Category: Technology

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Highlights – Public Hearing on empowering creators in the AI age – Committee on Culture and Education

    Source: European Parliament

    AI © AdobeStock

    On 20 Mai, the CULT Committee will hold a public Hearing to explore the specific challenges and implications AI poses to the cultural and creative sectors, as well as to consider possible solutions. Amongst the experts invited, Björn Ulvaeus, founder Member of ABBA.

    MIL OSI Europe News

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Hearings – Public Hearing on empowering creators in the AI age – 20-05-2025 – Committee on Culture and Education

    Source: European Parliament

    AI © AdobeStock

    The CULT Committee will hold a public Hearing to explore the specific challenges and implications AI poses to the cultural and creative sectors, as well as to consider possible solutions. Amongst the experts invited, Björn Ulvaeus, founder Member of ABBA.

    MIL OSI Europe News

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LegCo to consider Private Columbaria (Amendment) Bill 2024

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LegCo to consider Private Columbaria (Amendment) Bill 2024 
         The Second Reading debates on the Stablecoins Bill and the Merchant Shipping (Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships) Bill will also resume. If the Bills are supported by Members and receive their Second Reading, they will stand committed to the committee of the whole Council. After the committee of the whole Council has completed consideration of the Bills and their reports are adopted by the Council, the Bills will be set down for the Third Reading.
     
         On Members’ motions, Mr Michael Tien will move a motion on “Actively dovetailing with national and global trends and studying the reform of the curriculum framework for primary and secondary schools”. The motion is set out in Appendix 1.
     
         Mr Yiu Pak-leung will move a motion on “Reinforcing Hong Kong’s role as an international tourism hub and consolidating its position as a world-class premier tourism destination”. The motion is set out in Appendix 2. Ms Chan Yuet-ming, Ms Elizabeth Quat and Ms Joephy Chan will move separate amendments to Mr Yiu Pak-leung’s motion.
     
         During the meeting, the Chief Secretary for Administration will present “The Government Minute in response to the Report of the Public Accounts Committee No. 83 of February 2025” and address the Council.
     
         Members will also ask the Government 22 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
     
         The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the LegCo Website (www.legco.gov.hkIssued at HKT 19:50

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    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News

  • MIL-OSI: Best No Deposit Bonus Online Casino With Free Spins 2025 – Top Online Casino Games Offers to Play for Free 

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York City, NY, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

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    Media Contact: Alan Jarvis

    Project name : Wild Casino

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    Scharlooweg 39, Willemstad, Curaçao

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  • MIL-OSI: Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit Guaranteed Approval 2025: Top Provider with No Credit Check & Fast Approval – LowCreditFinance

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York City, NY, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

    Secure Emergency Loans for Bad Credit with Guaranteed Approval – Explore Leading No Credit Check Lenders for Quick and Reliable Funding Solutions in 2025

    When life throws unexpected expenses your way, finding a trustworthy lender—especially with less-than-perfect credit—can feel overwhelming.

    That’s where LowCreditFinance comes in. As one of the leading bad credit loan providers in 2025, LowCreditFinance specializes in connecting borrowers of all credit backgrounds with fast, reliable funding solutions.

    Whether you need cash for an emergency, to consolidate debt, or to cover a major purchase, their user-friendly online platform makes the process simple and stress-free.

    With a vast network of reputable lenders, same-day approval decisions, and flexible repayment terms, LowCreditFinance puts financial control back in your hands.

    Even if you’ve been turned down elsewhere, their inclusive approach ensures you have access to the funds you need—quickly, securely, and with complete transparency.

    Top Personal Loans for Bad Credit Guaranteed Approval Options Today

    LowCreditFinance Review: A Friendly Guide to Fast Loans for All Credit Types

    < CLICK to view top loan providers with no credit check >

    Introduction: Your Financial Partner in Tough Times

    Life is full of surprises—some good, some not so much. Whether it’s an unexpected car repair, medical bill, or an opportunity you can’t pass up, sometimes you need extra cash, and you need it fast. If your credit isn’t perfect, this can feel overwhelming. That’s where LowCreditFinance steps in.

    Low Credit Finance specializes in helping people with all credit backgrounds—including those with poor or no credit—quickly find a loan that fits their needs. With a simple, secure online process and a network of lenders, they’re dedicated to making borrowing less stressful and more accessible for everyone.

    What is LowCreditFinance?

    Low Credit Finance isn’t a direct lender—they don’t issue loans themselves. Instead, they operate as a loan-matching service, connecting borrowers with a large network of lenders and alternative loan providers. Their platform makes it easy to submit a single application and get matched with multiple options, saving customers time and hassle.

    < Click here to see how LowCreditFinance works >

    Key Features:

    • Borrow amounts from $100 up to $50,000
    • All credit types welcome
    • Same-day online decisions
    • Funds can be sent in as little as 60 minutes
    • Flexible repayment terms
    • 100% secure application process

    How the Application Process Works

    Applying for a loan with Low Credit Finance is straightforward and can be done entirely online. Here’s what you can expect:

    Step 1: Choose Your Loan Amount

    You start by selecting how much you need to borrow. Amounts range from $100 for small emergencies to $50,000 for larger expenses like debt consolidation or home repairs.

    Step 2: Fill Out a Simple Online Form

    The application form is user-friendly and only takes about two minutes to complete. You’ll provide basic details such as your contact information, approximate credit score, employment status, income, and bank account details (for direct deposit of funds). They also ask for information like your driver’s license and Social Security number to verify your identity and prevent fraud.

    Step 3: Get Matched with Lenders

    Once you submit your application, Low Credit Finance’s proprietary matching software searches their network for lenders that fit your profile. You’re then presented with one or more loan offers that you can review and choose from.

    Step 4: Receive Your Funds

    If approved by a lender, you could receive your money on the same business day—sometimes within 60 minutes. The funds are deposited directly into your bank account.

    < Need an emergency loan but have bad credit? – CLICK HERE >

    Who Can Apply?

    One of the standout features of Low Credit Finance is their all-credit-welcome approach. Whether you have excellent, fair, poor, or even no credit, you can apply. Here are some basic eligibility points:

    • You must be at least 18 years old.
    • You need a valid checking or savings account for deposits.
    • You must provide proof of income (job, self-employment, benefits, or military income are all accepted).
    • You’ll need to share some personal and financial details for verification.

    < Apply for a personal loans with no credit check – CLICK HERE >

    Loan Types and Flexibility

    Low Credit Finance caters to a wide range of needs and situations. Their lenders offer:

    • Personal Installment Loans: Borrow larger amounts and repay over months or years with fixed monthly payments.
    • Short-Term Loans: Ideal for emergencies and quick cash needs.
    • No Credit Check Loans: Some lenders may offer loans without a traditional credit check, though terms may vary.
    • Flexible Repayment: Choose a repayment plan that matches your pay schedule and budget.

    With such variety, you’re likely to find a loan option that fits your circumstances—even if you’ve been turned down elsewhere.

    Speed and Convenience

    One of the biggest advantages of using Low Credit Finance is how fast everything moves. The online application is simple, and you can receive a lending decision almost instantly. If you’re approved, the funds could be in your bank account in as little as an hour. This makes Low Credit Finance a great choice for anyone facing urgent financial needs and can’t afford to wait days or weeks for traditional approval.

    Security and Privacy

    Applying for a loan online means sharing sensitive information, so security is a big concern. Low Credit Finance uses advanced encryption and privacy measures to ensure your data stays safe. All information submitted is 100% secure, and they’re transparent about how your information is used—primarily to match you with the best lender.

    Fees, Rates, and Transparency

    Low Credit Finance itself does not charge any fees for using their service. Instead, they receive compensation from lenders if you accept a loan offer. This means you can use their platform to shop around for free.

    APR rates from their network of lenders range from 5.99% to 35.99%. The exact rate and terms depend on your creditworthiness, the loan amount, and the lender’s policies. Before you accept any loan, make sure you review the terms carefully, including fees, interest rates, and repayment schedules. Low Credit Finance encourages borrowers to compare options and make informed decisions.

    What Do Customers Say?

    Customer reviews highlight the speed, simplicity, and accessibility of Low Credit Finance’s service. Many users appreciate being able to apply with bad credit and still receive offers, sometimes within minutes. The easy-to-follow application and clear communication from lenders are also frequently praised.

    As with any loan service, experiences can vary based on individual circumstances and the lenders you’re matched with. Always read the fine print and ask questions if anything is unclear.

    Customer Support

    Should you have any questions or concerns, Low Credit Finance offers 24/7 email support at support@lowcreditfinance.com. Their FAQ section also covers common questions about the application process, eligibility, and what to expect.

    Things to Consider

    While Low Credit Finance offers many benefits, it’s important to remember:

    • They are not a direct lender; they connect you with lenders.
    • Loan approval and terms depend on the lender’s requirements.
    • Always review loan offers carefully and compare multiple options.
    • Some lenders may perform a credit check or require additional information.

    Is Low Credit Finance Right for You?

    If you need quick access to funds and worry your credit score will hold you back, Low Credit Finance is worth considering. Their easy application, broad lender network, and commitment to helping people with all credit backgrounds make them a standout option for emergency borrowing or larger financial needs.

    With no upfront fees, a secure process, and the potential to receive funds in just 60 minutes, Low Credit Finance puts fast, flexible loans within reach—even if your credit history isn’t perfect. As always, borrow responsibly, review your options carefully, and choose a loan that fits your budget. For many, Low Credit Finance could be the helping hand you need when life throws you a curveball.

    Introduction to Personal Loans

    Life can be unpredictable, and sometimes, unexpected expenses pop up when you least expect them—whether it’s a medical bill, urgent car repair, or an opportunity you don’t want to miss. For many people, especially those with less-than-perfect credit, finding a way to cover these costs can feel overwhelming. That’s where personal loans come in, offering a lifeline when you need it most.

    What Are Personal Loans and How Do They Work?

    Think of a personal loan as a helping hand for life’s expenses. Unlike a mortgage or a car loan, which are tied to specific purchases, personal loans are what’s called “unsecured”—you don’t have to put your house or car on the line to qualify. Instead, you borrow a lump sum and pay it back in fixed monthly installments over a set period, usually between one and five years.

    What makes personal loans so useful is their flexibility. You can use the funds for just about anything: consolidating high-interest credit card debt, making home improvements, covering emergency medical expenses, or even planning a special event. The freedom to choose how you use the money is a big part of their appeal.

    Options for People with Bad Credit

    If your credit score isn’t perfect, you might feel like your options are limited. But the good news is that there are personal loans designed specifically for people with bad credit. These lenders understand that a credit score doesn’t tell the whole story and are willing to look at your overall financial picture, such as your income and ability to repay.

    Some lenders even offer “guaranteed approval” loans, meaning your chances of getting approved are much higher—even if your credit history has a few bumps. And in many cases, you won’t need to undergo a traditional credit check, which can be a relief if you’re worried about another inquiry hurting your score.

    Fast and Convenient Applications

    Gone are the days of filling out stacks of paperwork and waiting weeks for a decision. Today, applying for a personal loan is usually quick and easy. Most lenders offer online applications that you can complete from the comfort of your home—sometimes in just a few minutes. You simply enter some basic information, and in many cases, you’ll get an answer within hours.

    If you’re approved, the money can often be deposited into your bank account as soon as the same business day. This speed can make all the difference when you’re dealing with an emergency or time-sensitive expense.

    Flexible Repayment That Fits Your Life

    One of the biggest sources of financial stress is not knowing how much you’ll owe from month to month. That’s why the structure of personal loans can be such a relief. With fixed monthly payments, you get predictability—no more guessing or worrying about surprise bills. You know exactly how much to set aside each month, which makes planning your budget a whole lot simpler.

    But the flexibility of personal loans goes beyond just predictable payments. Many lenders understand that life isn’t always smooth sailing, so they offer options that help you stay in control, even when things get bumpy. For example, you might be able to select your own payment date, aligning it with your payday or another time that works best for you. This little detail can make a big difference, helping you avoid late fees and unnecessary stress.

    Some lenders also allow you to make extra payments without any penalties. This means if you ever have a little extra cash—maybe from a bonus at work or a tax refund—you can put it toward your loan and pay it off faster. Not only does this save you money on interest, but it can also give you a real sense of progress and empowerment as you watch your balance shrink.

    Having this kind of flexibility is especially important if you’re working to rebuild your credit. On-time payments are one of the most important factors in your credit score, and being able to stick to a manageable payment schedule makes it much easier to stay on track. As you make those consistent payments, you’re not just chipping away at your debt—you’re also showing future lenders that you’re responsible and creditworthy.

    Ultimately, personal loans with flexible repayment options offer more than just money—they provide peace of mind. They give you breathing room and the tools you need to move forward financially, one manageable step at a time.

    Clear Terms and Peace of Mind

    When it comes to borrowing money—especially if you’ve had credit challenges in the past—there’s nothing more important than feeling confident and secure about your decision. Unfortunately, the world of loans can sometimes feel like a maze of jargon, hidden fees, and terms buried in the fine print. That’s why working with lenders who are clear and upfront about their terms makes such a huge difference.

    A transparent personal loan provider will lay everything out for you: the interest rate, the total amount you’ll repay, the monthly payment, and any fees involved. There shouldn’t be any surprises, and you should feel comfortable asking questions. If something isn’t clear, a trustworthy lender will take the time to explain it in plain language. This openness not only protects you from unexpected costs but also builds trust—something that’s priceless when your finances are on the line.

    This kind of clarity is especially important for people with bad credit, who may have already dealt with overwhelming debt or confusing lending terms in the past. Knowing exactly what you’re signing up for allows you to plan ahead and avoid falling into the traps that can make financial recovery even harder.

