Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
TEHRAN, June 30 (Xinhua) — The death toll from Israeli strikes on Iran between June 13 and 24 has risen to 935, including 38 children and 132 women, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
As Iranian judicial spokesman Asghar Jahangir said at a press conference in Tehran, citing data from the Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization, some of the women killed were pregnant.
On June 13, Israel launched a series of massive airstrikes on nuclear and military sites in the Islamic Republic, killing military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians and injuring many others, according to Iranian officials.
Iran responded by launching several waves of missile and drone attacks on Israeli territory, which also resulted in casualties and destruction.
A ceasefire agreement between the two countries was reached on June 24, ending a 12-day standoff. –0–
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (12th District of Michigan)
U.S. Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), along with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation aimed at closing the ‘boyfriend loophole,’ which allows stalkers and abusers to access guns because they weren’t married to their victim. The Strengthening Protections for Domestic Violence and Stalking Survivors Act prevents convicted stalkers, and all former dating partners convicted of a domestic violence offense, from buying or owning firearms, regardless of when the relationship occurred.
“Federal law includes a ‘boyfriend loophole’ that allows abusive dating partners subject to protection orders and convicted stalkers to access firearms. This loophole is a serious danger that has cost lives and will continue to do so until we address it,” said Dingell. “I know this fear all too well. Growing up, I lived in a house with a man – my father – who should not have had access to a gun. No child, spouse, or partner should have to experience the trauma my family did. This legislation will close this loophole once and for all by ensuring abusive dating partners subject to protection orders and convicted stalkers cannot get their hands on a firearm. Perpetrators of violence – including dating partners – should not be able to access a firearm, and I will not stop fighting until we can deliver on this promise.”
“If someone has been convicted of stalking or abusing their partner, they should never be allowed to buy a gun. That’s common sense. But unfortunately, loopholes in federal law still put survivors at risk,” said Fitzpatrick. “This bill closes those gaps, ensuring all violent offenders are held to the same standard—spouse, boyfriend, or otherwise. I’ve long made combatting domestic violence and stalking a priority and will continue advancing policies to guarantee every survivor is protected.”
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included provisions from my bill to close the boyfriend loophole, but there is still more we need to do to address gun violence and keep firearms out of the hands of abusive dating partners and convicted stalkers,” said Klobuchar. “As a former prosecutor, I have seen firsthand the serious emotional and physical toll stalking takes on victims, especially when guns are involved. By preventing convicted stalkers from purchasing guns, our common sense legislation will protect victims and help save lives.”
The Strengthening Protections for Domestic Violence and Stalking Survivors Act would:
Prevent those convicted of certain stalking offenses from purchasing firearms;
Clarify that abusive dating partners subject to certain court orders are treated the same as an abusive spouse;
Update the definition of “dating relationship” for purposes of federal firearm prohibitions to include “individuals who have or have had a continuing serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature,” regardless of when the relationship occurred. The law currently requires that the dating relationship is “recent,” which could exclude abusers convicted of domestic violence against partners from a prior relationship.
This bill is endorsed by the National Domestic Violence Hotline, National Network to End Domestic Violence, Moms Demand Action, GIFFORDS, Jewish Women International, and Legal Momentum.
“Victims and survivors of domestic violence in any intimate or dating relationship, regardless of marital status, are vulnerable to the threat of firearms. Every day, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) hears from those whose abusive experiences include the use of firearms to threaten, coerce, and control them. And tragically, thousands of victims have lost their lives by firearms,” said Marium Durrani, Vice President of Policy at The Hotline. “We applaud the incredible bipartisan dedication of these Members of Congress to finally close these dangerous loopholes to better protect victims and survivors from gun violence and we urge Congress to act— lives are on the line.”
“Survivors of dating violence and stalking deserve the full protection of the law, regardless of their relationship status. For too long, a dangerous loophole has allowed abusive partners and stalkers who are not married to their victims to access firearms, despite posing clear threats to survivor safety,” said NNEDV President and CEO, Stephanie Love-Patterson. “This gap in our laws has had deadly consequences. Abuse is abuse, whether it happens within a marriage or not. Every survivor deserves safety, justice, and the opportunity to rebuild their life free from fear. We applaud Representatives Dingell and Fitzpatrick, and Senator Klobuchar, for their leadership and for taking this critical step toward saving lives.”
“Letting abusers keep their guns is a death sentence for too many women—especially Black women,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “This bill is a life-saving solution, and we’re proud to support its reintroduction. We can’t claim to care about families and freedom while ignoring the deadly intersection of domestic violence and firearms.”
“Our laws have big loopholes in them that make it easier for domestic abusers to get guns and have very real consequences for victims of domestic violence and stalking. This is an unacceptable and dangerous reality that puts the lives of women and children at risk across the country,” said Emma Brown, Executive Director at GIFFORDS. “95% of Americans support blocking domestic abusers from having guns, including 94% of Republicans. We are grateful to Senator Klobuchar and Representatives Debbie Dingell and Brian Fitzpatrick for their steadfast leadership on this issue.”
“The risk of a woman being killed by her intimate partner increases 400% when that partner has access to a firearm. But most victims of intimate partner violence are dating partners and under current law do not have the same protections from armed abusers as married survivors do,” said Meredith Jacobs, CEO of Jewish Women International. “Jewish Women International applauds Representatives Debbie Dingell and Brian Fitzpatrick and Senator Amy Klobuchar for re-introducing legislation that will fully close the dating and stalking loopholes and for their ongoing leadership to disarm domestic abusers.”
“For far too long, survivors of dating violence and stalking have been left exposed by a glaring weakness in our gun safety laws—the so-called ‘boyfriend loophole.’ This bipartisan legislation represents a long-overdue step toward protecting all survivors, regardless of relationship status. By finally closing this loophole, we can stop known abusers from accessing deadly weapons and interrupt the cycle of violence before it escalates further,” said Azaleea Carlea, Legal Director of Legal Momentum. “The data is undeniable: when abusers have access to firearms, the risk of homicide increases fivefold. The link between guns and lethality in intimate partner violence is not just well-documented, it’s devastatingly clear and our laws must reflect this reality. Legal Momentum strongly supports this legislation because no survivor should be left unprotected simply because the law failed to recognize their relationship or the threats they face. Safety should never depend on a legal technicality.”
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Don Bacon (2nd District of Nebraska)
Bacon to Retire at End of 119th Congress
Touts Accomplishes and Pledges to Continue Outstanding Service and Pursue Legislative Initiatives
Omaha, Neb. – Today, Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation Subcommittee (CITI), announced he will not seek reelection in 2026 and will retire at the end of the 119th Congress.
“After consultation with my family and much prayer, I have decided not to seek reelection in 2026 and will fulfill my term in the 119th Congress through January 2, 2027. After three decades in the Air Force and now going on one decade in Congress, I look forward to coming home in the evenings and being with my wife and seeing more of our adult children and eight grandchildren, who all live near my home. I’ve been married for 41 years, and I’d like to dedicate more time to my family, my church, and the Omaha community. I also want to continue advocating for a strong national security strategy and a strong alliance system with countries that share our love of democracy, free markets and the rule of law.
“During the remainder of the 119th Congress, we will be focused on finishing the job. Providing top-notch constituent services in the district, for which we were recognized in 2021 with the Congressional Management Foundation’s Democracy Awards for Constituent Services in 2021, will be a priority as it always has been.
“To date, we have processed close to 8,500 casework/requests for assistance; we have helped people who were wrongly marked as deceased, helped citizens in distress around the world return home; helped people devasted by disasters such as flood and tornadoes, literally climb out of the ruble and connect them with resources; we have solved problems with Medicare, Social Security and IRS problems, passports and immigration, and so much more. Our team has worked diligently every day to advocate for and deliver on behalf of our constituents.
“Legislatively, I aim to work to get five agricultural bills passed that were included as part of the Farm Bill, including the increase of defenses for our nation’s food supply chain and removing barriers for the next generation of farmers seeking to establish their operations. I will continue my work on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and lay the groundwork for a new VA hospital in Omaha.
“My service to our great nation started in the Air Force, where I served sixteen assignments, five commands and four deployments and will continue in Congress until the end of the 119th Congress. I’d like to find new ways to serve our great country. I have a love for national security, and I’ll always be a proponent for old-fashioned Ronald Reagan Conservative values. It has been an honor to serve the 2nd District of Nebraska and the nation, and I thank our constituents for trusting me to represent them. I am proud of the work we have done and will continue to do until the lights in the office are turned off for the last time. Thank you, and God bless America.”
Highlights from Rep. Bacon’s Congressional Career
Legislative Record
Most bills signed into law in the 118th Congress and bill totals as of Jan. 2025
· Total number of stand-alone bills enacted into law: 2
· Total numbers of bills enacted through NDAA: 33
· Total number of bills enacted through non-NDAA legislation: 3
· Total number of bills introduced that became law: 38
Defense
Rebuilt and Improved Offutt AFB & Camp Ashland
Delivered forceful congressional advocacy for Offutt Air Force Base, one of the district’s leading engines of economic growth and prosperity
Led the fight in the House to secure critical resources to respond to the devasting 2019 floods
Engaged with the Secretary of the Air Force to prevent the permanent loss of the flying mission
Secured more than $1.5 billion for the cleanup, rebuild and critical improvements to Offutt AFB – one of the largest employers in the region – including a new runway
Worked tirelessly to protect, modernize, and replace aircraft fleets at Offutt AFB including the RC-135, WC-135 and E-4B
Confederate Base Names: Original co-sponsor for H.R. 7155, National Commission on Modernizing Military Installation Designations Act, the bi-partisan legislation in the House to re-designate military bases named after Confederate generals
Spearheaded the Restoration of DoD Electronic Warfare Capability
Drove major legislative reforms requiring the Pentagon to develop a new EW strategy, implementation plan and other organizational reforms
Secured more than $1.5 billion to double the size of the USAF’s fleet of EA-37B Compass Call aircraft, the most powerful and sophisticated electronic attack aircraft in the world
Helped guide the establishment of the Joint EMSO Center (JEC) at STRATCOM
Relentlessly Championed Initiatives to Modernize America’s Strategic Nuclear Deterrent
Secured more than $75 million establish the NC3 technical engineering and development hub in Nebraska
Advocacy helped speed the establishment of the new 95th Wing at Offutt focused on NC3 operations
Helped secured more than $500 million to advance development of the future E-4C SAOC aircraft which will be based at Offutt
Championed Improvements to Military Quality of Life
Led the most significant and comprehensive package of legislative reforms to improve the quality of life for military servicemembers and families in US history
Largest single-year increase for junior enlisted pay ever (14.5%)
Billions in critical improvements to military housing and barracks
Major expansion and improvements to childcare for military families
Fought for employment reforms and RIF protections for federally employed military spouses
Conference Committee
Passage of major national defense legislation in 2017, 2018 and 2019 that reversed the dangerous decline in military readiness after years of neglect and funded the modernization of US military capabilities
Named to select House-Senate Armed Service Conference Committee for 3 straight years
Agriculture
Responsible for numerous provisions in the Farm Bill, including language related to the Foot-and-Mouth Disease vaccine and measures to address foreign ownership of farmland and improve SNAP administration
Original sponsor of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which established lynching as a federal hate crime
Education
STOP School Violence Act of 2018 (co-sponsor) – Provides DOJ money for grants to states and local governments to improve security including the placement and use of metal detectors and other deterrents measures at schools and school grounds. Fighting for $125 million in FY’20 to fund these grants
Civil Rights and Holocaust Education
House Republican lead for Anti-Lynching Legislation making lynching a federal crime – Language was amended into H.R. 35 and passed House 2/26/20)
Helped lead effort to push H.R. 943 – Never Again Education Act which was signed by the President 5/29/20
Worked with state leaders on getting Holocaust Education requirements enacted into state statute
Leader on support for non-profit security grants for religious institutions
Veterans Affairs
Finalized additional funding for the VA’s Ambulatory Care Center and pushed House Leadership to go ahead and pass the bill while my friend Brad Ashford was still in office
CHIP IN Bill: Congressman Bacon’s CHIP IN Bill, H.R. 3888, was incorporated into HR 5293: Department of Veteran Affairs Expiring Authorities Act of 2021, extending the program through 2025
HR: 217 in the 119th – seeks to extend the program and expand authorities to include minor projects and non-recurring maintenance projects (passed House)
Led Congressional efforts to support Gold Star families and survivors; championed significant legislation to care for and honor these families
Lifetime installation access for survivors
Major reforms to military veterans transition assistance programs
Mandated regular meetings with DoD leadership and surviving families
Infrastructure and Jobs Act:
Voted for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided $165 million for Nebraska’s 2nd District: Eppley, modernization of natural gas lines and other projects
Eppley Airfield
Over $77.1 million of improvements to Eppley Airfield from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding and other sources
Make it a true international airport
Increase flights and inspection areas
Streamline process of checking in and TSA for consumers
Other Community Funding projects of note:
(2024) Wahoo Airport Runway – $4.3 million
2024) Saunders County Emergency Radio Equipment – $2.6 million
(2024) City of Omaha N. 24th Street Lighting Project – $4.17 Million
(2023) OPPD Grid Resiliency and Modernization – $7.7 million
(2023) City of Omaha North 24th Street Streetscape Improvement Projects Phase II – $4 million
(2023) Blackstone Business Improvement District – $2 million
(2022) North 24th St. Streetscape Improvements – $3 million
(2022) the CHOICE $50 million federal grant to redevelop the Southside Terrace Garden Apartments and the surrounding Indian Hill neighborhood in South Omaha.
(2019) the CHOICE neighborhood grant program, which awarded $25 million for the 75 North project to the City of Omaha and Omaha Housing Authority for 5 years
Other Accomplishments/Recognitions
Founded the bipartisan For Country Caucus
Co-chair of bipartisan Caucus made up of 30 veteran members of Congress, evenly divided between R’s and D’s
Objective of the Caucus is to work in a nonpartisan way towards a more productive government. Members serve with integrity, civility and courage
Restarted the Main Street Caucus
Co-chair of the Congressional Electronic Warfare Caucus, leading voice in Congress to advance and reform US capabilities to defend and dominate the electromagnetic spectrum
In 2023, appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council by former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy
Center for Effective Lawmaking
One of the top ten effective legislators in the 118th congress, 2nd most effective Republican
Most effective Republican in the 117th Congress and fourth overall, despite being in the minority party
Rated #1 Most bi-partisan Republican 117th Congress-Common Ground Committee
Earned a perfect score by the Common Ground Committee of 110 (2024)
Rated #1 in 2022 by Common Ground Committee with a score of 104 out of 110
2021 Democracy Awards-Constituent Services, Congressional Management Foundation
Over the course of 8 and ½ years, the office has processed close to 8,500 casework/requests for assistances including people who were erroneously marked as deceased; devastated by disasters such as floods and tornadoes literally climb out of the rubble and connect them with resources to rebuild; and in distress around the globe trying to return home.
Other cases include problems with Medicare, passports or immigration, helping veterans get their benefits, cutting through red tape to solve Social Security and IRS problems, and others.
2024 Democracy Awards- Workplace Environment, Congressional Management Foundation
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Derrick Van Orden (Wisconsin 3rd)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) released the following statement after President Trump announced the ceasefire agreement brokered between Israel and Iran:
“Once again, President Trump has proven to be the Peacemaker in Chief. This is a fantastic step toward peace in the Middle East, but Iran is not to be taken at their word. We will not “trust but verify” — we will just verify that the Iranian terrorist regime completely halts their nuclear program.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3
Press release
Security and trade at heart of Foreign Secretary visit to Ankara
UK visit to Turkey to bolster defence and security ties
David Lammy will visit Ankara to underscore close trade and security links between UK and Turkey during first bilateral visit to the country.
Foreign Secretary to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.
Visit comes as negotiations begin over new free trade agreement to supercharge UK-Turkey trade and deliver growth through the Plan for Change.
The UK’s deep security and trade links with Turkey are set to be further strengthened as the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, visits Ankara today [Monday 30 June].
