. We didn’t know the exact formula to make the problem yield.
Then, GPT happened.
Overnight, the scaling laws of AI changed. Major technological gains went from happening every one-and-a-half years to happening four times a year. While at the time, it had felt like we were hitting a wall, in hindsight, that time allowed us to deeply understand the requirements of how this technology would show up in the doctors’ workflow, and we partnered with the EHR companies to work through the technical details and optimize the user experience.
We immediately put a stake in the ground and began leveraging this new AI.
We used GPT as a shortcut to fine tune models and customize output, which allowed us to move faster while dramatically improving outcomes. We were also getting real-time feedback from clinicians who let us know what was working well and, most importantly, where the experience wasn’t optimized. It’s that latter feedback that is always the most helpful, because it enables us to triangulate the problems and work on ways to fine tune and improve the experience.
Based on the foundational models, we could see we would have a prototype in six months, but the challenge was that out-of-the-box GPT—while good—was not as performant as our bespoke models. That’s when we decided to combine generative AI and our unique training corpus. Within six months of a blistering R&D cycle, the team delivered a level of automation that had previously been unachievable in the prior six years. It was one of the first times in history that GPT-4 had been fine tuned for healthcare.
The new scaling laws were bending the curve of innovation. We were at the dawn of a new era: The ambient AI market.
Image source: Epoch, ‘Parameter, Compute and Data Trends in Machine Learning’
Over the course of 11 months, we went from zero users to creating the first clinical ambient intelligence experience for doctors that is trusted by more than 600 major healthcare systems, and producing more than 3 million episodes of care per month and growing.
We achieved human parity, and had achieved a level of performance that enabled automation that provided doctors with a draft clinical note that required minimal editing, the automation problem had begun to yield.
The future is now
The future that we had classified as science fiction is here today, and ambient listening has already become table stakes. In fact, we release AI improvements weekly to our speech and listening technologies, which have been trusted and used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians for years.
But more than that, we are witnessing a massive pivot unlike anything we’ve seen before: a new form of user experience—the combination of natural interaction and the infusion of real-time intelligence.
As exciting as this all is, the true promise of addressing clinician burnout, improving the patient experience, and delivering better health outcomes hinges on collaboration and partnership. Every company operating in this space is limited by the laws of single company physics, which is why it’s an exciting time to be at a partner-led company. By opening up our ecosystem, we are harnessing the power of the Microsoft platform and extending it to thousands of companies worldwide that are focused on building applications and capabilities to improve the doctor-patient experience and positively impact the episode of care.
We are enabling partners in the ecosystem to publish their capabilities directly into our ambient dial tone—the power of thousands of incredible minds all working to help clinicians, and solving for high-value use cases ranging from clinical condition diagnosis, autonomous clinical coding, and automating outbound healthcare consumer messaging, to enhancing data analytics and interpretation, medical literature discovery, autogenerating personalized patient educational materials, and automating clinical trial patient identification. These are just a few of the thousands of areas of innovation that are being actively worked on by healthcare companies worldwide. And this is the power of the platform. This is the ecosystem that will transform the way care is delivered, enhance patient experiences, support better outcomes across the health and life science ecosystem, and restore the joy of practicing medicine to clinicians around the world.
Trust above all else
No conversation about generative AI should happen without talking about responsibility, and no technology should be deployed without a detailed examination around what is contained in the data and how it is being used. Key responsible AI standards around fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, and transparency must take the center stage in every discussion. AI is like a massive power tool, and data is the current powering it—so everyone handling it needs to be trained properly and aware of any unintended consequences or potential harm it could cause.
Creating high-value use cases that deliver real outcomes
In the end, the real testament to building outcomes-based technology comes down to one simple fact: does using it empower the person to do and be the best version of themselves? To that end, we carefully track the performance of all our solutions to make sure we’re building technology that is living up to its promise and exceeding expectations. I recommend that anyone who is advancing an AI agenda should do the same, because this is the real path to advancing human abilities and improving the healthcare ecosystem.
