NewzIntel.com

Category: Natural Disasters

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Hainan issues typhoon warning level 4

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    HAIKOU, June 10 (Xinhua) — South China’s Hainan Province issued a level 4 typhoon alert at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday as a tropical depression formed over the central South China Sea and is expected to strengthen into the first typhoon of the year within the next 24 hours.

    It is expected to gradually approach the east coast of Hainan and is likely to make landfall in the region around Friday, the local weather service said.

    The marine affairs bureau of Sansha City, China’s southernmost city, also issued a weather warning for parts of the Xisha Islands.

    Since Monday, large vessels such as cargo ships and engineering vessels have been evacuated from the Xisha Islands. Smaller vessels have been pulled ashore and professional rescue vessels are on standby.

    China has adopted a four-tier emergency response system for flood emergencies, with Level 1 being the highest. -0-

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: App labelled national security risk

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Police Force’s National Security Department (NSD) said today that the public should not download a mobile app named “Reversed Front: Bonfire” or provide funding to its developer as the app promotes acts and activities endangering national security.

    It added that those who have downloaded the app should uninstall it immediately.

    In a press statement, the NSD said “Reversed Front: Bonfire” was released under the guise of a game promoting secessionist agendas such as “Taiwan independence” and “Hong Kong independence”, and which advocates armed revolution and the overthrow of the fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China.

    It is also designed to provoke hatred towards the central authorities and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the NSD added.

    The department stressed that persons or organisations who knowingly publish the app or content relating to it, which includes sharing or recommending the app to others online, may commit offences of “incitement to secession” and “incitement to subversion” under the Hong Kong National Security Law, or “offences in connection with seditious intention” under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance.

    Moreover, those who have downloaded the app may be regarded as being in possession of a publication that has a seditious intention.

    Under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a person who, without reasonable excuse, possesses a publication that has a seditious intention, commits an offence.

    A person who provides pecuniary assistance, or property, to the developer, which includes making payment through in-app purchases, with an intent to fund the commission of secession or subversion, also commits an offence.

    With approval from the Secretary for Security, the NSD has implemented a disabling action on electronic messages relating to “Reversed Front: Bonfire” in accordance with the Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the Hong Kong National Security Law.

    The NSD emphasised that acts or activities endangering national security are extremely serious offences. It added that the force will ensure that the law is observed and strictly enforced, and will take resolute actions to bring offenders to account.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Over 40,000 trees planted across the city

    Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen

    Over 40,000 trees have been planted across Aberdeen since 2022, members of the Net Zero, Environment, and Transport committee heard today. The work forms part of a plan to replenish and grow the city’s woods and other green areas.

    Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Ian Yuill said: “I’d like to express my thanks to our Environmental Services team, alongside our communities, for their efforts to replace lost trees, and plant new ones.”

    “We have set an ambitious objective to plant one million trees in Aberdeen by 2032, and each tree planted brings us closer to reaching that target.”

    Committee Vice Convener Councillor Miranda Radley added: “In recent years, our tree population has paid a heavy toll through the impact of storm damage.

    “It’s vital that we continue to replace what we’ve lost, but also improve green spaces in our communities for the benefit of our people, and for the natural environment.”

    The Tree and Woodland Strategic Implementation Plan, approved in 2022, sets an action plan for Aberdeen’s urban, street trees, rural trees, and woodlands. Work is currently ongoing expand and enhance the Granite City Forest as part of this plan.

    Tree replacement following damage caused by Storm Arwen has included 8,688 trees in Carnie Woods, 8,925 trees at Denwood, and 800 at the Crematorium. Local communities have helped to plant trees and provide support to the Environmental Services team.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Keeping our communities safer for all

    Source: Scotland – City of Perth

    This new team will create a dynamic and unified service designed to enhance community safety, improve local environments, and deliver more responsive support to residents across the region.

    The new team brings together the Council’s Parking and Civil Contingencies Service, Community Safety Team and Visitor Management into a single, streamlined unit under one leadership structure. The move is part of a broader strategy to deliver on the Council’s vision of a Perth and Kinross, where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality.

    By focusing resources where they’re needed most, the team will serve as the “eyes and ears” of the community, providing visible, intelligence-led patrols and rapid responses to local concerns. They will help protect our shared spaces, streets, landscapes, and local wildlife—ensuring Perth and Kinross remains welcoming and secure for everyone, whether residents or visitors.

    Working closely with local partners and residents, the team will take a proactive, community-first approach to address key concerns such as illegal parking, irresponsible visitor behaviour, shoplifting, and anti-social activity.

    This collaborative strategy will not only enhance public safety but also support local businesses and strengthen community trust.

    Recently, in partnership with Snaigow Estates, Rangers from our Community Support and Enforcement and Community Greenspace teams installed new  fencing and signage at Loch Clunie. This initiative is designed to prevent access to a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Protecting these areas is vital, as it is an offence to intentionally or recklessly cause damage to the protected environment.   

    The CSE Rangers will continue to work with partners to patrol known hotspots such as Loch Clunie to ensure everyone is following the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, protecting our landscapes for everyone. On a recent patrol, several pieces of outdoor camping kit were abandoned. However, this has now been donated to Blair Atholl Primary School and Our Lady’s RC Primary School.  

    Supporting community resilience is also a key part of the team’s remit. In partnership with River Track, Scottish Flood Forum and Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council, a new river level monitoring system has been installed at the Rattray Burn. This early warning system will provide residents with timely flood alerts, empowering them to take preventative action and stay safe during periods of heavy rainfall.   

    The team will continue to take a strong, visible stance against unsafe, unfair and illegal parking as well as anti-social behaviour. 

    Councillor Eric Drysdale, convener of Perth and Kinross Council’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee said: “It’s been fantastic to see the positive impact that the team have already made across Perth and Kinross in such a short time since coming together.”

    “From encouraging responsible outdoor behaviour during the recent spell of sunny weather, supporting events on VE Day, to working closely with local flood groups in preparation for future storms, the team is making a real difference. 

    “By working in new and more effective ways with communities and partners, the team is helping to create a safer, cleaner and more welcome Perth and Kinross for everyone.”
     

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cleaning up Trump’s mess, California surges regional law enforcement response in Los Angeles

    Source: US State of California 2

    Jun 9, 2025

    What you need to know: California is surging mutual aid resources to support law enforcement as they clean up the actions caused by President Trump.

    LOS ANGELES – Moving quickly to support local response to federal actions that have caused unrest in Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced surging state and regional law enforcement mutual aid to the region. After the President acted illegally to federalize the National Guard, who subsequently became the focus of large scale protests, the state is working with local partners to surge 800+ additional state and local law enforcement officers into Los Angeles to clean up President Trump’s mess.

    “Chaos is exactly what Trump wanted, now we are sending in hundreds more law enforcement to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders stand together, coordinated and resolute to ensure the safety of the Los Angeles region.”

    Governor Gavin Newsom

    California’s mutual aid system, which is overseen by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, has been in place for decades and provides a framework for neighboring law enforcement agencies to assist one another during times of emergency. To ensure continued coordination among all law enforcement partners, the Governor has activated the State Operations Center to remain vigilant in the days to come. 