In his first bilateral visit to the country, the Foreign Secretary will seek to advance UK-Turkish efforts on shared priorities, including joint work on regional security and the deepening of UK-Turkey trade and defence ties.
While in Ankara, the Foreign Secretary will meet Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss stability in the Middle East and efforts to secure a just, lasting peace in Ukraine following Russia’s illegal invasion. As close NATO allies, the UK and Turkey are working together to push for diplomatic solutions and an end to ongoing violence which threatens regional and global security.
As set out in the recent National Security Strategy, security and defence collaboration with Turkey is imperative to UK security interests. This includes joint work on the prospective export of Eurofighter Typhoons to Turkey, and the government is clear that welcoming Turkey as a Typhoon operator will build on the bonds of friendship developed over many decades between key NATO Allies.
Our cooperation with Turkey also delivers our security objectives of tackling global challenges such as terrorism, serious organised crime and irregular migration.
The strengthening of the UK-Turkey trading relationship will also be a key priority for the Foreign Secretary, with his visit coming as the UK and Turkey begin negotiations over a new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) designed to unlock more opportunities for British and Turkish businesses.
UK-Turkey trade was worth almost £28 billion in 2024 and directly supports tens of thousands of UK jobs – furthering strengthening this relationship is a priority for the Foreign Secretary and will help to stimulate UK economic growth, a key part of the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.
Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said:
In an increasingly volatile world, the UK and Turkey remain the closest of friends and partners as we work together to find peaceful solutions to conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Ours is a relationship which delivers directly for Turkish and British citizens at home – trade between our nations is responsible for thousands of jobs, while our security and defence links help keep our people safe.
During his visit, the Foreign Secretary will see a range of Turkish produced armoured vehicles built using UK-made safety equipment and engines at the Nurol Makina factory.
Later, at Ankara Airport, he will meet with Country President Simon Ward from aerospace company, Airbus, to mark a recent deal between Airbus and Turkish cargo airline MNG Airlines for commercial aircraft containing British-made Rolls Royce engines, worth hundreds of millions to the UK and Turkish economies.
TAMPA BAY, FL, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — KnowBe4, the world-renowned cybersecurity platform that comprehensively addresses human risk management, released today the KnowBe4 Program Maturity Assessment (PMA), a free, strategic tool designed to help IT and cybersecurity leaders measure and improve their organization’s security culture—starting with the people.
As human actions are targeted and exploited by attackers with increased sophistication, organizations need clarity on what is working and how to measure improvement. According to KnowBe4’sSecurity Culture: How-To Guide, security culture is one of the strongest predictors of secure behavior, yet few organizations have the tools to assess and manage it effectively.
Created by security culture expert Perry Carpenter, the PMA offers a structured, practical self-assessment framework focused on Human Risk Management (HRM). Unlike technical assessments or consultant-heavy frameworks, the PMA delivers actionable insights across ten critical dimensions of security culture—without the jargon. It translates abstract cybersecurity concepts into concrete actions that organizations can take immediately, regardless of size or industry.
Key Features of the PMA:
Holistic Evaluation: Examines leadership, employee behavior and business process integration
Identify Gaps: Pinpoints exact areas of weakness, from employee mindset to executive communication
Strategic Roadmap: Offers customized recommendations based on maturity level
Actionable Next Steps: Delivers next steps to strengthen the human firewall
After completing the assessment, users receive a personalized maturity classification on a five-level scale, visual feedback across all dimensions, and prioritized recommendations. Those looking to deepen their efforts can opt into a follow-up consultation to explore how the KnowBe4 HRM+ platform can accelerate maturity and build a lasting security culture.
“Every meaningful program requires clarity: clarity of purpose and clarity of impact. This is especially true with Human Risk Management programs where lack of clarity and impact will leave an organization exposed in ways they may not appreciate.” said Perry Carpenter, chief human risk management strategist at KnowBe4. “Organizations need a way to demonstrate effectiveness of their human risk management program and show leadership its value. This is especially true when programs fail to account for the human element—employees whose everyday decisions significantly impact organizational security. The PMA offers a clear, data-driven approach that helps leaders identify key areas for improvement, allocate resources more effectively, and build a stronger, more resilient security culture. It’s about giving organizations the insight they need to make informed decisions and foster lasting cultural change.”
To learn more or complete the assessment, visit www.KnowBe4.com
About KnowBe4 KnowBe4 empowers workforces to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by over 70,000 organisations worldwide, KnowBe4 helps to strengthen security culture and manage human risk. KnowBe4 offers a comprehensive AI-driven ‘best-of-suite’ platform for Human Risk Management, creating an adaptive defense layer that fortifies user behavior against the latest cybersecurity threats. The HRM+ platform includes modules for awareness & compliance training, cloud email security, real-time coaching, crowdsourced anti-phishing, AI Defense Agents, and more. As the only global security platform of its kind, KnowBe4 utilises personalised and relevant cybersecurity protection content, tools and techniques to mobilise workforces to transform from the largest attack surface to an organisation’s biggest asset.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations are leading to mass casualties: UK statement at the UN Security Council
Statement by Fergus Eckersley, UK Minister Counsellor, at the Security Council meeting on the Middle East Peace Process.
Let me start by underlining that the ceasefire between Israel and Iran offers a much-needed moment of hope for the region.
This hope must extend to Gaza. We need a ceasefire now.
This remains the most credible path to end the terrible suffering of hostages and their families, to end Hamas’ control of Gaza and to allow Palestinians to rebuild.
We also need a ceasefire because the suffering in Gaza is appalling and cannot continue.
Israel’s aid delivery measures are inhumane.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s operations which are supposed to be saving lives, are themselves leading to mass casualties.
Starving people who are desperate to feed their families are told food awaits them.
But over 500 have reportedly been killed trying to access it.
And meanwhile, UNICEF reports that more than 5000 children between the age of six months and five years old were admitted for acute malnutrition in May alone.
It is truly appalling.
We are also deeply concerned by reports that Hamas has targeted Gaza Humanitarian Foundation staff and by reports of widespread looting by criminal gangs, which are undermining security around aid distribution.
This is unacceptable.
The more desperate people become, the more disorder becomes inevitable. The UN can deliver aid at scale without endangering civilians.
Israel must let the UN save lives, open all access routes and allow fuel into Gaza.
In addition, humanitarian workers need to operate in safety.
Just last week, another ICRC staff member was killed, a tragic reminder of the risks they face.
We have repeatedly called for credible Israeli investigations into Israel’s killing of aid workers, including World Central Kitchen, the Palestinian Red Crescent, and the UNOPS strike.
Israel must provide accountability for these terrible actions and ensure they are not repeated, in line with its obligations under international law.
Finally, amidst the bloodshed in Gaza, the situation in the West Bank is also deteriorating.
Israel’s withholding of tax revenues appears a deliberate effort to leave the Palestinian Authority crippled and unable to pay salaries.
Military operations have displaced over 40,000 people.
Just last week, an attack by violent settlers on Kafr Malik led to the killing of three Palestinians.
We condemn settlement expansion and settler violence and we demand that the Israeli government puts an immediate end to these unlawful acts.
We cannot stand by while the foundations of a two-state solution are systematically dismantled.
Madam President, it is time to bring the war in Gaza to an end, and to get the hostages home.
And more than that, we must renew our collective efforts toward a just and lasting two-state solution, in which Israelis and Palestinians can both live side by side in peace and security.
It is beyond time to come together behind a sustainable end to this conflict, which has blighted so many generations on both sides.
The Security Council is expected to adopt a text renewing the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) for a period of six months, until 31 December 2025, and request the Secretary-General to ensure that UNDOF has the required capacity and resources to fulfil its mandate in a safe and secure way.
UNDOF is a peacekeeping mission established in 1974 by the United Nations to supervise the ceasefire and disengagement of forces between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
June 29, 2025
In a speech on the Senate floor, Durbin highlights how Senate Republicans’ bill will slash health care coverage for more than 16 million Americans to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires
WASHINGTON – Ahead of an upcoming vote-a-rama, where Senate Democrats will expose the truth about Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will slash Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, and Medicare coverage for more than 16 million Americans to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivered a speech on the Senate floor where he underscored the dangers of this Republican proposal and called on four of his Senate Republican colleagues to stand up and oppose this harmful legislation.
“We’re here today debating a clumsily assembled package—still a work in progress—that would rip away health care from 16 million American families to give tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and the largest corporations,” Durbin said. “Think about that for a moment. The Republicans have decided that the best avenue to generate revenue that they can then give in tax breaks to wealthy people is to eliminate health insurance coverage for 16 million Americans. That’s going to have a dramatic impact on their lives… The notion of losing your health insurance leaves you as vulnerable as possible in some of the most important moments of your life. And that they would consider this provision—to eliminate health insurance coverage for 16 million families—is unimaginable and cruel.”
Durbin continued, “Let’s not act like there is a unified Republican front on this issue. Even some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t want to be here at this moment jamming this unpopular bill through this chamber under arbitrary deadlines… Behind closed doors, my Republican colleagues continued to be consumed with infighting, bickering over the bill’s substance—and for good reason.”
Durbin outlined how the Senate Republican bill cripples one of the main ways that states fund their Medicaid programs and keep hospitals afloat, especially in rural and low-income areas—the provider tax.
Earlier this week, a Republican Senator circulated a flyer to his fellow caucus members detailing just how much each state will lose in Medicaid provider tax funding under their proposal. It said: Iowa would lose $4.1 billion; Missouri would lose $6.1 billion; Kentucky would lose $12 billion; Louisiana would lose $20 billion; North Carolina would lose $38.9 billion dollars.
“This list of states and what they will lose was passed around by a Republican Senator to his own caucus. They know what they are up against here,” Durbin said. “If Republicans have their way and pass this bill, hospitals will be forced to shrink or eliminate services… doctors and nurses will leave, and—in some cases—the hospital will close.”
Durbin continued, “As it stands today, half of the rural hospitals around the country already operate in the danger zone… If Republicans have their way, we are going to see massive layoffs—fewer nurses, technicians, and doctors—along with decreasing quality of care.”
The American Hospital Association estimated how these cuts to Medicaid could impact not just the jobs at these red-state hospitals, but jobs across the entire state economy. Here’s what they found: Maine could lose nearly 5,000 jobs. Kansas could lose 6,200 jobs. Iowa could lose nearly 11,000 jobs. And Missouri could lose 26,600 jobs.
Durbin then discussed the so-called “rural hospital fund” Senate Republicans concocted, which is designed to mask the harms of their own Medicaid cuts.
“They [Republicans] came up with a rescue fund to solve the political problem… [the] overall cut in Medicaid now is about a trillion dollars. $1 trillion… Cutting Medicaid nationwide a trillion dollars. And the rescue plan for the small hospitals that are in danger, the ones I’ve talked about, a trillion dollars cut, how big is the rescue plan? 25 billion dollars. Do the math. It’s a joke,” Durbin said. “If Republican leaders think this is an adequate amount to alleviate the pains all of our nation’s rural hospitals are going to feel, then that’s like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose. This simply won’t work.”
Durbin concluded by highlighting how congressional Democrats worked in a bipartisan manner to craft the Affordable Care Act, which has allowed more than 40 million Americans to gain health insurance coverage and led to a historic decline in our nation’s uninsured rate.
“I want to conclude by saying this: we passed the Affordable Care Act 15 years ago. Of all the things that I’ve worked on in Congress, I think it had more positive impact to help the families across America than anything. We found a way to make health insurance more affordable for families, 15 years ago. And to do it, we held hearings—[Senate Democrats] [held] 100 hearings on theAffordable Care Act, roundtables, [and] walkthroughs. Two Committees spent a combined 21 days holding markups so that everyone could offer an amendment. Do you know how many amendments were made to the Obamacare program? 400 votes in Committee and on the Floor on amendments. 147 Republican amendments were included, though not a single Republican Senator ended up supporting Obamacare,” Durbin said. “At the end of the day, that legislation, Obamacare, allowed more than 40 million Americans to gain health insurance.”
Durbin continued, “Today, how many hearings have we had on this bill before us, this dramatic, multitrillion dollar bill? None, zero, not a single one. Zero markups for Senators to offer amendments. 400 amendments on Obamacare. None on this one, until it comes to the Floor today. Zero bipartisan input. Our friends on the Republican side have said basically, ‘It’s a big deal. Take it or leave it.’ Should this bill become a law, do you know what it will have done? Thrown 16 million Americans off health insurance and closed many vulnerable, small hospitals all to pay fortax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Maybe some of my Republican [colleagues] are okay with that. I don’t think the American people are.”
Durbin concluded, “I’m hoping that sanity and commonsense prevail. We need four [Republican] Senators to step up and say stop this train. We’ve got to sit down and do our homework. We cannot expose the American families and the American economy to do this in the name of preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest people. Elon Musk seems to be doing okay in life, right? The wealthiest man in the world. Do you know what the tax break is for Elon Musk on the bill that is before us on the floor? $346,000. A lot of money. To him, he won’t even notice it. Giving him a tax break he won’t notice and taking away from health insurance from families who will be devastated, 16 million around the country. It’s an important choice.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available herefor TV Stations.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jonathan Beloff, Postdoctoral Research Associate, King’s College London
The foreign ministers of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) signed a new peace agreement on 27 June 2025 under the auspices of the US.
The agreement aims to foster long-term peace, and increased economic trade and security. The DRC is one of Africa’s largest nations, with over 110 million people. Rwanda has a population of 14 million.
After three decades of war and tensions between the two neighbours since the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the hope is that this agreement will establish the foundations for progress that benefits both nations.
It was the Donald Trump administration’s moment to illustrate the effectiveness of its “transactional” foreign policy, focused on exchanges and short-term benefits for each actor.
Most of the agreement’s details remained undisclosed until its signing. One aspect that’s surfaced was the claim that the DRC abandoned its demand for the removal of Rwandan soldiers from its territory. The Congolese government, research groups and the UN have accused Rwanda of supplying military aid, including soldiers, to the March 23 Movement (M23), which has been at war with the government in Kinshasa since 2021. The Rwandan government denies any active involvement but has some sympathies for the Congolese rebel group.
Under the June 2025 agreement, each side provided concessions and demands that are perhaps easier said than done. Both countries also want to show the Trump administration their willingness to negotiate and make a deal. This is in the hopes of future deals with the US, which Trump has remained vague on.
The DRC has immense mineral wealth, including gold, diamonds, tungsten, coltan, tin and lithium. These latter minerals are used in computer chips, batteries and other technologies.
key players involved in the crisis were left out of negotiations
no provisions are made for enforcement
the opportunities for US companies remain questionable given the lack of security in the mining regions.
The roots of the crisis
After the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, former genocide perpetrators used the DRC’s vast size as cover to plan attacks on Rwanda. They intended to return to Rwanda to finish the genocide. The consequences led to the First Congo War (1996-1997) and the Second Congo War (1998-2003).
It was during the bloody second war that the DRC was carved up by multiple rebel groups aligned with various nations and political actors. The UN accuses Rwanda and Uganda of carrying out a massive illegal mineral trade. Both nations deny this.
The consequences of the conflict are still felt over 20 years later. Despite multiple peace agreements, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes, an estimated 120 rebel groups remain active in the Congo.
Additionally, the FDLR and other extremist actors such as Wazalendo target the Banyarwanda. This ethnic group, residing primarily in eastern DRC, is historically related to Rwanda. It has been the target of attacks, which have forced tens of thousands of people to flee into Rwanda.
These attacks led to the resurrection of the M23. Despite its failures in 2013, the M23 scored major advances in late 2021 in response to attacks on the Banyarwanda. The rebel group led a successful military campaign that occupied large swathes of territory in eastern DRC.
Their success is largely attributed to the Rwandan Defence Forces, despite Kigali denying this claim.
Concessions from each nation
The latest peace agreement addresses the security, political and economic interests of both nations.
The specifics are still unavailable. However, several assumptions based on the framework and leaked reports can be made.