Not every day is a win, and that’s okay—this is a marathon, not a sprint—but we continue to see powerful outcomes reported back by the people we serve. We’re seeing:
70% improvement in work-life balance for clinicians and reduced feeling of burnout and fatigue.2
80% feel it reduces cognitive burden.3
5 minutes save per clinician per encounter (on average).4
93% of patients say their physician is more personable and conversational.5
Hear what clinicians have to say about this AI-powered clinical automation solution:
As great as these results are, we’re not settling. We’re going to keep pushing ahead, refining our models, working with doctors, nurses, radiologists, and leaders across the health care and life sciences ecosystem to deliver the best technologies for those who continue to dedicate their lives to helping others. We’re just at the beginning of our journey, and we will continue to relentlessly innovate, and find new ways to streamline documentation, surface information, and automate tasks for clinicians worldwide.
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Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
Accelerate innovation and improve healthcare experiences
1AMA, Burnout benchmark: 28% unhappy with current health care job, May 17, 2022.
2 Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024.
3 Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024.
4 Microsoft survey of 879 clinicians across 340 healthcare organizations using DAX Copilot; July 2024.
5 Survey of 413 patients conducted by multiple healthcare organizations whose clinicians use DAX Copilot; June 2024.
Joe Petro
Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Health & Life Sciences
Joe Petro is the Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Health & Life Sciences (HLS) Solutions and Platforms, which develops integrated heathcare experiences that provide greater access to care, enhance the clinician-patient relationship, and improve outcomes.
Headline: 6 ways to inspire future leaders during Women’s History Month
Celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2025 with engaging experiences from Minecraft Education, Learning Accelerators, and more.
Each year on March 8, communities around the world come together to celebrate International Women’s Day, recognizing the remarkable contributions of women who have shaped history and championed equality. In the US, this celebration coincides with Women’s History Month, an opportunity to learn about the lives of leaders like Ellen Ochoa and Malala Yousafzai, whose relatable stories inspire students to create positive changes in their own lives and beyond.
To help you bring these stories to life in your classroom to celebrate Women’s History Month 2025, check out our list of tools and resources that will help make learning more meaningful and engaging. Students can explore the triumphs of strong, female leaders in Minecraft Education, learn valuable information literacy and presentation skills with Learning Accelerators, and discover contributions of local women through lessons you create with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. These tools help inspire curiosity, support critical thinking, and connect students to the powerful stories of women who have shaped our world.
1. Experience the courage of Hispanic women in LatinExplorers 2
Introduce your students to a remarkable group of Hispanic women who have shaped their communities and the world. With Minecraft Education’s LatinExplorers 2, created in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, students will discover how Gloria Estefan, Ellen Ochoa, and Monica Ramirez made an impact through music, science, and advocacy. Along the way, they’ll develop leadership skills, build empathy, and learn how to tackle challenges—just like these fearless women.
Discover LatinExplorers 2
Classroom connection: Before getting started, explore supporting files on the LatinExplorers 2 webpage. You’ll find an educator guide to help facilitate the experience in your classroom, along with a toolkit for using LatinExplorers 2 at a family event.
2. Walk in the shoes of Noble laureates
Conflict resolution is a critical leadership skill, and Minecraft Education’s Peace Builders lesson helps students develop their capacity to deal with problems through real-world examples. In this immersive experience, created in partnership with the Nobel Peace Center, students meet four Nobel Peace Prize laureates who addressed global conflicts in unique ways—including Jody Williams who worked tirelessly to ban landmines in post-war Cambodia. Through Williams’ story and other peace builders, students will explore strategies to prevent and resolve conflict, strengthening their ability to lead with empathy and action.
Explore Peace Builders
Classroom connection: Check out the supporting files and use the Jody Williams Class PowerPoint to introduce important concepts and guide your students in creating their own campaign to address issues that matter to them.
3. Introduce strong female role models with Lessons in Good Trouble
Inspire your students to become catalysts for positive change in their community by learning from civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, and Emmeline Pankhurst in Minecraft Education’s Lessons in Good Trouble. In this experience, your students will work alongside outspoken activists to understand historic periods when women were denied educational opportunities and voting rights. The courageous women in Lessons in Good Trouble demonstrate how peaceful activism can challenge injustices and create a more equitable society for everyone.