    “While Washington choreographed these chaotic events, the LAPD and local law enforcement continue to effectively respond,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “There is a strong local mutual aid agreement here in California and it has already been activated according to policy. To our local law enforcement partners: thank you for having our back just as we have yours.”

    640+ Highway Patrol Officers on the ground

    Through joint unified command between the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), the Governor is surging five CHP Special Response Teams of nearly 400 additional officers into Los Angeles in support of LAPD. In addition, CHP has activated a regional Tactical Alert, which provides more than 250 CHP officers to assist with roadway and highway safety in Los Angeles.

    “The California Highway Patrol’s top priority is the safety of every community we serve. We are working in full coordination with our local and state public safety partners to ensure a unified, strategic response,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “The CHP is committed to restoring calm and protecting our communities with professionalism and resolve.” 

    A little over 300 of the 2,000 federalized National Guard members are on the ground in Los Angeles, the rest are awaiting orders.

    240+ officers from neighboring jurisdictions providing mutual aid

    The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, in coordination with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), has formally requested mutual aid assistance from law enforcement agencies within and outside of Los Angeles County to support LAPD, and approved the following mobilization:

    • 20 deputies from San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
    • 83 deputies from Orange County Sheriff’s Department
    • 32 deputies from Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department
    • 44 deputies from Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
    • 80 officers from municipal police agencies within Los Angeles County

    To bring further support to the region, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has already provided more than 200 deputies to support the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

    “This collaboration ensures a unified response and reinforces public safety efforts across the region. The Department remains committed to leveraging all available mutual aid channels to protect our communities and support our regional partners during the ongoing civil unrest,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna.

    “Cal OES is committed to protecting the safety and well-being of all Californians. We are working closely with local leaders to ensure they have the support they need to keep communities safe, uphold rights, and de-escalate tensions,” said Nancy Ward, Cal OES Director. “This collaborative approach ensures appropriate resources respond swiftly and effectively while protecting the public.” 

    Stay peaceful, never resort to violence 

    As the entire region comes together to keep the peace, this is a reminder to Californians that they have a right to speak out, but they must remain peaceful. Those who engage in protests and demonstrations must always emphasize partnership, unity and non-violence. So far, officers have at least 40 arrests due to vandalism, looting and violence.

    “I want to make it crystal clear, you can hurl insults at whoever you want. However, if you hurl cinder blocks, light vehicles on fire, destroy property and assault law enforcement officers, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “Our First Amendment right is precious and we will protect it, but if you cross the line and commit criminal acts, please know this is your warning.”

    Recent news

    Jun 9, 2025

    News “An unmistakable step toward authoritarianism” What you need to know: Standing up for state sovereignty throughout the nation, California Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta are suing the Trump administration for its illegal takeover of the California…

    Jun 8, 2025

    News In case you missed it, every single Democratic governor agrees: Donald Trump’s attempts to militarize California are an alarming abuse of power. Democratic Governors Association: “President Trump’s move to deploy California’s National Guard is an alarming abuse…

    Jun 8, 2025

    News In case you missed it, last night, President Trump – disregarding Governor Newsom – federalized California National Guard troops in Los Angeles at a time when there were no unmet law enforcement needs. In fact, local law enforcement efforts successfully…

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Kamal Kishore: We can celebrate success, but the real work starts now

    Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

    Last week the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction brought together an amazing, devoted community of disaster risk reduction practitioners from all around the world.

    Over the past four decades, since the early days of the Decade for Disaster Risk Reduction, this community has really stuck together. It’s a caring community: sensitive, solutions-oriented, increasingly inclusive.

    It’s fantastic that we can come together every few years to take stock of what we’re achieving, where we are falling short, and what we could do more of.

    Throughout the week they have shown us solutions from every corner of the world – from remote communities in Nepal to small island nations across the Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean, to flood- or drought-prone regions across the globe.

    There’s so much happening – and that is a real cause for optimism. It provides me with determination to do more.

    After reflecting on all that I’ve learnt, the discussions I’ve had and listened to, and the immense collection of experience, perspectives and wisdom that were assembled, I want to highlight three things:

    First: we are succeeding

    Disaster mortality is down 50% decade on decade.

    Over 130 countries have DRR strategies.

    That’s a scale of progress we haven’t seen in any other area of development practice. We are succeeding – and that’s rare.

    But success is fragile: Yes, fewer lives are lost – but the newer risks are shifting. Mortality risk from intensifying hazards like heatwaves, and low-frequency high-impact geophysical hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis continues to be a cause for concern.

    We still have work to do on Target A – to reduce disaster mortality – and Target E – to put in place national and local DRR strategies.

    Strategies exist; but are they backed by funding? By legislation? Are their effects felt at local level? We must ask these tough questions – to ourselves, our communities, and our governments – so that we can find and fill the gaps.

    Success is not guaranteed to last. We need to consolidate our progress and remain alert. We have to do more.

    Second: we need to get serious about financing 

    This is the next leap: we – as DRR practitioners, as governments, as the international community – still need serious resourcing for disaster risk reduction.

    After 35 years, we still haven’t cracked this problem, and no country is immune. We need to ask, why?

    The evidence shows the value of DRR investments, but we need to make it more robust and granular, and framed in ways that can persuade potential financiers.

    In our quest for more resources, we must look at all sources: national budgets, private capital, insurance, climate finance, development aid. The investments benefit everyone, so the money must come from everywhere.

    But that raises an equally important question: how do we use this money? Do we have the systems to allocate it effectively? Very few countries have national infrastructure investment plans that are informed by risk data.

    Switzerland – our GP 2025 host – is a standout. The Swiss Government and private sector invest billions every year in disaster risk reduction and measuring outcomes. And the returns of this investment are clear: just last week, when the village of Blatten was obliterated by a landslide, triggered by glacial melting, nearly all the population, plus their livestock, were evacuated to safety thanks to early warnings and robust risk management.

    We must continue to focus on infrastructure investment planning. This Platform brought together finance ministers and planners from several countries— but let’s go further. Next time we should bring 70 finance ministers, and ask them: “What is your infrastructure investment strategy, and how is it risk-informed?”

    We must go even further, and take the discussion beyond top-level conversations, down to sector-by-sector planning, and ask, “where is the risk?”

    Our 2025 Global Assessment Report can help show where the risk is; now we need to translate those findings into strategic investments, at scale. Otherwise, our development gains will be continuously eroded.

    This next leap is also about mainstreaming risk-informed development — something we’ve talked about for two decades, but we still haven’t done enough. This means investing in humble infrastructure – homes, schools, hospitals – and not just in power, water, transport, and telecoms.

    During the GP we had a ministerial roundtable on school safety. We know how to make schools safer: in Nepal, after the 2015 earthquake, every one of the 150 retrofitted schools in Kathmandu Valley remained usable.

    And in doing all this, we must keep our promise to the Small Island Developing States, who are at the frontline of increasing climate disasters.

    Third: there is inspiration all around us

    My third point is about inspiration. What has been really inspiring at this Platform is the work of community groups, women’s groups, youth groups, local governments.

    The innovative work is happening at local levels. We need to capture and elevate these initiatives – not just to circulate in reports, but to give legitimacy, voice, and funding so these actions can be scaled.

    The future of disaster risk reduction is not just national. It’s in cities, towns, and villages.