The first is that both nations must respect each other’s territorial sovereignty and stop aiding rebel forces. This will include joint security coordination, and working with the existing UN peacekeeping mission. Additionally, Congolese refugees who fled eastern DRC – estimated to be over 80,000 – will be allowed to return. Finally, the two nations will establish mechanisms to foster greater economic integration.
The DRC has also signalled its willingness to attract American investors. DRC’s vast mineral wealth remains largely underdeveloped. American investment could develop mining that’s safer and extracts larger amounts of minerals than current methods. Kinshasa has also agreed to combat corruption and simplify the tax system.
While most of these incentives would be aimed at mineral extraction companies, they also include private security firms. The Congolese military’s inability to defeat the M23 highlights a problematic security environment that some in the DRC believe can be addressed through foreign intervention. However, these security guarantees are still relatively unknown and face complications that could affect the success of any agreement.
The weaknesses
There are a number of reasons this latest agreement is unlikely to lead to peace.
First, the M23 did not participate in the negotiations. Given that they are the primary military actor in eastern DRC, their commitment to a peace process cannot be guaranteed.
Second, other rebel forces in different parts of the country will feel left out too. They could see this agreement as an opportunity to press for greater concessions from the Congolese government.
Third, there are few mechanisms to enforce the agreement. Since the Second Congo War, there have been multiple treaties, agreements and disarmament programmes with little success. The Pretoria Accord between Rwanda and the DRC in 2002 did not lead to long-term peace. The M23’s name is a nod to their anger over a failed 2009 agreement. In 2024, Rwanda and Congo nearly reached an agreement under Angola’s mediation, but Angola stepped down. The process was then taken over by Qatar and later the US.
Lastly, American investors may be deterred by the security, regulatory and corruption issues that plague the DRC. Even if the Congolese government promises to address these issues, it lacks the necessary capabilities to fulfil its commitment.
– DRC and Rwanda sign a US-brokered peace deal: what are the chances of its success? – https://theconversation.com/drc-and-rwanda-sign-a-us-brokered-peace-deal-what-are-the-chances-of-its-success-260066
The Eastern Cape Provincial Government says a total of 102 bodies have been recovered to date across various districts since the search and rescue mission began following the disastrous floods earlier this month.
According to the provincial government, the bodies were recovered across various districts.
The figure indicates an increase of one person from the previous update provided on 26 June.
O.R. Tambo remains the hardest hit district, with 78 fatalities; Amathole 10, Alfred Nzo five, Joe Gqabi two, Sarah Baartman two, and Chris Hani five.
From the 102 bodies recovered, which include 63 adults and 63 children, 96 bodies have been identified and handed over to families, while six remain unidentified.
Due to the passage of time, DNA tests may be required to positively identify bodies found decomposed, thus implying that it may take longer to identify the deceased.
“The search and recovery teams are continuing with the search, working tirelessly to locate and recover any possible remaining bodies.
“The South African Police Service (SAPS) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) helicopters have been deployed to support the ongoing search and recovery efforts and this coordinated aerial support aims to intensify the search for possibly more victims, including two children who are still missing,” the provincial government said.
The provincial government is continuing to provide shelter, meals and all necessities to the displaced families in community care centres and accommodation establishments in and around Mthatha in O.R. Tambo District Municipality and Butterworth in Amathole District Municipality.
The Department of Health continues to provide essential medical services on-site at shelters and affected communities.
The Department of Social Development, supported by private sector partners, is delivering psychosocial support directly to grieving families and schools impacted by the floods.
Meanwhile, the Department of Home Affairs has dispatched mobile units to facilitate the replacement of vital documents, such as IDs and birth certificates, ensuring that affected individuals can access services without leaving their temporary homes.
To date, 478 ID replacement applications have been submitted, with three mobile units deployed in each of the two districts.
“Thus far, 56 victims of the floods have been buried across the province and government continues to offer sympathies to all the families of the bereaved, as well as critical support to ensure the burial of the deceased in a dignified manner,” the provincial government said.
The Eastern Cape has officially been declared a national disaster zone following widespread destruction caused by recent severe weather events.
In OR Tambo, water has partially been restored in various areas. Water tankers from both municipalities, the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the Gift of the Givers, continue with the provision of water in the affected communities.– SAnews.gov.za
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – “We want to ask everybody — the government, the leaders, and the political spheres — to look at the fact that we are taking care of the dignity of the young people,”said Archbishop Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo of Nairobi yesterday, Sunday, June 29, in a statement regarding the accusations made by the Minister of the Interior Kipchumba Murkomen against Catholic and non-Catholic religious leaders, whom the minister accuses of siding with the “anarchists” and failing to condemn the violence during the “Generation Z” protests on June 25 in memory of the victims of last year’s demonstrations against the Finance Bill (see Fides, 21, 25 and 26 June 2024).At least 16 people were killed in clashes with police during this year’s protests (see Fides, 26/6/2025). In his statement, the Archbishop of Nairobi emphasized that the Church cares about the lives of all people: “Life is never to be sacrificed for anything else, but to be given the future, for the prosperity of the nation and for the prosperity of human beings.”Archbishop Anyolo therefore reiterated his call to listen to young people: “we have to agree — all of us together — the leaders in government, the church, and the parents, all of us who take care of the young people, we need to listen to them and understand them and help them grow and mature”.Members of the Anglican Church also responded to the Minister of the Interior. “Give top priority to the economic well-being of the people. The cost of living is unbearable for many families. Young people are unemployed. Parents cannot pay school fees. Businesses are struggling. These are not just statistics; they are stories of real suffering. Government must listen, act, and respond quickly,” emphasized the Anglican Bishop of Nyahururu, Samson Gachathi.”I know that there will be no bishop or church member, neither Catholic nor Anglican, who will come out to defend the police. Nobody will speak about how the police were injured,”the Minister of the Interior declared, reiterating that nine police stations were attacked, five of which were set on fire. Dozens of police, government, and civilian vehicles were also damaged. The Ministry of Agriculture also claimed that more than 7,354 bags of fertilizer worth approximately $230,000 were stolen from a national warehouse in Meru County, about 200 kilometers east of Nairobi, taking advantage of the chaos of the demonstrations that turned violent. The theft was described by Kenyan authorities as a “direct attack on Kenya’s food security.” (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 30/6/2025)
Share:
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – “We want to ask everybody — the government, the leaders, and the political spheres — to look at the fact that we are taking care of the dignity of the young people,”said Archbishop Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo of Nairobi yesterday, Sunday, June 29, in a statement regarding the accusations made by the Minister of the Interior Kipchumba Murkomen against Catholic and non-Catholic religious leaders, whom the minister accuses of siding with the “anarchists” and failing to condemn the violence during the “Generation Z” protests on June 25 in memory of the victims of last year’s demonstrations against the Finance Bill (see Fides, 21, 25 and 26 June 2024).At least 16 people were killed in clashes with police during this year’s protests (see Fides, 26/6/2025). In his statement, the Archbishop of Nairobi emphasized that the Church cares about the lives of all people: “Life is never to be sacrificed for anything else, but to be given the future, for the prosperity of the nation and for the prosperity of human beings.”Archbishop Anyolo therefore reiterated his call to listen to young people: “we have to agree — all of us together — the leaders in government, the church, and the parents, all of us who take care of the young people, we need to listen to them and understand them and help them grow and mature”.Members of the Anglican Church also responded to the Minister of the Interior. “Give top priority to the economic well-being of the people. The cost of living is unbearable for many families. Young people are unemployed. Parents cannot pay school fees. Businesses are struggling. These are not just statistics; they are stories of real suffering. Government must listen, act, and respond quickly,” emphasized the Anglican Bishop of Nyahururu, Samson Gachathi.”I know that there will be no bishop or church member, neither Catholic nor Anglican, who will come out to defend the police. Nobody will speak about how the police were injured,”the Minister of the Interior declared, reiterating that nine police stations were attacked, five of which were set on fire. Dozens of police, government, and civilian vehicles were also damaged. The Ministry of Agriculture also claimed that more than 7,354 bags of fertilizer worth approximately $230,000 were stolen from a national warehouse in Meru County, about 200 kilometers east of Nairobi, taking advantage of the chaos of the demonstrations that turned violent. The theft was described by Kenyan authorities as a “direct attack on Kenya’s food security.” (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 30/6/2025)
Share:
SAN DIEGO and TORONTO, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ESET, a global leader in cybersecurity, is proud to announce the winners of its tenth annual Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants across the US and Canada, the ten scholarship recipients impressed the review panel with their academic achievements, passion for cybersecurity, and commitment to making a positive impact in STEM fields.
This year marks a milestone in the program’s evolution with the continued expansion of the Cybersecurity Trailblazer Award Tier, a designation reserved for the most exceptional applicants who have demonstrated outstanding technical proficiency, leadership, and a deep, sustained focus on cybersecurity. The recipients of this year’s Cybersecurity Trailblazer Awards are U.S.’ Alexis Eskenazi, Crystal Yang, and Ismat Jarin, each receiving a $10,000 scholarship in recognition of their exemplary work. The Canadian Trailblazer recipients are Azka Siddiqui and Constance Prevot, each receiving a $5,000 scholarship for their remarkable contributions and potential to drive change within the field.
This year, Canada also saw the launch of the Future Leader Award, a new scholarship tier recognizing emerging talent with strong potential in the field of cybersecurity. Five students were selected to receive $1,000 scholarships: Yushika Jhundoo, Meadow Agbor, Tina Ismail, Vrinda Joshi, and Yashvi Shah. Together, these individuals have shown exceptional promise as future leaders in cybersecurity. Their ambitions and achievements reflect the values at the heart of the Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship: innovation, inclusion, and impact.
“This scholarship has always been deeply personal to us at ESET,” said Celeste Blodgett, Vice President of Human Resources at ESET North America. “As we celebrate its tenth year, I’m incredibly proud to recognize this group of brilliant and driven women. With so many outstanding applicants this year, selecting the final recipients was no easy task. What set these winners apart was not only their technical excellence, but also their drive to lead and create meaningful change. They represent the future of cybersecurity, and we’re honored to support them on their journey.”
ESET North America awarded $45,000 in scholarships this year to celebrate the program’s tenth anniversary, reaffirming its commitment to building a more inclusive and secure digital future.
Learn more about the Trailblazer Award recipients:
Alexis Eskenazi, Berkeley, California, United States: Alexis Eskenazi’s journey into cybersecurity began with competitive robotics, where building championship-level robots sparked her interest in how connected systems function. That passion led her to launch Eskenazi Ed-Tech & AI Consulting, bringing hands-on STEM education to over 400 students globally. From mentoring the world’s first all-female Indigenous robotics team in New Zealand to researching vulnerabilities in U.S. healthcare and semiconductor infrastructure, Alexis blends technical insight with education and policy to advance a more secure, inclusive digital world.
“Through work in technology, policy, and education, I’ve learned how to navigate complexity, and through community engagement, how to make that knowledge actionable,” said Alexis. “The ESET Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship represents critical support for my continued integration of technical, educational, and policy-driven cybersecurity work.”
Crystal Yang, Katy, Texas, United States: Crystal Yang’s interest in cybersecurity was sparked by watching scam-baiting videos, which seem humorous on the surface, but reveal just how vulnerable people can be to social engineering. Determined to fight back, she built TimeWaster3000, an AI-powered bot that wastes scammers’ time using natural language processing and speech recognition. As the founder of Audemy.org, Crystal has also created AI-driven educational games used by more than 5,000 blind and visually impaired students worldwide and implemented in 19 schools. Today, she is focused on cybersecurity projects aimed at scam awareness and social engineering defense for businesses.
“Cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting data,” said Crystal. “It’s about protecting people. Winning this scholarship helps me build tech that defends not just with firewalls, but with empathy, creativity, and humor.”
Ismat Jarin, Irvine, California, United States: Ismat Jarin’s path to cybersecurity began in her home country, where early experiences with societal biases and privacy violations fueled her resolve to protect underrepresented communities through technology. She became the first woman from her town to rank in the top 2% nationally for admission to her country’s top engineering university, later earning a Master’s in Systems and Security from UM Dearborn and now pursuing a Ph.D. at UC Irvine. Her research explores privacy risks in AI/LLMs and emerging technologies and has been published at leading conferences like PETS, NeurIPS(WiML) and CODASPY. Beyond research, Ismat is a passionate mentor and advocate, helping first-generation and underrepresented students find belonging and success in cybersecurity.
“For women from restrictive backgrounds like mine, it’s not just about breaking barriers,” said Ismat. “It’s about paving new paths so others can thrive. Ultimately, my contributions will help create a more inclusive and innovative cybersecurity landscape, where every individual can thrive.”
Azka Siddiqui, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada: Azka Siddiqui’s passion for computer science began in fourth grade when she programmed Dash robots during a classroom activity, sparking her fascination with the intersection of hardware and software. Her interest in cybersecurity solidified during a 2024 internship at Nokia, where she helped refine an advanced filter tool that monitored over 10,000 alarms. In addition to furthering her technical skills, Azka serves as Vice Chair of a national nonprofit empowering girls in STEM, has led a coding club spanning three Canadian provinces, and conducted research on smart-grid anomaly detection and eye-tracking technologies in university labs. This fall, Azka will begin her Honours Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where she plans to focus on cybersecurity and AI with an emphasis on making digital spaces safer for women.
“As a young woman of color in tech, I’ve often felt like I had to work twice as hard just to be seen. Winning the ESET Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship reminds me that I do belong — not just in this field, but at the forefront of it. With ESET’s support, I’m committed to not only advancing my own journey in building ethical and secure technologies but also to challenging the barriers that keep others, especially women, from stepping into these spaces.”
Constance Prevot, Mount Royal, Quebec, Canada: Constance Prevot’s journey into cybersecurity began at Concordia University, where a Capture-The-Flag competition sparked a passion that would shape her academic and professional path. She has since represented Canada at the 2024 International Cybersecurity Competition in Chile, served as a SOC Analyst at OnePoint for Desjardins, conducted adversary-focused research at GoSecure, and co-presented her findings at conferences including HOPE and BSides. As President of Concordia University’s Software Engineering and Computer Science Society, she has led initiatives to make cybersecurity education more accessible, including launching “compétitionsquebec,” a platform cataloging local competitions and training resources.
“I believe in creating environments where individuals from all backgrounds can thrive and contribute their unique perspectives,” said Constance. “By continuing to bridge research, practice, education, and community engagement, I hope to help build a more secure and inclusive cybersecurity ecosystem.”
Future Leader Awards: This inaugural award proudly recognizes five exceptional students who exemplify the next generation of innovators and changemakers. With a $1,000 award, these students are being honored not only for their academic excellence but also for their passion and potential to shape the future of technology. This year’s awardees are:
Yushika Jhundoo (Ottawa, ON) – Computer Science, University of Ottawa: Tech community builder and cybersecurity enthusiast dedicated to inclusive outreach and digital empowerment.
Meadow Agbor (Calgary, AB) – Computer Information Systems, Mount Royal University (MRU): Cybersecurity intern and youth mentor with a passion for digital safety and inclusive community engagement.
Tina Ismail (Mississauga, ON) – Electrical Engineering, McMaster University: Cybersecurity enthusiast and IEEE leader blending technical innovation, educational research, and creative expression.
Vrinda Joshi (Markham, ON) – Systems Design Engineering (Co-op), University of Waterloo: STEM equity advocate and nonprofit co-founder empowering youth through coding, robotics, and hands-on innovation.
Yashvi Shah (Caledon, ON) – Computer Engineering (Co-op), University of Toronto: Innovative researcher and tech educator with experience in AI, 3D simulation, and youth empowerment through coding and wellness initiatives.
Blodgett adds, “ESET extends heartfelt congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Their drive, curiosity, and commitment to cybersecurity exemplify the very best of what the next generation has to offer. As ESET looks ahead to the future, the company remains dedicated to supporting women in cybersecurity and building a more inclusive and secure digital world for all.”
Learn more about the Women in Cybersecurity Scholarship here.