Discover Lessons in Good Trouble
Classroom connection: Enhance your students’ learning by making Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, or Emmeline Pankhurst the focus of a research project. Use a Learning Accelerator such as Search Progress or Search Coach to help take their learning to the next level.
4. Research influential women with Search Progress and Search Coach
Extend learning beyond Women’s History Month while helping your students build essential digital literacy skills with Search Progress and Search Coach, two Learning Accelerators. An assignment in Search Progress empowers students to find, evaluate, and use credible online sources to develop critical information literacy skills along the way. And, both tools make it easy to track student learning in real-time.
Explore Learning Accelerators
For example, you might create a Search Progress assignment that asks students to research Emmeline Pankhurst’s contributions to the women’s suffrage movement. Using Search Coach, your students receive real-time feedback on their queries, helping them to refine their research strategies while building background knowledge on this influential leader.
To get started with Search Progress and Search Coach, explore these resources:
5. Practice presenting with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach
Click to enlarge
Help students share their Women’s History Month learning by creating a PowerPoint and practicing their presentation skills with Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach, two Learning Accelerators. Use Speaker Progress to create presentation assignments and track your students’ growth at the individual, class, grade, and school levels. Then have your students use Speaker Coach to complete the assignment, while receiving real-time, AI-powered feedback on pacing, pitch, clarity and more.
To integrate Minecraft Education learning with presentation assignments, have students create a PowerPoint on ways to increase diversity just as Ellen Ochoa modeled in LatinExplorers 2. They can practice their delivery in a private space with Speaker Coach, helping to boost their confidence as they strengthen their communication skills.
Get the most out of Speaker Progress and Speaker Coach with these resources:
6. Expand on Women’s History Month with Copilot Chat
Copilot Chat can help you create classroom materials, activities, and lessons tailored to Women’s History Month topics or even more of your students’ interests. Use generative AI to streamline lesson planning by copying and pasting one of these ready-to-use prompts into Copilot Chat:
Generate a list of five women from [geographic area or country] who have made significant contributions in the past [two decades]. Include a paragraph on their achievements, challenges, and leadership. Include an engaging activity for students in [grade level] that requires them to explore information in an interactive way.
Write an oral reading passage about Jody Williams, detailing her Nobel-prize winning accomplishments. The passage should be at a [700L] Lexile level and under [number] words. Provide three comprehension questions for a [grade level] student.
Try Copilot Chat
Make sure to check out “Meet your AI assistant for education” to discover more ways Copilot Chat can help you personalize learning, support brainstorming, provide feedback, and more.
From Minecraft Education experiences with women leaders to Learning Accelerators that help students practice their skills, find an activity that will make Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day 2025 memorable and inspiring for your students. Start inspiring the next generation of leaders in your classroom today!
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Friday that severe cuts to humanitarian and development funding by the United States will have devastating consequences for millions of vulnerable people worldwide.
“These cuts impact a wide range of critical programmes,” he told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York, highlighting the potential disruption to lifesaving humanitarian work, development projects, counterterrorism efforts and initiatives to combat drug trafficking.
He expressed the UN’s gratitude “for the leading role” the US has played over decades providing overseas aid, highlighting that thanks to US taxpayers’ dollars and other donors, over 100 million people each year receive humanitarian support through UN programmes.
However, the cuts come at a time when global crises are intensifying, leaving millions at risk of hunger, disease and displacement, he said.
“The consequences will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world,” Mr. Guterres said.
Millions at risk
In Afghanistan, more than nine million people could lose access to health and protection services, as hundreds of mobile health teams and other critical programmes face suspension.
In northeast Syria, where 2.5 million people require humanitarian assistance, the absence of US funding will have a major impact.
The cuts have been felt already in Ukraine, where cash-based aid that supported one million people in 2024 has been suspended. In South Sudan, funding has run out for programmes assisting refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Sudan, creating overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at border areas.
Beyond direct humanitarian relief, the cuts will also severely affect global health and security efforts.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will be forced to halt many counter-narcotics operations, including those targeting the fentanyl crisis and dramatically scale back its activities against human trafficking.
“And funding for many programmes combatting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and cholera have stopped,” Mr. Guterres said.
