NewzIntel.com

Category: Eurozone

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Press release – “Schools must remain safe spaces of learning and growth – never of fear”

    Source: European Parliament

    MEPs remembered the school killing victims in Austria and France and marked the Schengen area’s fortieth anniversary, after opening the 16 19 June plenary session in Strasbourg.

    School killings in Austria and France

    At the very start of the sitting, President Metsola expressed her deep sadness at the shocking events of Tuesday 10 June, when a school boy stabbed and killed a school assistant in Nogent, France, and a former pupil shot and killed nine students and a teacher and injured many more in Graz, Austria.

    Violence and hatred have no place in Europe, and no place in our schools, she said, concluding that “schools must remain safe spaces of learning and growth – never of fear”. President Metsola invited MEPs to join her in a minute’s silence in memory of those killed.

    Forty years of the Schengen area

    Immediately after opening the June 2025 plenary session, President Metsola led celebrations to mark the Schengen Agreement’s 40th birthday. “Around the world, the Schengen area is looked at with admiration as a clear and very tangible example of what European cooperation can achieve, she said. But we should never take it for granted, she continued, preserving and strengthening Schengen takes constant commitment and effort from all of us”, she said.

    The President’s speech was followed by a round of statements by the political group leaders. You can watch a recording of the proceedings on Parliament’s Multimedia Centre website.

    Changes to the agenda

    President Metsola announced the following changes to the Tuesday’s agenda.

    The Council and Commission statements on the assassination attempt on Senator Miguel Uribe and the threat to the democratic process and peace in Colombia will be replaced by a statement by the Vice-President/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.

    A joint debate with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the Polish Council Presidency on the situation in the Middle East including the risk of further instability in the Middle East following the Israel-Iran military escalation, the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is added as the ninth point in the afternoon following the debate on the revision of air passenger rights.

    Parliamentary immunity

    The President announced that Polish authorities have asked for the parliamentary immunity of Grzegorz Braun (NA, Poland) to be waived and the authorities of Belgium have asked for the parliamentary immunity of Giusi Princi (EPP, Italy) to be waived. These requests will be referred to the Legal Affairs Committee.

    The Legal Affairs Committee has found the request to waive the parliamentary immunity of Helmut Geuking (EPP, Germany) to be inadmissible.

    Requests by the LIBE and SANT committees to start negotiations with Council and Commission

    The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Public Health have decided to enter into interinstitutional negotiations pursuant to Rule 72, paragraph 1 of the Rules of Procedure, on the basis of the reports available on the plenary website.

    Outgoing MEPs

    MEP Ondřej Kovařík (PfE, Czechia) has resigned with effect from 31 July 2025.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Why is there a housing crisis and how do we fix it?

    Source: European Investment Bank

    Anselm Leahy sits at a table in the white, pristine kitchen of his new Dublin apartment. “When I first came into the apartment, I was astonished. I couldn’t believe it,” he says, gesturing toward a big bay window in the living room that overlooks nearby houses and green fields. “I was over the moon.”

    The apartment is part of new social housing built by the Focus Ireland Association, a state-run institution that provides loans to developers building affordable homes across the country. Leahy moved in just under two years ago, ending a spell of homeless that began with the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent move into a retirement home. “My will to live was very, very low,” Leahy says. “To get this apartment has changed me in lots of different ways: mentally, physically, spiritually. I feel human again. I feel like I have a future. I have hope.”

    Cities like Dublin suffer from a shortage of affordable housing that has blocked many people – the unemployed, low-income families, migrants and young workers – out of the market. Over the past 15 years, average rents in the European Union have risen by one-quarter and house prices by half, while one in ten Europeans now spend 40% or more of their disposable income on housing.

    At the same time, the share of social housing in total supply has shrunk since 2010, even though the number of vulnerable people such as the homeless or new migrants has risen. Half of Europe’s housing stock was built before 1980, and much of it needs to be renovated. Many buildings are energy inefficient (a rating of D or worse). Bringing those homes and apartments up to new EU standards will be expensive and slow.

    The lack of affordable housing translates into real hardship: young people put off starting families, students turn down the best universities, essential workers like teachers or nurses don’t accept jobs in in major cities – all because they are priced out of housing.

    “These people and their stories provide living proof of the housing crisis and the impact it has on Europe,” said Dan Jørgensen, the EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing, at a housing event hosted by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in early March. “It threatens social justice and social cohesion … It weakens our economy and reduces our competitiveness.”

    The problem is clear: Over the last decade or so, housing demand has outstripped supply and incomes haven’t kept up with prices. The solution, however, is much more complicated. The European Union needs to build almost one million new dwellings. That requires:

    • innovative, faster and less costly ways of building;
    • regulatory reform to speed up permitting and to create the investment framework for housing providers to deliver affordable new apartments and homes;
    • financing solutions that encourage residential development and renovation. 

    “We need to enhance the housing supply while also making better use of the stock we already have,” says Chiara Fratto, a European Investment Bank economist who researches housing issues.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Protecting retail investors against predatory investment firms selling misleading financial products offering poor value for money – E-002287/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-002287/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Bas Eickhout (Verts/ALE)

    In 2006, a major financial scandal came to light in the Netherlands. Millions of retail investors had put their savings into investment-linked insurance plans that came with such high hidden costs that they could only make tiny returns. These products are currently banned in the Netherlands.

    Now, nearly twenty years later, the Dutch NN Group is selling similar financial products to Belgian and Greek retail investors[1]. Again, these products include many different kinds of hidden fees and management costs, sometimes amounting to as much as 7 % per year.

    • 1.What tools are currently available to national and European supervisors to address these misleading retail financial products offering such blatantly poor value for money on the market?
    • 2.Interinstitutional negotiations on the EU’s retail investment strategy are currently ongoing. Is the Commission confident that the outcome will effectively end the selling of these products with high hidden costs or, if not, what additional actions does the Commission propose?
    • 3.The Commission will adopt measures to create a European blueprint for savings and investment accounts, including a recommendation on the tax treatment of these accounts. How will the Commission prevent the Member States from wasting tax incentives on retail investment products that charge high fees with low value for money?

    Supporter[2]

    Submitted: 5.6.2025

    • [1] Follow the Money, ‘Disgraced Dutch investment firm uses tainted tactics to target new European clients’, 27 May 2025.
    • [2] This question is supported by a Member other than the author: Vladimir Prebilič (Verts/ALE)
    Last updated: 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Urgent action needed at SB62 as Amazon, climate slip closer to tipping points

    Source: Greenpeace Statement –

    Bonn, Germany – Worsening rates of Amazon deforestation, record temperatures exceeding 1.5°C and chronic government policy inertia around climate action and finance demand an urgent response from delegates the next two weeks at the UN climate negotiations in Bonn.

    A key moment on the road to COP30 in Brazil, the annual June intersessional meetings (SB62) in Bonn take place against a backdrop of climate-fuelled disasters and increasing deforestation rates in the Amazon. The ongoing forest loss is bringing the Amazon closer to a tipping point.

    An Lambrechts, Biodiversity Politics Expert, Greenpeace International said: “Now more than ever, we need an action plan to end deforestation. The world is hurtling toward a climate and biodiversity catastrophe, but as COP30 moves to the Amazon under Brazil’s presidency, there is a significant opportunity to accelerate protection and restoration of critical ecosystems.”

    “At COP28 the world agreed to halt deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, but there is no coherent UNFCCC plan yet to implement that goal beyond the expectation that parties include it in their NDCs and act at the national level. A transformative COP30 forest outcome that addresses fragmentation and delivers a five-year Action Plan starting next year can make the difference.”

    “Delegates in Bonn must seize the moment and work towards a radical shift in climate ambition and pave the way to address the 1.5°C ambition gap. Countries’ 2035 climate action plans, due this year, must ramp up emissions cuts and deliver on the COP28 decision to “transition away from fossil fuels”. 

    Tracy Carty, Climate Politics Expert, Greenpeace International said: “Climate inaction is costing lives! As emissions rise unchecked, our chances of limiting warming to the Paris goals recede and impacts escalate. We need to act faster and bolder to give ourselves the best chance possible.” 

    “The weak finance deal agreed at COP29 is constraining many developing countries’ ability to raise ambition and the finance gap risks undermining trust and progress in this year’s negotiations. Rich countries must urgently increase public finance support – and making big polluters, like the fossil fuel industry, pay for the damage and destruction is a vital part of the solution.”

    Anna Cárcamo, Climate Politics Specialist, Greenpeace Brazil said: “Bonn will be a key moment to advance important agendas leading to COP30 and Brazil as the incoming COP Presidency has signalled that it will focus on moving forward with adaptation, just transitions and implementation of the COP28 decision, including the goals to eliminate deforestation and to transition away from fossil fuels.” 

    “While all countries must act together to implement these critical agendas and goals, Brazil should lead with coherence, by continuing to address deforestation and reconsidering the expansion of fossil fuel extraction, especially in the Amazon.”

    ENDS

    Photos and videos are available in the Greenpeace Media Library.

    Notes:

    1. Bonn Climate Change Conference media briefing

    2. Proposal for a COP30 action plan for forests

    3. Legal briefing on maximising synergies to address the climate and biodiversity crises

    Contacts:

    Aaron Gray-Block, Climate Politics Communications Manager, Greenpeace International, [email protected]

    Gaby Flores, Communications Coordinator, Greenpeace International, +1 214 454 3871, [email protected]

    Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 (0)20 718 2470 (available 24 hours), [email protected]

    Join the Greenpeace WhatsApp Update Group

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Independence of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity expert group in the investigation of the 28 April blackout – E-002274/2025

    Source: European Parliament

    Question for written answer  E-002274/2025
    to the Commission
    Rule 144
    Dolors Montserrat (PPE), Pilar del Castillo Vera (PPE)

    The technical investigation launched by the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-e) expert group into the blackout on 28 April 2025 includes representatives from Spain’s national grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (Redeia), which also happens to be one of the subjects under technical analysis.

    In light of the above:

    • 1.Does the Commission believe that the current composition of the ENTSO-e expert group ensures due independence, impartiality and absence of conflicts of interest – as required by the principle of good administration recognised in Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – given it is both a judge and party in the case?
    • 2.Does the Commission intend to request an additional external report from the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, with the supervision of independent experts who have a proven and extensive track record in the energy market and are not under the influence of companies with an interest in the energy market?