About ESET
ESET® provides cutting-edge digital security to prevent attacks before they happen. By combining the power of AI and human expertise, ESET stays ahead of emerging global cyberthreats, both known and unknown— securing businesses, critical infrastructure, and individuals. Whether it’s endpoint, cloud, or mobile protection, our AI-native, cloud-first solutions and services remain highly effective and easy to use. ESET technology includes robust detection and response, ultra-secure encryption, and multifactor authentication. With 24/7 real-time defense and strong local support, we keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. The ever-evolving digital landscape demands a progressive approach to security: ESET is committed to world-class research and powerful threat intelligence, backed by R&D centers and a strong global partner network. For more information, visit www.eset.com or follow our social media, podcasts and blogs.
BOSTON, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IP Fabric, the Automated Infrastructure Assurance Platform, today announced new resources to operationalize compliance with leading security frameworks, including NIST and ISO 27001, and regulatory standards, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, DORA and NIS2. These complement IP Fabric’s core automated assurance capabilities, which provide continuous validation of business intent so that organizations can implement automation, AIOps and other strategic projects with confidence.
With ransomware attacks surging 84% over the past year, and global regulatory frameworks growing more complex by the day, today’s enterprises face a stark reality: stay continuously compliant or risk operational disruption, multi-million-dollar fines and the loss of board and stakeholder trust.
With today’s patchwork of infrastructure tools, up to 20% of the infrastructure is left unmonitored and unmanaged at any given time — resulting in gaps in security, outages and incomplete evidence of compliance. IP Fabric helps enterprises avoid these risks by expanding visibility to all infrastructure devices, connections and configurations, and embedding continuous validation into strategic initiatives like infrastructure automation and AIOps. Teams can also automatically generate end-to-end snapshots as on-demand evidence to prove that all security and compliance policies are aligned with business intent, especially as organizations scale.
“Regular network security audits are essential in dynamic, hybrid environments, but nearly half of organizations fail to complete them,” said Pavel Bykov, co-founder and CEO of IP Fabric. “Security and regulatory compliance requires continuous governance from day one. IP Fabric helps teams meet compliance requirements while keeping infrastructure resilient, available and secure as they innovate.”
Key Features of IP Fabric Security & Regulatory Controls:
NIST 2.0: IP Fabric automatically detects drift in firewall, segmentation and other security policies before submitting ITSM ticketing, and generates timestamped compliance reports in a clean, user-friendly interface.
ISO 27001: IP Fabric builds a full inventory of devices, connections and configurations across environments, flags outdated hardware and simulates end-to-end pathways to ensure that Zero Trust security controls are behaving as intended.
HIPAA: IP Fabric surfaces all infrastructure devices and runs end-to-end snapshots to analyze ePHI in transmission and prove that encrypted paths (e.g. IPSec tunnels) are protected.
PCI-DSS: IP Fabric inventories all Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) system components, surfaces misconfigurations and firewall gaps and automates infrastructure snapshots to track and prove compliance.
DORA: IP Fabric maps Information and Communication Technology (ICT) assets and dependencies, flags outdated tech, cross-references CVEs and creates timestamped snapshots to support audit and recovery efforts.
NIS 2: IP Fabric discovers all devices and configurations across hybrid environments, identifies End-of-Life (EoL) devices and runs custom and built-in intent checks to ensure aherence with Zero Trust architecture.
To learn how IP Fabric helps organizations meet specific security frameworks and regulatory standards, visit the interactive microsite and download the e-Book.
About IP Fabric IP Fabric is the industry’s leading automated infrastructure assurance platform, offering a continuously validated view of cloud, network and security infrastructure to improve stability, security and spend. Within minutes, the platform creates a unified view of devices, state, configurations and interdependencies, normalizing multi-vendor data and revealing operational truth through automated intent checks. By uncovering risks and providing actionable insights, IP Fabric empowers enterprises to accelerate IT and business transformation while reducing costs. Trusted by industry leaders like Red Hat, Major League Baseball and Air France, IP Fabric delivers the foundation for a secure and modern infrastructure.
BOSTON, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IP Fabric, the Automated Infrastructure Assurance Platform, today announced new resources to operationalize compliance with leading security frameworks, including NIST and ISO 27001, and regulatory standards, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, DORA and NIS2. These complement IP Fabric’s core automated assurance capabilities, which provide continuous validation of business intent so that organizations can implement automation, AIOps and other strategic projects with confidence.
With ransomware attacks surging 84% over the past year, and global regulatory frameworks growing more complex by the day, today’s enterprises face a stark reality: stay continuously compliant or risk operational disruption, multi-million-dollar fines and the loss of board and stakeholder trust.
With today’s patchwork of infrastructure tools, up to 20% of the infrastructure is left unmonitored and unmanaged at any given time — resulting in gaps in security, outages and incomplete evidence of compliance. IP Fabric helps enterprises avoid these risks by expanding visibility to all infrastructure devices, connections and configurations, and embedding continuous validation into strategic initiatives like infrastructure automation and AIOps. Teams can also automatically generate end-to-end snapshots as on-demand evidence to prove that all security and compliance policies are aligned with business intent, especially as organizations scale.
“Regular network security audits are essential in dynamic, hybrid environments, but nearly half of organizations fail to complete them,” said Pavel Bykov, co-founder and CEO of IP Fabric. “Security and regulatory compliance requires continuous governance from day one. IP Fabric helps teams meet compliance requirements while keeping infrastructure resilient, available and secure as they innovate.”
Key Features of IP Fabric Security & Regulatory Controls:
NIST 2.0: IP Fabric automatically detects drift in firewall, segmentation and other security policies before submitting ITSM ticketing, and generates timestamped compliance reports in a clean, user-friendly interface.
ISO 27001: IP Fabric builds a full inventory of devices, connections and configurations across environments, flags outdated hardware and simulates end-to-end pathways to ensure that Zero Trust security controls are behaving as intended.
HIPAA: IP Fabric surfaces all infrastructure devices and runs end-to-end snapshots to analyze ePHI in transmission and prove that encrypted paths (e.g. IPSec tunnels) are protected.
PCI-DSS: IP Fabric inventories all Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) system components, surfaces misconfigurations and firewall gaps and automates infrastructure snapshots to track and prove compliance.
DORA: IP Fabric maps Information and Communication Technology (ICT) assets and dependencies, flags outdated tech, cross-references CVEs and creates timestamped snapshots to support audit and recovery efforts.
NIS 2: IP Fabric discovers all devices and configurations across hybrid environments, identifies End-of-Life (EoL) devices and runs custom and built-in intent checks to ensure aherence with Zero Trust architecture.
To learn how IP Fabric helps organizations meet specific security frameworks and regulatory standards, visit the interactive microsite and download the e-Book.
About IP Fabric IP Fabric is the industry’s leading automated infrastructure assurance platform, offering a continuously validated view of cloud, network and security infrastructure to improve stability, security and spend. Within minutes, the platform creates a unified view of devices, state, configurations and interdependencies, normalizing multi-vendor data and revealing operational truth through automated intent checks. By uncovering risks and providing actionable insights, IP Fabric empowers enterprises to accelerate IT and business transformation while reducing costs. Trusted by industry leaders like Red Hat, Major League Baseball and Air France, IP Fabric delivers the foundation for a secure and modern infrastructure.
Enhances Electrification Capabilities with Complementary Technologies for In-Plant Material Handling and Off-Highway Market Applications
Adds Suite of Control Solutions to Pair with Parker’s Electric Motor and Motion Control Portfolio for Electric and Hybrid Solutions
CLEVELAND, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Parker Hannifin Corporation (NYSE:PH), the global leader in motion and control technologies, today announced that it has agreed to acquire Curtis Instruments, Inc. from Rehlko, for approximately $1 billion in cash. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of applicable regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2025.
Curtis designs and manufactures motor speed controllers, instrumentation, power conversion and input devices that complement Parker’s strength in electric vehicle motors, hydraulic and electrification technologies. Curtis expects calendar year 2025 sales of approximately $320 million.
“This transaction is aligned with the long-term electrification secular trend and meets our disciplined financial criteria for acquisitions designed to create shareholder value,” said Jenny Parmentier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Curtis adds complementary technologies to our existing industrial electrification platform, better positioning us to serve our customers as they continue the adoption of more electric and hybrid solutions. We anticipate a smooth closing and look forward to welcoming the Curtis team. Using our proven business system, The Win Strategy™, we believe we can deliver strong operational synergies, creating shareholder value.”
Rehlko and its financial sponsor Platinum Equity praised the deal and the synergy between Parker and Curtis.
“Rehlko is proud of the legacy and performance of Curtis as a high-performing, innovation-driven business,” said Brian Melka, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rehlko. “Parker is an exceptional company and we are confident Curtis will thrive from Parker’s increased scale, focus, and investment.”
“We have great respect for Curtis, its leadership team and its innovative products, and we are confident that Parker Hannifin is the right home for the business going forward,” said Platinum Equity Co-President Jacob Kotzubei and Managing Director Matthew Louie in a joint statement.
Advisors Guggenheim Securities, LLC is serving as financial advisor, Jones Day is serving as principal deal counsel, and Eversheds Sutherland is serving as European legal counsel to Parker. BofA Securities, Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are serving as financial advisors and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP is serving as legal counsel to Rehlko.
About Parker Hannifin
Parker Hannifin is a Fortune 250 global leader in motion and control technologies. For more than a century the company has been enabling engineering breakthroughs that lead to a better tomorrow. Parker has increased its annual dividend per share paid to shareholders for 69 consecutive fiscal years, among the top five longest-running dividend-increase records in the S&P 500 index. Learn more at www.parker.com or @parkerhannifin.
Forward-Looking Statements
Forward-looking statements contained in this and other written and oral reports are made based on known events and circumstances at the time of release, and as such, are subject in the future to unforeseen uncertainties and risks. Often but not always, these statements may be identified from the use of forward looking terminology such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “expects,” “targets,” “is likely,” “will,” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions, and may also include statements regarding future performance, orders, earnings projections, events or developments. Parker cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. It is possible that the future performance may differ materially from expectations, including those based on past performance.
Among other factors that may affect future performance are: changes in business relationships with and orders by or from major customers, suppliers or distributors, including delays or cancellations in shipments; disputes regarding contract terms, changes in contract costs and revenue estimates for new development programs; changes in product mix; ability to identify acceptable strategic acquisition targets; uncertainties surrounding timing, successful completion or integration of acquisitions and similar transactions, including the acquisition of Curtis Instruments, Inc.; ability to successfully divest businesses planned for divestiture and realize the anticipated benefits of such divestitures; the determination and ability to successfully undertake business realignment activities and the expected costs, including cost savings, thereof; ability to implement successfully business and operating initiatives, including the timing, price and execution of share repurchases and other capital initiatives; availability, cost increases of or other limitations on our access to raw materials, component products and/or commodities if associated costs cannot be recovered in product pricing; ability to manage costs related to insurance and employee retirement and health care benefits; legal and regulatory developments and other government actions, including related to environmental protection, and associated compliance costs; supply chain and labor disruptions, including as a result of tariffs and labor shortages; threats associated with international conflicts and cybersecurity risks and risks associated with protecting our intellectual property; uncertainties surrounding the ultimate resolution of outstanding legal proceedings, including the outcome of any appeals; effects on market conditions, including sales and pricing, resulting from global reactions to U.S. trade policies; manufacturing activity, air travel trends, currency exchange rates, difficulties entering new markets and economic conditions such as inflation, deflation, interest rates and credit availability; inability to obtain, or meet conditions imposed for, required governmental and regulatory approvals; changes in the tax laws in the United States and foreign jurisdictions and judicial or regulatory interpretations thereof; and large scale disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, industrial accidents and pandemics. Readers should also consider forward looking statements in light of risk factors discussed in Parker’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 and other periodic filings made with the SEC.
Contact:
Media –
Aidan Gormley – Director, Global Communications and Branding
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Norma Torres (35th District of California)
June 27, 2025
Washington, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Norma J. Torres (CA-35) condemned the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations bill during a full committee markup, calling it “dangerous, cruel, and a threat to public safety, constitutional rights, and national security.” Torres blasted House Republicans for gutting FEMA, slashing cybersecurity funding, and enabling violent immigration enforcement tactics that have led to the wrongful detention and deportation of immigrants, veterans, and even U.S. citizens.
This past January, the Los Angeles area faced devastating wildfires. Thousands of families lost their homes, hundreds of business owners lost their businesses, and there has been serious damage to roads, schools, and more.And since that time, more major disaster declarations have piled up. Since January, there have been 25 major disaster declarations by FEMA. Natural disasters don’t look at state boundaries or political representatives- and when it comes to helping Americans in desperate need, we shouldn’t either.
“This bill isn’t about safety — it’s about playing politics with people’s lives,” said Torres. “It dismantles disaster response, leaves our critical infrastructure vulnerable to cyberattacks, and bankrolls the unconstitutional targeting of communities like mine. From the wildfires in California to ICE raids on our streets, this bill cuts where we can least afford it and prioritizes cruelty over security.”
Torres also warned that the bill cripples the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) just as the nation faces escalating threats from Iran and other adversaries. She announced the introduction of the Protecting America’s Cybersecurity Act to restore vital funding and staffing at CISA.
Her due process for veterans amendment, would ensure that noncitizen veterans are not deported without access to legal representation. Non-citizen veterans can enlist in the military if they are legally residing in the United States. That means they chose to defend a country that isn’t their birthplace. They weren’t born here, but they believed in America enough to fight for it. That is a powerful act of loyalty and they should be given due process.
To address key gaps in the bill, Torres introduced three amendments:
Amendment #1: Provides $16.8 billion in emergency FEMA funding to help communities recover from major disasters in 2025, including wildfires, floods, and tornadoes across at least 13 states.
Amendment #2: Blocks any funding from being used to dismantle or undermine the Flores Settlement Agreement, which protects children in immigration custody with basic standards like safe conditions and limits on detention time.
Amendment #3: Prohibits the deportation of non-citizen U.S. military veterans without legal counsel and a fair hearing, and requires DHS to report on veteran deportation cases. Torres highlighted the recent deportation of Purple Heart Army veteran Sae Joon Park as a devastating example of injustice.
Torres urged her colleagues to reject the bill and support amendments that restore public safety, protect children and veterans, and uphold the Constitution.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A federal grand jury returned an indictment June 24 against Iranian national, Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, 40, of Tempe, Arizona for alien in possession of a firearm, and against his wife, Linet Vartanniavartanians, 37, a U.S. citizen from Tempe, Arizona, for threatening to assault a federal officer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI are conducting the investigation in this case.
Documents filed in the case allege that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers went to Eidivand and Vartanniavartanians’ Tempe residence on Saturday, June 21, to administratively arrest Eidivand for failing to comply with a 2013 removal order. Eidivand had challenged the removal order on several occasions, but the Board of Immigration Appeals denied those motions repeatedly. Despite the court order to return to his home country, Eidivand remained in the U.S. over a decade.
When ICE ERO officers arrived at the couple’s residence, they announced themselves and were answered by Vartanniavartanians, who refused to open the door and told the officers to return with a warrant. Shortly thereafter, Tempe Police officers arrived on the scene and told ICE ERO that Vartanniavartanians had called the police and threatened to shoot the federal officers. She claimed that she had a loaded gun and that she would shoot anyone who tried to come inside the house. She also threatened to go outside and shoot ICE officers in the head. When the police dispatcher spoke with Eidivand, he confirmed that there were guns in the home.
The following day, June 22, special agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations and officers from ICE ERO executed a federal search warrant on the residence. Inside the home, agents found a loaded firearm on the kitchen counter and a second loaded firearm on a nightstand. Both Vartanniavartanians and Eidivand were arrested at the scene and taken into custody without further incident.
A conviction for alien in possession of a firearm carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both. A conviction for threatening to assault a federal officer carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, or both.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.
An indictment is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Addison Owen, District of Arizona, Phoenix, is handling the prosecution.