    Taking out a personal loan is a big step, and it’s normal to feel nervous. But when you can see all the details up front, it’s easier to move forward with confidence. You can compare offers, weigh the pros and cons, and make a decision that truly fits your situation.

    In the end, clear terms and honest communication aren’t just nice to have—they’re essential. They help turn what could be a stressful experience into a manageable one, giving you the peace of mind you need to focus on your goals and build a brighter financial future.

    Understanding Credit Scores: Why They Matter for Personal Loans

    After finding a loan with clear terms and flexible repayment, you might start to wonder: what role does your credit score really play in all of this? Understanding credit scores—and how they affect your loan options—can empower you to make better financial decisions and ultimately secure the best deal possible.

    What Is a Credit Score and How Is It Calculated?

    A credit score is essentially a three-digit number that represents your creditworthiness. It’s calculated based on your credit history, including how reliably you’ve paid your bills, how much debt you have, and how long you’ve been using credit. The most commonly used scoring model is the FICO score, which ranges from 300 to 850. In general, the higher your score, the more favorably lenders will view you.

    How Credit Scores Affect Loan Approval and Interest Rates

    When you apply for a personal loan, lenders look at your credit score as one of the main factors in their decision-making process. A high credit score usually means you’re more likely to be approved and to receive lower interest rates, which can save you a lot of money over the life of your loan. On the other hand, a low or “bad” credit score can make it harder to qualify and may result in higher interest rates.

    That said, a poor credit score isn’t the end of the road. Some lenders specialize in personal loans for bad credit, offering guaranteed approval or more flexible criteria. These loans can provide a valuable opportunity to access funds when you need them, even if your credit history isn’t perfect.

    Factors Beyond the Credit Score

    It’s important to remember that your credit score isn’t the only thing lenders consider. They’ll also look at your income, employment status, debt-to-income ratio, and overall credit history. This means that even if your score is lower than you’d like, having steady income or a manageable debt load can help improve your chances of approval.

    Building and Maintaining Good Credit

    Maintaining a good credit score is one of the best ways to unlock better loan options and lower interest rates. Simple habits like paying bills on time, keeping credit card balances low, and checking your credit report regularly for errors can make a big difference over time. Even if you’re starting with bad credit, taking small, consistent steps can help you rebuild your financial reputation.

    By understanding how credit scores work and how they impact your loan options, you’ll be better prepared to find a personal loan that fits your needs—now and in the future.

    Credit History and Loan Approval: What Lenders Really Look For

    By now, you’ve seen how your credit score can impact the personal loan process—but it’s only part of the bigger picture. When you apply for a loan, lenders don’t just check your score; they take a close look at your entire credit history. This gives them a fuller sense of how you’ve managed money over time, helping them decide if you’re a trustworthy borrower.

    Your credit history is detailed in your credit report, which lists your past loans, credit card accounts, payment history, and any late or missed payments. If you’ve had some financial bumps, like missed payments or defaults, lenders might see you as a riskier borrower. This can sometimes mean higher interest rates or, in some cases, loan denial.

    However, there’s good news—some lenders are more understanding and offer loans specifically designed for people with less-than-perfect credit. These lenders may focus more on your current income or the steps you’ve taken to get back on track, rather than just your past mistakes. Some even have minimal credit score requirements and put more weight on your ability to repay now, not just what’s happened before.

    If you’re looking to improve your chances for the future, making on-time payments, reducing your debt, and avoiding too many hard credit checks are powerful ways to rebuild your credit history. Remember, lenders also look at your income, employment stability, and debt-to-income ratio. Being able to show steady income and responsible financial habits can go a long way.

    Ultimately, while your credit history matters, it’s not the only thing that defines you as a borrower. There are always options and steps you can take to strengthen your application and move closer to your financial goals.

    Types of Loans for Bad Credit: Exploring Your Options

    If you’ve read this far, you know that getting a personal loan with bad credit isn’t impossible—there are actually several different options out there, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. Understanding the different types of loans available can help you choose the one that best fits your needs and financial situation.

    Installment Loans: Flexibility and Predictability

    Installment loans are one of the most popular choices for borrowers with bad credit. With these loans, you borrow a set amount of money and repay it over time in regular, fixed monthly payments. This structure makes it easier to budget, since you always know what your payment will be. Many people use installment loans for things like debt consolidation or home improvements, since the predictable payments and longer terms can make bigger expenses feel more manageable.

    Payday Loans: Fast Cash, High Costs

    Sometimes emergencies just can’t wait, and that’s where payday loans come in. These loans are designed to provide quick cash—often within a single business day. However, it’s important to be careful: payday loans typically come with very high interest rates and fees. While they can help cover urgent short-term expenses, the costs can add up quickly, making them a risky option if you’re unable to repay on time.

    Unsecured Loans: No Collateral Required

    Unsecured loans are another option for those with bad credit. Unlike secured loans, you don’t need to put up any collateral, like your car or home. This can make them more accessible, but it also means lenders may charge higher interest rates or have stricter repayment terms to offset the risk.

    Tribal Loans: Unique Terms, Use Caution

    Tribal loans are offered by lenders based on Native American tribal land. These loans can be accessible even to those with very poor credit, but borrowers should be cautious. Interest rates and fees for tribal loans can be extremely high, and the legal protections may differ from state-regulated loans.

    Credit Check Loans: Favorable Terms for Good Credit

    Credit check loans are a common type of personal loan where lenders review your credit report as part of the approval process. If you have a strong credit history and a solid score, these loans can offer some of the most attractive terms available. Lower interest rates, smaller fees, and longer repayment periods are all perks that come with proving your creditworthiness.

    People often turn to credit check loans for big-ticket items like home improvements, medical procedures, or consolidating high-interest credit card debt. Because the lender is confident in your ability to repay, you may qualify for higher loan amounts and more flexible terms. This makes it easier to budget for larger expenses over time, without being hit by sky-high monthly payments.

    However, approval criteria for credit check loans are typically stricter. Lenders will want to see not just a good credit score, but also a reliable income and manageable debt levels. If you meet these requirements, you could secure a loan with very competitive rates.

    Before committing, it’s important to read the loan agreement carefully. Even with a strong credit profile, terms can vary between lenders, and it’s always wise to watch for any hidden fees or conditions. Taking the time to understand the fine print will help you make a confident, informed borrowing decision.

    No Credit Check Loans: Fast Funding for Urgent Needs

    For many people, the thought of a credit check can be intimidating—especially if your credit history is less than perfect. No credit check loans offer an alternative. These loans skip the traditional credit inquiry, focusing more on your current income and ability to repay. With more lenient approval criteria, they’re often available to those who have been turned down elsewhere.

    No credit check loans are typically used for emergencies—like covering a surprise medical bill, urgent car repairs, or other expenses that simply can’t wait. The application process is usually quick and straightforward, sometimes providing funds within hours. This speed can be a lifesaver when time is of the essence.

    However, convenience comes at a cost. Because these loans carry more risk for the lender, they often have higher interest rates and fees. Repayment terms are usually shorter and loan amounts smaller, which means you’ll need to pay the money back quickly.

    While some lenders do offer flexible repayment options and try to keep fees transparent, it’s essential to read the terms carefully. High costs can add up fast, making it easy to fall into a cycle of debt if you’re not careful. No credit check loans can be useful in a pinch, but they should be approached with caution and used only for true emergencies.

    Direct Lender Options: Simplicity and Speed

    Navigating the loan marketplace can be overwhelming, especially when third-party brokers get involved. Direct lender options cut out the middleman, allowing you to apply and receive funds directly from the source. This can lead to a smoother process, faster approval, and sometimes lower interest rates, since there are no broker fees to worry about.

    Direct lenders often offer more personalized loan experiences, tailoring terms to your financial situation. They may also have more flexibility in approving borrowers with less-than-perfect credit, making them a good choice if you need money quickly and don’t want to jump through extra hoops.

    Applying directly can also mean a quicker funding timeline—sometimes as fast as the same or next business day. However, it’s still important to carefully review the loan’s terms, as some direct lenders may offset their flexibility with higher interest rates or stricter repayment conditions.

    Doing a bit of research goes a long way. Comparing offers, checking for hidden fees, and reading reviews can help you find a reputable direct lender who’s transparent and trustworthy. Remember, the right lender should make you feel informed and comfortable, not pressured or rushed. By choosing a direct lender wisely, you can enjoy a smoother borrowing experience and greater peace of mind.

    Understanding Annual Percentage Rate (APR): The True Cost of Borrowing

    One of the most important factors to pay attention to when considering a loan is the annual percentage rate, or APR. Unlike a simple interest rate, APR gives you the full picture of what borrowing will actually cost you over time. It includes not just the interest, but also any fees or compounding charges, making it the most reliable way to compare loan offers.

    APR can vary widely depending on the lender, the type of loan, and—most importantly—your credit score. Generally, the higher your credit score, the lower your APR will be, since lenders see you as less of a risk. On the flip side, if your credit isn’t great, you may see higher APRs, meaning you’ll pay more in interest over the life of the loan.

    Before applying for any loan, it’s crucial to look beyond just the monthly payment. Take time to review the APR and add up the total cost of the loan, including all fees. This helps you avoid surprises down the road and ensures the loan truly fits your budget. Factors like the loan amount and the length of the repayment term can also impact your APR, so consider these carefully.

    Comparing APRs from multiple lenders helps you find the most affordable option. Remember, a little extra research at the start can save you a lot of money—and stress—over the life of your loan.

    Borrow Money with Bad Credit: Planning for Success

    If you have bad credit, the idea of borrowing money can feel intimidating. You might worry about being turned down or facing sky-high interest rates. But the good news is that there are still options available, from specialized bad credit loans to no credit check loans designed for urgent needs.

    The key is to approach the process with your eyes wide open. Always review the loan’s terms and conditions carefully. Look closely at the interest rates, fees, and repayment requirements. Some lenders are more transparent and offer flexible terms, while others may hide high costs in the fine print.

    Before applying, take an honest look at your financial situation. Ask yourself how much you truly need to borrow, and if you’ll be able to manage the payments comfortably. Planning ahead can help you avoid the debt traps that often come with high-interest loans.

    Budgeting is especially important when your credit is less than perfect. Make sure you have a plan to repay the loan on time—on-time payments can actually help you rebuild your credit over time. Borrowing with bad credit isn’t impossible, but it does require extra care, thorough research, and a focus on long-term financial health.

    Loan Customer Reviews: Learning from Real Borrowers

    After understanding loan types, APRs, and what to look for in a lender, it’s wise to tap into one of the most valuable resources available—other borrowers’ experiences. Loan customer reviews can offer a firsthand look at what it’s really like to work with a particular lender, beyond what’s promised in advertisements or on the lender’s website.

    When you read through reviews, you’ll gain insight into how a lender handles customer service, whether they’re transparent about fees, and if they deliver on their promises. Did borrowers feel supported during the application process? Were there any hidden fees or unexpected issues with repayment? These are the kinds of real-life details that reviews can reveal.

    It’s always best to consult multiple sources. Look at reviews on the lender’s official site, but also check independent platforms like Trustpilot, Google, or the Better Business Bureau. This gives you a fuller, more balanced picture. Keep in mind that some reviews may be fake or overly biased, especially if they seem too generic or overly enthusiastic. Take the time to read both positive and negative feedback to spot common patterns.

    Some lenders really do stand out for their positive reviews and flexible loan options, but don’t let one glowing report sway you—consider the bigger picture. By researching a range of reviews, you’ll be better equipped to choose a lender that values transparency, fair terms, and good customer support. This extra step can provide peace of mind and help you avoid unpleasant surprises down the road.

    Contacting Lenders: Getting the Clarity You Need

    Once you’ve narrowed down your choices and read through customer reviews, the next smart step is reaching out to lenders directly. Contacting lenders gives you the chance to ask specific questions, clarify any confusing terms, and get a sense for how responsive and helpful their customer support really is.

    Most reputable lenders offer several ways to get in touch: phone, email, or live online chat. If you’re unsure about any aspect of the loan—whether it’s the interest rate, fees, repayment schedule, or approval process—don’t hesitate to ask. Good lenders will be happy to provide clear, straightforward answers without making you feel rushed or pressured.

    Before you make that call or send an email, review the loan terms and conditions carefully so you know exactly what to ask about. Bring up anything you don’t understand, and pay attention to how the lender responds. Are they patient and informative, or do they use high-pressure tactics to get you to sign up quickly? Trust your instincts—if something feels off, it probably is.

    Contacting lenders not only helps you get the answers you need, but also gives you a feel for their customer service style. A helpful, transparent lender is a good sign that you’ll be supported throughout your loan journey. Taking the time to reach out can help ensure you make an informed decision and choose the loan that’s truly right for you.

    Best Bad Credit Loan Providers with Guaranteed Approval Summary

    In 2025, LowCreditFinance stands out as the top bad credit loan provider with guaranteed approval, offering fast, flexible funding solutions for borrowers of all backgrounds.

    With an easy online application, a vast network of reputable lenders, and a commitment to transparency, LowCreditFinance makes it simple to access loans up to $50,000—even if your credit score is less than perfect.

    You’ll benefit from same-day decisions, customizable repayment terms, and no hidden fees, ensuring a stress-free borrowing experience.

    If you need quick cash and want a lender that puts your needs first, LowCreditFinance is the trusted, hassle-free choice for anyone looking to secure emergency funds or manage financial challenges in 2025.