    Submitted: 5.6.2025

    Last updated: 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Air India crash in Ahmedabad sends reverberations to Canadian families of Air India Flight 182

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chandrima Chakraborty, Professor, English and Cultural Studies; Director, Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health, McMaster University

    The June 12 Air India crash in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, with 230 passengers and 12 crew members aboard is sending deep reverberations through a group of Canadians who know all too well the shock, grief and horror of losing loved ones in hauntingly similar circumstances.

    They are the families of those killed in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 en route from Canada to India 40 years ago this month.

    I work closely with these families as a researcher and advocate. I began interviewing these families in 2014 and have witnessed firsthand their pain, advocacy and emotional turmoil of living in the shadow of a historical event.

    As reports of the Ahmedabad crash came in, the WhatsApp account of the Air India Flight 182 families immediately flooded with expressions of shock, concern, sympathy and memories triggered by the latest incident.

    On June 23, 1985, Flight 182 was brought down by terrorist bombs created and planted on Canadian soil. The devastating mid-air explosion occurred over the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland. It killed all 329 passengers and crew, including 268 Canadians. The crew and most of the passengers were of Indian origin.

    Investigations into the causes of the crash of Air India Flight 171, en route to London’s Gatwick airport, shortly after take-off are still underway. At least 279 people died in the crash, which also impacted people on the ground.

    Acknowledging losses as significant

    A recent public conference at McMaster University commemorated the 40th anniversary of Flight 182, bringing together Indian and Canadian families, researchers, creative artists and community members.

    Book cover for ‘Remembering Air India The Art of Public Mourning,’ edited by Chandrima Chakraborty, Amber Dean and Angela Failler.
    University of Alberta Press

    The conference dealt with critical themes, including the challenge of Flight 182 families recovering from their losses within a climate of broad indifference among their fellow Canadians.

    Regardless of what may have caused the more recent crash in western India, these Canadian families know the shock and loss that a new set of victims’ families are facing, and how important it is to support them.

    Hopefully, the home countries of last week’s crash victims — most of them Indian and British citizens, with at least one Canadian reported to have been aboard — will regard their deaths as significant losses. If so, this would be unlike what the 1985 victims’ families experienced in Canada.

    A little-mourned Canadian tragedy

    In Canada, we have a national day to remember on June 23, 1985. The bombing has been called a Canadian tragedy in a public inquiry report.

    Yet according to a 2023 Angus Reid poll, “nine out of 10 Canadians say they have little or no knowledge of the worst single instance of the mass killing of their fellow citizens.” That essentially means the bombing has yet to penetrate the consciousness of everyday Canadians or evoke shared grief or public mourning.

    The families continue to carry the torch of remembrance as they organize annual memorial vigils every June 23. Few others attend. Many victims’ relatives have died since 1985. Some spouses, siblings or parents are now in their 80s, wondering why the bombing is still not widely discussed in schools or in public discourse.

    The grinding and unsatisfying criminal proceedings, the belated public inquiry and the welcome but lukewarm apology by the Canadian government 25 years after the fact have all contributed to the failure of this tragedy to adhere more solidly to the Canadian consciousness. In fact, many continue to deny the Canadian significance of Flight 182 and view the bombing as a foreign event.

    A torch of remembrance

    At last month’s conference, my research team launched the Air India Flight 182 archive to counter this collective amnesia and lack of acknowledgement.

    Canadian archival consultant and writer Laura Millar has said that archives act as “touchstones to memory” and can aid the process of transforming individual memories into collective remembering. Adopting NYU professor Carol Gilligan’s ethics of care for the archive, we have been consulting with families to find ways to share their grief with the public.

    The Flight 182 memory archive — both physical and digital — serves as a repository for artefacts, first-person narratives, memorabilia and creative works related to the tragedy produced by family members. Family donations of artefacts such as dance videos and pilot wings redirect notions of archives away from a documental deposit. Hopefully, they can move the public to learn and care for the impacts of the Flight 182 bombing.

    The archive is a publicly accessible record of the tragedy, where scholars and everyday citizens can learn about the victims and their families.

    Since the past involves both the present and the future, the archive will enable a meaningful recognition of marginalized voices and histories. It can offer a form of memory justice for those who would otherwise be forgotten by sustaining memory from generation to generation.

    While the archive articulates the demand from families that the bombing of Flight 182 and its aftermath be incorporated into Canadian national consciousness, establishing this archive alone will not be enough to elevate the memory of Flight 182 to the place it deserves.

    But at least it establishes a rich, permanent academic and personal legacy for the community of mourners, and for the Canadian and global public to find it, use it and learn from its many lessons.

    Families of those on board the 1985 flight are preparing to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the terror bombing of Flight 182 that has devastated their lives.

    As we learn more about the tragic Air India Flight 171 crash on June 12, the lessons of Flight 182 will hopefully prevent a new set of families from feeling the pain of indifference on top of the unimaginable agony of loss they’re already experiencing.

    Chandrima Chakraborty receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. Air India crash in Ahmedabad sends reverberations to Canadian families of Air India Flight 182 – https://theconversation.com/air-india-crash-in-ahmedabad-sends-reverberations-to-canadian-families-of-air-india-flight-182-258991

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Iran-Israel conflict: Foreign Secretary statement

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Oral statement to Parliament

    Iran-Israel conflict: Foreign Secretary statement

    The Foreign Secretary made a statement to the House of Commons on 16 June, updating on the Israel-Iran conflict.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I will remind the House that the Foreign Office has been responding to two crises this past week.

    My Honourable Friend, Minister Falconer, will update on the Government’s extensive efforts to assist those who lost loved ones in Thursday’s devastating Air India plane crash.

    Just nine days ago, I was in Delhi, strengthening our friendship.

    Our nations are mourning together. My thoughts are with all those suffering such terrible loss.

    With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will now turn to the Middle East.

    Early last Friday morning, Israel launched extensive strikes across Iran. Targets including military sites, including the Iranian enrichment facility at Natanz, and key commanders and nuclear scientists.

    The last 72 hours has seen Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes across Israel, killing at least twenty-one Israelis and injuring hundreds more.

    And Israeli strikes have continued, including on targets in Tehran, with the Iranian authorities reporting scores of civilian casualties. 

    Prime Minister Netanyahu has said his operations will “continue for as many days as it takes to remove the threat”.

    Supreme Leader Khameini has said Israel “must expect severe punishment”.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, in such crisis our first priority is of course the welfare of British nationals.

    On Friday, we swiftly stood up a crisis team in London and the region, and yesterday I announced that we now advise against all travel to Israel as well as our long-standing travel of not travelling to Iran.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, today I can update the House that we are asking all British nationals in Israel to register their presence with the FCDO, so that we can share important information on the situation and leaving the country.

    And I can announce today that we are further updating our Travel Advice to signpost border crossing points, and sending Rapid Deployment Teams to Egypt and Jordan to bolster our consular presence near the border with Israel, which has already been supporting British nationals on the ground.

    Israel and Iran have closed their airspace until further notice, and our ability therefore to provide support in Iran is extremely limited. British nationals in the region should closely monitor our Travel Advice for further updates.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, the situation remains fast-moving. We expect more strikes in the days to come. This is a moment of grave danger for the region.

    I want to be clear, the United Kingdom was not involved in the strikes against Iran. This is a military action conducted by Israel.

    It should come as no surprise that Israel considers the Iranian nuclear programme an existential threat.

    Khameini said in 2018 that Israel was a “cancerous tumour” that should be “removed and eradicated”.

    We have always supported Israeli security – that’s why Britain has sought to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon through extensive diplomacy.

    We agree with President Trump when he says negotiations are necessary and must lead to a deal.

    That has long been the view, Mr Speaker, of the so-called ‘E3’ – Britain, France and Germany – with whom we have worked so closely on this issue. 

    The view of all of the G7 who have backed the efforts of President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.

    And for more than two decades, the cross-party view in this House.

    Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Lord Hague of Richmond led diplomatic efforts on the issue.

    Baroness May of Maidenhead and the former Right Honourable Member for Uxbridge did too, and this Government has continued to pursue negotiations, joining France and Germany in five rounds of talks with Iran this year alone.

    Ours is a hard-headed realist assessment of how best to tackle this grave threat. Fundamentally, no military action can put and end to Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, just last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors passed a non-compliance resolution against Iran, the first such IAEA finding in fourteen years.

    The Director-General’s Comprehensive Report details Iran’s failure to declare nuclear materials. Iran remains the only state without nuclear weapons accumulating uranium at such dangerously high levels. Its total enriched stockpile is now 40 times the limit in the JCPoA, and their nuclear programme is part of a wider pattern of destabilising activity.

    The Government has taken firm action in response.

    When they transferred ballistic missiles for use in Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, we imposed extensive sanctions including against Iran Air, and cancelled our bilateral air services agreement.

    In the face of unacceptable IRGC threats here in the UK – with some twenty foiled plots since 2022 – the CPS has for the first time charged Iranian nationals under the National Security Act, and we have placed the Iranian state, including the IRGC, on the enhanced tier of the new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, a widening war would have grave and unpredictable consequences, including for our partners in Jordan and the Gulf.

    The horrors of Gaza worsening, tensions in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq rising, the Houthi threat continuing.

    That’s why the Government’s firm view, as it was last October in the ballistic missile attack on Israel, is that further escalation in the Middle East is not in Britain’s interests, nor the interests of Israel, Iran or the region.

    There are hundreds of thousands of British nationals living in the region. And with Iran a major oil producer, and one fifth of total world oil consumption flowing through the Straits of Hormuz, escalating conflict poses real risks for the global economy.

    As missiles rain down, Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. But our priority now is de-escalation.

    Our message to both Israel and Iran is clear. Step back. Show restraint. Don’t get pulled ever deeper into a catastrophic conflict, whose consequences nobody can control.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, the Prime Minister chaired COBR on the situation last Friday and spoke to PM Netanyahu, President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    He is now at the G7 Summit in Canada, discussing with our closest allies how to ease tensions.

    And the Government has deployed additional assets to the region, including jets for contingency support to UK forces and potentially our regional allies concerned about the escalating conflict.

    In the last 72 hours, my Honourable Friend the Minister for the Middle East and I have been flat out trying to carve out space for diplomacy.

    I have spoken to both Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar and Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi, underlining Britain’s focus on de-escalation.

    I have also met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal. I’ve had had calls with US Secretary Rubio, EU High Representative Kallas and my counterparts from France and Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

    These conversations are part of a collective drive to prevent a spiralling conflict.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, this new crisis has arisen as the appalling situation in Gaza continues.

    This weekend, hospitals in Gaza reported over 50 people were killed and more than 500 injured while trying to access food.

    This Government will not take our eye off the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

    We will not stop calling for aid restrictions to be lifted and an immediate ceasefire.