By the end of the year, Erin Leigh Boughamer will have attended more the 50 weddings – 31 of them in 2025 and all of them since 2022.
It’s not that a tribe of friends are spontaneously making trips down the aisle, or even children of friends or friends of her children. It’s not that she’s stuck in a loop of invite after invite, caught in some practical joke or on a list of reception seat fillers.
Boughamer ’94 (SFA) is an event painter, a wedding artist who now makes a living by focusing on flowers and gowns, first dances and first looks. The artwork she produces for each couple is the gift of a lifetime, keepsakes meant to endure until death do they part.
At least one time, though, she was the gift, when a groom-to-be arranged for her to live-paint their first private dance as a token of affection for his bride.
Erin Leigh Boughamer ’94 (SFA) is a live event painter who has 31 weddings booked this year. (Contributed art)
“She started crying,” Boughamer says of the reveal. “The bride was walking through the reception room before the guests came in to look around at everything she had chosen for their decorations. She walked up to me thinking I was with the venue, when he looked at her and said, ‘This is my gift to you.’ Witnessing that beautiful little moment between the two of them was precious, and one I won’t soon forget.”
When Boughamer left UConn three decades ago with a degree in graphic design from the School of Fine Arts, event painting hadn’t yet become part of bridal vocabulary. People talked about videographers and photographers to document the day, not painters to encapsulate a single moment.
To ask her back then if she foresaw herself with a wardrobe of dressy pantsuits, each with at least a little dollop of acrylic paint on them, she’d have said no way. Then again, she might have said no way to some of the other professions she’s held along the way.
House stager. Interior designer. Children’s clothing designer. Private art teacher. Crafter on the green. Marketer. Public school teacher. Business owner. Entrepreneur. Gallery artist.
There might even be more, as she dabbled in small creative outlets through the years while staying home to raise her children. The last few, however, have been the most influential on her work today, all coming over the last 12 years as she set out on an unintentional quest to find her spark.
Reigniting That Flame
“Every time I go in the studio, whether I’m cleaning and organizing it, drawing and painting, or simply making sketches that aren’t a beautiful end product, just doing something, anything, I come out happy every single time,” Boughamer says. “I think we’re all like that. We all need to have some form of expression. We’ve gotten to the point where life is all work, family, house chores, go to bed, and do it again. We don’t allow ourselves the time or the space to express ourselves or be creative. I think even the simplest act of creating can keep us sane.”
Around 2013, Boughamer moved into the workforce full time when her two kids were older and took a job in network marketing selling health and wellness products, a job that was far from the world of art but nonetheless important to her future.
It’s where she learned branding, public speaking, and sales pitching. She learned how to approach people and how to talk to them. She learned how to sell someone something by sharing her story and building relationships. These were business skills that hadn’t been offered before, and it was a job that inadvertently gave her a business education.
So, when she came across the then-burgeoning paint-and-sip industry – those popular paint nights that usually involve a group of people noshing on hors d’oeurves and sipping beverages while being guided through a painting project – she’d gained the business know-how to move ahead with her own.
Paint Sip Fun became a near overnight success, Boughamer says, with she and 30 part-timers teaching sometimes two to three classes a day at restaurants, banquet halls, private residences, bars, and other places all around Connecticut and Massachusetts.
One class drew 198 students and required 10 assistants – and was the best time ever, she says.
What really makes my heart sing is that person coming in, saying, ‘I can’t even draw a straight line,’ and walking out two hours later saying, ‘I did that.’ That’s what really makes me happy, helping others to reignite that creative flame that lies dormant inside most of us. — Erin Leigh Boughamer ’94 (SFA)
“What really makes my heart sing is that person coming in, saying, ‘I can’t even draw a straight line,’ and walking out two hours later saying, ‘I did that.’ That’s what really makes me happy, helping others to reignite that creative flame that lies dormant inside most of us,” she says.
Back when she was selling health products, there was a point when Boughamer asked herself why that job. Was it to just to make money? Was it just to pay the bills? Was it to sharpen a business acumen? The answer boiled down to something pretty simple.
She found fulfillment in empowering others, whether to transform their bodies or draw a straight line.
“If you don’t have that drive, that passion, that fire, you’re going to fizzle out. I want to make an impact on other people’s lives,” she says of her impulse. “I want the woman who hasn’t done art since the third grade be amazed by what she’s created at the end of a class.”
Even as the pandemic put a temporary end to in-person group classes, each night for three months Boughamer got on social media at 6 p.m. to talk people through an art project with supplies they had at home.
This is how you can draw with a crayon. Here’s what a marker can do. Do you have a pencil? It’s a dream tool for blending and shading.
That maintained her clientele, who when they left their houses as pandemic restrictions lifted, clamored for her to open a physical studio, and while she did in Somers for about 18 months, Boughamer’s own life had taken a turn.
She’d gone back to school to earn a teaching degree and by now was working with school-aged children. Running a physical location while working full time proved incompatible, so she returned to the flexibility of a mobile paint-and-sip model.
And then, lightning struck while leading a class for a bridal party.
Taking It Seriously
“’Can you live paint my wedding?’” Boughamer says the bride-to-be asked her. “I was confused. ‘What are you talking about?’ She explained it to me, showed me pictures, and I agreed. Then, a couple people randomly found me in 2023, probably from a social post, and last year I decided to give it a go. 2024 was really my first year in the event painting business, as that’s when I created a website and started marketing at bridal shows.”
Last year brought her to 18 weddings, earning enough to outpace what she made as a public school teacher. This year has her at 31 weddings – three over Memorial Day weekend alone – and now contemplating whether to shift her professional efforts solely to Paint Sip Fun and Event Painting by Erin, along with some gallery work.
Erin Leigh Boughamer ’94 (SFA) is a live event painter who has 31 weddings booked this year. (Contributed art)
She also paints live at fundraisers and charity auctions, with her first on Nantucket last summer for the Great Harbor Yacht Club Foundation to help with its efforts to preserve Nantucket Harbor.
“It’s not that I don’t like teaching in schools, I do, I just want to build the businesses properly. I want to really set the foundation and proper business structure,” she says, adding that she’s on the hunt for a business coach to help.
Art was something gifted to Boughamer in part through genetics. Her grandmother: artist. Aunt: artist. Mom: crafty. Dad: encouraging, with a side of business savvy.
She started at UConn as a psychology major, earning a D and D- in those first two intro classes, mostly because she wasn’t interested in the subject matter. But her GPA was bolstered by the A+ in the elective art class she took.
“When I got home after freshman year, my dad sat me down and asked me why I wasn’t doing something with art. ‘Clearly, you’re good at it. You got an A+ in your elective drawing class. Why don’t you take it seriously?’ I looked at him and said, ‘I can do that?’ I didn’t know I could. From then on, it never stopped,” she says.
A couple years ago, Boughamer says she started to get restless and sought to find her art, the work that would show the world the contradictory bohemian and reserved parts of her personality, born of the free spirit side of her dad and the pearls-and-heels influence of her mom.
Erin Leigh Boughamer ’94 (SFA) exhibited her painting series, “Calming Chaos,” at The Jorgensen Gallery in March. (Courtesy of Molly Mia Photography & Film LLC)
The series that developed, “Calming Chaos,” puts on canvas her love for architectural, geometric shapes alongside a freeform, almost carefree style of painting. After hours, in her studio at home in Hampden, Massachusetts, she says one could find her literally throwing paint one minute and the next sitting with a ruler and compass.
“I had this series almost done, and I thought how poignant it would be if I could show it at the place where my whole art career began,” she says, explaining she called Emily Murray, alumni relations director at the UConn Foundation, with whom she’d worked before, to ask if UConn had a place.
The Jorgensen Gallery agreed, and in March, Boughamer, as Fine Art by Erin, returned to her alma mater as a gallery artist, having created several canvas pieces as large as 5-by-6-feet as showstoppers. She sold four artworks from the show to collectors in New York City.
The opening fed her soul, and now she’s in the thick of wedding season.
Capturing a Moment
“It’s kind of a throwback to the old days,” she says of live wedding painting. “Before the camera was invented, all couples had to remember their day was a painting. It’s almost full circle that way. Brides these days want an heirloom keepsake and instead of having a photo like we had, it’s a painting.”
Live wedding painting, while somewhat a new add-on to weddings in the Northeast, started to migrate from California about a decade ago, Boughamer says, working its way through the country, artist by artist, who now talk shop on social media about things like contract language and technique.
With her couples, though, Boughamer talks about what moment they want to preserve, but the answer to that oftentimes comes only after answering the second question.
Is it important to include the bride’s bouquet in the painting? If so, then the first dance in which the couple would be holding each other and not likely the bouquet, probably is out of contention. Is grandma’s pearl necklace an important detail? If so, the back of the couple’s heads or even a side view at the altar probably wouldn’t work so well.
Is there a visible tattoo that ought not be overlooked? Should the dogs somehow be set in the scene? How much of the architecture and décor of the barn, ballroom, reception hall, church, outdoor garden should be in the background? The bride has on a cape not a veil. Yes, the cape should be included, how can that be best emphasized?
“I ask these things for two reasons. First, this is something the couple is going to stare at the rest of their lives. Second, the very first bride was very particular and knew she wanted the dipping kiss pose because she was wearing Christian Louboutin red-bottom shoes and wanted them in the painting,” Boughamer says. “The painting has to be really tailored to exactly what the couple is looking for.”
Erin Leigh Boughamer ’94 (SFA) is a live event painter who has 26 weddings booked this year. She not only paints the wedding couple but also can sketch guest portraits. (Contributed art)
The betrothed also must decide if they want any of the other painting options Boughamer offers – guest paintings, 5-by-7-inch watercolor illustrations of each guest often given as favors, and collaborative paintings that engage the artistic efforts of guests in a sort of paint by number kind of way.
In one instance, the couple had restored an old truck together and mentioned to Boughamer there’s a special dirt road where they like to take it. So, she grabbed photos of the road and the truck and painted the focal point of the truck in the piece, sectioning off the rest of the canvas into little blocks for each guest to contribute.
One by one, she gives each guest an art lesson, handing them a palette of paint and instructing them exactly how to layer it on. Nervous guests who can’t even draw a straight line are reassured: it’s a very small area; no, they can’t mess it up. She won’t put red paint on the palette for a guest who’s painting the water in a beach scene.
An added bonus is a photograph of each guest in the act, pictures added to a guest-autographed book and given to the couple.
Boughamer relies on photographs for much of her live event work, taking pictures of the dogs to add in later, or the gardens, or the mountains in the distance, because most of the canvases get finished back in her studio – another 20 to 40 hours of work ahead.
“Some weddings are more quiet and more subdued, while some are just a flat-out party,” she says. “I enjoy all of them because I like being with people and interacting with guests. I have yet to be at a wedding where someone didn’t come talk to me and express amazement by what I do.”
Usually, guests remark that they can’t wait to see the final product, and since that’ll likely happen back in the studio, she gives blank note cards depicting the piece to each couple for use as thank yous.
People have an intrinsic desire to be creative, she says. Just watching a painting being done in real-time can be invigorating; it’s like watching the birth of something from nothing.
“We are creative creatures whether you’re creating dinner, creating a garden, creating a spreadsheet, or creating an outfit for the day. Everyone creates something, it doesn’t matter what. It’s our human nature to create,” she says.
Even bivalves looked different during the time of the dinosaurs, as these fossils of an ultra-fortified oyster, left, and armored cockle show.Smithsonian Institution
The fallout was immediate and severe. Evidence shows that about 70% of species went extinct in a geological instant, and not just those famous dinosaurs that once stalked the land. Masters of the Mesozoic oceans were also wiped out, from mosasaurs – a group of aquatic reptiles topping the food chain – to exquisitely shelled squid relatives known as ammonites.
But bubbling away on the seafloor was a stolid group of animals that has left a fantastic fossil record and continues to thrive today: bivalves – clams, cockles, mussels, oysters and more.
What happened to these creatures during the extinction event and how they rebounded tells an important story, both about the past and the future of biodiversity.
Surprising discoveries on the seafloor
Marine bivalves lost around three-quarters of their species during this mass extinction, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period. My colleagues and I – each of us paleobiologists studying biodiversity – expected that losing so many species would have severely cut down the variety of roles that bivalves play within their environments, what we call their “modes of life.”
But, as we explain in a study published in the journal Sciences Advances, that wasn’t the case. In assessing the fossils of thousands of bivalve species, we found that at least one species from nearly all their modes of life, no matter how rare or specialized, squeaked through the extinction event.
Statistically, that shouldn’t have happened. Kill 70% of bivalve species, even at random, and some modes of life should disappear.
Bivalves had an amazing array of life modes just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago. Incredibly, despite the loss of 70% of their species, all but two modes of life survived – Nos. 2 and 10. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
Most bivalves happily burrow into the sand and mud, feeding on phytoplankton they strain from the water. But others have adopted chemosymbionts and photosymbionts – bacteria and algae that produce nutrients for the bivalves from chemicals or sunlight in exchange for housing. A few have even become carnivorous. Some groups, including the oysters, can lay down a tough cement that hardens underwater, and mussels hold onto rocks by spinning silken threads.
We thought surely these more specialized modes of life would have been snuffed out by the effects of the asteroid’s impact, including dust and debris likely blocking sunlight and disrupting a huge part of the bivalves’ food chain: photosynthetic algae and bacteria. Instead, most persisted, although biodiversity was forever scrambled as a new ecological landscape emerged. Species that were once dominant struggled, while evolutionary newcomers rose in their place.
The reasons some species survived and others didn’t leave many questions to explore. Those that filtered phytoplankton from the water column suffered some of the highest species losses, but so did species that fed on organic scraps and didn’t rely as much on the Sun’s energy. Narrow geographic distributions and different metabolisms may have contributed to these extinction patterns.
Biodiversity bounces back
Life rebounded from each of the Big Five mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history, eventually punching through past diversity highs. The rich fossil record and spectacular ecological diversity of bivalves gives us a terrific opportunity to study these rebounds to understand how ecosystems and global biodiversity rebuild in the wake of extinctions.
The extinction caused by the asteroid strike knocked down some thriving modes of life and opened the door for others to dominate the new landscape.
The rebound from the extinction wasn’t so straightforward. Some modes of life lost nearly all their species, never to recover their past diversity. Others rose to take the top ranks. Genera is the plural of genus. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
While many people lament the loss of the dinosaurs, we malacologists miss the rudists.
These bizarrely shaped bivalves resembled giant ice cream cones, sometimes reaching more than 3 feet (1 meter) in size, and they dominated the shallow, tropical Mesozoic seas as massive aggregations of contorted individuals, similar to today’s coral reefs. At least a few harbored photosymbiotic algae, which provided them with nutrients and spurred their growth, much like modern corals.
An ancient fossil of a rudist from before the last mass extinction. These bivalves could grow to a meter high. Smithsonian Institution
Today, giant clams (Tridacna) and their relatives fill parts of these unique photosymbiotic lifestyles once occupied by the rudists, but they lack the rudists’ astonishing species diversity.
Mass extinctions clearly upend the status quo. Now, our ocean floors are dominated by clams burrowed into sand and mud, the quahogs, cockles and their relatives – a scene far different from that of the seafloor 66 million years ago.
New winners in a scrambled ecosystem
Ecological traits alone didn’t fully predict extinction patterns, nor do they entirely explain the rebound. We also see that simply surviving a mass extinction didn’t necessarily provide a leg up as species diversified within their old and sometimes new modes of life – and few of those new modes dominate the ecological landscape today.
Like the rudists, trigoniid bivalves had lots of different species prior to the extinction event. These highly ornamented clams built parts of their shells with a super strong biomaterial called nacre – think iridescent pearls – and had fractally interlocking hinges holding their two valves together.
An ancient fossil of a pearly but tough trigoniid bivalve from the last mass extinction. The two matching shells show their elaborate hinge. Smithsonian Institution
But despite surviving the extinction, which should have placed them in a prime position to accumulate species again, their diversification sputtered. Other types of bivalves that made a living in the same way proliferated instead, relegating this once mighty and global group to a handful of species now found only off the coast of Australia.