A vital partnership
Mr. Guterres emphasized that US support has long been central to global humanitarian efforts.
“The generosity and compassion of the American people have not only saved lives, built peace and improved the state of the world. They have contributed to the stability and prosperity that Americans depend on,” he added.
Think again
The Secretary-General urged the US Government to reconsider the funding cuts, warning that reducing America’s humanitarian role would have far-reaching consequences, not only for those in need but also for global stability.
“Going through with these cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous,” he said, stating that UN agencies stand ready to provide the necessary information and justification for its projects.
“We look forward to working with the United States in this regard,” he added.
Mr. Guterres said the UN would continue to do everything possible to provide lifesaving assistance and diversify funding sources.
“Our absolute priority remains clear. We will do everything we can to provide life-saving aid to those in urgent need,” he said.
“We remain committed to making the global humanitarian effort as efficient, accountable and innovative as possible while continuing to save lives.”
Soundcloud
Full audio of Secretary-General Guterres remarks to the press.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it will hold a roundtable discussion on Artificial Intelligence in the financial industry. The event takes place on March 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is open to the public for either in-person or virtual attendance.
The AI roundtable will discuss the risks, benefits, and governance of AI in the financial industry.
SEC Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda and SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw are expected to deliver remarks.
Advance registration is strongly encouraged for those planning to attend in person.
Information on the agenda, participants, and the process for the public to submit comments will be published on the SEC AI Roundtable’s event page.
Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
Murray: “The Trump administration has chosen to spit in the face of the law and Congress—expressing total disdain for a court order mandating that they release the foreign aid funding they had illegally withheld.”
Murray: “If Ebola, Marburg, or any other infectious disease makes it to our shores, it will be thanks to Elon and Trump—two billionaires without a clue who are positively smug about their own ignorance.”
***VIDEO HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took to the Senate floor to speak out about the Trump administration’s decision on Wednesday to illegally terminate 90% of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and 60% of State Department programs.
Senator Murray has been sounding the alarms about the Trump administration flagrantly violating the law to block enacted funding across government, dismantle long-established agencies like USAID, and recklessly fire federal workers en masse. Earlier this week, she blasted the Trump for permanently eliminating 1,600 USAID employees positions in violation of the law.
Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:
“M. President, I come to the floor today to make a simple point: the law cannot be in the eye of the beholder.
“The law is the law—but yet again, we are seeing the Trump administration break the law.
“Many of us have been closely following the Trump administration’s illegal freeze of congressionally appropriated funding, including of foreign aid—not just from the State Department, but also from USAID, the African Development Foundation, Inter-American Foundation, and other independent agencies.
“Each of these agencies’ existence as an independent entity has long been enshrined in statute, and reaffirmed by bipartisan majorities in both chambers year-after-year in annual appropriations.
“Our appropriations law also explicitly requires the administration to notify and consult with Congress before undertaking any efforts to reorganize, realign, or downsize foreign affairs agencies—as the sweeping reductions in force issued last week and many other brazen actions we’ve seen clearly seek to do.
“The Administration’s actions—including firing the USAID Inspector General and the State IG—will make waste and fraud more likely and will prevent even foreign assistance programs allegedly supported by the administration from being effectively implemented and will also effectively block hundreds of millions of dollars for other programs enacted into law by bipartisan majorities.
“Needless to say, the Trump administration has not consulted or notified Congress about these changes—that is in violation of the law.
“But this week they took a further step. The Trump administration has chosen to spit in the face of the law and Congress—expressing total disdain for a court order mandating that they release the foreign aid funding they had illegally withheld.
“When finally told they must comply, Secretary Rubio personally approved the termination of 90% of USAID programs, and 60% of State Department programs—virtually overnight.
“They terminated more than $58 billion in multi-year programs, and have told us they have no intention of utilizing those funds.
“The termination of those awards is absolutely not what Congress intended. Congress appropriated the funding, on a bipartisan basis, with the express intent to see those dollars spent.
“This is not trivial stuff. We are talking about resources that often mean the difference between life and death. Resources that are imperative, not just because they are lifesaving but because they are an investment in our own national security—and U.S. businesses.