    We will not forget about the hostages.

    This morning, I met Yocheved Lifschitz and her family, whose courage and dignity in the face of Hamas’ barbarism was a reminder of the plight of those still cruelly held in Gaza.

    We will not stop striving to free the hostages and end that war.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, our vision remains unchanged.

    An end to Iran’s nuclear programme and destabilising regional activity.

    Israel, secure in its borders and at peace with its neighbours.

    A sovereign Palestinian state, as part of the two-state solution.

    Diplomacy is indispensable to each of these goals. Britain will keep pressing all sides to choose a diplomatic path out of this crisis.

    I commend this statement to the House.

    Updates to this page

    Published 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI: Imperial Petroleum Inc. Declares Dividend on Series A Preferred Shares

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ATHENS, Greece, June 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Imperial Petroleum Inc. (Nasdaq: IMPP) (the “Company”), a ship-owning company providing petroleum products, crude oil, and drybulk seaborne transportation services, today announced a dividend of $0.546875 per share on its 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Shares”), payable on June 30, 2025 to holders of record as of June 25, 2025. The dividend payment relates to the period from the last dividend payment date for the Series A Preferred Shares on March 30, 2025, through June 29, 2025.

    There are 795,878 Series A Preferred Shares outstanding as of the date hereof. The Series A Preferred Shares trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “IMPPP.”

    ABOUT IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.

    IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. is a ship-owning company providing petroleum products, crude oil and drybulk seaborne transportation services. The Company owns a total of seventeen vessels on the water – seven M.R. product tankers, two suezmax tankers, three handysize drybulk carriers, three supramax drybulk carriers and two kamsarmax drybulk vessels – with a total capacity of 1,082,800 deadweight tons (dwt), and has contracted to acquire an additional two supramax drybulk carriers of 111,200 dwt aggregate capacity. Following these deliveries, the Company’s fleet will count a total of 19 vessels with an aggregate capacity of 1.2 million dwt. IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.’s shares of common stock and 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market and trade under the symbols “IMPP” and “IMPPP,” respectively.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    Matters discussed in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance and may include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, management’s examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. cannot assure you that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, geopolitical conditions, including any trade disruptions resulting from tariffs and other protectionist measures imposed by the United States or other countries, general market conditions, including changes in charter hire rates and vessel values, charter counterparty performance, changes in demand that may affect attitudes of time charterers to scheduled and unscheduled drydockings, changes in IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC’s operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in our financing arrangements, actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, domestic and international political conditions, the conflict in Ukraine and related sanctions, the conflicts in the Middle East, potential disruption of shipping routes due to ongoing attacks by Houthis in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden or accidents and political events or acts by terrorists. Risks and uncertainties are further described in reports filed by IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Company Contact:

    Fenia Sakellaris

    IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.

    E-mail: info@imperialpetro.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Imperial Petroleum Inc. Declares Dividend on Series A Preferred Shares

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    ATHENS, Greece, June 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Imperial Petroleum Inc. (Nasdaq: IMPP) (the “Company”), a ship-owning company providing petroleum products, crude oil, and drybulk seaborne transportation services, today announced a dividend of $0.546875 per share on its 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock (the “Series A Preferred Shares”), payable on June 30, 2025 to holders of record as of June 25, 2025. The dividend payment relates to the period from the last dividend payment date for the Series A Preferred Shares on March 30, 2025, through June 29, 2025.

    There are 795,878 Series A Preferred Shares outstanding as of the date hereof. The Series A Preferred Shares trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “IMPPP.”

    ABOUT IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.

    IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. is a ship-owning company providing petroleum products, crude oil and drybulk seaborne transportation services. The Company owns a total of seventeen vessels on the water – seven M.R. product tankers, two suezmax tankers, three handysize drybulk carriers, three supramax drybulk carriers and two kamsarmax drybulk vessels – with a total capacity of 1,082,800 deadweight tons (dwt), and has contracted to acquire an additional two supramax drybulk carriers of 111,200 dwt aggregate capacity. Following these deliveries, the Company’s fleet will count a total of 19 vessels with an aggregate capacity of 1.2 million dwt. IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.’s shares of common stock and 8.75% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Perpetual Preferred Stock are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market and trade under the symbols “IMPP” and “IMPPP,” respectively.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    Matters discussed in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance and may include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, management’s examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. cannot assure you that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, geopolitical conditions, including any trade disruptions resulting from tariffs and other protectionist measures imposed by the United States or other countries, general market conditions, including changes in charter hire rates and vessel values, charter counterparty performance, changes in demand that may affect attitudes of time charterers to scheduled and unscheduled drydockings, changes in IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC’s operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in our financing arrangements, actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, domestic and international political conditions, the conflict in Ukraine and related sanctions, the conflicts in the Middle East, potential disruption of shipping routes due to ongoing attacks by Houthis in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden or accidents and political events or acts by terrorists. Risks and uncertainties are further described in reports filed by IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Company Contact:

    Fenia Sakellaris

    IMPERIAL PETROLEUM INC.

    E-mail: info@imperialpetro.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: MPs could vote on two proposals to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales – the debate explained

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ruth Fletcher, Professor of Law, Queen Mary University of London

    Protesters in summer 2023 demanding decriminalisation of abortion. Loredana Sangiuliano/Shutterstock

    Legal protection of abortion rights in England and Wales is fragile. Abortion has popular support and is readily available on the NHS, but has also generated a series of criminal investigations. Nicola Packer is one of the most recent abortion-seekers facing criminalisation rather than care. She was found innocent in May after a five year ordeal.

    Amid concerns about investigations for illegal abortions, MPs may vote on June 17 on legislative action to decriminalise abortion. Political opinion is divided, however, on how to do it. In the absence of a broader push for the kind of inquiries that produced full decriminalisation in Northern Ireland in 2019, MPs will consider two different legal proposals: NC1 and NC20.

    In England and Wales, people do not have explicit abortion rights as a matter of domestic law. They may feel that they have when they get good abortion care. But as a matter of law, abortion is only permissible under the Abortion Act 1967 if two conditions are met.

    Two doctors must approve, and the case must meet the legal grounds outlined in the act. These are that there must be a risk to health up to 24 weeks gestation or, after 24 weeks, a risk to life, a risk of grave permanent injury to health or a serious foetal anomaly.

    If these conditions are not met, then someone who voluntarily ends a pregnancy could be criminally liable. This is because old criminal provisions against abortion – under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 – are still on the books.

    Each of the two amendments being put forward would decriminalise abortion by amending a government bill that is already making its way through parliament, the crime and policing bill, rather than by adopting a standalone piece of legislation for abortion.

    The two amendments

    NC1, proposed by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, is for a partial decriminalisation that would entail the “removal of women from the criminal law related to abortion”. This would put a stop to criminal investigations of women and pregnant people on suspicion of abortion, and mean that abortion-seekers no longer face the possibility of prosecution.

    The proposed amendment has the support of over 130 MPs, has been negotiated with and has the backing of abortion providers, including the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas), MSI Reproductive Choices and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. But it would not repeal or remove the existing criminal law. The criminal offences in the Offences against the Person Act and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act would remain in place.

    Neither would abortion providers, or those who assist or support abortion-seekers, including friends and family buying abortion pills on the internet, be exempted from criminal liability.

    NC20, the second amendment, is for full decriminalisation and is proposed by MP Stella Creasy. It has the support of over 100 MPs, but apparently not the support of abortion providers according to Bpas.

    Creasy’s proposal is more complex and wider in scope. This amendment would fully decriminalise abortion by repealing the criminal provisions altogether. It would maintain the Abortion Act 1967 as the legal framework for abortion care, so the legal grounds for abortion would remain the same.

    The proposed amendments to decriminalise abortion come after several high-profile cases.
    Brizmaker/Shutterstock

    Most importantly, this amendment aims to make abortion a human right, and protect the law from being restricted in the future. It does this by requiring that the secretary of state apply to England and Wales the human rights recommendations that led to decriminalisation in Northern Ireland. These are outlined in a 2018 UN report on the elimination of discrimination against women.

    The report’s recommendations establish full decriminalisation as a baseline standard that must be achieved. They also require minimum legal standards of allowing abortion in cases where there is a risk to health, where the pregnancy results from rape, and in cases of severe foetal anomaly.

    The Abortion Act 1967 already delivers these standards. But the recommendations – and Creasy’s proposed amendment – would set out a framework that could be applied in the future to other questions around bodily autonomy.

    No change in the law will happen immediately after the vote as the crime and policing bill has several more stages to pass in parliament. But the debate should give observers an indication of the direction of travel when it comes to the future of reproductive rights in England and Wales.

    Ruth Fletcher is Chairperson of the Abortion Support Network.

    – ref. MPs could vote on two proposals to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales – the debate explained – https://theconversation.com/mps-could-vote-on-two-proposals-to-decriminalise-abortion-in-england-and-wales-the-debate-explained-258966

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why is Stalin back in the Moscow metro?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jeremy Hicks, Professor of Post-Soviet Cultural History and Film, Queen Mary University of London

    A statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was unveiled in the Taganskaya metro station in Moscow in May, recreating a mural that was dismantled decades ago. It is the first such statue to be erected in central Moscow since Stalin’s death in 1953 and marks a disturbing new stage in Russia’s authoritarian path.

    Tens of millions of people died as a direct result of Stalin’s policies between 1924 and his death. These policies included the forced collectivisation of agriculture, the Gulag labour camp system and the “great terror” – a wave of mass arrests between 1937 and 1938, including of key figures in the army.

    Yet ultimate victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, with the support of Britain and the US, redeems Stalin in the eyes of Russia’s current rulers. For the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, this victory was one of the crowning achievements of the Soviet Union and remains a unifying force in modern Russia.

    De-Stalinisation, which from 1956 to the late 1960s saw the dismantling of Stalin’s policies and legacy, meant no statues of him were erected from his death until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But 110 monuments have been built since then (at the last count in 2023), with 95 of them erected in the Putin era. The rate of construction multiplied after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

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

    These statues initially tended to be in peripheral parts of the Russian Federation, such as Yakutia, North Ossetia and Dagestan, and not in city centres. The renaming by presidential decree of the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad in April 2025, to echo the city’s wartime name, was thus a significant moment.

    But the statue in the Moscow metro, an architectural gem in the centre of Russia’s capital that is used by millions of people each day, is an even more important symbolic statement.