Lessons for today’s oceans
These unexpected patterns of extinction and survival may offer lessons for the future.
The fossil record shows us that biodiversity has definite breaking points, usually during a perfect storm of climatic and environmental upheaval. It’s not just that species are lost, but the ecological landscape is overturned.
Many scientists believe the current biodiversity crisis may cascade into a sixth mass extinction, this one driven by human activities that are changing ecosystems and the global climate. Corals, whose reefs are home to nearly a quarter of known marine species, have faced mass bleaching events as warming ocean water puts their future at risk. Acidification as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide can also weaken the shells of organisms crucial to the ocean food web.
Findings like ours suggest that, in the future, the rebound from extinction events will likely result in very different mixes of species and their modes of life in the oceans. And the result may not align with human needs if species providing the bulk of ecosystem services are driven genetically or functionally extinct.
The global oceans and their inhabitants are complex, and, as our team’s latest research shows, it is difficult to predict the trajectory of biodiversity as it rebounds – even when extinction pressures are reduced.
Billions of people depend on the ocean for food. As the history recorded by the world’s bivalves shows, the upending of the pecking order – the number of species in each mode of life – won’t necessarily settle into an arrangement that can feed as many people the next time around.
Stewart Edie receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution.
Even bivalves looked different during the time of the dinosaurs, as these fossils of an ultra-fortified oyster, left, and armored cockle show.Smithsonian Institution
The fallout was immediate and severe. Evidence shows that about 70% of species went extinct in a geological instant, and not just those famous dinosaurs that once stalked the land. Masters of the Mesozoic oceans were also wiped out, from mosasaurs – a group of aquatic reptiles topping the food chain – to exquisitely shelled squid relatives known as ammonites.
But bubbling away on the seafloor was a stolid group of animals that has left a fantastic fossil record and continues to thrive today: bivalves – clams, cockles, mussels, oysters and more.
What happened to these creatures during the extinction event and how they rebounded tells an important story, both about the past and the future of biodiversity.
Surprising discoveries on the seafloor
Marine bivalves lost around three-quarters of their species during this mass extinction, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period. My colleagues and I – each of us paleobiologists studying biodiversity – expected that losing so many species would have severely cut down the variety of roles that bivalves play within their environments, what we call their “modes of life.”
But, as we explain in a study published in the journal Sciences Advances, that wasn’t the case. In assessing the fossils of thousands of bivalve species, we found that at least one species from nearly all their modes of life, no matter how rare or specialized, squeaked through the extinction event.
Statistically, that shouldn’t have happened. Kill 70% of bivalve species, even at random, and some modes of life should disappear.
Bivalves had an amazing array of life modes just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago. Incredibly, despite the loss of 70% of their species, all but two modes of life survived – Nos. 2 and 10. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
Most bivalves happily burrow into the sand and mud, feeding on phytoplankton they strain from the water. But others have adopted chemosymbionts and photosymbionts – bacteria and algae that produce nutrients for the bivalves from chemicals or sunlight in exchange for housing. A few have even become carnivorous. Some groups, including the oysters, can lay down a tough cement that hardens underwater, and mussels hold onto rocks by spinning silken threads.
We thought surely these more specialized modes of life would have been snuffed out by the effects of the asteroid’s impact, including dust and debris likely blocking sunlight and disrupting a huge part of the bivalves’ food chain: photosynthetic algae and bacteria. Instead, most persisted, although biodiversity was forever scrambled as a new ecological landscape emerged. Species that were once dominant struggled, while evolutionary newcomers rose in their place.
The reasons some species survived and others didn’t leave many questions to explore. Those that filtered phytoplankton from the water column suffered some of the highest species losses, but so did species that fed on organic scraps and didn’t rely as much on the Sun’s energy. Narrow geographic distributions and different metabolisms may have contributed to these extinction patterns.
Biodiversity bounces back
Life rebounded from each of the Big Five mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history, eventually punching through past diversity highs. The rich fossil record and spectacular ecological diversity of bivalves gives us a terrific opportunity to study these rebounds to understand how ecosystems and global biodiversity rebuild in the wake of extinctions.
The extinction caused by the asteroid strike knocked down some thriving modes of life and opened the door for others to dominate the new landscape.
The rebound from the extinction wasn’t so straightforward. Some modes of life lost nearly all their species, never to recover their past diversity. Others rose to take the top ranks. Genera is the plural of genus. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
While many people lament the loss of the dinosaurs, we malacologists miss the rudists.
These bizarrely shaped bivalves resembled giant ice cream cones, sometimes reaching more than 3 feet (1 meter) in size, and they dominated the shallow, tropical Mesozoic seas as massive aggregations of contorted individuals, similar to today’s coral reefs. At least a few harbored photosymbiotic algae, which provided them with nutrients and spurred their growth, much like modern corals.
An ancient fossil of a rudist from before the last mass extinction. These bivalves could grow to a meter high. Smithsonian Institution
Today, giant clams (Tridacna) and their relatives fill parts of these unique photosymbiotic lifestyles once occupied by the rudists, but they lack the rudists’ astonishing species diversity.
Mass extinctions clearly upend the status quo. Now, our ocean floors are dominated by clams burrowed into sand and mud, the quahogs, cockles and their relatives – a scene far different from that of the seafloor 66 million years ago.
New winners in a scrambled ecosystem
Ecological traits alone didn’t fully predict extinction patterns, nor do they entirely explain the rebound. We also see that simply surviving a mass extinction didn’t necessarily provide a leg up as species diversified within their old and sometimes new modes of life – and few of those new modes dominate the ecological landscape today.
Like the rudists, trigoniid bivalves had lots of different species prior to the extinction event. These highly ornamented clams built parts of their shells with a super strong biomaterial called nacre – think iridescent pearls – and had fractally interlocking hinges holding their two valves together.
An ancient fossil of a pearly but tough trigoniid bivalve from the last mass extinction. The two matching shells show their elaborate hinge. Smithsonian Institution
But despite surviving the extinction, which should have placed them in a prime position to accumulate species again, their diversification sputtered. Other types of bivalves that made a living in the same way proliferated instead, relegating this once mighty and global group to a handful of species now found only off the coast of Australia.
Lessons for today’s oceans
These unexpected patterns of extinction and survival may offer lessons for the future.
The fossil record shows us that biodiversity has definite breaking points, usually during a perfect storm of climatic and environmental upheaval. It’s not just that species are lost, but the ecological landscape is overturned.
Many scientists believe the current biodiversity crisis may cascade into a sixth mass extinction, this one driven by human activities that are changing ecosystems and the global climate. Corals, whose reefs are home to nearly a quarter of known marine species, have faced mass bleaching events as warming ocean water puts their future at risk. Acidification as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide can also weaken the shells of organisms crucial to the ocean food web.
Findings like ours suggest that, in the future, the rebound from extinction events will likely result in very different mixes of species and their modes of life in the oceans. And the result may not align with human needs if species providing the bulk of ecosystem services are driven genetically or functionally extinct.
The global oceans and their inhabitants are complex, and, as our team’s latest research shows, it is difficult to predict the trajectory of biodiversity as it rebounds – even when extinction pressures are reduced.
Billions of people depend on the ocean for food. As the history recorded by the world’s bivalves shows, the upending of the pecking order – the number of species in each mode of life – won’t necessarily settle into an arrangement that can feed as many people the next time around.
Stewart Edie receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution.
Even bivalves looked different during the time of the dinosaurs, as these fossils of an ultra-fortified oyster, left, and armored cockle show.Smithsonian Institution
The fallout was immediate and severe. Evidence shows that about 70% of species went extinct in a geological instant, and not just those famous dinosaurs that once stalked the land. Masters of the Mesozoic oceans were also wiped out, from mosasaurs – a group of aquatic reptiles topping the food chain – to exquisitely shelled squid relatives known as ammonites.
But bubbling away on the seafloor was a stolid group of animals that has left a fantastic fossil record and continues to thrive today: bivalves – clams, cockles, mussels, oysters and more.
What happened to these creatures during the extinction event and how they rebounded tells an important story, both about the past and the future of biodiversity.
Surprising discoveries on the seafloor
Marine bivalves lost around three-quarters of their species during this mass extinction, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period. My colleagues and I – each of us paleobiologists studying biodiversity – expected that losing so many species would have severely cut down the variety of roles that bivalves play within their environments, what we call their “modes of life.”
But, as we explain in a study published in the journal Sciences Advances, that wasn’t the case. In assessing the fossils of thousands of bivalve species, we found that at least one species from nearly all their modes of life, no matter how rare or specialized, squeaked through the extinction event.
Statistically, that shouldn’t have happened. Kill 70% of bivalve species, even at random, and some modes of life should disappear.
Bivalves had an amazing array of life modes just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago. Incredibly, despite the loss of 70% of their species, all but two modes of life survived – Nos. 2 and 10. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
Most bivalves happily burrow into the sand and mud, feeding on phytoplankton they strain from the water. But others have adopted chemosymbionts and photosymbionts – bacteria and algae that produce nutrients for the bivalves from chemicals or sunlight in exchange for housing. A few have even become carnivorous. Some groups, including the oysters, can lay down a tough cement that hardens underwater, and mussels hold onto rocks by spinning silken threads.
We thought surely these more specialized modes of life would have been snuffed out by the effects of the asteroid’s impact, including dust and debris likely blocking sunlight and disrupting a huge part of the bivalves’ food chain: photosynthetic algae and bacteria. Instead, most persisted, although biodiversity was forever scrambled as a new ecological landscape emerged. Species that were once dominant struggled, while evolutionary newcomers rose in their place.
The reasons some species survived and others didn’t leave many questions to explore. Those that filtered phytoplankton from the water column suffered some of the highest species losses, but so did species that fed on organic scraps and didn’t rely as much on the Sun’s energy. Narrow geographic distributions and different metabolisms may have contributed to these extinction patterns.
Biodiversity bounces back
Life rebounded from each of the Big Five mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history, eventually punching through past diversity highs. The rich fossil record and spectacular ecological diversity of bivalves gives us a terrific opportunity to study these rebounds to understand how ecosystems and global biodiversity rebuild in the wake of extinctions.
The extinction caused by the asteroid strike knocked down some thriving modes of life and opened the door for others to dominate the new landscape.
The rebound from the extinction wasn’t so straightforward. Some modes of life lost nearly all their species, never to recover their past diversity. Others rose to take the top ranks. Genera is the plural of genus. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
While many people lament the loss of the dinosaurs, we malacologists miss the rudists.
These bizarrely shaped bivalves resembled giant ice cream cones, sometimes reaching more than 3 feet (1 meter) in size, and they dominated the shallow, tropical Mesozoic seas as massive aggregations of contorted individuals, similar to today’s coral reefs. At least a few harbored photosymbiotic algae, which provided them with nutrients and spurred their growth, much like modern corals.
An ancient fossil of a rudist from before the last mass extinction. These bivalves could grow to a meter high. Smithsonian Institution
Today, giant clams (Tridacna) and their relatives fill parts of these unique photosymbiotic lifestyles once occupied by the rudists, but they lack the rudists’ astonishing species diversity.
Mass extinctions clearly upend the status quo. Now, our ocean floors are dominated by clams burrowed into sand and mud, the quahogs, cockles and their relatives – a scene far different from that of the seafloor 66 million years ago.
New winners in a scrambled ecosystem
Ecological traits alone didn’t fully predict extinction patterns, nor do they entirely explain the rebound. We also see that simply surviving a mass extinction didn’t necessarily provide a leg up as species diversified within their old and sometimes new modes of life – and few of those new modes dominate the ecological landscape today.
Like the rudists, trigoniid bivalves had lots of different species prior to the extinction event. These highly ornamented clams built parts of their shells with a super strong biomaterial called nacre – think iridescent pearls – and had fractally interlocking hinges holding their two valves together.
An ancient fossil of a pearly but tough trigoniid bivalve from the last mass extinction. The two matching shells show their elaborate hinge. Smithsonian Institution
But despite surviving the extinction, which should have placed them in a prime position to accumulate species again, their diversification sputtered. Other types of bivalves that made a living in the same way proliferated instead, relegating this once mighty and global group to a handful of species now found only off the coast of Australia.
Lessons for today’s oceans
These unexpected patterns of extinction and survival may offer lessons for the future.
The fossil record shows us that biodiversity has definite breaking points, usually during a perfect storm of climatic and environmental upheaval. It’s not just that species are lost, but the ecological landscape is overturned.
Many scientists believe the current biodiversity crisis may cascade into a sixth mass extinction, this one driven by human activities that are changing ecosystems and the global climate. Corals, whose reefs are home to nearly a quarter of known marine species, have faced mass bleaching events as warming ocean water puts their future at risk. Acidification as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide can also weaken the shells of organisms crucial to the ocean food web.
Findings like ours suggest that, in the future, the rebound from extinction events will likely result in very different mixes of species and their modes of life in the oceans. And the result may not align with human needs if species providing the bulk of ecosystem services are driven genetically or functionally extinct.
The global oceans and their inhabitants are complex, and, as our team’s latest research shows, it is difficult to predict the trajectory of biodiversity as it rebounds – even when extinction pressures are reduced.
Billions of people depend on the ocean for food. As the history recorded by the world’s bivalves shows, the upending of the pecking order – the number of species in each mode of life – won’t necessarily settle into an arrangement that can feed as many people the next time around.
Stewart Edie receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution.
Even bivalves looked different during the time of the dinosaurs, as these fossils of an ultra-fortified oyster, left, and armored cockle show.Smithsonian Institution
The fallout was immediate and severe. Evidence shows that about 70% of species went extinct in a geological instant, and not just those famous dinosaurs that once stalked the land. Masters of the Mesozoic oceans were also wiped out, from mosasaurs – a group of aquatic reptiles topping the food chain – to exquisitely shelled squid relatives known as ammonites.
But bubbling away on the seafloor was a stolid group of animals that has left a fantastic fossil record and continues to thrive today: bivalves – clams, cockles, mussels, oysters and more.
What happened to these creatures during the extinction event and how they rebounded tells an important story, both about the past and the future of biodiversity.
Surprising discoveries on the seafloor
Marine bivalves lost around three-quarters of their species during this mass extinction, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period. My colleagues and I – each of us paleobiologists studying biodiversity – expected that losing so many species would have severely cut down the variety of roles that bivalves play within their environments, what we call their “modes of life.”
But, as we explain in a study published in the journal Sciences Advances, that wasn’t the case. In assessing the fossils of thousands of bivalve species, we found that at least one species from nearly all their modes of life, no matter how rare or specialized, squeaked through the extinction event.
Statistically, that shouldn’t have happened. Kill 70% of bivalve species, even at random, and some modes of life should disappear.
Bivalves had an amazing array of life modes just before the end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago. Incredibly, despite the loss of 70% of their species, all but two modes of life survived – Nos. 2 and 10. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
Most bivalves happily burrow into the sand and mud, feeding on phytoplankton they strain from the water. But others have adopted chemosymbionts and photosymbionts – bacteria and algae that produce nutrients for the bivalves from chemicals or sunlight in exchange for housing. A few have even become carnivorous. Some groups, including the oysters, can lay down a tough cement that hardens underwater, and mussels hold onto rocks by spinning silken threads.
We thought surely these more specialized modes of life would have been snuffed out by the effects of the asteroid’s impact, including dust and debris likely blocking sunlight and disrupting a huge part of the bivalves’ food chain: photosynthetic algae and bacteria. Instead, most persisted, although biodiversity was forever scrambled as a new ecological landscape emerged. Species that were once dominant struggled, while evolutionary newcomers rose in their place.
The reasons some species survived and others didn’t leave many questions to explore. Those that filtered phytoplankton from the water column suffered some of the highest species losses, but so did species that fed on organic scraps and didn’t rely as much on the Sun’s energy. Narrow geographic distributions and different metabolisms may have contributed to these extinction patterns.