    If we don’t reduce risk at the local level, we won’t succeed. Local actors are already taking action – they are not waiting for the UN or national governments. We must scale this work.

     

    Watch some examples of inspiring initiatives 

    To sum up: If we consolidate our progress – without taking it for granted; if we fast-track financing for DRR; and if we elevate local action, we will go far. In five years, we will be celebrating not just disaster risk reduction, but human flourishing.

    The slogan for the 2025 Global Platform has been ‘Every day counts: act for resilience today.’ We must all take that call to heart.

    The work starts now.

    We have the eight-point Geneva Call for Disaster Risk Reduction to guide us, outlined in the Global Platform Co-Chairs’ Summary.

    When asked how the Global Platform was, I say: I’ll tell you in six months – because the discussions and pledges made this week are only as good as the follow-up.

    Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who put in so much hard work that contributed to the success of the 2025 Global Platform: The Government of Switzerland and the Canton of Geneva for hosting, the Member States and ministers, UN partners, my UNDRR team, and most of all, the dedicated and tireless DRR community who joined us in Geneva and remotely.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: The Geneva Call for Disaster Risk Reduction: The Co-Chairs’ Summary of the Global Platform

    Source: UNISDR Disaster Risk Reduction

    The eighth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction took place from 2 to 6 June 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was co-chaired by Ambassador Patricia Danzi, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Kamal Kishore, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

    This edition of the Global Platform was the first since the Midterm Review of the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. Since 2015, countries have made significant progress, but challenges remain. Recognising this, the Global Platform was organised under the theme of “Every Day Counts, Act for Resilience Today.”

    The 8th Global Platform’s outcome document, the Co-Chairs’ Summary, is titled the “Geneva Call for Disaster Risk Reduction.” It aims to serve as a guide and a rallying call to governments and stakeholders to accelerate the implementation of the Sendai Framework in the remaining five years until 2030. The Summary concludes with an eight-point call to action: The Geneva Call for Disaster Risk Reduction:

    The Geneva Call for Disaster Risk Reduction

    Successes over the last ten years in the implementation of the Sendai Framework are a cause for optimism, especially as local actors and communities are inspiring the world with examples of how they are managing risks. As the cost of disasters increases and international assistance dwindles, urgent, more concrete actions are needed in the next five years to sustain progress towards achieving the expected outcome and goal of the Sendai Framework by 2030, thereby contributing to meeting the goals of the 2030 Agenda, and post-2030 considerations.

    1. Better data to understand risk: The collection, analysis and application of risk information should underlie all resilience-building measures. Countries need to collect and share historical data, track disaster impacts, broken down by sex, age, disability and income, and conduct predictive analyses. The use of the disaster tracking system and the Sendai Framework Monitor should be scaled up.
    2. Use technology to leapfrog progress: All countries and communities can benefit from the ethical use of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to accelerate disaster risk reduction. Technology access should be facilitated for developing countries and ‘last mile’ communities in all countries.
    3. Promote integrated risk governance and cooperation: The growing complexity of risk demands breaking institutional and policy silos and integrate plans across To that end, a comprehensive risk management approach should be pursued to integrate the implementation of climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and social and environmental protection. International and regional cooperation needs to be enhanced to address transboundary and emerging risks, such as glacial lake outburst floods, sea-level rise and sand and dust storms, as well as extreme heat in line with the UN Secretary-General’s Call to Action on Extreme Heat.
    4. Invest in prevention: Increasing funding for disaster risk reduction is crucial to generate benefits across the development, humanitarian and climate agendas. This includes funds from domestic public budgets and climate finance, also leveraging innovative mechanisms with the private The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development is an opportunity to scale this up. International funding and technical assistance, as mutually agreed, should be enhanced for the most at-risk developing countries, as well as countries in fragile and conflict settings. Capacity building for disaster risk management can be reinforced through the Santiago network.
    5. Risk-inform all investments: When disaster risks are ignored, even the most ambitious development projects are likely to Public and private investments should be guided by a thorough understanding of disaster risk. For example, investment in the resilience of the education sector has a multiplier effect. Implementing the Comprehensive School Safety Framework will help protect children and youth from disasters.
    6. Scale-up early warning systems: Despite their value in reducing disaster deaths, nearly half of the world still lacks MHEWS. Achieving ‘Early Warnings for All’ requires increased international support and national ownership. Moreover, investing in anticipatory action, social safety nets and combating inequality can minimise disaster impacts and expedite
    7. Leave no one behind: All members of society can be leaders and agents for resilience. Governments and stakeholders should ensure full-scale implementation of the Sendai Gender Action Plan, the Global Children and Youth Call to Action and recommendations for accelerating disability inclusion.
    8. Prepare to ‘Build Back Better’: The Priority Actions to Enhance Readiness for Resilient Recovery provide a guide for countries to better plan how they will Build Back Better after Moreover, recovery efforts should be inclusive to address social and cultural needs.

    Download the Co-Chairs’ Summary 

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Christine Lagarde: Stemming the tide: safeguarding our ocean and economy

    Source: European Central Bank

    Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum in Monaco

    Monaco, 7 June 2025

    It is a pleasure to speak at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum.

    In his 1857 poem “Man and the Sea”, Charles Baudelaire explored the deep kinship between the ocean and humanity.[1] For Baudelaire, they were two forces drawn together by awe, fascination, and even conflict.

    Today, that dynamic has taken on a new and troubling dimension. We rely on the ocean for climate stability and economic prosperity, yet we are fuelling a climate crisis that threatens to undermine the very system we depend on. We cannot let that happen.

    Baudelaire described the sea as a “mirror” to the human soul. We now need to take a hard look in that mirror and ask ourselves: what can we do to stem the tide of this crisis, to safeguard our ocean and economy?

    This morning’s two panel discussions will go a long way towards answering that question. But I would like to take this opportunity to open the plenary session with a few thoughts – about what is at stake, and what stakeholders can do about it.

    The ocean’s importance for our climate and economy

    The ocean is home to 95% of the planet’s biosphere.[2] It spans environments as varied as sunlit coral reefs and pitch-black abyssal plains. And it supports an immense range of life, from countless microscopic organisms to the world’s largest animal, the blue whale.

    Given the ocean’s richness, it is worth preserving in its own right. But its value does not end there – the ocean also benefits humanity in two vital ways.

    First, it is one of the planet’s most powerful allies in the fight against climate change.

    The ocean helps to regulate global temperatures by absorbing vast amounts of heat and redistributing it through major currents like the Gulf Stream. It is also the world’s largest carbon sink, reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and helping to slow global warming.

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that the ocean has absorbed over 90% of the excess heat trapped in the earth’s system, as well as a third of the carbon dioxide that humans have emitted since the Industrial Revolution.[3]

    Second, a sustainable ocean serves as an important pillar supporting the global economy, providing for food security and economic opportunities.

    Marine ecosystems support over three billion people who rely on fish for at least 20% of their animal protein intake. Indeed, this dependency is more pronounced in some of the least-developed countries, where seafood provides most of the animal protein consumed.[4]

    These ecosystems also help sustain employment opportunities. More than 150 million jobs depend on the production, trade and consumption of ocean-based goods and services, according to the United Nations.[5] The ocean is also home to key natural resources, such as medicines and biofuels, which are vital for ongoing advances in healthcare and clean energy sectors.