    ‘Stalinwashing’

    Stalin’s reputation in Russia continues to recover. According to a poll from 2015, 45% of the Russian population thought the deaths caused by Stalin’s actions were justified (up from 25% in 2012). By 2023, 63% of Russians had an overall positive view of his leadership.

    This reflects the view promoted in schools and amplified by the Russian media, where criticism of Stalin is rare. Even the 2017 British comedy, The Death of Stalin, was banned in Russia for fear of popping the bubble of public approval.

    The purpose of rehabilitating Stalin is about boosting support for Putin’s regime, training Russians’ conformity reflex, and instilling pride in their history. But it also has external ramifications.

    With the partial exception of Georgia, his birthplace, Stalin is widely reviled by Russia’s neighbours which were often the victims of Stalin’s repressive policies. This is especially true of Ukraine. A famine known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor was deliberately imposed there between 1932 and 1933 as part of collectivisation and killed as many as 3.8 million people.

    As a result, his death unleashed de-Stalinisation accompanied by the destruction of his statues all over eastern Europe. This began during the 1956 Budapest uprising and was followed by later such reactions in Prague and elsewhere.

    The statue of Stalin in Budapest was torn down by demonstrators in 1956.
    Fortepan adományozó / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA

    After the uprisings were put down, Stalin’s place was typically taken by the less controversial Vladimir Lenin, the revolutionary leader who founded the Soviet Union.

    But since the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine, which culminated in the ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainians have also been pulling down statues of Lenin. Other Soviet-era symbols have also been torn down in a wave of demonstrations known as Leninopad or Leninfall.

    This is what has informed the latest intensification of Stalin-washing. The Ukrainian refutation of the symbolic heritage of the Soviet Union seems to have supercharged the Russian embrace of it, Stalin included.

    Russia has restored statues of Lenin in the Ukrainian territories it occupies. And it has now also started erecting statues of Stalin, notably in the southeastern city of Melitopol, where a statue was unveiled in May to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the second world war.

    This is against the law in Ukraine, where there is a ban on pro-Communist (and pro-totalitarian) symbolism. Russian forces have meanwhile been destroying memorials to the Holodomor in a battle over the meaning of the Soviet legacy.

    Russia’s military strength

    The re-elevation of Stalin promotes a narrow interpretation of his rule, stressing Russia’s military strength. Modern statues typically portray Stalin in a military uniform and evoke a sense of him as a victorious wartime leader.

    In fact, some of the appeal of the symbol of Stalin lies in welfare provisions of his leadership where, despite imposing an often cruelly authoritarian system, education and healthcare were free for all. The same can be said for his use of fear as a work incentive. Russians sometimes still denounce complacent or inept officials with the imprecation: “If only Stalin was here to sort you out” (Stalina na vas net in Russian).

    Nevertheless, it is the imperial version of Stalin that dominates, vindicating Russian refusal to reckon with its colonial past as the centre of the Soviet Union. Stalin’s record is sometimes defended within Russia on the basis that Winston Churchill, for instance, remains a British national hero despite a bloody past (such as his role in the Bengal famine of 1943).

    While there is an element of truth in this, the difference is that Churchill’s shortcomings and complicity in the death toll attributable to the British empire are publicly discussed. Such criticism of Stalin is not permitted in Russia. Even the new statue in Moscow was erected under cover of the night, evading public scrutiny and debate.

    The fact that the UK subjects its historical heroes to scrutiny is what distinguishes it from Russia, and defines it as democratic. At least for the time being.

    Jeremy Hicks is a member of the UK Labour Party

    – ref. Why is Stalin back in the Moscow metro? – https://theconversation.com/why-is-stalin-back-in-the-moscow-metro-258006

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: ASM share buyback update June 9 – 13, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Almere, The Netherlands
    June 16, 2025, 5:45 p.m. CET

    ASM International N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) reports that no transactions were executed under ASM’s current share buyback program in the week June 9 – 13, 2025.

    For further details including individual transaction information please visit: www.asm.com/investors/dividends-share-buybacks.

    About ASM International

    ASM International N.V., headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and process solutions to produce semiconductor devices for wafer processing, and have facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. ASM International’s common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol: ASM). For more information, visit ASM’s website at www.asm.com.

    This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

    Contact

    Investor and media relations

    Victor Bareño
    T: +31 88 100 8500
    E: investor.relations@asm.com

    		 Investor relations

    Valentina Fantigrossi
    T: +31 88 100 8502
    E: investor.relations@asm.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Haiti on the brink: Gangs fill power vacuum as current solutions fail a nation in crisis

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Greg Beckett, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Western University

    Haiti is facing a multifaceted crisis unlike any in the country’s modern history.

    Haiti recently marked the one-year anniversary of Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council’s (CPT) new government — an internationally backed effort to restore governance in the country after Prime Minister Ariel Henry was ousted by gangs.

    But rather than charting a path to stability, the CPT remains mired in dysfunction as Haiti’s crisis deepens with no end in sight. Armed gangs now control most of the capital, more than a million Haitians have been displaced and half the country faces acute food insecurity.

    Criminal gangs have taken control of most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince and significant parts of the country. Since 2021, gangs have killed more than 15,000 people and forcibly displaced over a million people.

    Beyond the security situation, there is a dire humanitarian emergency as more than half the country faces severe food insecurity.

    The United Nations says the country may be reaching a point of no return and risks falling into “total chaos.”

    Haitian friends tell me their whole country feels as blocked as the barricaded streets and choke points used by the gangs to control the capital.

    A security crisis paralyzing everything

    The impasse is undoubtedly shaped by entrenched gang violence. Armed groups have been used by political players for political ends in Haiti for decades.

    But now, new, well-organized armed gangs have emerged as political entities in their own right.

    For example, the G9 Alliance, the most notorious of gangs — actually a federation of gangs — is led by former police officer Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier.

    Chérizier presents himself on social media as a revolutionary figure fighting the elites, but in the streets of Port-au-Prince most, see him as a violent criminal.

    Last year, the G9 merged with rivals to form a coalition called Viv Ansamn (Live Together). Led by Chérizier and others, the group forced Prime Minister Ariel Henry from power. Henry had become prime pinister after the assassination of Haiti’s last elected head of state, President Jovenel Moïse, in July 2021, despite himself being implicated in the assassination.

    Both Henry and Moïse were accused of paying gangs to maintain control.

    Viv Ansamn’s takeover of the capital confirms gangs have become an autonomous political force. They have since expanded their power through their control over fuel supplies, critical infrastructure and key choke points.

    It’s telling that the gangs have become so powerful despite the presence of a UN-approved, Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission. The mission has been in Haiti since shortly after Henry was forced out of power.

    But with limited scope and funding from donor countries, including the United States, Canada and Ecuador, the mission has failed to achieve any major successes. Indeed, by the UN’s own estimates, gang violence continues to have a “devastating impact” on the population, despite the presence of the mission.

    Last month, the U.S. government designated Viv Ansamn and Gran Grif, Haiti’s two most powerful armed gangs, as terrorist organizations. Canada and others have also imposed sanctions on politicians and gang leaders, and perhaps this could lead to more sanctions against those who most directly benefit from the crisis. But for residents of Port-au-Prince, little has changed on the ground, where many feel the gangs are holding the country hostage.

    Democratic vacuum with no clear path forward

    A common saying in Haiti goes like this: peyi’m pa gen leta, my country has no state. Once a criticism of a particular government, it now feels literal. Haiti has no elected national officials.

    The CPT was established by the Organization of American States after Henry’s ousting, but has has done little to restore democracy. Elections are impossible under the current security conditions.

    Instead, the CPT has become another obstacle to resolution. Mired in internal conflict, some members have been accused of bribery. With no framework for political compromise, the council reflects a system where some key players actually benefit from the political impasse.

    Governing structures that can’t govern

    Haiti is now in uncharted territory. The CPT operates in a legal vacuum, making decisions without a clear mandate or authority.

    Still, the council is moving forward with a controversial plan to rewrite the Haitian constitution. The proposed changes will fundamentally alter Haiti’s government structure, including abolishing the senate and the prime minister, allowing presidents to hold consecutive terms, changing election procedures and allowing dual citizens and Haitians living abroad to run for office.

    This constitutional reform highlights the paradox at the heart of Haiti’s crisis: an institution with questionable legitimacy is attempting to redesign the very framework that would determine its own authority.

    These aren’t just procedural problems: they represent fundamental questions about who has the authority to govern and how decisions get made in a country where democratic institutions have always been fragile.

    International responses miss the mark

    International groups, including the UN, the Organization of American States and the Core Group that includes the United States, Canada and France, have overseen Haiti’s politics for decades. But their influence has often backfired. Many in Haiti see the international community as directly responsible for the current crisis.

    Whatever internal problems have given rise to the current crisis, the role played by the international community in Haiti has undoubtedly contributed to the impasse.

    The MSS mission is a stop gap at best and a liability at worst. It is insufficient for the scale of the crisis.

    Some observers have called for a full UN peacekeeping mission, but there is little support for it and such a mission would likely face resistance within Haiti given the country’s fraught history with international interventions.

    Can the international community undo the damage it has already done? And can Haiti make it through the impasse without the international community?

    Beyond the impasse: What needs to change

    There are no easy solutions. Addressing gang violence without legitimate governing institutions won’t create lasting stability. Yet the path to a legitimate government remains unclear as organizing elections without basic security is unrealistic.

    The international community must stop treating Haiti as a series of separate crises requiring separate responses. The current piecemeal approach treats symptoms while ignoring the underlying causes that block political resolutions.

    For Haitians, the stakes could not be higher. The question isn’t whether change is needed, but whether the international community and Haitian leaders can move beyond the impasse before the situation deteriorates even further.

    Greg Beckett receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. Haiti on the brink: Gangs fill power vacuum as current solutions fail a nation in crisis – https://theconversation.com/haiti-on-the-brink-gangs-fill-power-vacuum-as-current-solutions-fail-a-nation-in-crisis-257948

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Come and vote for your favourite community campaign!

    Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

    Over 150 applications from community groups have been received this year for the TAK£500+ Participatory Budget Fund.

    This project has been growing over the last four years and making real and lasting impact on our residents right across the borough – and this year is shaping up to be even bigger and better!

    Communities from right across every corner of the borough have put forward ideas they think will have a positive impact on their area – and are now in the running to receive up to £1000 to fund their project! And the power is in your hands to decide who receives that funding!

    There are three exciting Market Stall events taking place, where each applicant will showcase their idea and how it can benefit their community. All you (the public) have to do, is come along to an event, have a look at all the different ideas and vote for your favourites!