    Legal Notice and Affiliate Transparency

    This article is intended solely for informational and educational use and should not be interpreted as financial, legal, or professional counsel. The content is based on publicly accessible sources and third-party data considered reliable at the time of writing; however, we cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information provided.

    Loan terms, interest rates, and product availability are determined by external lenders and may change at any time without prior notice. Readers are strongly encouraged to perform their own research and consult a qualified financial advisor or legal expert before making any financial choices.

    The service discussed in this article, MoneyMutual, acts as a loan marketplace, not a direct lender. They do not provide loans or make credit decisions, but rather connect borrowers with independent lending partners. All loan agreements, terms, and conditions are strictly between the borrower and the chosen lender.

    Some links or references in this article may be affiliated. If you click on a link and take action—such as submitting a loan request or accepting an offer—we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. This potential compensation does not affect our editorial content or recommendations.

    By using this article, you acknowledge and accept that:

    • You are responsible for verifying loan offers and lender details independently.
    • The content is not tailored as personal financial advice.
    • The publisher and contributors are not liable for any financial decisions or damages resulting from the information shared here.
    • All trademarks and brand names belong to their respective owners; mention of third-party services does not imply endorsement.

    For the most current loan terms, eligibility criteria, and product information, always review the official website of the respective lender.

    Media Contact: Tony Stevens
    Website: https://www.lowcreditfinance.com
    Email: support@lowcreditfinance.com

    102 W Service Rd, Apt: 820, Champlain, NY 12919

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Tornado Watch 294

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Note:  The expiration time in the watch graphic is amended if the watch is replaced, cancelled or extended.Note: Click for Watch Status Reports.
    SEL4

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 294
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    140 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Eastern Kansas
    Western Missouri

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 140 PM until
    900 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    A few tornadoes and a couple intense tornadoes likely
    Widespread large hail and scattered very large hail events to 3
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Thunderstorms will develop and intensify across the watch
    area through the afternoon and early evening. Scattered severe
    storms including a few supercells are expected, capable of very
    large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 90 statute miles
    east and west of a line from 35 miles north of Saint Joseph MO to 50
    miles south southwest of Chanute KS. For a complete depiction of the
    watch see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU4).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 292…WW 293…

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 3 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean
    storm motion vector 23035.

    …Hart

    SEL4

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 294
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    140 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Eastern Kansas
    Western Missouri

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 140 PM until
    900 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    A few tornadoes and a couple intense tornadoes likely
    Widespread large hail and scattered very large hail events to 3
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Thunderstorms will develop and intensify across the watch
    area through the afternoon and early evening. Scattered severe
    storms including a few supercells are expected, capable of very
    large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 90 statute miles
    east and west of a line from 35 miles north of Saint Joseph MO to 50
    miles south southwest of Chanute KS. For a complete depiction of the
    watch see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU4).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 292…WW 293…

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 3 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean
    storm motion vector 23035.

    …Hart

    Note: The Aviation Watch (SAW) product is an approximation to the watch area. The actual watch is depicted by the shaded areas.
    SAW4
    WW 294 TORNADO KS MO 191840Z – 200200Z
    AXIS..90 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF LINE..
    35N STJ/SAINT JOSEPH MO/ – 50SSW CNU/CHANUTE KS/
    ..AVIATION COORDS.. 80NM E/W /59E PWE – 31WSW OSW/
    HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..3 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..60 KNOTS.
    MAX TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 23035.

    LAT…LON 40259321 36999420 36999746 40259663

    THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
    COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
    FOR WOU4.

    Watch 294 Status Report Message has not been issued yet.

    Note:  Click for Complete Product Text.Tornadoes

    Probability of 2 or more tornadoes

    Mod (60%)

    Probability of 1 or more strong (EF2-EF5) tornadoes

    Mod (60%)

    Wind

    Probability of 10 or more severe wind events

    High (70%)

    Probability of 1 or more wind events > 65 knots

    Low (10%)

    Hail

    Probability of 10 or more severe hail events

    High (80%)

    Probability of 1 or more hailstones > 2 inches

    High (80%)

    Combined Severe Hail/Wind

    Probability of 6 or more combined severe hail/wind events

    High (>95%)

    For each watch, probabilities for particular events inside the watch (listed above in each table) are determined by the issuing forecaster. The “Low” category contains probability values ranging from less than 2% to 20% (EF2-EF5 tornadoes), less than 5% to 20% (all other probabilities), “Moderate” from 30% to 60%, and “High” from 70% to greater than 95%. High values are bolded and lighter in color to provide awareness of an increased threat for a particular event.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: Chairman Aguilar: Republicans are throwing millions of Americans off their health insurance

    Source: US House of Representatives – Democratic Caucus

    The following text contains opinion that is not, or not necessarily, that of MIL-OSI – May 14, 2025

    CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning. Pleased to be joined with the Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Ted Lieu.

    This week, Republicans have laid out exactly who they are fighting for. After weeks of promises that they wouldn’t cut Medicaid, their budget contains drastic cuts that will throw millions off of health insurance. After campaigning on helping working-class Americans get ahead, their budget, once again, rewards billionaires and wealthy corporations and makes it harder for families to make ends meet. They are watching prices go up because of Trump’s reckless tariffs, and their response is to take food off of the table for women, veterans and children. The Republican budget doesn’t address the cost-of-living crisis, it makes it worse. The cost of groceries, clothing and everyday necessities are still too high, and Republicans want to add to that and make health care more expensive on top of it. This isn’t about helping people find good-paying jobs or a shot at a better life. This is simply about helping people like Elon Musk pay less in taxes.

    House Democrats believe that we can shore up these basic-needs programs and help everyday Americans reach their full potential. It’s long past time that the wealthiest of Americans pay their fair share and make it easier for working families to afford basic needs like health care and housing. These devastating cuts will make Americans—particularly children—sicker, hungrier and poorer. They’re shortchanging the future just so their friends can continue to get richer. The American people cannot afford the Republican budget and House Democrats are using every tool at our disposal to stop it. I want to thank our Energy and Commerce Members who continue to meet, Ways and Means Members who continue to highlight the unfairness of this plan that Republicans are putting forward and the Agriculture Committee, who will continue to fight for nutrition programs throughout the day. Vice Chair Ted Lieu.

    VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Omaha, Nebraska is the sixth-largest city in America led by a Republican. And last night, in a stunning upset, Democrats flipped that seat from Red to Blue. I want to congratulate Mayor-Elect John Ewing Jr., who’s going to be the new mayor of Omaha, Nebraska. We also know that voters are very angry at Republicans who continue to enable Donald Trump’s harmful policies. And the Republican mayor, in this case, aligned herself completely with Donald Trump, and the voters spoke out in Omaha, and now we have a Democratic Mayor-Elect.

    I also want to talk about now the Qatari luxury palace in the sky gift to Donald Trump. There is no such thing as a free palace in the sky. What do foreign countries want when they gift massive amounts of money and other gifts to the President? Donald Trump should reject this gift of the luxury palace in the sky, Boeing 747, completely and righteously. Because we are the United States of America, we don’t need gifts from foreign countries. We can build our own very impressive Air Force One. We don’t need to fly a Qatari plane around as our Air Force One. That’s also un-American. I also want to note that new reporting came out showing that to retrofit this Qatari 747 would take perhaps up to a billion dollars, because you can’t just fly a palace in the sky from a foreign country. You have to actually make it safe and secure. You have to make this plane ready to launch nuclear weapons. You can’t have people eavesdropping on it, and so it’s going to cost way more money to do it this way. And again, people need to ask why is a foreign country trying to give this massive gift to Donald Trump? And think about the precedent it would set. Would it be okay if Brunei gifted a luxury 757 to J.D. Vance for Air Force Two? Would it be okay if Germany gave a Porsche SUV to Senator Thune as his official car? Would it be okay if Italy gave a bunch of expensive Armani suits to Speaker Johnson for his official duties? No, it wouldn’t be okay. Also, because the Constitution says you can’t do this, it requires Congressional approval for the President to accept the gift of this size. And we urge the Republicans in Congress to stand up, speak out and call for a vote if Donald Trump were to accept this essential bribe from a foreign government. 

    And then let me now conclude on Medicaid. We now know that the Republicans lied when they said that they weren’t going to cut Medicaid. They’re cutting Medicaid by a massive amount of money, one of the largest cuts in U.S. history. Over 13.7 million people would be kicked off Medicaid. I also note that two-thirds of nursing home patients rely on Medicaid. This is also going to close down rural hospitals. It’s going to make it so that health care for all of us becomes more expensive, because if you don’t have health care under Medicaid, you’re still going to get treated. You just walk into the emergency room, and it costs even more money for all of us. So we urge Republicans to reject this massive Medicaid cut. And I just want to say, we told you so. We told you that Republicans were going to cut Medicaid, and now we know that they are doing it. So they lied, we told the truth, again.

    Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Today, at Microsoft Build we showed you how we are building the open agentic web. It is reshaping every layer of the stack, and our goal is simple: help every dev build apps and agents that empower people and orgs everywhere. Here are 5 big things we announced today…

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Today, at Microsoft Build we showed you how we are building the open agentic web. It is reshaping every layer of the stack, and our goal is simple: help every dev build apps and agents that empower people and orgs everywhere. Here are 5 big things we announced today…

    Today, at Microsoft Build we showed you how we are building the open agentic web. It is reshaping every layer of the stack, and our goal is simple: help every dev build apps and agents that empower people and orgs everywhere. Here are 5 big things we announced today: 1. Coding agent: We are taking GitHub Copilot from being a pair programmer to peer programmer. You now have a full coding agent built right into GitHub. You can assign it issues – whether it’s bug fixes, new features, or ongoing code maintenance. And it will complete these tasks autonomously. 2. Copilot tuning: Copilot can now learn your company’s unique tone and language. It is all about taking that expertise you have as a firm and further amplifying it so everyone has access. 3. Agent factory: Foundry is the complete app platform for building apps and agents. We are adding support for more models from Grok, Hugging Face, Meta, Mistral, and more. Plus: Agentic retrieval in Azure AI Search, Foundry Agent Service, integration with Copilot Studio, and more.  And we are ensuring the tools you already use for identity, management, and security will now all extend to agents too. 4. NL Web: This is a new open project that lets you use natural language to interact with any website. Think of it like HTML for the agentic web. 5. Microsoft Discovery: We’re bringing together the full tech stack to help speed up science itself. Discovery uses agents to generate ideas, simulate results, and learn. A great example is this promising candidate for a coolant that doesn’t rely on forever chemicals. You can read more about all of this – and much more – here: https://lnkd.in/gik2mTNb

    MIL OSI Global Banks

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Tornado Watch 293

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Note:  The expiration time in the watch graphic is amended if the watch is replaced, cancelled or extended.Note: Click for Watch Status Reports.
    SEL3

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 293
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    110 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Southwest Iowa
    Eastern Nebraska

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 110 PM until
    900 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    A few tornadoes possible
    Scattered large hail and isolated very large hail events to 2.5
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Thunderstorms will increase in coverage through the
    afternoon across parts of eastern Nebraska, in a moist and
    moderately unstable air mass. Large hail and damaging winds are
    possible in the strongest cells, along with a few tornadoes.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 45 statute miles
    north and south of a line from 45 miles west of Columbus NE to 10
    miles southeast of Shenandoah IA. For a complete depiction of the
    watch see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU3).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 292…

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 2.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean
    storm motion vector 22030.

    …Hart

    SEL3

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 293
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    110 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Southwest Iowa
    Eastern Nebraska

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 110 PM until
    900 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    A few tornadoes possible
    Scattered large hail and isolated very large hail events to 2.5
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Thunderstorms will increase in coverage through the
    afternoon across parts of eastern Nebraska, in a moist and
    moderately unstable air mass. Large hail and damaging winds are
    possible in the strongest cells, along with a few tornadoes.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 45 statute miles
    north and south of a line from 45 miles west of Columbus NE to 10
    miles southeast of Shenandoah IA. For a complete depiction of the
    watch see the associated watch outline update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU3).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 292…

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 2.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 500. Mean
    storm motion vector 22030.

    …Hart

    Note: The Aviation Watch (SAW) product is an approximation to the watch area. The actual watch is depicted by the shaded areas.
    SAW3
    WW 293 TORNADO IA NE 191810Z – 200200Z
    AXIS..45 STATUTE MILES NORTH AND SOUTH OF LINE..
    45W OLU/COLUMBUS NE/ – 10SE SDA/SHENANDOAH IA/
    ..AVIATION COORDS.. 40NM N/S /7NE OBH – 38SSE OVR/
    HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..2.5 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..60 KNOTS.
    MAX TOPS TO 500. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 22030.

    LAT…LON 42109822 41309529 40009529 40809822

    THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
    COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
    FOR WOU3.

    Watch 293 Status Report Message has not been issued yet.

    Note:  Click for Complete Product Text.Tornadoes

    Probability of 2 or more tornadoes

    Mod (50%)

    Probability of 1 or more strong (EF2-EF5) tornadoes

    Low (20%)

    Wind

    Probability of 10 or more severe wind events

    Mod (60%)

    Probability of 1 or more wind events > 65 knots

    Low (20%)

    Hail

    Probability of 10 or more severe hail events

    Mod (60%)

    Probability of 1 or more hailstones > 2 inches

    Mod (60%)

    Combined Severe Hail/Wind

    Probability of 6 or more combined severe hail/wind events

    High (>95%)

    For each watch, probabilities for particular events inside the watch (listed above in each table) are determined by the issuing forecaster. The “Low” category contains probability values ranging from less than 2% to 20% (EF2-EF5 tornadoes), less than 5% to 20% (all other probabilities), “Moderate” from 30% to 60%, and “High” from 70% to greater than 95%. High values are bolded and lighter in color to provide awareness of an increased threat for a particular event.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: German Verdi Trade Union Stands in Solidarity with IAM Union Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico Workers Amid Stalled Contract Talks

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    As Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico workers continue their fight for a fair first contract, international support is growing. The German service-sector union Verdi has called on Deutsche Lufthansa AG to intervene and support its Puerto Rican subsidiary in resolving long-standing contract disputes with the IAM Union.