    So, there is a great deal at stake in preserving the ocean’s health.

    The threat of climate change

    But today we are placing the sustainability of our ocean under extraordinary stress, with serious implications for both our climate and economy.

    Without the ocean’s capacity to absorb heat and carbon, we would have had to contend with a faster, even more dangerous pace of global warming. Yet there are now signs that this capacity is becoming strained.

    The last ten years were the ocean’s warmest on record. Warmer oceans are driving more frequent marine heatwaves, which damage ecosystems, and have been a major contributor to rising sea levels due to the thermal expansion of seawater. The rate at which the global mean sea level is rising has more than doubled over the past three decades.[6]

    On top of this, the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide is driving acidification.

    Combined with ocean warming, acidification is contributing to the bleaching and death of coral reefs, which are vital for supporting fisheries and protecting coastlines from storms. Since 2023 over 80% of the world’s coral reefs have been affected by bleaching.[7]

    We find ourselves in dangerous waters. Together, these changes could have profound consequences for the global economy.

    Food security may be undermined, potentially leading to more volatile prices, which is a concern for central banks tasked with safeguarding price stability. And if coastal areas become unliveable due to rising sea levels or frequent flooding, people may be forced to move. More than 600 million people around the world live in coastal areas that are less than ten metres above sea level.[8]

    Stemming the tide

    So, what can we do to stem the tide of these troubling developments? We may not be able to fully reverse the damage done, but we can work towards slowing its momentum, potentially even stopping it, by acting on two important fronts.

    First, we need to protect. That means cutting greenhouse gas emissions decisively and keeping the goals of the Paris Agreement within reach.

    If we succeed in doing so, we could limit sea level rise to around half a metre by the end of the century. That might not sound reassuring. But every tenth of a degree we avoid is a piece of coastline preserved, a reef protected or a storm surge weakened.

    We also need to protect the natural systems that shield us from floods. Nature-based solutions – for instance, restoring mangroves, marshes and coral reefs – offer powerful, cost-effective defences against extreme weather. Coral reefs alone can reduce wave energy by an average of 97% while supporting fisheries, tourism and coastal livelihoods.[9]

    The second front is just as important: we need to prepare.

    Whether we like it or not, climate-related risks are materialising. We need to adapt our infrastructure and economies to a more volatile world. That includes building sea walls and surge barriers and budgeting for resilience rather than reacting after disaster strikes.

    Make no mistake: adaptation will be costly. According to UN assessments, costs could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars globally each year by mid-century.[10] But the cost of inaction would be far higher. One study estimates that failing to keep global temperatures below two degrees above pre-industrial levels could lead to USD 14 trillion in global annual flood costs by 2100.[11]

    To meet this challenge, we need to catalyse finance for marine and coastal conservation – for instance, through innovative approaches that convert natural capital into financial capital.[12]

    This can be especially impactful for vulnerable countries with limited fiscal space. Above all, we must listen to the communities affected, treating their needs as a basis for our actions rather than an afterthought.

    Let me conclude.

    Baudelaire reminds us that the sea is a mirror of our own nature, which can either heal or harm.

    So, let us choose to heal. That means nurturing the ocean’s rich diversity and facilitating finance to support innovative adaptation measures that build more resilient communities and a stronger global economy.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Israel/OPT: West Bank military operation part of ‘ruthless apartheid system’ – new briefing

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Israel’s military operation over the past four months has led to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank

    The Israeli military has declared Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps closed military zones, blocking residents from reaching their homes or what remains of them

    ‘If they let us return, even those whose homes haven’t been entirely destroyed will need months to rehabilitate these homes, due to the heavy destruction and damage to the structures’ – Nihad Shaweesh

    ‘These actions are part of a wider pattern of unlawful Israeli policies and practices to dispossess, dominate and oppress Palestinians in the West Bank under Israel’s ruthless system of apartheid’ – Erika Guevara Rosas

    The Israeli military has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians by destroying homes and essential civilian infrastructure in Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps rendering them uninhabitable, as part of its ongoing brutal military operation in the occupied West Bank, said Amnesty International. 

    On 5 June, Palestinians mark Naksa Day, commemorating the forced displacement of approximately 300,000 Palestinians during the June 1967 war, when Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Fifty-eight years on, Israel’s military operation over the past four months has led to the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since then.

    The Israeli army has deployed tanks, carried out air strikes, destroyed buildings, dug up roads and infrastructure, and imposed extensive restrictions on freedom of movement through checkpoints and roadblocks. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, between 21 January and 4 June, the Israeli forces have killed at least 80 Palestinians, including 14 children, in the northern West Bank, including Nablus.

    Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said:

    “Israel’s deadly military operation in the occupied West Bank, unfolding in the horrific shadow of its ongoing genocide in the occupied Gaza Strip, has had catastrophic consequences for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians who are facing a rapidly escalating crisis with no foreseeable prospects of return. Unlawful transfer of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a war crime.

    “Israel must immediately halt illegal practices leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians, including attacks on residential areas, destruction of property and infrastructure, pervasive access and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians.

    “These actions are part of a wider pattern of unlawful Israeli policies and practices to dispossess, dominate and oppress Palestinians in the West Bank under Israel’s ruthless system of apartheid.

    “The international community’s persistent failure to hold Israel accountable for its violations against Palestinians, in particular for its cruel system of apartheid and unlawful occupation has emboldened Israel and fueled further egregious violations of Palestinians’ rights.”

    40,000 residents have been displaced

    Members of popular committees of Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps told Amnesty an estimated 40,000 residents have been displaced, half of whom are from Jenin refugee camp. 

    Video footage verified by Amnesty provides evidence of wide-scale home demolitions and damage to civilian property and infrastructure in the camps. Arrests have also soared, with the Palestinian Commission of Detainees reporting approximately 1,000 Palestinians arrested in Jenin (700) and Tulkarem (300) since the operation began.

    The Israeli military has declared Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps closed military areas, with forces stationed there, actively preventing residents from accessing their homes or what’s left of them. Witnesses said that Israeli forces shoot at civilians who attempt to go back even just to check on their properties or collect belongings.

    In a stark example, on 21 May, a diplomatic delegation of representatives from over 20 countries, including the UK, France, Canada, China and Russia, came under fire from Israeli soldiers while visiting Jenin refugee camp.

    ‘Most destructive’ operation in decades

    Israel’s military operation started in Jenin Refugee Camp on 21 January, and expanded to Tulkarem refugee camps on 27 January, and subsequently to Tammoun town and Al-Far’ah refugee camp. While Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Far’ah on 12 February, they continue to be stationed in Jenin and Tulkarem.

    In an alarming development on 23 February Israeli tanks were deployed to Jenin for the first time in more than 20 years. On the same day Israel’s Defense Minister instructed the army to “prepare for a long stay in the camps that were cleared” and to prevent residents from returning. Israeli media, citing military sources, have reported that the operation is expected to last for months with hundreds of soldiers remaining in the camps for “monitoring”. 

    On 22 March 2025, UNRWA had already described the operation as “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada in the 2000’s.”