    These events will be a fun day for all the family to enjoy, with lots of great activities for the children, spot prizes, and teas and coffees on hand while you check out all of the amazing community ideas!

    The events:

    • Saturday 21st June 2025, 10:00am – 2:00pm: Bannville Hotel, Banbridge
    • Saturday 28th June 2025, 10:00am – 2:00pm: Armagh City Hotel
    • Saturday 5th July 2025, 2:00pm-5:00pm: South Lake Leisure Centre

    We hope to see you there!

    Tak£500+ is a Participatory Budgeting initiative organised by the Community Planning Department where local people get to decide how public funds are used to address needs in their area.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Armagh County Show highlights the strength of our Food Heartland

    Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

    Gosford Forest Park was buzzing with activity on Saturday 14th June as the Armagh County Show brought together the best of rural life. Organised by the Armagh Show Committee and supported by Council, this year’s event proved once again why the show is a cherished highlight of the agricultural calendar.

    Despite the wet weather, the show was a true celebration of farming, food, family, and fun, and welcomed farmers, producers, makers, and visitors of all ages to experience a full day of competitions, displays, demonstrations, and entertainment.

    From champion livestock and equestrian classes to mouth-watering local produce in the Food Heartland showcase and impressive machinery exhibitions, the show offered something for everyone.

    Lord Mayor, Alderman Stephen Moutray said: “The Armagh County Show continues to go from strength to strength, and it was a real pleasure to attend this year’s event and meet so many passionate individuals – from livestock exhibitors and food producers to volunteers and families enjoying the day out. Events like this are the heartbeat of our rural communities and play a vital role in sustaining our agricultural traditions while supporting our local economy. Huge congratulations to the organisers for another outstanding show.”

    Among the many highlights was the Food Heartland Showcase, which brought together some of the borough’s finest artisan producers and food businesses. Promoting the best of local food and drink, it proved a major draw for food lovers and those keen to sample and shop local.

    The Council is proud to support the Armagh County Show as part of its wider commitment to promoting the borough as Northern Ireland’s Food Heartland, recognising and celebrating the vital role the agri-food sector plays in local life and the regional economy.

    To learn more about the Food Heartland and its producers, contact:

    *protected email*

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Minister Joly welcomes Airbus’s sale of A220 aircraft to LOT Polish Airlines

    Source: Government of Canada News

    June 16, 2025 – Paris, France

    Today, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, issued a statement congratulating Airbus and LOT Polish Airlines on their sales agreement regarding A220 aircraft.

    “Global trade is more uncertain and the geopolitical landscape is shifting, but Canada is forging ahead to strengthen ties with trusted partners—and strengthening the strategic industries that will anchor our economic security for decades to come.

    “Today’s announcement at the Paris Air Show about the sale of A220 aircraft to LOT Polish Airlines is great news for Canada and its aerospace workers.

    “This represents another in a long list of airlines adding the A220 to its fleet, a clear signal of international confidence in Canadian innovation and industrial strength.

    “The A220 is a made-in-Canada success story: designed and developed here, assembled in Mirabel, Quebec, and supported by a world-class Canadian supply chain and Canadian talent.

    “This is more than an aircraft sale. It’s a testament to the strength of the Canada-Poland and Canada-EU relationship in an increasingly competitive global economy.

    “The order will help create and maintain thousands of high-paying jobs across the country and reinforce global recognition for a Canadian aircraft that’s changing the game.

    “This is what we mean when we say the next era is about building in Canada—with Canada.”

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Libya’s Alahli Tripoli Crowned 2025 Basketball Africa League Champions

    • First-Time Participant Alahli Tripoli Wins Libya’s First BAL Title 
    • Alahli Tripoli Forward Jean Jacques Boissy Named 2025 BAL Most Valuable Player 
    • Record 141,564 Fans Attended BAL Games This Season 

    Libya’s Alahli Tripoli today defeated Angola’s Petro de Luanda 88-67 to win the 2025 Basketball Africa League (BAL) (https://BAL.NBA.com) Championship, which took place at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, and reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages. Alahli Tripoli, which made its BAL debut this season, is the first team from Libya to win the BAL Championship. A record 141,564 fans attended games over the course of the BAL’s milestone fifth season.

    Following the game, BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall and FIBA Africa President Anibal Manave presented Alahli Tripoli with the BAL Championship Trophy and Alahli Tripoli forward Jean Jacques Boissy with The Hakeem Olajuwon Trophy for winning the 2025 BAL Most Valuable Player Award. For the first time in BAL history, the 2025 champions received championship rings (https://apo-opa.co/4l9udcZ), following a tradition long associated with global basketball excellence.

    Alahli Tripoli went 9-1 during the Nile Conference group phase in Kigali, Rwanda, and the Playoffs, defeating Cape Verde’s Kriol Star and Rwanda’s APR in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to advance to the Finals. Alahli Tripoli is the first team in league history to win both its conference and the championship in the same season. APR defeated Egypt’s Al Ittihad 123–90 in the third-place game yesterday, setting a league record for the most points scored in a single game.

    Boissy is also the 2025 BAL Scoring Champion and was named to the 2025 All-BAL First Team and the 2025 All-BAL Defensive Team, recording per game averages of 18.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.9 assists.

    Several former NBA players attended games during the 2025 BAL Playoffs and Finals, including 2014 NBA champion Boris Diaw (France; ties to Senegal), seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady (U.S.), BAL Ambassadors and NBA Africa investors Luol Deng (South Sudan), Ian Mahinmi (France; ties to Benin) and Joakim Noah (grandfather from Cameroon), 2015 FIBA AfroBasket champion Olumide Oyedeji (Nigeria), former NBA player Hasheem Thabeet (Tanzania) and former NBA player and Olympian Pops Mensah-Bonsu (Ghana).

    The BAL has also announced the Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sportsmanship Award winner, All-BAL First Team, All-BAL Defensive Team, and Ubuntu Award winner. The voting panels varied for each award and comprised fans, coaches, team captains, media, broadcasters, and scouts.

    2025 BAL Coach of the Year

    Alahli Tripoli head coach Abou Chacra Joseph Fouad led his team to a BAL Championship with a 9-1 record during the Nile Conference group phase and the Playoffs.

    2025 Defensive Player of the Year

    APR center Aliou Diarra won The Dikembe Mutombo Trophy as the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year. Diarra led APR to a 6-4 record during the Nile Conference group phase, and the Playoffs, averaging 17.4 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks in 10 games this season. He is the first player in league history to win the award twice, having previously received the honor in 2023 with Stade Malien (Mali). Diarra was also named to the All-BAL First Team.

    2025 BAL Sportsmanship Award

    Petro de Luanda (Angola) guard Souleyman Diabate received The Manute Bol Trophy for exemplifying the ideals of sportsmanship and camaraderie.

    2025 All-BAL First Team

    Position

    Player

    Team

    Guard

    Jean Jacques Boissy

    Alahli Tripoli (Libya)

    Guard

    Jaylen Adams

    Alahli Tripoli (Libya)

    Guard / Forward

    Majok Machar Deng

    Al Ittihad (Egypt)

    Forward

    Patrick Gardner Jr.

    Petro de Luanda (Angola)

    Forward / Center

    Aliou Diarra

    APR (Rwanda)

    2025 All-BAL Defensive Team

    Position

    Player

    Team

    Guard

    Jean Jacques Boissy

    Alahli Tripoli (Libya)

    Guard

    Obadiah Noel

    APR (Rwanda)

    Guard / Forward

    Caleb Agada

    Alahli Tripoli (Libya)

    Forward

    Teafale Lenard Jr.

    Made by Basketball (MBB; South Africa)

    Forward / Center

    Aliou Diarra

    APR (Rwanda)

    2025 BAL Ubuntu Award

    Kriol Star Basketball (Cape Verde) guard Joel Almeida won the 2025 BAL Ubuntu Award in recognition of his ongoing efforts to use the game of basketball to positively impact the lives of youth in his native Cape Verde. Over the past year, Almeida organized basketball camps and clinics that reached more than 100 aspiring players and coaches, including from underserved communities. Almeida was presented with the 2025 BAL Ubuntu Trophy during an on-court ceremony on Wednesday, June 11.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Basketball Africa League (BAL).

    Contact:
    Edwin Eselem
    BAL Communications
    +221 78 615 4287
    EEselem@theBAL.com

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: EU agencies help take down largest illegal trading platform for drugs

    Source: European Union 2

    The dark web marketplace was active for over five years. Archetyp was one of the only platforms to allow the sale of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. The marketplace had around 17 000 listings online, and with more than 600 000 users, it is considered one of the largest of its kind.

    Investigations into Archetyp revealed that its creator and current administrator is a German national residing in Spain. International cooperation between authorities, financial tracking and digital evidence analysis led to the identification of the people behind Archetyp. Investigators discovered the location of the servers, moderators and vendors on the marketplace. A coordinated action week was planned to dismantle Archetyp and arrest those responsible for selling and operating the platform, under the coordination of Eurojust and Europol.

    The action week took place between 11 and 13 June, targeting the platform’s administrator, moderators, key vendors and the servers running the website. Coordinated actions in five countries, carried out by around 300 officers, resulted in the arrest of the thirty year old administrator in Spain, seven other persons and the seizure of assets worth EUR 7.8 million. By taking Archetyp offline, authorities have dealt a severe blow to drug traffickers in Europe.

    Eurojust ensured the international investigation was efficient and effective. The Agency organised multiple coordination meetings, which enabled authorities to exchange critical information for the investigation. During the action days and the preliminary investigations, Eurojust coordinated the execution of mutual legal assistance and European Investigation Orders.

    Europol supported the investigation from the outset, facilitating the exchange of intelligence, conducting extensive cross-checks and helping to identify high-value targets. On the action days, Europol deployed a dark web specialist to Germany and set up a virtual command post to coordinate field activities and ensure real-time deconfliction across jurisdictions.

    The following authorities, with the support of the United States, carried out the operation:

    • Germany: Prosecutor General’s Office Frankfurt am Main – Cyber Crime Center; Federal Criminal Police Office
    • Netherlands: Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rotterdam; National Police, Unit Police Unit Rotterdam
    • Spain: Investigative Court num 10 in Barcelona; International Cooperation Section of PPO Barcelona; National Police
    • Sweden: Swedish Prosecution Authority; National Public Prosecution Department, National Unit against Organised Crime in Gothenburg; Swedish National Police; National Operations Department / Swedish Cybercrime Unit
    • Romania: Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT); National Police

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Extremist abortion laws planned for GB

    Source: Traditional Unionist Voice – Northern Ireland

    Statement by TUV leader and North Antrim MP Jim Allister:-

    “Tomorrow the House of Commons will debate two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill which would see abortion up to full-term legalised by the removal of the legal provisions which criminalise such.