    “Negotiations are proving very difficult, particularly with regard to overtime pay and wage increases,” said Verdi Union Vice Chair Christine Behle in a letter to Lufthansa’s leadership. “This is neither acceptable to the employees in Puerto Rico nor to Verdi. Nor does it do justice to the daily performance.”

    The IAM has been in negotiations with Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico for over a year, advocating for a contract that guarantees fair pay, safer working conditions, and respect on the job for the skilled aviation maintenance workers who keep commercial aircraft flying safely.

    “It is unacceptable that a German company wants to impose worse conditions for employees outside of Germany,” Behle continued in a message of encouragement to the workers in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. “We stand for good working conditions all over the world and send you our solidarity greetings.”

    “These workers have been shortchanged for too long, and we’re here to make them whole,” said IAM Southern Territory General Vice President Craig Martin. “They’ve put in the work, kept planes flying, and met every expectation. It’s time the company steps up and delivers the respect, wages, and protections these workers have more than earned.”

    The IAM Union has vowed to continue standing with its members in Puerto Rico, demanding that the company return to the bargaining table with proposals that reflect its workers’ hard work and professionalism.

    “The letter from Verdi underscores a growing global concern: Lufthansa Technik’s failure to reach a fair deal with its Puerto Rican workforce not only reflects poorly on the company’s international labor practices, but also contradicts the values it claims to uphold in its home country,” said IAM Air Transport Territory General Vice President Richie Johnsen.

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    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: FALQs: Government Formation in Norway

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    This blog post is part of our Frequently Asked Legal Questions series.

    Earlier this year, on January 29, 2025, the Center Party announced that it would leave the two-party coalition government in Norway, prompting the question: how are governments formed in Norway? And what happens when a party leaves the government coalition?

    1. How is a government formed in Norway?

    Norway is a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral assembly, the Storting (Norwegian parliament), which represents the people. (Arts. 1, 49 Norwegian Constitution (Grunnloven).)

    Government formation is regulated in the Norwegian Constitution. Article 12 provides that the Norwegian king heads the Council of State, made up of a prime minister and no less than seven other members. (Art. 12 Norwegian Constitution.)

    In practice, a new government is formed when the sitting government resigns and the Norwegian king asks a new prime minister to form a government. As part of this process, the king consults the resigning prime minister, the president of the Norwegian parliament, and/or parliamentary leaders before selecting a new prime minister.

    The prime minister does not need to have the active support of a majority of the Norwegian parliament but must not have a majority of the Norwegian parliament against him. (Negative parliamentarianism.) A formal vote is not made in favor of the prime minister, but instead a formal vote can be made to oust the prime minister. (See question 5 below.)

    When the prime minister chooses his or her members of government, those members need not be members of the parliament and, if they are members of the parliament, they cannot meet or vote in parliament. (Art. 62, para. 2 Norwegian Constitution.) The prime minister can either head a single party majority or minority government or head a majority coalition or minority coalition government.

    2. Are coalition governments common?

    Yes, over the last 40 years, only five governments, most spanning one to two years each, have not been coalition governments while 10 governments have been coalition governments with between two and four coalition parties each.  During that time, the longest coalition government was Jens Stoltenberg’s coalition government between The Norwegian Labour Party (Labour), the Center Party, and the Socialist Left Party, from 2005 to 2013, and the longest one party government was Gro Harlem Brundtland’s Labour government, from 1990 to 1996. The current Labour single party government, under Jonas Gahr Støre, is the first single party government since 2001.

    3. Do coalition governments formalize their cooperation?

    Yes. For example, the most recent coalition government, the Labour – Center Party coalition under Prime Minister Støre, formalized their relationship in a government agreement known as the Hurdalsplatformen (literally, the Hurdal Platform), named after where the agreement was signed.

    4. Can parties leave the government coalition without causing the government to fail?

    Yes, a party can leave the government without automatically causing a vote in parliament when the remaining government party or parties have enough support in parliament. Specifically, in the case of the Center Party leaving the government they announced they would not initiate a vote of no confidence procedure in the Norwegian parliament and would continue to support Støre as prime minister, but as an opposition party. Similarly, Prime Minister Støre explained that he would not step down.

    The move to leave a coalition government is not without consequence, and when the Center Party announced that it was leaving the government, it also meant that a number of Norwegian ministers left their positions and had to be replaced.  However, because the Labour Party still had sufficient support in parliament, the government did not need to be dissolved and no new prime minister needed to be appointed.

    5. When does a government fail?

    Under the Norwegian Constitution, the government, as well as its individual minister members, is subject to votes of no confidence (Mistillitsforslag). If a vote of no confidence is successful, the individual member or the whole government must leave. (Art. 15 Norwegian Constitution.) Several individual members of government coalitions have been subject to votes of no confidence. For example, the sitting prime minister’s government was subject to a proposal for a vote of no confidence against Tonje Brennan in 2024, over information that she had presented to the Norwegian parliament. That proposal was voted down 88 to 13.

    In addition to votes of no confidence, the Norwegian parliament can also vote on votes of criticism (kritikkvedtakk), whereby a sitting member of government is criticized for an action or inaction. For example, in 2023, Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl survived a vote of criticism over the government’s handling of Ukraine.

    An parliamentary overview of all the votes of no confidence and votes of criticism can be found here.

    6. Can a snap election be called?

    No, under Norwegian law, the parliament cannot be dissolved in the middle of a term. The members are elected for four years and serve for four years. (Arts. 54, 71 Norwegian Constitution.) Thus, if a government suffers a vote of no confidence a new vote must be made to elect a different prime minister or same prime minister with different coalition members. The prime minister does not need a majority to support him or her and typically relies on the silent support of members of parliament.

    7. Is it common that parties leave government coalitions?

    It is not uncommon for party coalitions to change during the course of a government. For example, in 2020, the Progress Party left the Conservative Party four-party-coalition government under Erna Solberg and the government coalition continued as a three party coalition between the Conservative Part, the Liberals, and the Christian Democrats.

    8. When is the next election to Parliament?

    Elections must be held every four years before September 30. (§ 54 Constitution.) By law, elections are held on a Monday in September. (§9-1 Valgloven.) The next parliamentary election is scheduled for September 8, 2025.

    9. Additional Law Library of Congress Online resources

    Norway

    Government formation across the Globe

     

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: Sen. Matt Brass to Tour Central Education Center with British Consul General

    Source: US State of Georgia

    ATLANTA (May 19, 2025)—On Tuesday, May 20, Senate Rules Chairman Matt Brass (R–Newnan) will participate in a tour of the Central Education Center (CEC) with British Consul General Rachel Galloway. The tour will take place at the CEC’s headquarters, where CEO Mark Whitlock will provide an overview of workforce development supporting industries throughout the State of Georgia.

    EVENT DETAILS:                      

    • Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
    • Time: 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.
    • Where: 160 M.L.K. Jr. Drive, Newnan, GA 30263
    • This event is open to members of the media ONLY.

    Biographies for British Consul General Rachel Galloway and CEC CEO Mark Whitlock can be found below.

    MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES:

    We kindly request that members of the media confirm their attendance in advance by contacting Jantz Womack at SenatePressInquiries@senate.ga.gov.

    # # # #

    Sen. Matt Brass serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules. Sen. Brass represents the 6th Senate District, which includes Coweta and Heard, as well as parts of Carroll County. He can be reached at (404) 656-0057 or by email at matt.brass@senate.ga.gov.

    For all media inquiries, please reach out to SenatePressInquiries@senate.ga.gov.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI: 2025 Louisiana Energy Conference to Be Held in New Orleans May 27 – May 29, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW ORLEANS, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The 2025 Louisiana Energy Conference will be held in New Orleans Tuesday afternoon May 27 through Thursday, May 29, 2025, at the Four Seasons Hotel, New Orleans, located at 2 Canal Street, at the foot of Canal Street on the Mississippi River. Conference registration remains open and hotel reservations can be secured through the event’s web site, www.LouisianaEnergyConference.com.

    The Conference, hosted by Al Petrie Advisors, has been further expanded this year and will now feature a series of 37 panels and presentations that will address key domestic and international industry developments and topics. Executives from over 100 leading public and private exploration and production and oil field services and transition energy companies, as well as representatives from energy-related private equity firms, industry trade groups, regulatory agencies, investment banks, institutional research groups, and industry advisory and law firms will participate in the discussions.  

    A detailed further-updated agenda with all panels and presentations along with the individual panelists and presenters is now available on the event web site www.LouisianaEnergyConference.com and with this link: 2025 Agenda. The online agenda will be updated if any additional participants are confirmed.

    In addition to our traditional domestic and international E&P and oil services panels, we are pleased to add a number of topical presentations this year: 

    Tuesday, May 27:

    Federal Lands and Waters – A Regulatory Update, Steve Dudgeon, Principal, Ryan

    Technology Trends in Upstream Oil, Gas and Geothermal Energy, Richard Talley, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, NSAI

    Wednesday, May 28:

    A View of the World and US Economy and Energy Industry in a Period of Heightened Volatility, Vikas Dwivedi, Chief Energy Economist – Managing Director, Macquarie Group

    Finance Trends in Energy, Candice Wilson, Managing Director and Julie Mumm-Simms, Partner, Eisner Advisory Group

    Keynote Presentation: Slip, Sliding Away…Crude Hits the Skids in 2025. Now What?, Stephen Jury, Vice Chairman, J.P. Morgan Private Bank

    Thursday, May 29:

    Fueling the Energy Expansion, Drew Lichter, Managing Partner, Broadview Commodity Partners

    Monetizing Tax Credits, Steve Dudgeon, Principal, Ryan

    Washington Policy: Tax and Tariff Update, Anna Taylor, Deputy Leader -Tax Policy Group, Deloitte

    Louisiana Future Energy: All-of-the-Above Strategy Progress, Michael Hecht, President and Chief Executive Officer, GNO Inc.

    Entergy’s Key Role in Meta Datacenter Development in North Louisiana, Phillip May, President and Chief Executive Officer, Entergy Louisiana

    Fueling Transformation: How Generative AI is Reshaping the Energy Value Chain, Kevin Gregory, Practice Lead – Generative AI, Energy, Resources & Industrials, Deloitte Consulting LLP

    Confirmed investment professional attendees will be offered the opportunity to register for one-on-one meetings with companies participating on the panels.

    Networking Events

    Several networking events are planned for 2025:

    On Tuesday, May 27 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., there will be a welcoming reception featuring cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and networking at The MISI, a beautiful new venue at 600 Decatur Street, Third Floor, in the historic Jax Brewery, across from Jackson Square and the French Quarter.

    On Wednesday, May 28, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., the premier networking event of the Conference will be held at the Vue Orleans, an amazing venue on the 34th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel that showcases the culture of New Orleans with commanding 360-degree views of the Mississippi River and New Orleans. Visit www.vueorleans.com for more details.

    On Thursday, May 29, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., please join us for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres to share your thoughts on the 2025 Conference and suggestions for next year at the 1931 Lounge in the new Caesars Hotel directly across from the Four Seasons Hotel on the Second Floor.

    Attendance at the Conference is directed to investment professionals including buy side and sell side analysts and portfolio managers, as well as private equity and wealth management executives, and trust officers. We also welcome energy industry management and advisors to the industry. There is no cost for investment professionals attending the Conference. The cost for all other attendees is $395 for the three-day event.

    For additional information including sponsorship opportunities, please call (504) 799-1953 or email info@LouisianaEnergyConference.com.

    Contact: Al Petrie (504) 799-1953

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI: Aifeex Hosts Grand Global AI Summit in Bangkok, Accelerates Global Expansion and Leads the New Era of Artificial Intelligence

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York, NY, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On May 18, 2025, Aifeex, a global leader in technological innovation, hosted its 2025 Global Artificial Intelligence Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.
    The landmark event brought together leading technology experts, industry pioneers, and global investors to witness Aifeex’s visionary approach to artificial intelligence and the ongoing execution of its global AI strategy. 

    During the summit, Ford Cooper, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Aifeex, pointed out that artificial intelligence is at a historic turning point—similar to the early days of the electricity revolution—and is set to reshape the global landscape in the years ahead.
    He said, “Now is the best time to seize the AI opportunity and change the course of our future.” 

    Aifeex’s flagship platform, the Takwin AI System, uses advanced data analysis and prediction tools to provide accurate insights into cryptocurrency market trends, helping users stay ahead of the coming market shifts.

    At the summit, Alex Jensen, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Aifeex, announced that the company is rapidly advancing the deployment of its global operations centers, with the Thailand hub now officially launched and operational. He emphasized that investing in AI not only holds tremendous potential, but also reflects the trajectory of our times. Encouraging attendees to seize the moment and embrace challenges with ambition, he stated, “Choose the hard path, and life becomes easier,” a remark that drew resounding applause from the audience.

    The summit showcased Aifeex’s exceptional achievements in AI research and development, platform innovation, and community building. It also marked a further consolidation of the company’s leadership position in the Asia-Pacific region, while laying a strong foundation for future expansion into Africa, the Middle East, and other emerging markets.