“Let’s take Ebola for example: USAID helps other countries around the world respond to and contain Ebola outbreaks. That’s pretty darn important because there is no known cure for Ebola.
“Thanks to the good work of USAID—along with our international partners, often supported by USAID awards—we have never had an Ebola outbreak here at home.
“Yesterday, at President Trump’s cabinet meeting, Elon Musk even admitted that, ‘yes we want to fight Ebola’—of course, then he said, they accidentally cut USAID’s Ebola prevention efforts, but that it had been ‘restored’ with no ‘interruption.’
“Yet we know for a fact that is a lie. U.S.-based companies implementing these programs received termination notices yesterday.
“Any basic accounting of USAID’s capacity to stop outbreaks abroad shows quite plainly that any disease prevention efforts supported by the U.S. at this point are merely symbolic.
“You cannot break the foundation of public health systems overseas and expect that it won’t have a damaging impact here at home. This makes America less safe.
“If Ebola, Marburg, or any other infectious disease makes it to our shores, it will be thanks to Elon and Trump—two billionaires without a clue who are positively smug about their own ignorance.
“But it’s not just our infectious disease response that has now been gutted. Everything from resources to help prevent kids from getting malaria to aid for refugees in war torn places like Syria where it is directly in our national security interest to foster stability.
“And it’s not just resources for far-away places—this will hit home in blue and red states. U.S. universities in my home state, in Indiana, in Florida, in Texas, and other states have had their partnerships terminated.
“American students from across our country that are now participating in exchange programs overseas are impacted by this.
“To put it into perspective for my colleagues: 5,800 of 6,300 USAID grants and contracts are being terminated—that’s nine out of ten—and that’s not to mention 4,100 of 6,800 State Department grants and contracts.
“And the only detail we have is from NGOs, faith-based organizations, and U.S. contractors sending these termination notices to our committee.
“We do not have one shred of detail from the State Department. Not one shred. The scale is staggering—and it shows you that this administration’s scheme is to bulldoze right through restraining orders and court orders so that by the time the law catches up to them, the damage will have been done.
“Compliance is easy at that point. What’s left to fix once you’ve burned everything to the ground?
“This administration knows full well they are breaking the law. They are showing us all in plain view that their goal is to do irreparable damage—as much as possible, as fast as possible.
“Well, I am sounding the alarm because this illegal power grab is in direct violation of congressional intent and appropriations law.
“The Supreme Court should act with haste to bring this administration to account and ensure that money Congress appropriated gets to where it was intended.
“Whether it’s President Trump, or Elon Musk, or the Secretary of State calling the shots, Congress has no visibility into DOGE’s actions, frustrating our ability to write funding bills when government funding runs out in weeks.
“By ignoring the law and congressional intent, the administration has created chaos, they have eroded trust in the United States, and made way for Russia and China to take advantage of this leadership vacuum.
“No one should fall for this thin veneer about ‘efficiency’ while the Administration racks up legal fees, overdue payments to contractors, pays people not to work, and forces a global recall of staff.
“We have a process to avoid this kind of chaos. The President submits his or her budget request to Congress. Congress holds hearings publicly, and writes and passes bills that become law.
“We have explicit notification and consultation requirements for foreign assistance funding for a reason.
“M. President—do I need to march down to the National Archives? Do I need to make sure we still have a Constitution?
“Do I need to check whether the laws we passed are still there? Or did they start running them through a shredder? Because as blatant and persistent as it has been, no one—no one—should expect this kind of lawlessness to fade away.
“I cast my votes and speak on this floor as a voice for the people of the state I represent, Washington state. I was not elected to let the President or some unaccountable billionaire decide how their tax dollars get spent.
“Every Senator here should speak loudly with one unified voice: Congress holds the power of the purse, and no President can unilaterally abolish an entire agency or ignore our appropriations laws.”
Admiral Markets AS Unaudited Financial Results 12 Months of 2024
Despite lower client activity, Admirals Markets AS delivered resilient trading income and positive net profit through effective cost control measures.
Net trading income increased by 48% to EUR 13.5 million (2023: EUR 9.1 million) being supported by higher volatility on the financial markets.
Total operating expenses decreased by 26% to EUR 13.7 million (2023: EUR 18.5 million).