    “In consequence a woman could self-administer abortion pills and, with risk to her own health, kill her unborn child, and, yet, no longer be breaking the law.

    “At present the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 makes such an offence in respect of a child capable of independent existence outside the womb.

    “Whereas abortion pills are only supposed to be available up to 10 week gestation, there is no way to police this as applicants self-declare the stage of their pregnancy in purchasing the pills online. The Carla Foster case demonstrates how open to abuse the present system is. How much worse will it become if all criminal sanction is removed. This is why I have signed an amendment which would require face-to-face medical consultation before such pills are provided.

    “Abortion up to birth is, to me, a wholly obnoxious and repugnant proposition, yet this is what the proposers of these amendments, Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi are seeking to advance. I am disappointed that two NI MPs, Clare Hanna and Sorcha Eastwood, are backing the Antoniazzi amendment and Ms Eastwood has also signed the even more extreme Creasy amendment!

    “Of course, it will be remembered that it was Stella Creasy’s amendment to the Executive Formation Bill in 2019 which brought to NI the most extreme abortion laws with which these amendments will now see much of GB share.

    “I will strenuously oppose these amendments, believing the innocent unborn must be given a voice.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Monday, June 16, 2025

    Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

    Note: All times local

    Kananaskis, Alberta

    9:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    10:00 a.m The Prime Minister will welcome G7 leaders to Kananaskis, Alberta.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    • Pooled photo opportunity

    10:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the G7 Working Session I on the global economic outlook.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    12:10 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Closed to media

    12:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the G7 working lunch on economic growth, security, and resilience.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Closed to media

    2:10 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the Prime Minister of Japan, Ishiba Shigeru.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    2:45 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the G7 Working Session III on making communities safe.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Closed to media

    4:15 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    4:50 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge

    Note for media:

    5:45 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in a G7 family photo.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Country Golf Course

    Note for media:

    • Pooled photo opportunity

    6:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the G7 working dinner on making the world secure.

    Pomeroy Kananaskis Country Golf Course

    Note for media:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Arab Coordination Group (ACG) provided US$ 19.6 billion in 2024 to promote global sustainable development

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    The Arab Coordination Group (ACG) (https://TheACG.org/), the world’s second-largest development finance group, extended US$19.6 billion collectively to fund nearly 650 operations in more than 90 countries in 2024. This significant financing was geared towards developing critical infrastructure, addressing global challenges like climate change and food security, and supporting international trade.  

    The ACG Heads of Institutions gathered in Vienna today for their 20th annual meeting hosted by the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund). Ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) which is scheduled to take place from 30 June to 3 July 2025 in Spain, the group reaffirmed its commitment to scaling-up financial assistance for sustainable development.

    The top three sectors supported by ACG financing last year were energy (29 percent), agriculture (20 percent) and the financial sector (16 percent). Over 45 percent of the total financing promoted global trade, ensuring the movement of critical products and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.

    In 2024, approximately 20 percent of the ACG’s commitments were dedicated to Africa, aligned with the US$50 billion pledge made by the group in November, 2023. During their meeting in Vienna today, the Heads of Institutions pledged continued and increasing support to the most vulnerable communities in Africa. The commitment aims to provide financing for energy security and energy transition; food security; enhanced integration of the Arab and African regions; gender and youth initiatives; and private sector support.

    The ACG will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in October 2025, marking a significant milestone in its journey of fostering sustainable development worldwide. This momentous occasion will provide an opportunity to reflect on the Group’s remarkable legacy, achievements, and challenges, while also reaffirming its commitment to global development. This event will not only document the Group’s accomplishments over the past fifty years but also inspire renewed commitment to advancing impactful development solutions worldwide.

    – on behalf of Arab Coordination Group (ACG).

    About the Arab Coordination Group (ACG):
    The Arab Coordination Group (ACG) is a strategic alliance that provides a coordinated response to development finance. Since its establishment in 1975, ACG has been instrumental in developing economies and communities for a better future, providing more than 13,000 development loans to over 160 countries around the globe. Comprising ten development funds, ACG is the second-largest group of development finance institutions in the world and works across the globe to support developing nations and create a lasting, positive impact.

    The Group comprises the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Arab Gulf Programme for Development, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Qatar Fund for Development and the Saudi Fund for Development.

    Media files

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    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Senegal’s tech ecosystem thrives as tech hub evolves

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    Download logo

    OPTIC, Senegal’s leading organization for tech professionals, has worked for three years with the Netherlands Trust Fund (NTF) V project at ITC to improve its services. Together we’ve improved Senegal’s entire digital ecosystem by investing in new skills and opportunities.

    Positive spin-offs for Senegal’s digital ecosystem

    OPTIC, the Organisation des Professionnels des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication, has a long-standing and fruitful collaboration with ITC. They’ve worked with the current NTF V project, which is now winding down, as well as the previous NTF IV project.

    The project supports Senegal’s efforts to grow its economy with digital technology. That includes both information technology (IT) companies, and business process outsourcing (BPO) firms that offer back-office services to international businesses. 

    ‘NTF’s support has enabled us to establish our legitimacy and intensify our efforts in the Senegalese tech ecosystem,’ said Antoine Ngom, President of OPTIC. ‘Dozens of IT and BPO start-ups have benefited from this initiative, not to mention the indirect spin-offs that have benefited the entire tech economy.’

    OPTIC has set itself several goals: to create a regulatory environment conducive to growth and innovation; to improve the skills and competitiveness of players on international markets; and to foster partnerships. 

    ‘Our members have been able to seize international development opportunities thanks to personalized coaching sessions, as well as work on their pitch and sharpen their fund-raising skills through specialized training courses. Participation in leading B2B events, both national (SIPEN) and international (VivaTech, Africarena, GITEX International), considerably increased their visibility and expanded their professional network. A 360° diagnosis helped them to identify levers for improving their company’s performance, while certification support opened doors to national and international public procurement markets, synonymous with new growth prospects. The agritech community also benefited from a number of thematic meetings and a mapping of solutions.’ 

    Strengthen achievements and maintain regional influence

    OPTIC also received comprehensive, structuring support from the NTF V Project. After a performance diagnosis, OPTIC restructured its governance, revised its fundamental texts, and defined its recruitment needs for the permanent secretariat.

    ‘Cooperation between OPTIC and the NTF V project has also helped to make the SIPEN trade show a major focal point for players in the African digital economy. And that’s not counting the technical support we’ve provided for workshops, digital mornings and other ThémaTIC breakfasts that benefit Senegal’s Tech community,’ said Ngom.

    All these initiatives have contributed to the emergence of the Digital Senegal consortium and to the realization of promising partnerships with players such as Sen Startup. ‘There’s no doubt that the NTF V project has helped OPTIC to strengthen its leadership capabilities and increase its regional influence. We’ve seen a significant increase in membership over the past few years,’ added Ngom, who hopes to build on this positive impact over the long term. Now that the trade organization has secured a plot of land on which to build its future head office, achieving financial autonomy is a new challenge.

    ‘We want OPTIC to reinforce its position as a key digital player in Senegal and more widely in West Africa. To achieve this, we plan to boost our regional cooperation and support dialogue with public authorities more than ever. To continue our work, diversify our best practices and develop profitable activities, we are launching an appeal to national and international partners,’ he said. Ngom hopes a future NTF VI project will be part of that.

    About the project

    The Netherlands Trust Fund V (NTF) programme (July 2021 – June 2025) is based on a partnership between the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Trade Centre. NTF V supports SMEs in the digital technology and agribusiness sectors in Benin,Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Uganda. Its ambition is to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable transformation of agri-food systems partly through digital solutions, to improve the international competitiveness of local tech start-ups and to support the implementation of the export strategy of IT&BPO companies.

    – on behalf of International Trade Centre.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Situation in the Middle East: E3 Statement at the IAEA Extraordinary Board, 16 June 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3

    Speech

    Situation in the Middle East: E3 Statement at the IAEA Extraordinary Board, 16 June 2025

    Joint statement by Ambassador Corinne Kitsell, UK Permanent Representative to the UN, on behalf of France, Germany and the UK (E3) at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Extraordinary Board of Governors meeting on 16 June 2025.

    Chair,

    The E3 are concerned about  the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Middle East, following Israeli strikes against targets in Iran and Iran’s response. The E3 reiterate their commitment to the region’s stability and call on all sides to abide by international law, show restraint and refrain from taking further steps which could lead to serious consequences such as potential radioactive release. Escalation is in the interest of no one in the region.

    We reiterate our full support to the IAEA’s independent and impartial mandate and thank the DG for his recent update to the UNSC.

    The E3 have repeatedly expressed their deep concern about Iran’s accelerating and expanding enrichment activities without any plausible civilian justification. The E3 are also worried by recent statements by high-ranking officials on Iran’s willingness to take new and special measures to protect nuclear materials and equipment that would not be declared to the IAEA. As a state party to the NPT and its nuclear safeguards regime, Iran is obliged to declare and put all nuclear material located in Iran under IAEA safeguards. Such statements are concerning and exacerbate the IAEA Comprehensive Report’s findings of Iran’s continued noncompliance with its safeguards agreement and that the IAEA is not in a capacity to verify that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.

    Manipulative attempts to link this crisis with the resolution passed by the Board is an unjustified and irresponsible narrative politicising the IAEA and the safeguards system. The resolution this Board adopted last week was a necessary and long-overdue step to hold Iran into account for its failure to cooperate sufficiently with the Agency over the past six years. It was measured and gave Iran a final opportunity to resolve the outstanding safeguards issues. Iran’s full cooperation with the IAEA and full implementation of its safeguards agreement are a legal obligation and a necessary foundation for any enduring agreement.

    The E3 have repeatedly expressed our commitment to a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear programme and the security of the state of Israel. We have supported recent US diplomatic efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement. We regret Iran’s decision not to participate in talks scheduled this Sunday in Oman. We will spare no efforts to contribute to a negotiated solution, in coordination with the United States.

    Thank you, Chair.

    Updates to this page

    Published 16 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Security: NATO participates in EU European Youth Event in Strasbourg

    Source: NATO

    “What if Google Maps was a game?” This question was brought to a whole new level when NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division presented an Alliance-themed Geoguessr game at the biennial European Youth Event (EYE) on 14 June 2025.