    As Aifeex’s core technological platform, the Takwin System is demonstrating broad application potential within the financial sector—driven by its multi-model synergy, reinforcement learning capabilities, and large-scale scenario simulation.

    Through this platform, Aifeex is empowering the future of both everyday life and investment.

    The Bangkok summit marked not only a significant milestone in Aifeex’s global expansion strategy, but also a powerful signal of AI’s transformative role in shaping the future of society and driving economic change. 

    Aifeex remains steadfast in its mission of “Empowering the Future Through Technology” and will continue to advance the global adoption and implementation of AI—working collaboratively across industries to usher in a new era of intelligent innovation, 

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI Security: New Orleans Resident Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Possession and Receipt of Online Child Sexual Abuse Material

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    NEW ORLEANS, LA – Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced today that STEPHEN BADON (“BADON ”), age 35, of New Orleans, was sentenced on May 13, 2025, to 120 months imprisonment, followed by 25 years of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey, after previously pleading guilty to receipt of child pornography, and distribution of child pornography, both in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(2) and (b)(1).  Additionally, BADON was ordered to pay $86,500 in restitution to numerous victims, as well as a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.

    According to court documents, the case against BADON stemmed from an online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  On August 2, 2023, FBI special agents executed a federal search warrant at BADON’s New Orleans home. FBI agents seized four electronic devices from BADON’s residence and subsequently located over 88,000 files of CSAM material throughout the four devices.  BADON was subsequently arrested by the FBI.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stuart Theriot of the Narcotics Unit.

    MIL Security OSI

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Microsoft Build 2025: The age of AI agents and building the open agentic web

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Microsoft Build 2025: The age of AI agents and building the open agentic web

    TL;DR? Hear the news as an AI-generated audio overview made using Microsoft 365 Copilot. You can read the transcript here.

    We’ve entered the era of AI agents. Thanks to groundbreaking advancements in reasoning and memory, AI models are now more capable and efficient, and we’re seeing how AI systems can help us all solve problems in new ways.

    For example, 15 million developers are already using GitHub Copilot, and features like agent mode and code review are streamlining the way they code, check, deploy and troubleshoot.

    Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to help research, brainstorm and develop solutions, and more than 230,000 organizations — including 90% of the Fortune 500 — have already used Copilot Studio to build AI agents and automations.

    Companies like Fujitsu and NTT DATA are using Azure AI Foundry to build and manage AI apps and agents that help prioritize sales leads, speed proposal creation and surface client insights. Stanford Health Care is using Microsoft’s healthcare agent orchestrator to build and test AI agents that can help alleviate the administrative burden and speed up the workflow for tumor board preparation.

    Developers are at the center of it all. For 50 years Microsoft has been empowering developers with tools and platforms to turn their ideas into reality, accelerating innovation at every stage. From AI-driven automation to seamless cloud integration and more, it’s exciting to see how developers are fueling the next generation of digital transformation.

    So, what’s next?

    We envision a world in which agents operate across individual, organizational, team and end-to-end business contexts. This emerging vision of the internet is an open agentic web, where AI agents make decisions and perform tasks on behalf of users or organizations.

    At Microsoft Build we’re showing the steps we’re taking to make this vision a reality through our platforms, products and infrastructure. We’re putting new models and coding agents in the hands of developers, introducing enterprise-grade agents, making our platforms like Azure AI Foundry, GitHub and Windows the best places to build, embracing open protocols and accelerating scientific discovery with AI, all so that developers and organizations can go invent the next big thing.

    Here’s a glimpse at just a few of the announcements today:

    Reimagining the software development lifecycle with AI

    AI is fundamentally shifting how code is written, deployed and maintained. Developers are using AI to stay in the flow of their environment longer and to shift their focus to more strategic tasks. And as the software development lifecycle is being transformed, we’re providing new features across platforms including GitHub, Azure AI Foundry and Windows that enable developers to work faster, think bigger and build at scale.

    • GitHub Copilot coding agent and new updates to GitHub Models: GitHub Copilot is evolving from an in-editor assistant to an agentic AI partner with a first-of-its-kind asynchronous coding agent integrated into the GitHub platform. We’re adding prompt management, lightweight evaluations and enterprise controls to GitHub Models so teams can experiment with best-in-class models, without leaving GitHub. Microsoft is also open-sourcing GitHub Copilot Chat in VS Code. The AI-powered capabilities from GitHub Copilot extensions will now be part of the same open-source repository that drives the world’s most popular development tool. As the home of over 150 million developers, this reinforces our commitment to open, collaborative, AI-powered software development. Learn more about GitHub Copilot updates.
    • Introducing Windows AI Foundry: For developers, Windows remains one of the most open and widely used platforms available, with scale, flexibility and growing opportunity. Windows AI Foundry offers a unified and reliable platform supporting the AI developer lifecycle across training and inference. With simple model APIs for vision and language tasks, developers can manage and run open source LLMs via Foundry Local or bring a proprietary model to convert, fine-tune and deploy across client and cloud. Windows AI Foundry is available to get started today. To learn more visit our Windows Developer Blog.
    • Azure AI Foundry Models and new tools for model evaluation: Azure AI Foundry is a unified platform for developers to design, customize and manage AI applications and agents. With Azure AI Foundry Models, we’re bringing Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini models from xAI to our ecosystem, hosted and billed directly by Microsoft. Developers can now choose from more than 1,900 partner-hosted and Microsoft-hosted AI models, while managing secure data integration, model customization and enterprise-grade governance. We’re also introducing new tools like the Model Leaderboard, which ranks the top-performing AI models across different categories and tasks, and the Model Router, designed to select an optimal model for a specific query or task in real-time. Read more about Azure AI Foundry Models.

    Making AI agents more capable and secure

    AI agents are not only changing how developers build, but how individuals, teams and companies get work done. At Build, we’re unveiling new pre-built agents, custom agent building blocks, multi-agent capabilities and new models to help developers and organizations build and deploy agents securely to help increase productivity in meaningful ways.

    • With the general availability of Azure AI Foundry Agent Service, Microsoft is bringing new capabilities to empower professional developers to orchestrate multiple specialized agents to handle complex tasks, including bringing Semantic Kernel and AutoGen into a single, developer-focused SDK and Agent-to-Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. To help developers build trust and confidence in their AI agents, we’re announcing new features in Azure AI Foundry Observability for built-in observability into metrics for performance, quality, cost and safety, all incorporated alongside detailed tracing in a streamlined dashboard. Learn more about how to deploy enterprise-grade AI agents in Azure AI Foundry Service.
    • Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot Tuning and multi-agent orchestration: With Copilot Tuning, customers can use their own company data, workflows and processes to train models and create agents in a simple, low-code way. These agents perform highly accurate, domain-specific tasks securely from within the Microsoft 365 service boundary. For example, a law firm can create an agent that generates documents aligned with its organization’s expertise and style. Additionally, new multi-agent orchestration in Copilot Studio connects multiple agents, allowing them to combine skills and tackle broader, more complex tasks. Check out the Microsoft 365 blog to learn how to access these new tools as well as the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 spring release, which has moved to general availability and begins rolling out today.

    Supporting the open agentic web

    To realize the future of AI agents, we’re advancing open standards and shared infrastructure to provide unique capabilities for customers.

    • Supporting Model Context Protocol (MCP): Microsoft is delivering broad first-party support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) across its agent platform and frameworks, spanning GitHub, Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, Azure AI Foundry, Semantic Kernel and Windows 11. In addition, Microsoft and GitHub have joined the MCP Steering Committee to help advance secure, at-scale adoption of the open protocol and announced two new contributions to the MCP ecosystem, an updated authorization specification, which enables people to use their existing trusted sign-in methods to give agents and LLM-powered apps access to data and services such as personal storage drives or subscription services, and the design of an MCP server registry service, which allows anyone to implement public or private, up-to-date, centralized repositories for MCP server entries. Check out the GitHub repository. As we expand our MCP capabilities, our top priority is to ensure we’re building upon a secure foundation. To learn more about this approach see: Securing the Model Context Protocol: Building a Safe Agentic Future on Windows.
    • A new open project called NLWeb: Microsoft is introducing NLWeb, which we believe can play a similar role to HTML for the agentic web. NLWeb makes it easy for websites to provide a conversational interface for their users with the model of their choice and their own data, allowing users to interact directly with web content in a rich, semantic manner. Every NLWeb endpoint is also an MCP server, so websites can make their content easily discoverable and accessible to AI agents if they choose. Learn more here.

    Accelerating scientific discovery with AI

    Science may be one of the most important applications of AI, helping to tackle humanity’s most pressing challenges, from drug discovery to sustainability. At Build we’re introducing Microsoft Discovery, an extensible platform built to empower researchers to transform the entire discovery process with agentic AI, helping research and development departments across various industries accelerate the time to market for new products and accelerate and expand the end-to-end discovery process for all scientists. Learn more here.

    This is only a small selection of the many exciting features and updates we will be announcing at Build. We’re looking forward to connecting with those who have registered to join us virtually and in-person, for keynote sessions, live code deep dives, hack sessions and more — much of which will be available on demand.

    Plus, you can get more on all these announcements by exploring the Book of News, the official compendium of all today’s news.

    Tags: AI, Azure AI, Azure AI Foundry, Book of News, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Purview

    MIL OSI Economics

  • MIL-OSI Global: Overshooting 1.5°C: even temporary warming above globally agreed temperature limit could have permanent consequences

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Dodds, Professor of Energy Systems, UCL

    Earth’s surface temperature has been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for 21 of the last 22 months.

    The 2015 Paris agreement committed countries to keeping the global temperature increase “well below 2°C”, which is widely interpreted as an average of 1.5°C over a 30-year period. The Paris agreement has not yet failed, but recent high temperatures show how close the Earth is to crossing this critical threshold.

    Climate scientists have, using computer simulations, modelled pathways for halting climate change at internationally agreed limits. However, in recent years, many of the pathways that have been published involve exceeding 1.5°C for a few decades and removing enough greenhouse gas from the atmosphere to return Earth’s average temperature below the threshold again. Scientists call this “a temporary overshoot”.

    If human activities were to raise the global average temperature 1.6°C above the pre-industrial average, for example, then CO₂ removal, using methods ranging from habitat restoration to mechanically capturing CO₂ from the air, would be required to return warming to below 1.5°C by 2100.


    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.


    Do we really understand the consequences of “temporarily” overshooting 1.5°C? And would it even be possible to lower temperatures again?

    Faith that a temporary overshoot will be safe and practicable has justified a deliberate strategy of delaying emission cuts in the short term, some scientists warn. The dangers posed by remaining above the 1.5°C limit for a period of time have received little attention by researchers like me, who study climate change.

    To learn more, the UK government commissioned me and a team of 36 other scientists to examine the possible impacts.

    How nature will be affected

    We examined a “delayed action” scenario, in which greenhouse gas emissions remain similar for the next 15 years due to continued fossil fuel burning but then fall rapidly over a period of 20 years.

    We projected that this would cause the rise in Earth’s temperature to peak at 1.9°C in 2060, before falling to 1.5°C in 2100 as greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere. We compared this scenario with a baseline scenario in which the global temperature does not exceed 1.5°C of warming this century.

    Our Earth system model suggested that Arctic temperatures would be up to 4°C higher in 2060 compared to the baseline scenario. Arctic Sea ice loss would be much higher. Even after the global average temperature was returned to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in 2100, the Arctic would remain around 1.5°C warmer compared to the baseline scenario. This suggests there are long-term and potentially irreversible consequences for the climate in overshooting 1.5°C.

    Temperature increases caused by overshooting 1.5°C are primarily felt in the Arctic and on land.
    Selena Zhang, Maria Russo, Luke Abraham and Alex Archibald.

    As global warming approaches 2°C, warm-water corals, Arctic permafrost, Barents Sea ice and mountain glaciers could reach tipping points at which substantial and irreversible changes occur. Some scientists have concluded that the west Antarctic ice sheet may have already started melting irreversibly.

    Our modelling showed that the risk of catastrophic wildfires is substantially higher during a temporary overshoot that culminates in 1.9°C of warming, particularly in regions already vulnerable to wildfires. Fires in California in early 2025 are an example of what is possible when the global temperature is higher.

    Our analysis showed that the risk of species going extinct at 2°C of warming is double that at 1.5°C. Insects are most at risk because they are less able to move between regions in response to the changing climate than larger mammals and birds.

    The impacts on society

    Only armed conflict is considered by experts to have a greater impact on society than extreme weather. Forecasting how extreme weather will be affected by climate change is challenging. Scientists expect more intense storms, floods and droughts, but not necessarily in places that already regularly suffer these extremes.

    In some places, moderate floods may reduce in size while larger, more extreme events occur more often and cause more damage. We are confident that the sea level would rise faster in a temporary overshoot scenario, and further increase the risk of flooding. We also expect more extreme floods and droughts, and for them to cause more damage to water and sanitation systems.

    Floods and droughts will affect food production too. We found that impact studies have probably underestimated the crop damage that increases in extreme weather and water scarcity in key production areas during a temporary overshoot would cause.

    We know that heatwaves become more frequent and intense as temperatures increase. More scarce food and water would increase the health risks of heat exposure beyond 1.5°C. It is particularly difficult to estimate the overall impact of overshooting this temperature limit when several impacts reinforce each other in this way.

    In fact, most alarming of all is how uncertain much of our knowledge is.

    For example, we have little confidence in estimates of how climate change will affect the economy. Some academics use models to predict how crops and other economic assets will be affected by climate change; others infer what will happen by projecting real-word economic losses to date into future warming scenarios. For 3°C of warming, estimates of the annual impact on GDP using models range from -5% to +3% each year, but up to -55% using the latter approach.