Biodiversity bounces back
Life rebounded from each of the Big Five mass extinctions throughout Earth’s history, eventually punching through past diversity highs. The rich fossil record and spectacular ecological diversity of bivalves gives us a terrific opportunity to study these rebounds to understand how ecosystems and global biodiversity rebuild in the wake of extinctions.
The extinction caused by the asteroid strike knocked down some thriving modes of life and opened the door for others to dominate the new landscape.
The rebound from the extinction wasn’t so straightforward. Some modes of life lost nearly all their species, never to recover their past diversity. Others rose to take the top ranks. Genera is the plural of genus. Adapted from Edie et al. 2025, Science Advances
While many people lament the loss of the dinosaurs, we malacologists miss the rudists.
These bizarrely shaped bivalves resembled giant ice cream cones, sometimes reaching more than 3 feet (1 meter) in size, and they dominated the shallow, tropical Mesozoic seas as massive aggregations of contorted individuals, similar to today’s coral reefs. At least a few harbored photosymbiotic algae, which provided them with nutrients and spurred their growth, much like modern corals.
An ancient fossil of a rudist from before the last mass extinction. These bivalves could grow to a meter high. Smithsonian Institution
Today, giant clams (Tridacna) and their relatives fill parts of these unique photosymbiotic lifestyles once occupied by the rudists, but they lack the rudists’ astonishing species diversity.
Mass extinctions clearly upend the status quo. Now, our ocean floors are dominated by clams burrowed into sand and mud, the quahogs, cockles and their relatives – a scene far different from that of the seafloor 66 million years ago.
New winners in a scrambled ecosystem
Ecological traits alone didn’t fully predict extinction patterns, nor do they entirely explain the rebound. We also see that simply surviving a mass extinction didn’t necessarily provide a leg up as species diversified within their old and sometimes new modes of life – and few of those new modes dominate the ecological landscape today.
Like the rudists, trigoniid bivalves had lots of different species prior to the extinction event. These highly ornamented clams built parts of their shells with a super strong biomaterial called nacre – think iridescent pearls – and had fractally interlocking hinges holding their two valves together.
An ancient fossil of a pearly but tough trigoniid bivalve from the last mass extinction. The two matching shells show their elaborate hinge. Smithsonian Institution
But despite surviving the extinction, which should have placed them in a prime position to accumulate species again, their diversification sputtered. Other types of bivalves that made a living in the same way proliferated instead, relegating this once mighty and global group to a handful of species now found only off the coast of Australia.
Lessons for today’s oceans
These unexpected patterns of extinction and survival may offer lessons for the future.
The fossil record shows us that biodiversity has definite breaking points, usually during a perfect storm of climatic and environmental upheaval. It’s not just that species are lost, but the ecological landscape is overturned.
Many scientists believe the current biodiversity crisis may cascade into a sixth mass extinction, this one driven by human activities that are changing ecosystems and the global climate. Corals, whose reefs are home to nearly a quarter of known marine species, have faced mass bleaching events as warming ocean water puts their future at risk. Acidification as the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide can also weaken the shells of organisms crucial to the ocean food web.
Findings like ours suggest that, in the future, the rebound from extinction events will likely result in very different mixes of species and their modes of life in the oceans. And the result may not align with human needs if species providing the bulk of ecosystem services are driven genetically or functionally extinct.
The global oceans and their inhabitants are complex, and, as our team’s latest research shows, it is difficult to predict the trajectory of biodiversity as it rebounds – even when extinction pressures are reduced.
Billions of people depend on the ocean for food. As the history recorded by the world’s bivalves shows, the upending of the pecking order – the number of species in each mode of life – won’t necessarily settle into an arrangement that can feed as many people the next time around.
Stewart Edie receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution.
Days ahead of the first anniversary in Kenya of the Gen Z-led anti-government protests that resulted in at least 60 deaths and displays of police brutality, news broke that Albert Ojwang, a young Kenyan blogger, had died in police detention. Kamau Wairuri who has studied the politics of policing in Kenya, sets out why these events aren’t outliers, what efforts have been made to reform Kenya’s security forces, and what still needs to be done.
When did this all begin?
Recent events are part of a long history of police brutality in Kenya that can be traced back to colonial times.
Historians (colonial and post-colonial Kenya) such as David Anderson and Caroline Elkins present gruesome details of how state authorities brutalised indigenous Africans during colonial times.
The colonial origins of the police – largely modelled along the approaches of the Royal Ulster Constabulary known for its brutality in Ireland – partly explains why Kenya’s policing is the way it is. The police force was never designed for service. It was designed to safeguard the interests of the white minority ruling elite.
While there have been important changes in the architecture of policing since independence, subsequent post-colonial Kenyan regimes have adopted the same brutal approaches to stay in power. My previous work demonstrates this use of state security apparatuses to enhance the capacity of incumbents to crack down on opposition protests.
The brutal policing experienced under the current Kenya Kwanza regime falls within this broader historical trajectory.
The ruling elite see and use the police as their last line of defence against challenges to their misrule.
But police brutality goes beyond the policing of politics to everyday crime control. Police violence is a common occurrence, especially against poor young men.
What’s changed
Kenya’s history has been marked by strong agitation for justice and reform. Again, this goes back to colonial times.
There have been important legal and institutional changes since independence. The most important was the disbandment of the Special Branch in 1998, an intelligence unit of the police responsible for political repression. It was replaced by the National Security Intelligence Service. This then became the National Intelligence Service.
The most important changes came about through the constitutional reform of 2010. This saw a change in the architecture of the police, including:
bringing the Kenya Police and Administration Police under a singular command
Internal Affairs, a unit within the police service, is supposed to investigate police misconduct. The policing oversight agency is a civilian-led institutions with a similar mandate. Ideally, the two institutions should work together in executing crucial investigations. Internal affairs should provide access to information from within the police service that would be difficult for outsiders to access.
The National Police Service Commission was set up to handle the management of personnel. It’s mandated to address the challenges of corruption, nepotism and negative ethnicity that have characterised recruitment into the police service.
But it’s clear from the continued police brutality that these institutions aren’t achieving the intended effect. This means that police officers can expect to continue acting with relative impunity despite the control measures in place.
What still needs to be done
Policing is often imagined as the investigation of crimes, arresting suspects, and presenting them to court for prosecution and punishment if guilty. In Kenya, the actions of the police often appear to substitute for the entire criminal justice system.
In many cases, officers go beyond the metaphor of judge, jury and executioner to also become the complainant, mortician and undertaker. For instance, Mbaraka Karanja died in police custody in 1987 and officers proceeded to incinerate his body.
In my view, the brutality won’t end until the following steps have been taken.
First, the National Police Service Commission needs to reclaim its mandate. It seems to have completely abdicated duty, transferring crucial responsibilities back to the inspector general of the police service. As the human resource unit of the police, the commission has an important role of professionalising the service and maintaining discipline. It’s presently not doing so.
Second, the Internal Affairs Unit needs to be strengthened and given more autonomy. So far, it has been difficult to assess the effectiveness the unit given the secrecy that characterises the police service. A better-resourced unit will enhance investigations of police misconduct. It would unearth obscure squads within the police service and reveal evidence to help identify perpetrators.
Third, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority needs to defend its independence and develop popular legitimacy. With its limited success in prosecuting police officers – despite the prevalence of police abuse – many Kenyans have lost confidence in it. Crucially, the authority has failed in it’s deterrence role.
Fourth, the independence of the National Police Service needs to be safeguarded. The police service leadership continues to serve at the pleasure of the prevailing regime. This in turn shapes the priorities of the service. Inspectors-general have been forced to resign. President William Ruto confessed to having fired the director of criminal investigations when he took power. Ruto had initially claimed that the director had resigned.
Crucially, and in fifth place, there needs to be a change in policing culture alongside broader governance culture in Kenya. Impunity is rampant across the public service. Kenya won’t have a highly accountable police force while other agencies and senior officials are operating with significant impunity.
Identifying the levers of cultural change isn’t easy. There are many proposals to alter policing culture. These include a complete redesign of Kenya’s Penal Code to dislodge its colonial roots, transforming the training of police officers, and strengthening the policing oversight authority’s capacity to investigate cases.
But, in my mind, a crucial starting point is citizen agitation and demand for accountability. The light that Gen Z protesters, the media and civil society organisations are shining on police abuses should be encouraged. A clear signal that Kenyans will no longer tolerate police abuse is crucial for culture change within the service and among the political elite.
However, this needs to be understood within the reality that many Kenyans support police violence, believing it to be the most effective way of dealing with crime as my earlier research demonstrates. In another study, I note how police abuse is endorsed by politicians and religious leaders as a way of responding to crime and punishing groups of people they don’t like.
Combined with ineffective accountability mechanisms, this popular support for police violence, both tacit and explicit, gives the police the belief that they are the thin blue line between order and chaos. That they have the popular mandate to use any means they consider necessary – often brutal violence – to keep society safe.
In other words, the conversation on police reform requires a fundamental reframing to kick start the journey towards democratic policing. At present, we’re not only way off the mark, we seem to be heading in the wrong direction.
Kamau Wairuri 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.
This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
Once again Donald Trump and his senior team are unhappy with their press coverage. Here’s the US president, fresh from his triumph in The Hague, having persuaded Nato’s leaders to open their wallets and agree to up their defence spending to 5% of GDP (apart from Spain, that is, which can expect to hear of triple-digit tariffs coming its way in the near future) – and do the media focus on Trump’s tour de force? Do they hell. Instead they focus on whether his strikes against Iran had been as successful as he claimed.
As you can imagine, this would have been irksome in the extreme for the president, who might reasonably have expected that the story of the day would be his victory in getting pledges from virtually all Nato’s members to pull their weight in terms of their own defence. Certainly the Nato secretary-general, Mark Rutte, could appreciate the scale of his achievement. Even before the summit, Rutte was talking it up.
“Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world,” he wrote in a message to Trump as the US president prepared to fly to The Netherlands. “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.”
The fact that Trump promptly posted this message to his TruthSocial website suggests how important praise is to the the US president. It’s something that many world leaders (including Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin who have become past-masters at pouring honey in the president’s ear) have recognised and are willing to use as a diplomatic tool when dealing with the man Rutte calls “Daddy”.
Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.
But while flattery as a tactic seems to be effective with the US president, Andrew Gawthorpe, a political historian from Leiden University, cautions that flattery, appeasement and compliance are a flawed approach when dealing with a man like Trump. For a start, he writes it means that not much actually gets done and that problems are often merely avoided rather than solved.
But more worryingly, simply capitulating in the face of Trumpian pressure or ire risks giving this US president the idea that he can do anything he wants. “When his targets roll over, it sends a message to others that Trump is unstoppable and resistance is futile,” writes Gawthorpe. It encourages not just the next presidential abuse of power, but also the next surrender from its victims.
We got a taste of what the US president’s anger at being defied sounds like as he prepared to fly to The Netherlands for the Nato summit. Asked about the ceasefire he had negotiated between Israel and Iran, he lashed out at both countries who had breached the peace within hours of agreeing to stop firing missiles at each other. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” he told reporters as he walked to the presidential helicopter.
Psychologist Geoff Beattie, of Edge Hill University, believes this was no accidental verbal slip. Trump wanted to let the world know how angry he was and chose to use the “f-bomb” as a way of showing it. Beattie looks at what this can tell us about the character of the US president – and how it might reflect a tendency to make rapid decisions based on emotional reactions.
What was remarkable about the Nato summit was that it was condensed to one fairly short session which focused solely on the issue of Nato members’ defence budgets. Usually there’s a much broader agenda. Over the past couple of years the issue of Ukraine has been fairly high on the list, but this time – perhaps to avoid any potential divisions – it was relegated to a side issue.
Perhaps the biggest success for Nato, writes Stefan Wolff, is that they managed to get Trump to the summit and keep him in the room. After all, less than a fortnight previously he walked out of the G7 leaders’ meeting in Canada a day early before authorising the bombing raids on Iran’s nuclear installations (of which more later).
Wolff, an expert in international security from the University of Birmingham (and a regular contributor to this newsletter) believes that the non-US members realised they had little choice but to comply – or at least to be seen to be complying. There’s a significant capability deficit: “European states also lack most of the so-called critical enablers, the military hardware and technology required to prevail in a potential war with Russia.”
So keeping the US president onside – and inside Nato with a remaining commitment to America’s article 5 mutual defence pledge – was top of the list this year and something they appear to have pulled off.
The fact is, writes Andrew Corbett, a defence expert at King’s College London, that Europe and the US have different enemies these days. Europe is still focused on the foe it faced across the Iron Curtain after 1945, against which Nato was designed as a defensive bulwark.
The US is now far more focused on the threat from China. This means it will increasingly shift the bulk of its naval assets to the Pacific (although the Middle East seems to be delaying this shift at present). This inevitably means downgrading its presence in Europe, something of which European leaders are all-too aware.
The importance of continuing US involvement in European defence via Nato was underlined, as Corbett highlights, by a frisson of unease when it appeared that the US president might be preparing to reinterpret article 5, which requires that members come to the aid of another member if they are attacked.
So there was relief all round when the US president reaffirmed America’s commitment to the principle of collective defence. But one feels Rutte will need to use all his diplomatic wiles to keep things that way.
Rutte, who has the nickname “Trump whisperer”, is clever enough to know that emollient words will have been just what the US president was looking for given the stress of the past couple of weeks. The decision to launch strikes against Iran was controversial even within his own base as we noted last week.
But by directly engaging in hostility against Iran, Trump risked embroiling the US in the “forever war” that he always promised his supporters he would avoid. The move was freighted with risk. Nobody knew how Iran might retaliate or how the situation could escalate. There was (and remains) the chance that an angry Iran could try to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. This is one of the world’s most important waterways though which 20% of the world’s oil transits. This would have huge ramifications for the global economy, seriously damaging Iran’s Gulf neighbours and angering China, which gets much of its oil from the region.
For now it appears that Iran has contented itself with performative strikes against US bases in Iraq and Qatar, having given advance warning. This token retaliation was made shortly before the ceasefire was negotiated. Despite a defiant message from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran is reported to be making noises about coming to the negotiating table. A deal to restore calm to the region would be an achievement indeed.
But legal questions remain about the US decision to launch strikes. For a start, Article 2(4) of the UN charter strictly forbids the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state, or “in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations”.
But, as Caleb Wheeler, an expert in international law from the University of Cardiff writes, it’s a rule that has rarely been either observed or enforced. He points out that the Korean War, when following a resolution of the UN security council, a number of countries went to war with North Korea to defend its southern neighbour which had been attacked in violation of article 2(4), was the high watermark of compliance with the UN on conflict.
In most other international conflicts since, the use of vetoes by one or another of the permanent members of the security council has effectively prevented the UN acting the way it was supposed to.
Now, writes Wheeler, there can be little doubt the US has violated article 2(4) by bombing Iran, particularly as Trump expressed his opinion that a regime change might be appropriate. Given that the US is one of the leading lights of the UN, Wheeler thinks you could reasonably expect a degree of condemnation from other world leaders. He worries that the absence of criticism could seriously lower the bar for aggression in the future.
And if, as remains unclear at present, Iran’s nuclear programme was not set back by years, as the US claims, but merely by months, then you could expect Tehran to redouble its efforts to acquire a bomb. The Islamic Republic will be mindful of the fact that there has been little talk of bombing North Korea in recent years, for example. Possession of a nuclear deterrent means exactly what it says.
So, conclude David Dunn and Nicholas Wheeler, these strikes which were conducted on what they feel was the false premise of defence against an “imminent” threat from a nuclear Iran, could actually have the opposite effect of encouraging Iran to rapidly develop its own bomb.
After Israel began its latest campaign of airstrikes against Iran earlier this month, the government moved to restrict internet access around the country to discourage criticism of the regime and make it difficult for protesters to organise. But in June 14 in response to a plea over social media, Elon Musk announced, appropriately on X, that he would open up access to his Starlink satellite system.