    Hosted at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France and attended by various European Union (EU) institutions, international organisations, civil society and youth organisations, the EYE brings together thousands of 16- to 30-year-olds from across the European Union, and beyond. It provides a platform for young people to exchange views and debate with European parliamentarians and other influential decision-makers.

    For the first time, the event included a dedicated session on NATO and provided European youth with the opportunity to learn more about how the Alliance works to ensure peace and security for one billion people across Europe and North America. The briefing covered an introduction to NATO, a panel session in which young Europeans were able to ask questions to experts about the Alliance’s core business, and a fast-paced location-guessing challenge with a French professional Geoguessr, Bastel.

    Geoguessr is an online game in which players are dropped in a random location somewhere in the world. Using a 360-degree image from Google Street View, they must guess where they have landed based on the scenery, geographical features, or local elements specific to certain locations. To help educate young people about the Alliance, a specific version of the game was created with 35 significant locations from NATO’s history, such as the Palais de Chaillot, opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, where NATO’s Headquarters was based from 1952 to 1959. By playing along with Bastel and NATO staff, the more-than-150 attendees were able to learn more about the origins and relevance of the Alliance in a fun and engaging manner.

    The event concluded with an open conversation between the young audience members and NATO experts. Questions centred around today’s security challenges, NATO-EU unity in the context of defence, and how young people can help contribute to the Alliance’s mission.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Steijn: The AI assistant transforming meal planning for millions in the Netherlands

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Steijn: The AI assistant transforming meal planning for millions in the Netherlands

    Albert Heijn carries about 17,000 different products in its 1,200 stores, and it has a system of demand forecasting that makes as many as one billion predictions a day to ensure the best possible balance between supply and demand.

    A separate product team is responsible for the price labels on the electronic shelves in the stores.

    “There is an algorithm behind them that automatically calculates the best discounts every 15 minutes,” van Ameyden says. As products get closer to their expiration date, the discounts get bigger. “At the beginning of the day you might see 20% off, and it can go to 70%.”

    Willems, back at home in her kitchen in Nieuw-Vennep, said that as long as she’s been shopping for groceries, she’s been an Albert Heijn customer, and before Steijn appeared, she was using recipes she found in the app.

    Steijn has added a helpful twist, however, introducing new flavors – both by suggesting variations on favorite recipes and introducing new ones.

    “For example, lentils – I never used lentils for any of my recipes, but when I entered three ingredients in Steijn, it came up with a lentil soup, and we loved it,” she said. “Thanks to Steijn I’m now a big fan of lentils.”

    Van Straaten said Steijn has delivered both practical and unexpected benefits.

    “I think Steijn saves me about an hour and a half to two hours a week,” he said. “But I think what is even more important is that I provide my kids with healthier food and a better variety of food.”

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Announcing comprehensive sovereign solutions empowering European organizations

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Announcing comprehensive sovereign solutions empowering European organizations

    Today, we are taking the next step in strengthening our European Digital Commitments to empower our customers with greater choice, more control over their data privacy and the most robust digital resilience we have ever offered. Building on our 42-year history as a company in Europe, we are expanding our efforts with Microsoft Sovereign Cloud. This offer spans both public cloud and private digital infrastructure, ensuring our customers can choose the right balance of control, compliance and capability for their needs.

    With this expanded offering we are announcing Data Guardian for European operations, External Key Management for customer-controlled encryption, Regulated Environment Management for simplified configuration and Microsoft 365 Local for critical productivity services in private cloud environments.

    This brings together comprehensive productivity, security and cloud solutions designed to enable European organizations to grow, compete and lead on their own terms and with more control than ever before across Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud and National Partner Clouds.

    Building on our experience delivering sovereignty solutions that meet the needs of highly regulated customers and government agencies, our Sovereign Public Cloud is an evolution and expansion of the Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty and will be offered across all existing European datacenter regions, for all European customers, across enterprise services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security and Power Platform. Sovereign Public Cloud ensures customer data stays in Europe, under European Law, with operations and access controlled by European personnel, and encryption is under full control of customers. This is enabled for all customer workloads running in our European datacenter regions requiring no migration.

    Microsoft’s new Sovereign Private Cloud will support critical collaboration, communication and virtualization services workloads on Azure Local. This solution now integrates Microsoft 365 Local and our security platform with Azure Local, providing consistent capabilities for hybrid or air-gapped environments to meet resiliency and business continuity requirements.

    In France and Germany, our National Partner Clouds offer comprehensive capabilities of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure in an independently owned and operated environment. In France, we have an agreement with Bleu, a joint venture between Orange and Capgemini, for Bleu to operate a “cloud de confiance” for the French public sector, critical infrastructure providers and essential services providers that is designed to meet SecNumCloud requirements. In Germany, we have an agreement with Delos Cloud, an SAP subsidiary, for Delos Cloud to operate a sovereign cloud for the German public sector that is designed to meet the German government’s Cloud Platform Requirements.

    Across our Sovereign Public Cloud, Sovereign Private Cloud and support for National Partner Clouds, Microsoft Sovereign Cloud offers the most comprehensive set of sovereignty solutions in the industry for integrated productivity, security and cloud.

    Sovereign Public Cloud for all Microsoft Cloud customers in Europe

    Many technology providers have approached sovereignty as niche requirements for a unique set of customers that require a specific deployment approach that at times is at odds with the economics and innovation of public cloud systems. This often requires running duplicate systems and teams, migrating to separate environments and limiting access to cutting-edge technologies like AI. However, Microsoft’s Sovereign Public Cloud builds an evolving set of sovereign capabilities that can be configured to meet specific needs without sacrificing functionality or requiring migration to specialized datacenters. With Microsoft’s Sovereign Public Cloud currently in preview and set to be generally available in all European cloud regions later this year, we will introduce new features and solutions that reinforce this vision.

    Announcing Data Guardian

    Our EU Data Boundary already provides an industry-leading commitment to store and process your data on infrastructure located in Europe. Data Guardian will add an additional level of assurance by ensuring that only Microsoft personnel residing in Europe control remote access to these systems. Data Guardian adds additional human and technical oversight whenever engineers outside of Europe need access. All remote access by Microsoft engineers to the systems that store and process your data in Europe is approved and monitored by European resident personnel in real time and will be logged in a tamper-evident ledger.

    Announcing External Key Management to extend Azure Managed HSM

    Encryption under the full control of customers provides an additional guarantee of data protection. With external key management, customers can connect Azure to keys stored on their own Hardware Security Module (HSM) on-premises or hosted by a trusted third party. We’re working with major HSM manufacturers such as Futurex, Thales and Utimaco to ensure their support.

    Announcing Regulated Environment Management

    The Regulated Environment Management service will allow customers to easily manage all these features in one place (for instance, configuring Data Guardian policies or reviewing access log entries). Regulated Environment Management will be at the center of the customer experience for configuring, deploying and monitoring workloads in support of sovereign operations. Together, these tools will be at the center of the customer experience for configuring, deploying and monitoring workloads in the Sovereign Public Cloud.

    Sovereign Private Cloud with Azure Local and Microsoft 365 Local

    While strengthening sovereign controls in public cloud environments is critical, we also understand that some scenarios require certain workloads be run in a physical environment under full customer control to support business continuity risk mitigation. Azure Local delivers Microsoft cloud services in customer locations, enabling organizations to meet specific data residency and sovereignty requirements. It includes core Azure capabilities — such as compute, storage, networking and virtualization services — while providing a consistent management and developer experience. Azure Local is ideal for delivering services closer to where data is generated or regulated, whether in-country, on-premises or in partner-operated datacenters. Microsoft’s Sovereign Private Cloud solution is in preview today and will be generally available later this year.

    Announcing Microsoft 365 Local

    Microsoft 365 Local provides customers with additional choice by bringing together Microsoft’s productivity server software into an Azure Local environment that can run entirely in a customer’s own datacenter.

    This provides a simplified deployment and management framework for organizations to run Microsoft’s trusted productivity servers in environments they fully control. Built on our validated reference architecture and powered by Azure Local, Microsoft 365 Local enables customers to deploy Microsoft productivity workloads like Exchange Server and SharePoint Server in their own datacenters or sovereign cloud environments — with full control on security, compliance and governance.

    Private Sovereign Cloud is designed for governments, critical industries and regulated sectors that need to meet the highest standards of data residency, operational autonomy and disconnected access.

    Building a sovereign cloud and AI partner ecosystem for Europe

    To support European customers in implementing and operating sovereign solutions, we are also excited to preview a new Microsoft Sovereign Cloud specialization in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. This specialization will provide our European customers the ability to identify Partners who have differentiated themselves based on their demonstrated capabilities in supporting their Sovereign Cloud ambitions on Microsoft technology. Our preview partners include Accenture, Arvato Systems, Atea, Atos, Crayon, Capgemini, Dell Technologies, IBM, Inspark, Infosys, Lenovo, Leonardo, NTT Data, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone.

    “The launch of Microsoft Sovereign Cloud marks a pivotal moment in empowering European institutions and industries with the control, compliance and innovation they need to thrive in today’s digital economy,” said Aiman Ezzat, CEO of Capgemini Group.

    “As a shareholder of Bleu, we have already set up a National Partner Cloud in France in order to deliver Microsoft technologies in a sovereign environment that respects the French State requirements. With decades of experience in Microsoft technologies and deep expertise in regulated sectors, we are uniquely positioned to help our clients harness the full power of Microsoft’s sovereign public and private cloud solutions. Together, we are enabling a trusted digital future for Europe.”

    Delivering on our digital commitments to Europe

    Together, Microsoft Sovereign Cloud is grounded in our European Digital Commitments and offers the best mix of choice, control and resilience for European customers. Microsoft is proud to offer the broadest set of sovereignty solutions available on the market today and we will constantly look for new ways to ensure our European customers have the options and assurances they need to operate with confidence.

    In a time of geopolitical volatility, we are committed to providing digital stability. With each step we take in this journey, we invite open dialogues with our customers, policymakers and regulators as we continue to innovate.

    Tags: Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Sovereign Cloud, National Partner, Power Platform, Sovereign Private Cloud, Sovereign Public Cloud

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: You know AI is transformative when it’s at your dinner table. In the Netherlands today, I met the Albert Heijn team who are using Azure AI Foundry to help customers navigate everyday decisions, like what’s for dinner.

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: You know AI is transformative when it’s at your dinner table. In the Netherlands today, I met the Albert Heijn team who are using Azure AI Foundry to help customers navigate everyday decisions, like what’s for dinner.