    We have not managed to reconcile the differences between these methods. The highest estimates account for changes in extreme weather due to climate change, which are particularly difficult to determine.

    We carried out an economic analysis using estimates of climate damage from both models and observed climate-related losses. We found that temporarily overshooting 1.5°C would reduce global GDP compared with not overshooting it, even if economic damages were lower than we expect. The economic consequences for the global economy could be profound.

    So, what can we say for certain? First, that temporarily overshooting 1.5°C would be more costly to society and to the natural world than not overshooting it. Second, our projections are relatively conservative. It is likely that impacts would be worse, and possibly much worse, than we estimate.

    Fundamentally, every increment of global temperature rise will worsen impacts on us and the rest of the natural world. We should aim to minimise global warming as much as possible, rather than focus on a particular target.


    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.


    Paul Dodds has received funding from the UK government through the Climate Services for a Net Zero World (CS-N0W) programme. While the UK government set the research questions for the study, it was carried out independently by scientists from nine organisations. Dodds has also received funding for other research projects from a range of organisations, including UK Research and Innovation organisations (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council); the IEA Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program (ETSAP); and private organisations (National Grid; Fuels Industry UK; Johnson Matthey; Cadent). A team at UCL led by Paul Dodds jointly develops the UK TIMES energy system model in a partnership with the UK government. This model was not used in this study.

    ref. Overshooting 1.5°C: even temporary warming above globally agreed temperature limit could have permanent consequences – https://theconversation.com/overshooting-1-5-c-even-temporary-warming-above-globally-agreed-temperature-limit-could-have-permanent-consequences-255523

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI Global: Batteries that absorb carbon emissions move a step closer to reality – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel Commandeur, Surrey Future Fellow, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, University of Surrey

    Future power. Sweetie Khatun

    What if there were a battery that could release energy while trapping carbon dioxide? This isn’t science fiction; it’s the promise of lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries, which are currently a hot research topic.

    Lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries could be a two-in-one solution to the current problems of storing renewable energy and taking carbon emissions out of the air. They absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into a white powder called lithium carbonate while discharging energy.

    These batteries could have profound implications for cutting emissions from vehicles and industry – and might even enable long-duration missions on Mars, where the atmosphere is 95% CO₂.

    To make these batteries commercially viable, researchers have mainly been wrestling with problems related to recharging them. Now, our team at the University of Surrey has come up with a promising way forward. So how close are these “CO₂-breathing” batteries to becoming a practical reality?


    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.


    Like many great scientific breakthroughs, Li-CO₂ batteries were a happy accident. Slightly over a decade ago, a US-French team of researchers were trying to address problems with lithium air batteries, another frontier energy-storage technology. Whereas today’s lithium-ion batteries generate power by moving and storing lithium ions within electrodes, lithium air batteries work by creating a chemical reaction between lithium and oxygen.

    The problem has been the “air” part, since even the tiny (0.04%) volume of CO₂ found in air is enough to disrupt this careful chemistry, producing unwanted lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃). As many battery scientists will tell you, the presence of Li₂CO₃ can also be a real pain in regular lithium-ion batteries, causing unhelpful side reactions and electrical resistance.

    Nonetheless the scientists noticed something interesting about this CO₂ contamination: it improved the battery’s amount of charge. From this point on, work began on intentionally adding CO₂ gas to batteries to take advantage of this, and the lithium-CO₂ battery was born.

    How it works

    Their great potential relates to the chemical reaction at the positive side of the battery, where small holes are cut in the casing to allow CO₂ gas in. There it dissolves in the liquid electrolyte (which allows the charge to move between the two electrodes) and reacts with lithium that has already been dissolved there. During this reaction, it’s believed that four electrons are exchanged between lithium ions and carbon dioxide.

    This electron transfer determines the theoretical charge that can be stored in the battery. In a normal lithium-ion battery, the positive electrode exchanges just one electron per reaction (in lithium air batteries, it’s two to four electrons). The greater exchange of electrons in the lithium-carbon dioxide battery, combined with the high voltage of the reaction, explains their potential to greatly outperform today’s lithium-ion batteries.

    In terms of the benefits to carbon emissions, by our rough calculations, 1kg of catalyst could absorb around 18.5kg of CO₂. Since a car driving 100 miles emits around 18kg-20kg of CO₂, that means such a battery could potentially offset a day’s drive.

    However, the technology has a few issues. The batteries don’t last very long. Commercial lithium-ion packs routinely survive 1,000–10,000 charging cycles; most LiCO₂ prototypes fade after fewer than 100.

    They’re also difficult to recharge. This requires breaking down the lithium carbonate to release lithium and CO₂, which can be energy intensive. This energy requirement is a little like a hill that must be cycled up before the reaction can coast, and is known as overpotential.

    You can reduce this requirement by printing the right catalyst material on the porous positive electrode. Yet these catalysts are typically expensive and rare noble metals, such as ruthenium and platinum, which is a significant barrier to commercial viability.

    Our team has found an alternative catalyst, caesium phosphomolybdate, which is far cheaper and easy to manufacture at room temperature. This material made the batteries stable for 107 cycles, while also storing 2.5 times as much charge as a lithium-ion. And we significantly reduced the energy cost involved in breaking down lithium carbonate, for an overpotential of 0.67 volts, which is only about double what would be necessary in a commercial product.

    Our research team is now working to further reduce the cost of this technology by developing a catalyst that replaces caesium, since it’s the phosphomolybdate that is key. This could make the system more economically viable and scalable for widespread deployment.

    We also plan to study how the battery charges and discharges in real time. This will provide a clearer understanding of the internal mechanisms at work, helping to optimise performance and durability.

    Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries could help humans to colonise Mars.
    Forelse Stock

    A major focus of upcoming tests will be to evaluate how the battery performs under different CO₂ pressures. So far, the system has only been tested under idealised conditions (1 bar). If it can work at 0.1 bar of pressure, it will be feasible for car exhausts and gas boiler flues, meaning you could capture CO₂ while you drive or heat your home. Demonstrating that this works will be an important confirmation of commercial viability, albeit we would expect the battery’s charge capacity to reduce at this pressure.

    If the batteries work at 0.006 bar, the pressure on the Martian atmosphere, they could power anything from an exploration rover to a colony. At 0.0004 bar, Earth’s ambient air pressure, they could capture CO₂ from our atmosphere and store power anywhere. In all cases, the key question will be how it affects the battery’s charge capacity.

    Meanwhile, to improve the battery’s number of recharge cycles, we need to address the fact that the electrolyte dries out. We’re currently investigating solutions, which probably involve developing casings that only CO₂ can move into. As for reducing the energy required for the catalyst to work, it’s likely to require optimising the battery’s geometry to maximise the reaction rate – and to introduce a flow of CO₂, comparable to how fuel cells work (typically by feeding in hydrogen and oxygen).

    If this continued work can push the battery’s cycle life above 1,000 cycles, cut overpotential below 0.3 V, and replace scarce elements entirely, commercial Li-CO₂ packs could become reality. Our experiments will determine just how versatile and far-reaching the battery’s applications might be, from carbon capture on Earth to powering missions on Mars.

    Daniel Commandeur receives funding from the Royal Society. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Christians in Science.

    Siddharth Gadkari receives funding from UKRI.

    Mahsa Masoudi 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. Batteries that absorb carbon emissions move a step closer to reality – new study – https://theconversation.com/batteries-that-absorb-carbon-emissions-move-a-step-closer-to-reality-new-study-256915

    MIL OSI – Global Reports

  • MIL-OSI Security: IAEA Database Reveals Scale of Issue with Dietary Self-Reporting

    Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

    A new equation is helping scientists check the reliability of people’s reports about what they eat, supporting better nutrition research.

    A new equation, developed using data from an IAEA nutrition database, is helping researchers assess the accuracy of self-reported dietary information in studies and surveys.

    This equation, developed using machine learning, has revealed that close to a third of records in two widely used nutritional datasets were likely to be misreported, according to a recent scientific article published in Nature Food.

    This revelation underlines the need for better methods to measure what people really eat.

    Nutritional epidemiology, a field that examines the link between diet and human diseases, commonly relies on tools such as questionnaires and food diaries to assess dietary intake. However, these methods are prone to misreporting, as participants may inaccurately estimate portion sizes, misremember what they ate, intentionally misstate their consumption, or even alter their eating habits during the reporting period.

    “Many nutritional epidemiology studies that try to link dietary exposure to disease outcomes are based on unreliable data, which can explain why many findings contradict each other,” said John Speakman, one of the paper’s authors and a professor at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology in China and the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom.

    While the issue of misreporting and its impact on metabolic research has been recognized since the 1980s, studies continue to use these tools due to their perceived utility and the lack of practical and accessible alternatives for collecting dietary data.

    MIL Security OSI

  • MIL-OSI USA: HERO’s Mission: An Elevator Part Could Bolster Marine Energy Technologies

    Source: US National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    Latest HERO WEC Mission Status Update Examines How a Polyurethane Belt Could Improve Reliability of Wave Energy Converters


    The HERO WEC’s original wire rope runs from the WEC to the floor, where it’s anchored beneath the large-amplitude motion platform. Photo by Taylor Mankle, NREL

    The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) wave-powered desalination research is charting new waters by improving the robustness, reliability, and deployability of the hydraulic and electric reverse osmosis wave energy converter—or HERO WEC.

    To do this, the team will modify different components on the device and test the revised design. Researchers have already started with the winch line, swapping the original wire rope with an upgraded polyurethane flat belt, which overperformed in initial lab testing.

    The HERO WEC, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), can operate using either a hydraulic or an electrical configuration to pump seawater through an onshore reverse osmosis system and produce fresh drinking water (a process called desalination). NREL researchers began designing the HERO WEC in 2020, and after hundreds of hours of testing, which consisted of three in-lab programs and five ocean installations, the team is retiring version one and drawing on lessons learned to design version two.

    But why start with the winch system? Because the research team knew it was the HERO WEC’s weakest link.

    The wire rope used in the original winch system, which ran from the raft-like WEC to an anchor on the seafloor, did serve its intended purpose by acting as a mooring line to prevent the device from drifting while allowing it to move up and down with the motion of the waves. But a wire rope can only take so much force before it wears, frays, and breaks—especially as it moves through pulleys in the harsh ocean environment, where corrosion and storm resistance can be a significant challenge.

    That is why the team replaced it with a polyurethane flat belt (something that is typically used for elevator pulleys). These sturdy belts are made of tiny strands of wire rope encased in polyurethane. This configuration helps evenly distribute force, alleviating stress on the belt and allowing it to withstand the large anchor loads. The polyurethane coating, a durable and affordable synthetic material that is also waterproof, helps to mitigate wear and corrosion.

    The photo shows the new polyurethane belt that will replace the HERO WEC’s original wire rope. Photo by Taylor Mankle, NREL

    The team tested the new belt on NREL’s large-amplitude motion platform, running it for about 30,000 wave cycles (approximately how many wave cycles it would face during a typical two- to four-week ocean deployment). Even after thousands of test cycles, the belt still showed no visible signs of wear, indicating a much longer lifespan. Based on the team’s models and motion platform data, the team predicts that this type of belt should last one or two years in the ocean before needing to be replaced

    Researchers also tested the belt under a range of stressful (simulated) ocean conditions, pushing the belt to see if it would slip, fold, or wind/unwind faster than it should. They found that the belt showed no sign of slippage or tangling, confirming that the belt is a promising upgrade to the HERO WEC’s design. Because of its durability, a belt like this could significantly enhance reliability, allow for longer deployments, reduce maintenance, and ultimately increase freshwater production.

    If the polyurethane belt performs well during ocean testing, these preliminary research findings will not only prove promising for NREL’s wave-powered desalination research but also advance the reliability of marine energy technologies across the board. Results from the HERO WEC belt testing are available to other researchers and developers. These initial findings could serve as a stepping stone for marine energy developers looking to both de-risk and enhance their existing WEC designs.

    Because the belt has proven to be so robust, the research team is using it as a cornerstone for designing HERO WEC V2. Building on this durable winch system, researchers will now focus on other HERO WEC components to further improve its reliability.

    Stay tuned for more HERO WEC design updates, test results, and project milestones.

    Learn more about NREL’s research in marine energy and the HERO WEC device and its open-source data. Then, subscribe to The Current—NREL’s water power newsletter—to stay up to date on the latest research.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC MD 875

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Mesoscale Discussion 0875
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    1112 AM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    Areas affected…central Oklahoma into south central Kansas

    Concerning…Severe potential…Watch likely

    Valid 191612Z – 191845Z

    Probability of Watch Issuance…95 percent

    SUMMARY…A few rapidly developing and intensifying supercells
    appear possible as early as 1-3 PM CDT, accompanied by a risk for
    large to giant hail and a strong tornado or two.

    DISCUSSION…Convergence along the dryline appears at least
    initially weak, and it is not clear how much this will change as it
    gradually mixes eastward toward the Interstate 35 corridor through
    18-20Z. However, deepening convection is evident to the south and
    southeast of Chickasha OK, which appears rooted within a corridor of
    stronger warm advection around the 850 mb level.

    It appears that this may persist and perhaps develop northward into
    early/mid afternoon, along the western periphery of a 30-40 kt
    southerly 850 mb jet. At the same time, it appears that at least
    modest mid-level height falls will begin to overspread the I-35
    corridor, coincident with continuing insolation and warming of a
    seasonably moist boundary layer. A corridor along and east of the
    dryline is forecast to become characterized by large CAPE on the
    order of 2000-4000+ J/kg.