    Home demolitions and destruction of infrastructure

    The Israeli military has relentlessly destroyed hundreds of homes in these camps and adjacent neighborhoods during military operations or with demolition orders. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports that in the Jenin refugee camp alone, the Israeli army fully destroyed hundreds of homes and damaged many more rendering them uninhabitable. In March, Israel announced plans to demolish 66 homes in Jenin camp. More recently, on 1 May, the Israeli army issued further demolition orders for 106 homes in Tulkarem refugee camps – 48 in Nur Shams and 58 in Tulkarem camp.

    Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified 25 videos shared on social media by residents or soldiers showing destruction of civilian property by Israeli forces in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps between 31 January and 1 June 2025. The footage shows numerous structures demolished with manually laid explosives, roads, buildings and cars destroyed with bulldozers and the aftermath of the destruction with civilian property reduced entirely to rubble. In many cases, Israeli forces appear to have conducted clearing operations, removing buildings to widen or create new roads.

    Amnesty also analysed 32 additional videos and photographs provided directly by Palestinians residents, which document damage to homes and personal property. The images show destroyed interiors, including shattered windows, broken furniture, damaged doors, ransacked closets, scattered personal belongings, and leftover food strewn across rooms.

    Nihad Shaweesh of the Nur Shams popular committee, said:

    “The level of destruction in the camps is so massive that it will take months before they are inhabitable again. If they let us return, even those whose homes haven’t been entirely destroyed will need months to rehabilitate these homes, due to the heavy destruction and damage to the structures.”

    A mother of six from Jenin Refugee Camp, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, described how she received photos on her phone showing her home being completely destroyed. She said:

    “I opened the photos and immediately recognised my children’s bed sheets. I couldn’t believe that was my house in the photos. They demolished the house and wrecked our SUV. Our car was nothing but a mass of metal. I was in shock. I couldn’t speak and only kept crying.”

    A resident of Nur Shams, Ibraheem Khalifa, described how his family was forcibly displaced on 9 February and the subsequent demolition of their apartment building:

    “We arrived … to witness the demolitions of our neighbours’ homes and to be present with them [in solidarity]. However, while sitting there, we realised that the [military] bulldozer started to demolish our homes as well. These are apartments we built with our own hands. There, we grew up and made memories. In this house, we got married, held celebrations, went through sorrows – everything. This house witnessed it all. Now, our homes and all of our belongings in them are gone.”

    As part of the operation Israeli forces have also systematically destroyed critical infrastructure, including roads, water, electricity, and communications networks. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society confirmed the widespread destruction of roads and streets within the refugee camps.

    Militarisation of camps and restrictions on freedom of movement

    Access to the refugee camps for residents and freedom of movement have also been severely curtailed with Israeli forces blocking entrances and main roads with metal gates or checkpoints and using military bulldozers to create dirt barriers and barbed-wire fences.

    One resident of Nur Shams, Fatima Ali, described how on 9 February, Israeli forces took over her home and converted it to a military outpost. She said they raided her home, forcing her brother’s family to leave while she, being ill and unable to walk due to destroyed streets, was confined to one room as her house was turned into a temporary military outpost:

    “You can see all directions from my house, I have a balcony and a door to the West and another to the North, so they [soldiers] came and occupied it. At first, they kept me inside, locked in one room. When they arrested someone, they brought him to my house. They told me to leave hours later, and I needed the emergency services to help me leave the camp because all the streets were dug up and destroyed.”

    The military operation has also infringed on other social and economic rights including the right to education with many children missing weeks of school. In Tulkarem, more than 691 businesses have been destroyed, damaged and remain shut down.

    Qais Awad of the Tulkarem Chamber of Commerce, said:

    “Tulkarem became a ghost town. Businesses in the city close at 6pm because there are no visitors or customers coming from outside. Tulkarem farmers cannot reach their agricultural lands and workers cannot leave due to the closure of checkpoints. The economic situation in the city is catastrophic.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: An-2 plane out of contact in Russian Yakutia — media

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Moscow, June 10 /Xinhua/ – An An-2 plane with Avialesookhrana workers is out of contact in Russia’s Yakutia, with three people on board, TASS reported on Tuesday, citing information from emergency services.

    According to the report, the An-2 was monitoring the forest fire situation when contact with it was lost. There are two crew members and an Avialesookhrana observer on board. The incident occurred at about 08:00 Moscow time. The An-2 sent a distress signal in Yakutia. An Mi-8 helicopter was sent out to search for it. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Three property owners fined over $410,000 in total for not complying with statutory orders

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Three property owners fined over $410,000 in total for not complying with statutory ordersIssued at HKT 11:00

    Three property owners were convicted and fined over $410,000 in total by the court earlier for failing to comply with statutory orders issued under the Buildings Ordinance (BO) (Cap. 123). The first case involved an unauthorised structure with an area of about 50 square metres on the roof of a village house in D.D.183, Sha Tin. Since the Lands Department would not issue a certificate of exemption for the unauthorised building works (UBWs) and the UBWs were carried out without prior approval and consent from the Buildings Department (BD), a removal order was served on the owner under section 24(1) of the BO. Failing to comply with the removal order, the owner was prosecuted by the BD and was fined $128,300 in total, of which $108,300 was the fine for the number of days that the offence continued, upon conviction at the Shatin Magistrates’ Courts on June 4. The second case involved two unauthorised structures with a total area of about 102 square metres on the flat roof of a residential building at Tsing Chui Path, Tuen Mun. As the UBWs were carried out without prior approval and consent from the BD, a removal order was served on the owner under section 24(1) of the BO. Failing to comply with the removal order, the owner was prosecuted twice by the BD and was fined $22,760 in total upon conviction by the court. As the owner persisted in not complying with the removal order, the BD instigated the third prosecution in 2023. The owner was convicted and fined $197,500 in total by the Court, of which $97,500 was 10/06/2025, 09:57 Three property owners fined over $410,000 in total for not complying with statutory orders https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202506/10/P2025061000261p.htm#:~:text=%E2%80%8BThree property owners were,a village house in D.D. 1/2 the fine for the number of days that the offence continued, upon conviction at the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Courts on June 4. The third case involved alteration works at a composite building on Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon, including removal of two fire rated doors on the eighth floor and at the yard on the ground floor respectively, and a door opening formed in the wall of the yard on the ground floor. The alteration works affected the fire resisting construction of the building and contravened the Building (Construction) Regulation. A removal order was served on the owner under section 24(1) of the BO. Failing to comply with the removal order, the owner was prosecuted by the BD and was fined $85,060 in total, of which $81,060 was the fine for the number of days that the offence continued, upon conviction at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts on May 21. A spokesman for the BD said today (June 10), “Unauthorised building works, including unauthorised alterations affecting the fireresisting construction of a building, may lead to serious consequences. The owners concerned must comply with the statutory orders issued by the BD without delay. The BD will continue to take enforcement action against owners who fail to comply with statutory orders, including instigation of prosecution, to ensure building safety.” Failure to comply with a removal order without reasonable excuse is a serious offence under the BO. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $200,000 and one year’s imprisonment, and a further fine of $20,000 for each day that the offence continues. Ends/Tuesday, June 10, 2025 Issued at HKT 11:00 NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Portland Man Faces Federal Charges for Distributing Fentanyl and Possessing a Firearm Following Fatal Overdose Investigation

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    PORTLAND, Ore.—A Portland man has been charged with distributing fentanyl and possessing a firearm following a fatal overdose investigation by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

    Daryl Antonio Edward Turner, 43, has been charged by criminal complaint with distribution of fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

    According to court documents, on June 2, 2025, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a suspected fatal overdose near Wood Village, Oregon. Deputies seized a substance suspected to be fentanyl from the scene and quickly developed leads of the alleged fentanyl supply source, later identified as Turner.  