    Really impressed by how Steijn tackles the problem with habit-driven user design – helping users within their existing decision-making flow rather than forcing new workflows. It’s a smart example of making AI feel seamless and intuitive. This is exactly where GenAI shines, not just through automation, but through contextual augmentation that enhances everyday choices. And we’re just scratching the surface with such applications, industries like healthcare, education, and logistics are next in line to benefit from similar personalized, AI-powered experiences.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI: REMINDER: Boralex to hold Investor Day and present its 2030 Strategy on June 17, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    MONTREAL, June 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Boralex inc. (“Boralex” or the “Company”) (TSX: BLX) announces that its 2030 Strategy will be presented at an Investor Day on June 17, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in Toronto.

    Financial analysts, investors and the media are invited to attend the conference in person in Toronto or via a live video webcast during which members of Boralex’s senior management will present the various aspects of the 2030 Strategy and financial targets.

    Date and time

            Tuesday, June 17, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (ET)

    To attend the live conference

    Webcast link: https://meetings.lumiconnect.com/400-747-683-475

    In person in Toronto (analysts, investors and media): please contact Dominique Hamelin (dominique.hamelin@boralex.com) to reserve your place.

    Anyone interested in this conference are invited to attend the webcast, which will be broadcast live and available for replay on Boralex’s website at www.boralex.com until July 17, 2026.

    Media availability

    Members of Boralex’s Executive Committee will be available for media interviews on the afternoon of June 17, 2025, either by telephone or videoconference, to discuss the company’s 2030 Strategy. For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Camille Laventure, Senior Advisor, Public Affairs and Communications. Her contact details are provided at the end of this press release.

    About Boralex

    At Boralex, we have been providing affordable renewable energy accessible to everyone for over 30 years. As a leader in the Canadian market and France’s largest independent producer of onshore wind power, we also have facilities in the United States and development projects in the United Kingdom. Over the past five years, our installed capacity has increased by more than 50% to 3.2 GW. We are developing a portfolio of projects in development and construction of more than 8 GW in wind, solar and storage projects, guided by our values and our corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach. Through profitable and sustainable growth, Boralex is actively participating in the fight against global warming. Thanks to our fearlessness, discipline, expertise and diversity, we continue to be an industry leader. Boralex’s shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BLX.

    For more information, visit boralex.com or sedarplus.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

    For more information

    MEDIA INVESTOR RELATIONS
    Camille Laventure
    Senior Advisor, Public Affairs and External Communications
    Boralex Inc.
    438 883-8580
    camille.laventure@boralex.com    		 Stéphane Milot
    Vice President, Investor Relations and Financial Planning and Analysis
    Boralex Inc.
    514 213-1045
    stephane.milot@boralex.com
       

    Source: Boralex inc.        

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: “Resilience isn’t enough”: why the growth of women’s football could lead to player burnout

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen Owton, Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, The Open University

    Millie Bright (Chelsea Fcw) of England shooting to goal during the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup in France Jose Breton- Pics Action/Shutterstock

    Women’s football has exploded onto the global stage. Record-breaking crowds, major sponsorships, elite athletes and huge media deals have transformed the sport into a fast-growing spectacle. Its rise may be inspiring, but behind the success, many players are struggling with the growing physical and mental demands of the modern game.

    As the game becomes faster and more physically intense, players are expected to deliver top performances across crowded domestic seasons, international tournaments and growing commercial commitments.

    Recovery windows are shrinking, while the pressure to remain at peak performance only grows. Physiotherapists have already warned that many female players face burnout, overtraining and a rising risk of injuries due to inadequate rest and recovery time.

    With growing visibility also comes increasing scrutiny. Female players now live under the spotlight of social media, where they are expected not only to perform, but to lead, inspire and remain endlessly positive – often while facing online abuse.

    Chelsea and England star Fran Kirby has spoken openly about the criticism she has received about her body, especially after injuries or illness when she wasn’t at peak fitness.

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

    “I get called fat all the time,” she has said, highlighting how online abuse adds another layer of psychological strain that isn’t always visible, but can be deeply harmful.

    Mental health is increasingly part of the conversation around women’s football, but real support remains patchy. After the tragic suicide of Sheffield United’s 27-year-old midfielder Maddy Cusack in 2023, the FA commissioned a report into mental health support across the Women’s Super League (WSL).

    More players are speaking publicly about the pressures of anxiety, burnout and emotional distress, but access to professional psychological care still depends largely on the resources of individual clubs.

    For some players, the psychological toll deepens even further after injury. One study found that professional female footballers are nearly twice as likely to experience psychological distress after undergoing surgery. Yet mental health support during injury recovery remains inconsistent across the WSL.

    Millie Bright’s story offers a recent example. The Chelsea and England defender missed much of the 2023-24 season due to injury and, in 2025, withdrew from the England squad citing burnout. She eventually underwent knee surgery and chose to prioritise her rehabilitation over international duty, highlighting the difficult choices players face when balancing physical and emotional wellbeing.

    Governing bodies and clubs have a crucial role to play in safeguarding players’ wellbeing. Yet Uefa has come under fire for putting commercial growth ahead of player welfare with its expansion of the women’s Champions League into the new “Swiss model” format.

    Instead of facing three opponents twice, teams will now play six different teams during the league phase, splitting those matches home and away. While the extra fixtures may boost visibility and revenue, they also add to an already punishing schedule, heightening the risk of fatigue, injury and burnout for players who are already stretched to the limit.

    Financial security remains another major challenge. Some WSL players reportedly earn as little as £20,000 a year, forcing many to juggle full-time jobs or academic studies alongside football.

    For mothers in the game, the demands are even higher, as they manage childcare, training, travel and recovery with little institutional support. Maternity policies remain inconsistent, and many players face intense pressure to return quickly to peak form after pregnancy.

    Extraordinary resilience

    Despite these enormous challenges, female players continue to demonstrate extraordinary resilience, paving the way for the next generation. But as a 2024 Health in Education Association report notes, resilience alone isn’t enough. Without proper investment in both physical and mental health services, the long-term wellbeing and careers of these athletes remain at risk.

    While mental toughness is often celebrated, research shows that resilience depends heavily on the support structures available. In the WSL, access to mental health care and sports psychology varies dramatically between clubs.

    The FA has announced plans to make wellbeing and psychology roles mandatory in WSL licensing, which is a positive step. But for many players, consistent, high-quality support remains far from guaranteed.

    There is no doubt that women’s football has finally gained the attention it deserves. But progress must not come at the cost of player welfare. A sustainable future for the sport means investing not just in performance, but in protection: standardised access to physiotherapy, sport psychology and wellbeing professionals for all players, across all clubs.

    If the game truly wants to thrive long-term, it must create a culture where players aren’t just expected to perform, but are supported to rest, recover and speak openly about their mental health – without fear, stigma or consequence.

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

    – ref. “Resilience isn’t enough”: why the growth of women’s football could lead to player burnout – https://theconversation.com/resilience-isnt-enough-why-the-growth-of-womens-football-could-lead-to-player-burnout-258432

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden wins the 2025 Women’s prize – an expertly woven tale of personal crises and national horror

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Manjeet Ridon, Associate Dean International, Faculty of Arts, Design & Humanities, De Montfort University

    The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden has won the 2025 Women’s prize. It revisits a dark, under-explored chapter of Dutch history. It asks what happened to all the possessions that Jews who were forced to flee or were taken to camps during the second world war had to leave behind.

    The trauma of this history hangs over the novel, a haunting buzz beneath this tale of a woman slowly losing control over her small and regimented world one summer in the early 1960s. That woman is Isabel, who lives alone in her sprawling family home in a rural area of the Netherlands.

    The house is the centre of Isabel’s world and she spends most of her time obsessively keeping it in order, as her late mother would have wanted. To her, “a house is a precious thing”. Isabel is its possessive and careful caretaker, suspicious of anyone she perceives as interfering in her relationship with it.

    Isabel’s relationship with the house is tied to a difficult childhood under the influence of her domineering mother, who is still asserting control from beyond the grave. Isabel is stuck in this history, aware that “she belonged to the house in the sense that she had nothing else, no other life than the house”. It is the only place she has, and can assert, a sense of control.

    But the house does not belong to her, she is simply its keeper. It will be inherited by her brother when he wants to start a family – a future which seems incredibly distant because of his playboy and big city ways. That is till he delivers his gauche new girlfriend, Eva, to stay at the house while he is away on business.

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    What lies beneath?

    Set 15 years after the end of the second world war, van der Wouden’s debut novel unearths terrible crimes from the past and the psychological legacies that still ripple across generations of families, ancestral homes and communities. It is a novel about theft, expropriation and convenient cultural memory loss.

    The Safekeep succeeds in blending the political with the domestic and the historical with the personal.

    The writing is restrained yet lyrical and poetic, allowing space for the readers to realise how easily injustice and a historical wrong can be quietly concealed under the surface of everyday respectability. The story unfolds slowly, like coming across an old box of photos long forgotten in a dusty attic, which reveals a devastating narrative in fragments.

    Eva’s penetration of Isabel’s perfectly kept and regimented world, makes it clear to Isabel that the house and the objects she lovingly “kept” over decades were never, and will never, be hers. This graceless young woman stands in contention to everything Isabel (and her mother) thought a woman ought to be.

    As they spend time together and her desperate attempts to enforce control fail, Isabel has to confront the uncomfortable reality of her inheritance – that of the role she plays in her family, the life she has chosen to lead and the house she loves so dearly.

    There is mystery in this novel: pieces of a broken plate, missing objects, imperfect memories. The careful attention to detail and suspenseful prose makes the house take on a ghostly presence in the novel, becoming an archive of both sentimental memory and moral ambiguity.



    Read more:
    Women’s prize for fiction 2025: six experts review the shortlisted novels

    As things become more heated inside the house, we learn more about Isabel’s relationship with her two brothers, which is marked by a similar quiet tension and emotional distance. This family is shaped by its history and by their mother. The ways they grieve their matriarch’s death become entangled with the unravelling of long-held assumptions about their identities, values, each of their ideas about love and relationships, and the meaning of home and family.

    This startling debut has moved the literary world, having been shortlisted for 2024’s Booker and now winning the 2025 Women’s prize. The brilliance of The Safekeep lies in its subtlety and moral complexity. It is beautifully written, tightly constrained and poetic, and a deeply moving story about one woman’s desire for truth, justice and transformation.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

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

    – ref. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden wins the 2025 Women’s prize – an expertly woven tale of personal crises and national horror – https://theconversation.com/the-safekeep-by-yael-van-der-wouden-wins-the-2025-womens-prize-an-expertly-woven-tale-of-personal-crises-and-national-horror-258997

    MIL OSI Analysis –