    As the initially elevated convection begins to acquire increasing
    updraft inflow emanating from the unstable boundary-layer, and
    inhibition weakens, rapid thunderstorm intensification appears
    possible. In the presence of west-southwesterly deep-layer shear,
    this probably will include at least a couple of evolving supercells
    with potential to produce large to giant hail, along with a risk for
    a strong tornado.

    ..Kerr/Hart.. 05/19/2025

    …Please see www.spc.noaa.gov for graphic product…

    ATTN…WFO…TSA…ICT…FWD…OUN…

    LAT…LON 36709756 37379681 37459587 36529514 35419585 34209680
    33899724 34159790 35359788 36709756

    MOST PROBABLE PEAK TORNADO INTENSITY…120-150 MPH
    MOST PROBABLE PEAK WIND GUST…55-70 MPH
    MOST PROBABLE PEAK HAIL SIZE…4.00+ IN

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Tornado Watch 292

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Note:  The expiration time in the watch graphic is amended if the watch is replaced, cancelled or extended.Note: Click for Watch Status Reports.
    SEL2

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 292
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    1205 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Northwest Arkansas
    Central and Eastern Oklahoma

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 1205 PM until
    700 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    Several tornadoes and a couple intense tornadoes likely
    Widespread large hail and scattered very large hail events to 4
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Multiple clusters of intense thunderstorms will develop
    through the afternoon across central and eastern Oklahoma, spreading
    into northwest Arkansas by early evening. Supercells capable of
    strong tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging winds are possible.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 115 statute miles
    east and west of a line from 20 miles north northeast of
    Bartlesville OK to 10 miles southwest of Durant OK. For a complete
    depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline update
    (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 4 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 550. Mean
    storm motion vector 24035.

    …Hart

    SEL2

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Tornado Watch Number 292
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    1205 PM CDT Mon May 19 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Tornado Watch for portions of
    Northwest Arkansas
    Central and Eastern Oklahoma

    * Effective this Monday afternoon and evening from 1205 PM until
    700 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    Several tornadoes and a couple intense tornadoes likely
    Widespread large hail and scattered very large hail events to 4
    inches in diameter likely
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph likely

    SUMMARY…Multiple clusters of intense thunderstorms will develop
    through the afternoon across central and eastern Oklahoma, spreading
    into northwest Arkansas by early evening. Supercells capable of
    strong tornadoes, very large hail, and damaging winds are possible.

    The tornado watch area is approximately along and 115 statute miles
    east and west of a line from 20 miles north northeast of
    Bartlesville OK to 10 miles southwest of Durant OK. For a complete
    depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline update
    (WOUS64 KWNS WOU2).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
    tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
    area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
    threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
    and possible warnings.

    &&

    AVIATION…Tornadoes and a few severe thunderstorms with hail
    surface and aloft to 4 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind
    gusts to 60 knots. A few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 550. Mean
    storm motion vector 24035.

    …Hart

    Note: The Aviation Watch (SAW) product is an approximation to the watch area. The actual watch is depicted by the shaded areas.
    SAW2
    WW 292 TORNADO AR OK 191705Z – 200000Z
    AXIS..115 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF LINE..
    20NNE BVO/BARTLESVILLE OK/ – 10SW DUA/DURANT OK/
    ..AVIATION COORDS.. 100NM E/W /33WSW OSW – 39SE ADM/
    HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..4 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..60 KNOTS.
    MAX TOPS TO 550. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 24035.

    LAT…LON 37029380 33839452 33839853 37029797

    THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
    COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
    FOR WOU2.

    Watch 292 Status Report Message has not been issued yet.

    Note:  Click for Complete Product Text.Tornadoes

    Probability of 2 or more tornadoes

    High (80%)

    Probability of 1 or more strong (EF2-EF5) tornadoes

    Mod (60%)

    Wind

    Probability of 10 or more severe wind events

    High (70%)

    Probability of 1 or more wind events > 65 knots

    Low (10%)

    Hail

    Probability of 10 or more severe hail events

    High (80%)

    Probability of 1 or more hailstones > 2 inches

    High (80%)

    Combined Severe Hail/Wind

    Probability of 6 or more combined severe hail/wind events

    High (>95%)

    For each watch, probabilities for particular events inside the watch (listed above in each table) are determined by the issuing forecaster. The “Low” category contains probability values ranging from less than 2% to 20% (EF2-EF5 tornadoes), less than 5% to 20% (all other probabilities), “Moderate” from 30% to 60%, and “High” from 70% to greater than 95%. High values are bolded and lighter in color to provide awareness of an increased threat for a particular event.

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI: RegEd Launches RIA Compliance Control Center to Streamline Oversight for Registered Investment Advisers

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Raleigh, NC, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — RegEd, the leading provider of compliance and credentialing solutions for the financial services industry, has announced the launch of the RIA Compliance Control CenterSM, a purpose-built solution that enables registered investment advisers (RIAs) to streamline supervision and enhance oversight across the full spectrum of compliance activities. 

    With increasing regulatory complexity and resource constraints, RIAs face mounting pressure to manage compliance obligations more efficiently while maintaining rigorous oversight. RegEd’s RIA Compliance Control Center empowers firms to meet these challenges head-on with a centralized, automated platform that delivers powerful capabilities to support compliance with SEC and state regulations. 

    “Registered investment advisers need tools that not only ensure compliance, but also scale with their business,” said Adam Schaub, VP, Platform Product Management at RegEd. “The RIA Compliance Control Center delivers the automation, integration, and visibility firms need to simplify oversight, reduce risk, and keep pace with a fast-evolving regulatory environment.” 

    The RIA Compliance Control Center is available in modular or bundled formats and includes robust capabilities such as: 

    • Personal Trade Monitoring and Pre-Clearance – Automate trade surveillance, with direct feeds from leading brokerage firms. 
    • Form ADV Part 2B Supplement Management – Ensure always-current, compliant disclosures with automated data population. 
    • Gifts, Gratuities & Contributions – Manage approval workflows and reporting with centralized tracking. 
    • Outside Business Activities – Streamline OBA submissions, attestations, and disclosures. 
    • IAR Continuing Education (IAR CE) – Access RegEd’s industry-leading CE catalog with intuitive dashboards for IARs and compliance teams. 
    • Advertising Review – Leverage AI-powered tools to review marketing materials and accelerate compliance with the SEC Marketing Rule. 
    • Licensing, Registration & Onboarding – Automate key workflows and maintain compliance throughout the IAR lifecycle. 

    The RIA Compliance Control Center also features advanced capabilities such as a unified compliance dashboard, WORM archiving, customizable questionnaires, advanced hierarchy management, and seamless integration with CRM and marketing systems through open APIs. 

    By delivering a holistic view of compliance status, both at the firm and individual level, the RIA Compliance Control Center helps advisers prioritize critical obligations, ensure timely fulfillment, and reduce manual effort. 

    For more information about the RIA Compliance Control Center, visit www.reged.com to request a free consultation or demonstration. 

    About RegEd

    RegEd is the market-leading provider of RegTech enterprise solutions with relationships with more than 200 enterprise clients that represent more than 35 of the top 50 insurance companies.  

    Established in 2000 by former regulators, the company is recognized for continuous regulatory technology innovation with solutions hallmarked by workflow-directed processes, data integration, regulatory intelligence, automated validations, business process automation and compliance dashboards. The aggregate drives the highest levels of operational efficiency and enables our clients to cost-effectively comply with regulations and continuously mitigate risk.  

    Trusted by the nation’s top financial services firms, RegEd’s proven, holistic approach to RegTech meets firms where they are on the compliance and risk management continuum, scaling as their needs evolve and amplifying the value proposition delivered to clients. For more information, please visit www.reged.com

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI: Security National Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: SNFCA) Announces Completion of Lending Transaction on Residential Development Loan in Arrowhead Ranch

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    MURRAY, Utah, May 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Security National Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: SNFCA), announced the successful conclusion of its lending transaction which facilitated the development of the Arrowhead Ranch residential project located in Payson, Utah. As a result of this transaction Security National realized “profit-split” income of nearly $4,000,000, which was in addition to the over $3,200,000 in interest and origination fees which were earned over the term of the loan.

    This acquisition and development loan was originated by the Company in June of 2021 in relation to over 500 planned residential units across various product types on a 162-acre parcel.

    The Company believes that this return on investment is above that which it would realize from competing general debt offerings. In addition, this transaction placed the Company’s residential mortgage segment in a position to offer long-term financing to potential purchasers, as an added benefit to the developer and homebuyers.

    This transaction demonstrates the Company’s enhanced lending capabilities, which provide increased value to homebuilders and the real estate development community. The proceeds of this profit split will be reinvested in similar transactions that the Company determines are attractive and will strengthen its asset base.

    “This transaction marks another important step in the strategic growth of our lending capabilities,” said Scott Quist, Chief Executive Officer of Security National. “By working with reputable, local developers we are able to structure attractive loan terms that benefit both the Company and the developers.”

    About Security National Financial Corporation

    Security National Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: SNFCA) operates in three reportable business segments: life insurance, cemetery and mortuary, and mortgages. The life insurance segment is engaged in the business of selling and servicing selected lines of life insurance, annuity products, and accident and health insurance. These products are marketed in 40 states through a commissioned sales force of independent licensed insurance agents who may also sell insurance products of other companies. The cemetery and mortuary segment consists of eight mortuaries and five cemeteries in the state of Utah, one cemetery in the state of California, and one cemetery and four mortuaries in the state of New Mexico. The Company also engages in pre-need selling of funeral, cemetery, mortuary, and cremation services through its cemetery and mortuary locations. The mortgage segment originates and underwrites or otherwise purchases residential and commercial loans for new construction, existing homes, and other real estate projects. The mortgage segment operates through 100 retail offices in 23 states and is an approved mortgage lender in several other states.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about future financial performance, asset strategy, and capital allocation. Actual results may differ materially due to various risks and uncertainties. For a full discussion of these risks, please refer to the company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    For Further Information Contact: Scott M. Quist
    or Garrett S. Sill
    Security National Financial Corporation
    P.O. Box 57250
    (Telephone) (801) 264-1060
    (Fax) (801) 264-8430
    *Website: www.securitynational.com*

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Call for banking sector to ensure financial systems are inclusive

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga has called on the banking sector to be intentional in designing financial systems that assist the underserved and empower the marginalised.

    Addressing the Group of Twenty (G20) Breakfast-Round Table on the Empowerment of Women and Disability Inclusion in the Banking Sector, the Minister emphasised that financial inclusion is not a luxury but it is a right that is a critical enabler of economic independence, dignity, and equality.

    “Yet, across the world and particularly here in South Africa, too many women remain excluded from basic financial services without bank accounts, denied access to credit and disconnected from investment opportunities.

    “This exclusion is even more pronounced for women living with disabilities, rural women, young women and women in the informal employment,” Chikunga said on Monday in Johannesburg.

    The breakfast meeting was aimed at engaging the banking sector in investing in the work of the Empowerment of Women Working Group and the G20 Disability Inclusion Initiatives.

    The Minister encouraged the banking sector to reimagine financial systems by ensuring they serve women entrepreneurs, especially those leading micro and small enterprises; create demand-driven financial products tailored to women’s lived realities and incentivise financial institutions to become more inclusive through policy and innovation.

    Furthermore, Chikunga suggested that the banking sector invest in digital literacy, infrastructure and access to technology for women and persons with disabilities as well as integrate inclusion into the very architecture of economic planning.

    “We must also look at the role of care infrastructure not as a social cost but as an economic multiplier. Investment in the care economy is investment in jobs, community wellbeing and women’s ability to fully participate in the workforce.

    “Together, we must not only reimagine, but also actively innovate alternative pathways to building an economy that is dynamic, resilient, and inclusive enough to truly leave no one behind.

    “Together, let’s explore practical strategies, share success stories, break barriers, challenge stereotypes and fast track the development of financing models that unlock the full economic potential of women and persons with disabilities. Together, lets create a banking environment where everyone can thrive,” she said.

    The Minister explained that G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group (EWWG) has committed to advancing three urgent priorities that include the care economy, financial inclusion for and of women, and gender-based violence and femicide.

    “As part of this working group, we have developed several empowerment programmes as legacy projects that we wish to partner with private sector partners beyond South Africa’s G20 Presidency.

    “To this end, we have conceptualised and designed a series of Transformative Emerging Industrialists Accelerator Programs and intend to rally all relevant stakeholders, particularly SOEs, private sector companies and industry associations behind their implementation,” the Minister said.

    These programs will target emerging women industrialists in key sectors, including energy security, the maritime, defence and aerospace industries, platform economies and agriculture, among others.

    Participating emerging industrialists will work alongside experienced industry associations, receiving support from ideation through to product development, financing, market access, and commercialisation pathways.

    “To advance disability inclusion, we have also developed an investment case for the establishment of a Disability Inclusion Nerve Centre, a legacy project of South Africa’s Chairship of the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group.

    “This centre will serve as a cornerstone for advancing disability rights and inclusion in the region, aligning with both South Africa’s constitutional imperatives and international commitments,” the Minister said.

    The centre will focus on the following priorities:

    • Research on mainstreaming the mights of persons with disabilities, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion, care economy, artificial intelligence (AI), climate change and conducive working conditions.
    • Establishing a national disability data observatory.
    • Strengthening data collection and reporting systems across public and private sectors.
    • Developing early childhood disability screening protocols.
    • Enhancing institutional capacity through strengthened disability focal points.
    • Leveraging AI for disability inclusion.
    • Supporting special schools across South Africa to train teachers, address the digital divide, and improve educational outcomes for learners with disabilities.
    • Developing a model disability inclusive classroom and school for South Africa.