    On June 5, 2025, investigators contacted Turner in Portland and seized a firearm, counterfeit pills suspected to contain fentanyl, and $922 in cash. When questioned by investigators, Turner admitted that he possessed fentanyl for further distribution, acknowledged the dangers of fentanyl, and was aware the substance could kill people.

    Turner made his first appearance in federal court today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. He was ordered detained pending further court proceedings.

    This case was investigated by the FBI and the Multnomah County Dangerous Drug Team (DDT). It is being prosecuted by AUSA Scott Kerin, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

    The Multnomah County DDT is supported by the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program (HIDTA) and is composed of members from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Multnomah County Parole and Probation, Gresham Police Department, the FBI, and U.S. Marshal’s Service (USMS).

    The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives.

    A criminal complaint is only an accusation of a crime, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin. A 2-milligram dose of fentanyl—a few grains of the substance—is enough to kill an average adult male. The wide availability of illicit fentanyl in Oregon has caused a dramatic increase in overdose deaths throughout the state.

    If you are in immediate danger, please call 911.

    If you or someone you know suffers from addiction, please call the Lines for Life substance abuse helpline at 1-800-923-4357 or visit www.linesforlife.org. Phone support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also text “RecoveryNow” to 839863 between 2pm and 6pm Pacific Time daily.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Driving innovation – 38,000 jobs on the horizon as pilots of self-driving vehicles fast-tracked

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 2

    Press release

    Driving innovation – 38,000 jobs on the horizon as pilots of self-driving vehicles fast-tracked

    From 2026, self-driving cars without a safety driver could be available for people to book via an app for the first time.

    • pilots of self-driving taxi- and bus-like services will be brought forward by a year to spring 2026, attracting investment and making the UK one of the world leaders in this technology
    • cutting-edge innovation, regulation and road safety will be the key priorities of the pilots – with the UK’s new automated vehicle legislation one of the most robust in the world
    • industry could create 38,000 jobs and add £42 billion to the UK economy by 2035, helping deliver the Plan for Change by putting money in people’s pockets

    Nearly 40,000 jobs could be created, roads could be safer, and billions could be added to the economy as self-driving vehicle pilots are set to start in England from spring 2026.

    Today (10 June 2025), Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has confirmed that the government will fast-track pilots to spring 2026, introducing self-driving commercial pilots on England’s roads.

    Firms will be able to pilot small scale ‘taxi- and bus-like’ services without a safety driver for the first time – which could be available to members of the public to book via an app – before a potential wider rollout when the full Automated Vehicles Act becomes law from the second half of 2027.

    Innovation, world-leading regulation and road safety will be at the forefront of the pilots, with self-driving vehicles aiming to reduce human error – which contributes to 88% of all road collisions.

    Bringing forward the pilots of self-driving vehicles will help the government deliver the Plan for Change, by creating 38,000 jobs to put money in the pockets of hardworking people, driving investment to back British engineering excellence and creating an industry worth £42 billion by 2035.

    Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said:

    The future of transport is arriving. Self-driving cars could bring jobs, investment, and the opportunity for the UK to be among the world-leaders in new technology.

    With road safety at the heart of our pilots and legislation, we continue to take bold steps to create jobs, back British industry, and drive innovation to deliver our Plan for Change.

    The Automated Vehicles Act will require self-driving vehicles to achieve a level of safety at least as high as competent and careful human drivers, and they will undergo rigorous safety tests before being allowed on our roads.

    By having faster reaction times than humans, and by being trained on large numbers of driving scenarios, including learning from real-world incidents, self-driving vehicles can help reduce deaths and injuries. Unlike human drivers, AVs can never get distracted or tired and they won’t drink-drive or speed.

    Self-driving vehicles can also improve transport for millions of people – providing greater choice and flexibility to get around more easily. They could add new public transport options in rural areas to boost connectivity for local communities, and improve mobility, accessibility and independence for those unable to drive.

    Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:

    We can’t afford to take a back seat on AI, unless it’s on a self-driving bus. It’s great to see the UK storming ahead as a global leader in using this technology – making our roads safer, travel easier and driving growth by spurring innovation across the country.

    That’s why we’re bringing timelines forward today, placing the UK firmly in the fast lane and creating opportunity along the way so people across the country benefit.

    Self-driving trials have already been taking place in the UK since January 2015, with British companies Wayve and Oxa spearheading significant breakthroughs in the technology. From spring 2026, self-driving cars without a safety driver could be available for people to book via an app for the first time.

    The UK is already host to a thriving self-driving sector. Wayve secured a record-breaking investment of over $1 billion and announced recent partnerships with Nissan and Uber, while Oxa has already supported ‘bus-like’ services in the US and started rolling out self-driving vehicles at Heathrow Airport to improve baggage handling.

    Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO, Wayve says:

    The UK has been Wayve’s home since 2017 – building this technology here has been an incredible journey, from testing our first prototype in Cambridge to deploying the world’s first end-to-end AI driver on public roads, starting in London and expanding nationwide. 

    Accelerating commercial self-driving pilots to 2026 positions the UK as a leading destination for the deployment of L4 self-driving technology. These early pilots will help build public trust and unlock new jobs, services, and markets. For Wayve, this means we can prioritise the UK for early deployment and help deliver safer, cleaner mobility to the UK. We’re excited to bring the benefits of L4 autonomous mobility to cities around the UK.

    Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said:

    Britain’s self-driving vehicle revolution moves one step closer, with today’s announcements putting the country on track to reap the road safety and socio-economic benefits this technology can deliver.

    Pilot rollout of commercial self-driving services from next year will widen public access to mobility, while the consultation will ensure the technology is deployed in a safe and responsible way. These latest measures will help Britain remain a world leader in the development and introduction of self-driving vehicles, a manifest application of AI at its finest.

    Launched during London Tech Week, the commitments are a cornerstone of the department’s new Transport AI action plan – a groundbreaking vision which sets out how the government is using AI to drive economic growth, reduce traffic congestion, and improve transport for everyone in the UK.

    Gavin Jackson, Oxa’s CEO, said:

    Oxa welcomes the Department for Transport’s (DfT) decision to enable driverless services on British roads by 2026.

    Since 2024, Oxa has advocated for an expedited regulatory regime. Clear rules will open up the market and encourage transport companies to introduce the benefits of autonomous vehicles across the country. Today’s announcement shows that Britain is ready for this technology.

    Sarfraz Maredia, Head of Autonomous Mobility and Delivery at Uber, said:

    We welcome the UK government’s continued leadership on AV regulation and today’s announcement marks a significant step toward bringing autonomous services to the UK.

    Uber already enables tens of thousands of driverless trips each month worldwide through partnerships with leading AV developers. Having recently appointed a dedicated leader for our UK autonomous efforts, we look forward to working with regulators and partners to deploy this technology safely in Britain.