EBITDA was EUR 2.0 million (2023: EUR -6.9 million).
Net profit was EUR 1.3 million (2023: EUR -8.2 million).
Although the income was supported by higher volatility in financial markets, Admirals Group’s cost optimisation effort was partly muted due to voluntary suspension of new client registrations in the Cyprus based operating company Admirals Europe Ltd. This company acts as the primary service entity of the Group in the EU which is one of the core markets for the Group’s business. The suspension started in April 2024 is voluntary and temporary in nature and it was necessary to allow for the implementation of required technical and organisational measures to ensure satisfactory alignment of Group’s product governance efforts with objectives and needs of it’s European clients. At the same time other Group entities continued to carry out their services uninterrupted as usual.
Statement of Financial Position
(in thousands of euros)
31.12.2024
31.12.2023
Assets
Due from credit institutions
19,381
10,175
Due from investment companies
13,362
9,014
Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss
2,516
6,353
Loans and receivables
29,231
37,274
Inventories
665
311
Other assets
650
970
Investment into subsidiaries
4,180
4,180
Tangible fixed assets
1,041
1,494
Right-of-use asset
1,757
2,221
Intangible fixed assets
2,821
2,943
Total assets
75,604
74,935
Liabilities
Financial liabilities at fair value through profit or loss
333
217
Liabilities and prepayments
744
980
Subordinated debt securities
1,347
1,353
Lease liabilities
2,025
2,499
Total liabilities
4,449
5,049
Equity
Share capital
2,586
2,586
Statutory reserve capital
259
259
Retained earnings
68,310
67,041
Total equity
71,155
69,886
Total liabilities and equity
75,604
74,935
Statement of Comprehensive Income
(in thousands of euros)
2024
2023
Net gains from trading of financial assets at fair value through profit or loss with clients and liquidity providers
37,435
41,777
Brokerage and commission fee revenue
1,062
1,668
Brokerage and commission fee expense
-25,451
-34,656
Other trading activity related income
418
339
Net income from trading
13,464
9,128
Other income similar to interest
85
172
Interest income calculated using the effective interest method
1,366
1,044
Interest expense
-155
-184
Other income
433
877
Other expense
0
10
Net gains on exchange rate changes
198
-214
Net loss from financial assets at fair value through profit or loss
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — HTXMining, a Liquidity Staking Platform, introduced an advanced Liquidity Staking Platform aimed at providing users with a streamlined and efficient way to participate in cryptocurrency staking. HTXMining can rock the world of cryptocurrencies with its appealing features. Htxmining impressed its investors by providing new ways to make the most of their digital assets, all while keeping things safe and profitable.
Image by HTXMining
HTXMining: The Future of Crypto Staking
Cryptocurrency staking provides a means to engage in blockchain networks by contributing digital assets. This process helps secure transactions and validate blocks, and in return, participants earn rewards. Compared to traditional mining, staking presents a more environmentally conscious option, as it does not require significant hardware investments or excessive energy usage. Platforms like HTXMining offer staking services that allow assets to be locked for a specified duration in exchange for staking rewards.
Liquidity Staking:Maintaining Asset Availability
Liquidity staking on HTXMining enables participants to stake assets while maintaining access to their funds, allowing continued trading or utilization while earning staking rewards. This feature is unique to HTXMining, providing investors with flexibility and financial freedom. Prot potential can be maximized by providing liquidity to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and automated market makers (AMMs) without sacrificing asset availability.
Liquidity Mining forEnhanced Engagement
In addition to staking, HTXMining offers liquidity mining options where participants contribute assets to liquidity pools in decentralized nance (DeFi) protocols. As part of this process, contributors support market operations and may receive incentives based on their contribution levels.
The platform offers diverse liquidity mining pools. Whether staking Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), or stablecoins like USDT and USDC, HTXMining ensures that participants can diversify their investments while optimizing earnings.
Why HTXMining Serves as a Good Crypto Staking Platform
HTXMining is regarded as a reliable platform for crypto staking due to its commitment to transparency, security, and portability. Among the key distinguishing features of HTXMining are:
Flexible Staking Options: A range of staking durations is available, tailored to various financial strategies.