    South Africa assumed the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 to 30 November 2025 under the theme: “Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability”. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Africa: SIU to probe SITA, Bushbuckridge municipality

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is poised to launch separate investigations into the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and Bushbuckridge Local Municipality in Mpumalanga Province.

    This after President Cyril Ramaphosa signed two proclamations authorising the corruption busting unit to probe the two entities.

    At the SITA, the SIU will investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption focusing on the procurement of a Turnkey Software Asset Management Solution and Integrated Logistics Support Services. 

    “The SIU will assess whether the procurement process adhered to National Treasury guidelines or if it was tainted by irregularities, lack of transparency, or wasteful expenditure. Additionally, the investigation will examine any unlawful or improper conduct by SITA employees, suppliers, or other entities involved in the contract.

    “The investigation period spans 13 July 2017 to 16 May 2025, including any relevant conduct before or after this timeframe,” the SIU said.

    The investigation at the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality will zero in on serious maladministration and unlawful conduct related to a street paving contract for the Lillydale Phase 1 project.

    “The SIU aims to address allegations regarding the fairness, competitiveness, transparency, equity, and cost-effectiveness of the procurement process, examining whether it has violated any applicable legislation, National Treasury guidelines, or municipal policies. Additionally, the investigation will scrutinise any instances of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless or wasteful expenditure connected to this project.

    “The investigation will also examine improper conduct by municipal officials, employees, suppliers, or service providers and determine whether such conduct resulted in financial losses for the municipality or the state.

    “The Proclamation covers conduct occurring between 1 January 2018 and 16 May 2025, as well as any related activities before or after this period that are connected to the matters under investigation,” the SIU said.

    Furthermore, evidence of criminal conduct uncovered during the investigations will be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

    “Beyond investigating maladministration, corruption, and fraud, the SIU is committed to identifying systemic failures and recommending measures to prevent future losses.

    “Under the SIU Act, the SIU is also authorised to initiate a civil action in the High Court or a Special Tribunal in its name to address any wrongdoing identified during its investigation resulting from acts of corruption, fraud, or maladministration,” the unit concluded. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI USA: Luján, Rosen Lead Colleagues in Demanding President Trump Lift Hold on High-Speed Internet Funding for New Mexico

    US Senate News:

    Source: US Senator for New Mexico Ben Ray Luján

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Telecommunications and Media Subcommittee, and U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) led 1o Senate colleagues in a letter demanding that the Trump administration release funding for states under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. This program connects families in the hardest-to-serve communities to high-speed internet. Senator Luján successfully helped pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that created the BEAD Program. New Mexico has been approved to receive $675 million in funding through the BEAD Program, but the Trump administration’s pause on this critical program is indefinitely delaying New Mexico’s ability to connect New Mexicans to high-speed internet.

    “We write with concern regarding the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) recent announcement that it is delaying the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program,” wrote the senators. “This unprecedented move by the NTIA will further delay our communities from having the connectivity they need to grow and thrive. To unlock the full strength of the U.S. economy, every community must have access to the vast opportunities enabled by broadband, and this can be achieved by your Administration following the law as outlined in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58).”

    “Currently, there are multiple states ready for broadband providers to put shovels in the ground tomorrow,” the senators continued. “NTIA must act swiftly to release BEAD funding to states that have already been approved and expeditiously work to approve the remaining eligible applications. Time is of the essence, and our rural and tribal communities cannot afford more delays.”

    In addition to Senators Luján and Rosen, the letter was signed by Senators Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Angus King (I-ME).

    As Ranking Member of the Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, Senator Luján is a strong champion for 100% broadband connectivity. In the 118th Congress, Senator Luján introduced the bipartisan Tribal Connect Act to make it easier for Tribes to secure high-speed internet access at Tribal Essential Community-Serving Institutions through the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF) Schools and Libraries Program, or E-Rate program. In the 117th Congress, Senator Luján introduced legislation to help close the homework gap by equipping school buses with Wi-Fi technology and improving financing options for broadband deployment.

    The full letter can be found here or below:

    Dear President Trump:

    We write with concern regarding the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) recent announcement that it is delaying the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. This unprecedented move by the NTIA will further delay our communities from having the connectivity they need to grow and thrive. To unlock the full strength of the U.S. economy, every community must have access to the vast opportunities enabled by broadband, and this can be achieved by your Administration following the law as outlined in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58).

    The intent of Congress when it created and appropriated over $42 billion for the bipartisan BEAD program was to connect the hardest-to-serve Americans to high-speed internet and finally close the digital divide. Congress explicitly shaped this program to give deference to states, so they could address the unique challenges their states face reaching the goals of the program Congress mandated.

    Currently, there are multiple states ready for broadband providers to put shovels in the ground tomorrow. Forty-two states have begun or completed their BEAD application process. Three states have even had their applications fully approved and yet are waiting on funds to be released by your Administration. Many states have applications that are tech-neutral and dramatically more cost-effective than previous projects funded by federal broadband programs, all while fulfilling the program’s mission to bring high-speed, reliable broadband to all unserved communities in their state. The attempts by NTIA to revise the state application process at this late stage will cause further delays to the program and leave rural and tribal communities behind in an increasingly connected economy. NTIA must act swiftly to release BEAD funding to states that have already been approved and expeditiously work to approve the remaining eligible applications. Time is of the essence, and our rural and tribal communities cannot afford more delays.

    It is imperative to follow the law, deliver on the promise of access to affordable high-speed internet, and ensure that every American, regardless of where they live, has the tools to succeed in the modern economy.

    Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News

  • MIL-OSI Security: CISA Welcomes Madhu Gottumukkala as the New Deputy Director

    Source: US Department of Homeland Security

    WASHINGTON – The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is proud to announce the appointment of Madhu Gottumukkala as its new Deputy Director. In this role, he will help lead CISA’s mission to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that the American people rely on every day. 

    Prior to his appointment as the CISA Deputy Director, Dr. Gottumukkala served as Commissioner and Chief Information Officer for South Dakota’s Bureau of Information and Technology, overseeing statewide technology and cybersecurity initiatives. He assumed this role after serving as South Dakota’s second-ever chief technology officer, focused on innovation through the adoption of emerging technologies, while increasing efficiency by replacing outdated legacy systems.

    “I am honored to be appointed by Secretary Noem to serve as Deputy Director of CISA. As a former state and local leader, I have seen firsthand the exceptional work CISA does in advancing our nation’s cybersecurity and infrastructure resilience,” said Gottumukkala. “I look forward to building on that foundation by fostering collaboration and strengthening resilience across all levels of government and the private sector. Together, through trusted partnerships, transparency, and shared responsibility, we can better manage systemic risks and safeguard the critical functions that ensure our nation’s safety and prosperity.”

    “CISA is excited to welcome Madhu to the team. As we work around the clock to safeguard our nation’s most critical infrastructure, Madhu brings a unique blend of technical expertise and real-world experience that will enhance our mission,” said CISA Senior Official Performing the duties of the Director Bridget Bean. “His deep understanding of both the complexities and practical realities of infrastructure security will strengthen CISA in its role as the nation’s lead cyber defense agency and the national coordinator for infrastructure resilience today and into the future.”

    With over 24 years of experience in information technology (IT), Dr. Gottumukkala has held leadership roles spanning both the public and private sectors, including work across the wireless and telecom, unified communications, and health technology industries. He currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the College of Business and Information Systems at Dakota State University.

    Dr. Gottumukkala holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Dakota State University, an MBA in Engineering and Technology Management from the University of Dallas, an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Andhra University.

    For more information about CISA’s leadership team, please visit the official CISA website at CISA Leadership | CISA

    ###

    About CISA 

    As the nation’s cyber defense agency and national coordinator for critical infrastructure security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the digital and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every hour of every day.

    Visit CISA.gov for more information and follow us on XFacebookLinkedIn, Instagram

    MIL Security OSI

  • MIL-OSI Economics: From skepticism to success: How AI is helping teachers transform classrooms in Peru

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: From skepticism to success: How AI is helping teachers transform classrooms in Peru

    Marco Antonio Pedraza, a sixth-grade primary school teacher who migrated as a young man from the countryside to bustling Lima, used to spend his own money to purchase specialized teaching materials for the three neurodivergent kids in his class. He had only a vague idea of what AI was and was skeptical about its potential. 

    Then Pedraza was introduced to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, the AI companion that helps with work tasks. A group of AI experts recently trained him on how to write effective prompts to quickly generate personalized activities for the students just by typing a few traits of each. He was amazed by the results. 

    “It was a revelation,” says Pedraza, an experienced public school teacher with a humble background. “These days, a teacher requires technology to effectively assist the kids.” 

    He says the new tool saves him precious time and facilitates a more personalized education. As he gradually expands its use, he hopes Copilot will enhance the learning experience of all his students while opening new horizons for him that could help him thrive within Peru’s educational system. 

    [embedded content]

    Pedraza is one of nearly 500 primary public school teachers participating in a pioneering pilot program launched by the education authorities of Lima metropolitan area (DRELM) in partnership with the World Bank, spanning over 200 public schools. All educators teach fifth and sixth grades. Most of the schools cater to children from low-income families, with some located in the city’s poorest areas. 

    Local education authorities expect AI can raise education standards and improve teachers’ capabilities in an inexpensive and easily scalable way, says Marcos Tupayachi, the representative of Peru’s education ministry for metropolitan Lima, the country’s capital and one of the largest cities in South America with 10.5 million residents or 30% of Peru’s population.  

    “It will help us a lot in transitioning from a traditional approach to a much more modern, student-centered approach,” Tupayachi points out. 

    Copilot Chat is powered by the latest AI models and uses web data and files uploaded by users to generate content. After a short training co-designed with a group of primary teachers, participating educators began using it at the start of the school year in early March through accounts provided by Peru’s education authorities. Chats are protected and not exposed to the public or used to train AI models.  

    If the results are as positive as expected, demonstrating enhanced student learning and improved teacher-student dynamics, the program could be expanded to all primary schools in Lima starting next year, Tupayachi says. 

    Marco Antonio Pedraza, a sixth-grade teacher in Lima, hopes Copilot will enhance the learning experience of all his students while helping him thrive within Peru’s educational system. Photo by Julio Reaño

    A companion in the classroom 

    The World Bank is offering technical support to Peru to deploy the program, as part of the group’s wider efforts to promote education and social inclusion across the developing world. 

    Through AI, teachers can quickly and efficiently create lesson plans, curriculums and learning materials, while supporting grading and other administrative tasks, explains Ezequiel Molina, a World Bank senior economist. 

    This is especially important in a developing country where public schools are often understaffed and educators are underpaid and face limited training and access to advanced technology, Molina notes. 

    “We thought AI could be seen as an ally, helping teachers solve their challenges, design better and faster lessons and use the extra time to think about improving the educational experience for students,” he says. 

    Many educators in Peru have several jobs to make ends meet, says the economist, so AI can decisively help find a balance between work and life. As reliable connectivity is not widely available across schools, many educators in the program use Copilot on their own laptops at home or on their phones. They say they could barely believe the effectiveness of the AI tool when they first tried it. 

    MIL OSI Economics

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Meet four developers leading the way with AI agents

    Source: Microsoft

    Headline: Meet four developers leading the way with AI agents

    Agents can get past the fragmentation of data that come from clinician notes, notes from the staff that deals with insurance, notes from nurses, images such as CT scans that are very different from pathology slides, and more, Keyes says.

    “It’s really hard to get a chat model to do this,” he says. But agents can focus on a specialized task, with the healthcare agent orchestrator directing requests to the appropriate agent. Getting started is really easy. Stanford Health Care set up the initial agents from Azure AI Foundry Agent Catalog and deployed into Microsoft Teams for testing in about 10 minutes, Keyes says.

    The data organizer brings in clinical notes, labs, medications and genomic data, all of which come in different formats, and structures the information into a succinct abstract, with citations so the clinician can quickly verify it or go to see the relevant section in depth.

    Keyes recalls being with other medical trainees and his attending physician asking for a radiology report in the electronic health record. “And it’s like, click, click, click, click, click, click – 100 different clicks versus ‘oh, it’s right here in front of me.’’’ When he checked the agent’s citations against the actual notes, they were correct.

    The radiology agent reads radiology images using the leading specialized AI models on Azure AI Foundry, and the pathology agent analyzes the whole-slide images and provides relevant pathology findings. Another agent identifies which clinical trials the patient is eligible for.

    The medical research agent uses reasoning models to search over scientific papers on cancer, again giving links for quick retrieval of the full documents.

    At the end of the process, a report creation agent summarizes the key components of the patient’s case to be discussed at the tumor board, turning it into a Word document or PowerPoint.

    Preparing a single patient’s case for a tumor board could take Keyes several hours; in testing, AI agents might make the work 10 times faster, he says. Stanford Health Care has more than a dozen tumor boards serving about 4,000 patients, so the time savings would multiply quickly.

    “The agents will enable the work to be done easier, faster and more efficiently, which really matters when you’re talking about meetings with 10 clinicians in them, where time is really precious,” Keyes says. Time is precious, too, for the patients.

    “I think in a lot of industries when they think agentic, they get very excited about, ‘it’s going to work very autonomously. It’s going to be making decisions, and I can just look at what it’s doing every once in a while.’ That is not really what we’re envisioning. We do want the clinicians in charge of a patient’s care. We always want them to be able to check.”

    “I would be excited at the idea of AI helping my doctors to be the best version of themselves and to liberate them from some of the time-consuming components of documentation so they can spend more time with me the patient,” he says.

    MIL OSI Economics