    Michelle Peacock, Head of Global Public Policy at Waymo said:

    The United Kingdom has long been home to our first European engineering team dedicated to the development of our AI-powered Waymo Driver. We’re delighted to see the government lay the groundwork for new investment possibilities in the years ahead.

    Today, our fully autonomous driving technology provides more than a quarter of a million paid trips each week across major American cities. We hope to continue growing our footprint globally, and one day bring Waymo’s safety, accessibility and sustainability benefits to the people of the United Kingdom.

    Julian David OBE, CEO, techUK, said:

    Today’s announcement is great news for the UK’s AV and tech sectors. Safety must be front and centre of any new regulatory regime. The call for evidence on the statement of safety principles enables a healthy discourse on what outcomes the public should expect from self-driving vehicles. The public must also be able to understand when their vehicle really is capable of driving autonomously to prevent accidental misuse. This is why the techUK members also strongly supports the draft statutory instrument on protecting marketing terms.

    The UK must also make sure it doesn’t fall behind other countries despite the promising progress made in 2024 to create new, bespoke legislation for AVs. The ability to deploy truly driverless passenger services from 2026 is a major milestone towards bringing the benefits of autonomy to communities across the country. That is why we warmly welcome plans to accelerate delivery of the necessary regulatory changes to make this a reality.

    Roads media enquiries

    Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

    Switchboard 0300 330 3000

    Updates to this page

    Published 10 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • Russia launches one of war’s largest air attacks on Kyiv

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa in attacks that killed at least two people, officials said on Tuesday.

    The overnight strikes followed Russia’s biggest drone assault of the war on Ukraine on Monday and were part of intensified bombardments what Moscow says is retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia.

    Loud explosions shook Kyiv and blasts and fires lit up the sky in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leaving palls of heavy smoke over the city, Reuters witnesses said.

    At least four people were treated in hospital after seven of the capital’s 10 districts were hit, city officials said.

    “Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. “Russian missile and Shahed (drone) strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace.”

    Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s allies to take steps to force Russia into peace, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for immediate new sanctions and air defence systems.

    Although Moscow and Kyiv have held two rounds of direct peace talks in recent weeks, the only tangible progress has been an agreement on exchanges of prisoners of war, and Russia has continued to advance along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

    Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the lack of progress towards ending the war, which has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with both sides.

    Russia temporarily halted flights overnight at four airports serving Moscow, at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport and at airports in nine other cities after the Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched more drones at Russia, officials said.

    Flights in Moscow and some other cities were later restored but restrictions were still in place in St Petersburg at 0430 GMT. No damage was reported.

    ‘DIFFICULT NIGHT’

    Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 315 drones across the country, of which 277 were downed. All seven missiles launched by Russia were also brought down, it said.

    Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to information released by the military.

    “A difficult night for all of us,” Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said on Telegram.

    Moscow has intensified attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv’s strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.

    Over the past week, Russia has launched 1,451 drones and 78 missiles to attack the country, according to Ukrainian air force data.

    In the southern port of Odesa, an overnight drone attack hit an emergency medical building, a maternity ward and residential buildings, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

    Two men were killed in the attack on the city but patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, he said.

    Both sides deny targeting civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Thousands of jobs to be created as government announces multi-billion-pound investment to build Sizewell C

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Thousands of jobs to be created as government announces multi-billion-pound investment to build Sizewell C

    10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, to be created as the government announces multi-billion investment to build Sizewell C.

    • Chancellor to confirm funding at the GMB Congress ahead of Spending Review, as Energy Secretary vows ‘golden age’ of nuclear.
    • Investment to deliver clean power to millions of homes, cut energy bills and boost energy security.
    • Government commits over £6 billion of investment to nuclear submarine industrial base to deliver on Strategic Defence Review.

    Ten thousand jobs will be created as the government announces a £14.2 billion investment to build Sizewell C nuclear plant as part of the Spending Review, ending years of delay and uncertainty. 

    The Chancellor is set to confirm the funding at the GMB Congress later today ahead of the government’s Spending Review, as the Energy Secretary vows a ‘golden age’ of nuclear to boost the UK’s energy security. 

    The government’s investment will go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and support thousands more jobs across the UK. 

    The company has already signed £330 million in contracts with local companies and will boost supply chains across the UK with 70% of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British suppliers – supporting new jobs in construction, welding, and hospitality.   

    The equivalent of around six million of today’s homes will be powered with clean homegrown energy from Sizewell C. The investment in clean, homegrown power brings to an end decades of dithering and delay, with the government backing the builders in the drive for energy security and kick-starting economic growth.  

    The announcement comes as the government is set to confirm one of Europe’s first Small Modular Reactor programmes. This comes alongside record investment in R&D for fusion energy, worth over £2.5 billion over five years. Taken together with Sizewell C, this delivers the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation.

    Clean, home-grown power at Sizewell C will help drive the UK’s energy security, as part of the government’s mission to protect family finances by replacing the UK’s dependency on fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators with homegrown power that we control.

    Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:

    Today we are once again investing in Britian’s renewal, with the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation. This landmark decision is our Plan for Change in action.  

    We are creating thousands of jobs, kickstarting economic growth and putting more money people’s pockets.

    Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband said:

    We will not accept the status quo of failing to invest in the future and energy insecurity for our country.  

    We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance, because that is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis. 

    This is the government’s clean energy mission in action- investing in lower bills and good jobs for energy security.

    Sizewell C

    Sizewell C will provide 10,000 people with employment at peak construction and support thousands more jobs across the UK, including 1,500 apprenticeships. The company has already signed £330 million in contracts with local companies and will boost supply chains across the UK with 70% of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British suppliers – supporting new jobs in construction, welding, and hospitality. Jobs in the nuclear industry pay well above national averages and the government is committed to working with nuclear trade unions such as the GMB, Unite, and Prospect, who will continue to play a pivotal role in building the industry.   

    Despite the UK’s strong nuclear legacy, opening the world’s first commercial nuclear power station in the 1950s, no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995, with all of the existing fleet except Sizewell B likely to be phased out by the early 2030s.  

    Sizewell C was one of eight sites identified in 2009 by then-Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as a potential site for new nuclear. However, the project was not fully funded in the 14 years that followed under subsequent governments.  

    The government’s nuclear programme is now the most ambitious for a generation – once small modular reactors and Sizewell C come online in the 2030s, combined with Hinkley Point C, this will deliver more new nuclear to grid than over the previous half century combined.

    Small Modular Reactors

    Great British Nuclear is expected to announce the outcome of its small modular reactor competition imminently, the first step towards the goal of driving down costs and unlocking private finance with a long-term ambition to bring forward one of the first SMR fleets in Europe.  

    The government’s nuclear resurgence will support the UK’s long-term energy security, with small modular reactors expected to power millions of homes with clean energy and help fuel power-hungry industries like AI data centres.   

    This follows reforms to planning rules announced by the Prime Minister in February 2025 to make it easier to build nuclear across the country – changing the rules to back the builders of this nation, and saying no to the blockers who have strangled our chances of cheaper energy, growth and jobs for far too long.   

    The government is also looking to provide a route for private sector-led advanced nuclear projects to be deployed in the UK, alongside investing £300m in developing the world’s first non-Russian supply of the advanced fuels needed to run them.   

    Companies will be able to work with the government to continue their development with potential investment from the National Wealth Fund.