Low Transaction Fees: Minimal transaction fees enable participants to maximize staking and liquidity mining rewards.
User-Friendly Interface: The intuitive interface of HTXMining ensures accessibility for both beginners and experienced users.
24/7 Customer Support: HTXMining provides continuous assistance to address any inquiries.
Ways to Earn withHTXMining
HTXMining continues to evolve its platform with planned integrations of AI-powered staking optimization, advanced DeFi tools, and multi-chain support, expanding engagement across various blockchain networks. The platform is designed for both beginners and experienced investors, offering multiple earning methods, including:
1. Traditional Staking
Traditional staking on HTXMining provides a low-risk method to earn rewards with cryptocurrency. It offers a stable and predictable return, making it an attractive option for investors who prioritize a reliable income stream.
2. Liquidity Staking
Liquidity staking on HTXMining enables investors to stake assets while still maintaining access to liquidity. The Liquidity Staking mechanism ensures that stakers benefit from both trading and staking rewards.
3. Liquidity Mining
HTXMining’s liquidity mining pools present another lucrative investment avenue. Investors can enhance overall earnings by contributing assets to liquidity pools.
4. Referral and AffiliatePrograms
Beyond staking, HTXMining offers a referral and affiliate program that provides additional earning potential. Commissions can be earned by introducing new participants to the platform, creating opportunities for increased revenue.
HTXMining: A Leading Liquidity Staking Platform
HTXMining’s robust security measures and liquidity mining solutions offer an effective way to earn income through cryptocurrency staking. Regardless of experience level in the crypto industry, the platform is designed to accommodate all participants. HTXMining ensures maximum rewards with top-tier security and a seamless user experience.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. Cryptocurrency mining and staking involve risk, and there is potential for loss of funds. It is strongly recommended to practice due diligence, including consultation with a professional financial advisor, before investing in or trading cryptocurrency and securities.
On 25–26 February 2025, the Italian Coast Guard, acting as Chair of the European Coast Guard Functions Forum (ECGFF), together with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) hosted an international workshop on AI and unmanned systems entitled “Coast Guard Evolution: Artificial Intelligence and Unmanned Systems Enhancing SAR Operations”. The event, held in Cagliari, Italy, brought together delegations from EU Member States and leading experts in AI and emerging technologies to discuss the future of maritime safety and the use of cutting-edge technology in optimising Search and Rescue (SAR) operations.
As the maritime domain faces increasingly complex challenges, close and effective cooperation between coast guard functions across the EU is now more important than ever. At the same time, if we want to considerably boost Europe’s collective capacity to safeguard its waters and protect lives at sea, prudent adoption of AI-driven technologies is the way to go.
In this context, the ECGFF and Frontex play a vital role in fostering cooperation and strengthening interoperability between Member States and EU coast guard agencies, ensuring that national coast guard authorities are equipped with the most effective tools and up-to-date knowledge to address any emerging issues.
With a blend of thematic presentations and panel discussions, the ECGFF-Frontex workshop was a platform for sharing knowledge on the latest advancements in SAR technologies and discussing how AI solutions can promote synergies and improve rescue operations.
With over 100 participants from 22 Member States, the EU Commission, European Defence Agency, Joint Research Center, and our sister EU agencies — EFCA and EMSA — this strong engagement reflects the growing interest in discussing this crucial topic.
The workshop explored the legal, operational and technological implications of adopting AI in SAR missions. Topics included the benefits and limitations of emerging technologies in both manned and unmanned SAR missions, EU initiatives supporting the development of AI-driven tools for coast guard functions, and the role of networks such as EUROSUR in optimising cross-border coordination of SAR efforts in migrant emergencies at sea.
The message that kept being repeated among SAR experts and practitioners was that the human element must remain central to all considerations regarding AI application in SAR and that technology must always serve humanity.
By bringing together the diverse perspectives and expertise in numerous areas, the ECGFF and Frontex reaffirm their shared commitment to further development of the coast guard through innovations and EU-wide cooperation. The insights gathered contributed to ensuring that AI and emerging technologies are effectively leveraged to save lives at sea while keeping Europe’s maritime borders secure.