Joscha Abels, a political scientist at the University of Tübingen, recalls that Starlink became very popular in Iran during the protests that followed the killing of Mahsa Amini in 2022, and which really rocked the regime to its core. He also points to the use of Starlink by Ukraine as a vital communications tool in its defence against Russia over the past three years.
But Abels warns that what is given is also too easily switched off, as Musk did in Ukraine in 2023. At the time a senior Starlink executive warned that the tool was “never intended to be weaponized”. The concern is that such an important tool, which can make or break a regime or cripple a country’s defence, could be a risk in the hands of a private individual.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Florian Steig, DPhil Student, Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
In the Danish TV drama Families Like Ours, one melancholic line from high-school student Laura captures the emotional toll of climate displacement: “Soon we will vanish like bubbles in a creek.” This seven-part series imagines a near future in which Denmark is being evacuated due to rising sea levels – a government-mandated relocation of an entire population.
The series challenges the fantasy that wealthy western countries are immune to the far-reaching effects of climate change. Rather than focusing on catastrophic storylines, Families Like Ours portrays the mundane, bureaucratic and affective aspects of relocating a population in anticipation of a creeping crisis: the scramble for visas, the fractures that appear between families, and the inequalities in social and economic capital that shape people’s chances for a new life.
Yet, the idea that Denmark could soon get submerged is not grounded in science. More worryingly, the narrative of the unavoidable uninhabitability of entire nations and millions of international migrants flooding Europe is misleading, dangerous, and sidelines deeply political questions about adaptation to sea level rise that should be dealt with now.
The trailer for Families Like Ours.
Sea levels are rising by a few millimetres a year. That pace is accelerating. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that, by 2100, sea levels could rise by up to one metre on average. Beyond 2100, sea levels could rise by several metres, although these long-term scenarios are highly uncertain.
Even in extreme scenarios, these developments would unfold over several decades and centuries. It’s unlikely that permanent submergence of large areas of land will make Denmark uninhabitable.
Still, sea level rise poses a serious risk to the livelihoods of millions of people living in coastal zones. In the UK, many homes in Norfolk and Fairbourne, Wales, are already at risk from coastal erosion, for instance.
These changes are subtle. They do not warrant the evacuation of an entire nation, but degrade coastal livelihoods over time. Houses in high-risk areas like these may become uninsurable, devalued or too risky to live in. This will force people to move.
In addition, sea level rise makes coastal flooding more likely. In European high-income countries, including Denmark, rising waters already threaten coastal communities. Without adaptation, hundreds of thousands of homes in cities such as Copenhagen could be at risk.
The danger of mass migration narratives
However, depicting climate change as a driver of uncontrolled mass migration is misleading. Sea level rise will contribute to coastal migration, and state-led relocation is already a reality especially in Africa and Asia. But climate migration predominantly occurs within countries or regions. International migration from climate change impacts is the exception, not the norm.
To capture these complexities, some researchers prefer the term “climate mobility”. Mobility can be forced or voluntary, permanent or temporary, even seasonal. Some communities and people resist relocation plans and stay put.
Families Like Ours reinforces longstanding narratives that frame certain parts of the world as destined to become uninhabitable. Even UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a “mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale” due to sea level rise.
Scientists have warned that creative storylines highlighting the “uninhabitability” of low-lying countries and regions, such as the Pacific, are not helpful. The mass migration narrative can be used by governments to justify extreme protectionist action and sideline urgent adaptation debates.
States are not helpless in the face of sea level rise and submergence is not inevitable. As geographer Carol Farbotko and colleagues suggest, “habitability is mediated by human actions and is not a direct consequence of environmental change”. People often develop their own ways of living with rising waters, resisting narratives of submergence. State-led adaptation is possible, but depends on finance, which is unequally distributed.
People’s migration decisions can seldomly be attributed to just climate impact. A community’s capacity to respond hinges on social, political, economic and demographic factors. Adaptation measures are costly. This raises deeply political questions over who gets to be protected, who is left behind, and how managed retreat can benefit the most affected people and places in a fair way. We need to overcome mass migration myths and start a serious and justice-focused debate about the future of our shorelines.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Once asbestos enters the lungs, it doesn’t leave. Its sharp, microscopic fibres scar tissues, trigger inflammation and can cause deadly diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer and laryngeal cancer. That’s why over 60 countries have banned it – and why the US mostly phased it out.
In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to ban all industrial uses. But on June 17, the agency said it would revisit the Biden‑era ban.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring silicate mineral made of thin, fibrous crystals. It is fire-resistant, durable, lightweight, flexible and insulating. This unique blend of properties resulted in its widespread use over millennia. Indeed, asbestos fibres have been found woven into pottery and textiles from 2500BC.
Its resistance to friction and electricity made it desirable during the Industrial Revolution for use in boilers and steam engines. In the 20th century, the useful mix of physical properties resulted in asbestos becoming ubiquitous in the construction and automotive industries, peaking in the 1970s.
Although the properties of asbestos at the macroscopic level are beneficial, at the microscopic level it’s anything but. When dust from asbestos (0.1 to tens of microns) is inhaled, it deposits throughout the respiratory system, causing inflammation and scarring of lung tissue.
While the adverse health effects associated with asbestos exposure were observed in ancient Rome, it wasn’t until the 20th century that the full extent of harm was realised. Specifically, asbestos exposure is linked to numerous respiratory diseases, including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.
It took a long time for people to understand how dangerous asbestos really is. The main reason is that the illnesses it causes often don’t show up for decades. This long delay makes it very hard to link exposure to the disease it causes.
Making this connection is also made more difficult when those most familiar with it, including manufacturers such as Johns-Manville and industry groups such as the Asbestos Information Association (AIA) were actively denying the connection, and suppressing reports demonstrating the link.
By the 1970s, the volume of evidence showing the harms of asbestos had become overwhelming. The AIA evolved its argument, claiming that the practices in the industry had changed and that the risks were from a bygone era “when the dust control equipment in use was not as efficient or as sophisticated”. Although the association never explicitly admitted that asbestos caused harm.
Since it can take decades for the health effects of asbestos exposure to fully manifest, the full extent of the damage caused by asbestos exposure from the 1970s and onward, an era where the dust control equipment was claimed to be “efficient and sophisticated”.
The Asbestos Information Association, once a key industry group promoting the safe use of asbestos, quietly disbanded in the early 2000s as litigation and public health evidence mounted.
History of asbestos.
What type of asbestos is the US considering unbanning?
The EPA is considering unbanning chrysotile asbestos, also called white asbestos. This type of asbestos is often used in things like brake pads, gaskets and industrial equipment. In March 2024 the EPA banned it, stopping new uses and imports. The ban also included a gradual phase-out plan.
Who is pushing for the unbanning and why now?
From the outset, industry groups such as the American Chemistry Council (ACC) raised concerns about the EPA’s ban, warning that “a prohibition of an estimated 52% of annual production volume … that rapidly, could have substantial supply chain impacts”, particularly if manufacturers were bound by existing contracts or chose to cease production entirely.
According to former ACC employee and current senior official in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Lynn Ann Dekleva, they want to consider if the ban “went beyond what is necessary to eliminate the unreasonable risk and whether alternative measures — such as requiring permanent workplace protection measures – would eliminate the unreasonable risk”.
What industries still want to use this type of asbestos?
Each year, around 40,000 deaths in the US and about 5,000 in the UK are attributed to asbestos exposure. If lifted, it’s possible that the number in the US could increase over the coming decades while those in the UK will continue to fall.
Does this mean asbestos could make a comeback elsewhere too?
Unlikely. While global consensus moves toward stricter regulation, the US now finds itself at a crossroads, between scientific evidence and pressure from industry.
Allen Haddrell 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.
Light is all around us, essential for one of our primary senses (sight) as well as life on Earth itself. It underpins many technologies that affect our daily lives, including energy harvesting with solar cells, light-emitting-diode (LED) displays and telecommunications through fibre optic networks.
The smartphone is a great example of the power of light. Inside the box, its electronic functionality works because of quantum mechanics. The front screen is an entirely photonic device: liquid crystals controlling light. The back too: white light-emitting diodes for a flash, and lenses to capture images.
We use the word photonics, and sometimes optics, to capture the harnessing of light for new applications and technologies. Their importance in modern life is celebrated every year on 16 May with the International Day of Light.
Scientists on the African continent, despite the resource constraints they work under, have made notable contributions to photonics research. Some of these have been captured in a recent special issue of the journal Applied Optics. Along with colleagues in this field from Morocco and Senegal, we introduced this collection of papers, which aims to celebrate excellence and show the impact of studies that address continental issues.
In more recent times, Africa has contributed to two Nobel prizes based on optics. Ahmed Zewail (Egyptian born) watched the ultrafast processes in chemistry with lasers (1999, Nobel Prize for Chemistry) and Serge Harouche (Moroccan born) studied the behaviour of individual particles of light, photons (2012, Nobel Prize for Physics).
Unfortunately, the African optics story is one of pockets of excellence. The highlights are as good as anywhere else, but there are too few of them to put the continent on the global optics map. According to a 2020 calculation done for me by the Optical Society of America, based on their journals, Africa contributes less than 1% to worldwide journal publications with optics or photonics as a theme.
Yet there are great opportunities for meeting continental challenges using optics. Examples of areas where Africans can innovate are:
bridging the digital divide with modern communications infrastructure
optical imaging and spectroscopy for improvements in agriculture and monitoring climate changes
harnessing the sun with optical materials for clean energy
bio-photonics to solve health issues
quantum technologies for novel forms of communicating, sensing, imaging and computing.
The papers in the special journal issue touch on a diversity of continent-relevant topics.
Another paper is about tiny quantum sources of quantum entanglement for sensing. The authors used diamond, a gem found in South Africa and more commonly associated with jewellery. Diamond has many flaws, one of which can produce single photons as an output when excited. The single photon output was split into two paths, as if the particle went both left and right at the same time. This is the quirky notion of entanglement, in this case, created with diamonds. If an object is placed in any one path, the entanglement can detect it. Strangely, sometimes the photons take the left-path but the object is in the right-path, yet still it can be detected.
New approaches in spectroscopy (studying colour) for detecting cell health; biosensors to monitor salt and glucose levels in blood; and optical tools for food security all play their part in optical applications on the continent.
Another area of African optics research that has important applications is the use of optical fibres for sensing the quality of soil and its structural integrity. Optical fibres are usually associated with communication, but a modern trend is to use the existing optical fibre already laid to sense for small changes in the environment, for instance, as early warning systems for earthquakes. The research shows that conventional fibre can also be used to tell if soil is degrading, either from lack of moisture or some physical shift in structure (weakness or movement). It is an immediately useful tool for agriculture, building on many decades of research.
The diverse range of topics in the collection shows how creative researchers on the continent are in using limited resources for maximum impact. The high orientation towards applications is probably also a sign that African governments want their scientists to work on solutions to real problems rather than purely academic questions. A case in point is South Africa, which has a funded national strategy (SA QuTI) to turn quantum science into quantum technology and train the workforce for a new economy.
Towards a brighter future
For young science students wishing to enter the field, the opportunities are endless. While photonics has no discipline boundaries, most students enter through the fields of physics, engineering, chemistry or the life sciences. Its power lies in the combination of skills, blending theoretical, computational and experimental, that are brought to bear on problems. At a typical photonics conference there are likely to be many more industry participants than academics. That’s a testament to its universal impact in new technologies, and the employment opportunities for students.
The last century was based on electronics and controlling electrons. This century will be dominated by photonics, controlling photons.
Professor Zouheir Sekkat of University Mohamed V, Rabat, and director of the Pole of Optics and Photonics within MAScIR of University Mohamed VI Polytechnic Benguerir, Morocco, contributed to this article.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Global crises have shaped our world over the past two decades, affecting education systems everywhere. Higher education researcher Emmanuel Ojo has studied the impact of these disruptions on educational opportunities, particularly in southern Africa.
He looked at 5,511 peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2024 to explore what the research suggests about making education systems more resilient. Here, he answers some questions about his review.
What are the global crises that have undermined education?
In my review I drew up a table documenting how multiple crises have disrupted education systems worldwide.
The cycle began with the 2000-2002 dot-com bubble collapse, which reduced education funding and slowed technological integration. This was followed by the 2001 terrorist attacks, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak (2002-2004), Iraq War (2003-2011), Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), and Hurricane Katrina (2005). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2000, global food crisis (2007-2008), financial crisis (2007-2008), and European debt crisis (2010-2012) continued this pattern of disruption.
More recently, the Ebola epidemic, COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia-Ukraine war have destabilised education systems. Meanwhile, the ongoing climate crisis creates challenges, particularly in southern Africa where environmental vulnerability is high.
Who suffers most, and in what ways?
Education has consistently been among the hardest-hit sectors globally. According to Unesco, the COVID pandemic alone affected more than 1.6 billion students worldwide.
But the impact is not distributed equally.
My research shows crises have put vulnerable populations at a further disadvantage through school closures, funding diversions, infrastructure destruction and student displacement. Quality and access decline most sharply for marginalised communities. Costs rise and mobility is restricted. Food insecurity during crises reduces attendance among the poorest students.
In southern Africa, the Covid-19 disruption highlighted existing divides. Privileged students continued learning online. Those in rural and informal settlements were completely cut off from education.
Climate change compounds these inequalities. Unicef highlights that climate disasters have a disproportionate impact on schooling for millions in low-income countries, where adaptive infrastructure is limited.
What’s at stake for southern Africa is the region’s development potential and social cohesion. The widening of educational divides threatens to create a generation with unequal opportunities and capabilities.
What makes southern African education systems fragile?
Southern Africa’s geographic exposure to climate disasters combines with pre-existing economic inequalities. The region’s digital divide became starkly visible during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some students were excluded from learning by limited connectivity and unreliable electricity.
The region’s systems also rely on external funding. The Trump administration’s sudden foreign aid freeze was a shock to South Africa’s higher education sector. It has affected public health initiatives and university research programmes.
Research representation itself is unequal. Within the region, South African researchers dominate and other nations make only limited contributions. This creates blind spots in understanding context-specific challenges and solutions.
Each successive crisis deepens educational divides, making recovery increasingly difficult and costly. Weaker education systems make the region less able to respond to other development challenges, too.
How can southern Africa build education systems to withstand crises?
One striking finding from my review was the surge in educational research after the Covid-19 pandemic began – from 229 studies in 2019 to nearly double that in 2020, with continued rapid growth thereafter. This indicates growing recognition that education systems must be redesigned to withstand future disruptions, not merely recover from current ones.
Research points to a number of ways to do this:
Strategic investment in educational infrastructure, particularly digital technologies, to ensure learning continuity.
Equipping educators with skills to adapt teaching methods during emergencies.
Innovative, context-appropriate teaching approaches that empower communities.
Integration of indigenous knowledge systems into curricula, enhancing relevance, adaptability and community ownership.
Interdisciplinary and cross-national research collaborations.
Protection of education budgets, recognising education’s role in crisis recovery and long-term stability.
Community engagement in education, ensuring interventions are culturally appropriate and widely accepted.
In my view, African philanthropists have a duty to provide the independent financial base that education systems need to withstand external funding fluctuations.
What’s the cost of doing nothing?
The economic and social costs of failing to build resilient education systems are profound and long-lasting. Each educational disruption creates negative effects that extend far beyond the crisis period.
When students miss critical learning periods, it reduces their chances in life. The World Bank estimates that learning losses from the Covid-19 pandemic alone could result in up to US$17 trillion in lost lifetime earnings for affected students globally.
Social costs are equally severe. Educational disruptions increase dropout rates, child marriage, early pregnancy, and youth unemployment. These outcomes create broader societal challenges that require costly interventions across multiple sectors.
Spending on educational resilience avoids those costs.
The question isn’t whether southern African nations can afford to invest in educational resilience, but whether they can afford not to.
The choices made today will determine whether education systems merely survive crises or make society better. Evidence-based policies and regional cooperation are essential for building education systems that can fulfil Southern Africa’s human potential.
Emmanuel Ojo receives funding from National Research Foundation (NRF).