    Fusion Energy

    The government is also making a record investment in R&D for fusion energy, investing over £2.5 billion over 5 years. This includes progressing the STEP programme (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), the world-leading fusion plant in Nottinghamshire, creating thousands of new jobs and with the potential to unlock limitless clean power.  

    This builds on the UK’s global leadership to turbocharge economic growth in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, while helping deliver the UK’s flagship programme to design and build a prototype fusion power station on the site of a former coal-fired plant.

    Defence

    To secure the UK as a leader in both civil and defence nuclear, the government will also be investing £4 billion over the next decade in the Plymouth naval base as well as continued long-term investment in our Defence Nuclear Enterprise and its industrial base, as this is critical for our national security while also being a significant generator of economic opportunities, jobs and growth across the entire country. Further investments in the defence nuclear sector include over £6 billion over the Spending Review period to enable a transformation in the capacity, capability and productivity of the UK’s submarine industrial base, including at BAE Systems in Barrow and Rolls-Royce Submarines in Derby – to deliver the increase in the submarine production rate announced in the Strategic Defence Review. 

    In addition, we will embark on a multi-decade, multi-billion redevelopment of HMNB Clyde, with an initial £250 million of funding over 3 years, supporting jobs, skills and growth across the West of Scotland. 

    The government will also invest over £420 million of additional funding in Sheffield Forgemasters, securing 700 existing skilled jobs and creating over 900 new construction roles.

    Julia Pyke and Nigel Cann, Joint-Managing Directors of Sizewell C said:

    Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Sizewell C, the UK’s first British-owned nuclear power plant in over 30 years. It’s a privilege to be leading a project that will create over 10,000 jobs, secure Britain’s energy future and revitalise the UK’s nuclear industry.

    We aim to showcase British infrastructure at its best – delivering a cleaner, more secure energy future for generations to come.

    Warren Kenny, GMB Regional Secretary, said:

    Sizewell C is absolutely vital if the UK is to hit net zero.

    Nuclear power is essential for clean, affordable, and reliable energy – without new nuclear there can be no net zero.

    Sizewell C will provide thousands of good, skilled, unionised jobs and we look forward to working closely with the government and Sizewell C to help secure a greener future for this country’s energy sector.

    Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, said:

    Delivering this funding for Sizewell C is a vital step forward, this project is critical to securing the future of the nuclear industry in the UK.

    New nuclear is essential to achieving net zero, providing a baseload of clean and secure energy, as well as supporting good, unionised jobs.

    Further investment in SMRs and fusion research shows we are finally serious about developing a 21st century nuclear industry. All funding must be backed up by a whole-industry plan to ensure we have the workforce and skills we need for these plans to succeed.

    Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said:

    This new nuclear programme will give the country the jobs, the economic growth and the energy security we need to ensure a secure and reliable power supply for the future. This announcement shows the government is serious about new nuclear, and realising the economic benefits that come with it, and will be welcomed in communities the length and breadth of Britain.

    Updates to this page

    Published 10 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-Evening Report: In Trump’s America, the shooting of a journalist is not a one-off. Press freedom itself is under attack

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University

    The video of a Los Angeles police officer shooting a rubber bullet at Channel Nine reporter Lauren Tomasi is as shocking as it is revealing.

    In her live broadcast, Tomasi is standing to the side of a rank of police in riot gear. She describes the way they have begun firing rubber bullets to disperse protesters angry with US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants.

    As Tomasi finishes her sentence, the camera pans to the left, just in time to catch the officer raising his gun and firing a non-lethal round into her leg. She said a day later she is sore, but otherwise OK.

    Although a more thorough investigation might find mitigating circumstances, from the video evidence, it is hard to dismiss the shot as “crossfire”. The reporter and cameraman were off to one side of the police, clearly identified and working legitimately.

    The shooting is also not a one-off. Since the protests against Trump’s mass deportations policy began three days ago, a reporter with the LA Daily News and a freelance journalist have been hit with pepper balls and tear gas.

    British freelance photojournalist Nick Stern also had emergency surgery to remove a three-inch plastic bullet from his leg.

    In all, the Los Angeles Press Club has documented more than 30 incidents of obstruction and attacks on journalists during the protests.

    Trump’s assault on the media

    It now seems assaults on the media are no longer confined to warzones or despotic regimes. They are happening in American cities, in broad daylight, often at the hands of those tasked with upholding the law.

    But violence is only one piece of the picture. In the nearly five months since taking office, the Trump administration has moved to defund public broadcasters, curtail access to information and undermine the credibility of independent media.

    International services once used to project democratic values and American soft power around the world, such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, have all had their funding cut and been threatened with closure. (The Voice of America website is still operational but hasn’t been updated since mid-March, with one headline on the front page reading “Vatican: Francis stable, out of ‘imminent danger’ of death”).

    The Associated Press, one of the most respected and important news agencies in the world, has been restricted from its access to the White House and covering Trump. The reason? It decided to defy Trump’s directive to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

    Even broadcast licenses for major US networks, such as ABC, NBC and CBS, have been publicly threatened — a signal to editors and executives that political loyalty might soon outweigh journalistic integrity.

    The Committee to Protect Journalists is more used to condemning attacks on the media in places like Russia. However, in April, it issued a report headlined: “Alarm bells: Trump’s first 100 days ramp up fear for the press, democracy”.

    A requirement for peace

    Why does this matter? The success of American democracy has never depended on unity or even civility. It has depended on scrutiny. A system where power is challenged, not flattered.

    The First Amendment to the US Constitution – which protects freedom of speech – has long been considered the gold standard for building the institutions of free press and free expression. That only works when journalism is protected — not in theory but in practice.

    Now, strikingly, the language once reserved for autocracies and failed states has begun to appear in assessments of the US. Civicus, which tracks declining democracies around the world, recently put the US on its watchlist, alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Serbia and Pakistan.

    The attacks on the journalists in LA are troubling not only for their sake, but for ours. This is about civic architecture. The kind of framework that makes space for disagreement without descending into disorder.

    Press freedom is not a luxury for peacetime. It is a requirement for peace.

    Peter Greste is Professor of Journalism at Macquarie University and the Executive Director for the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.

    – ref. In Trump’s America, the shooting of a journalist is not a one-off. Press freedom itself is under attack – https://theconversation.com/in-trumps-america-the-shooting-of-a-journalist-is-not-a-one-off-press-freedom-itself-is-under-attack-258578

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI: Zero Trust Security Reduces Cyber Insurance Claims, Preventing up to $465 Billion Annually in Global Economic Loss from Cyber Attacks

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Nearly a third of the cyber events encompassed by the study potentially could have been prevented if zero trust was deployed, assuming proper cyber security hygiene was also applied
    • Companies can limit the risk of a damaging cyber incident by deploying zero trust, potentially reducing insured cyber loss by up to 31% annually

    SAN JOSE, Calif., June 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the leader in cloud security, today published a special report, examining the number of cyber incident insurance claims that potentially could have been avoided if the victim organization had deployed a zero trust architecture. Using the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center’s proprietary cyber losses dataset from the past eight-years, which collates cyber incidents from past claims, researchers estimated that overall cyber losses could have been potentially reduced by up to 31% had the organizations widely deployed zero trust security. This adds up to a projected reduction of up to $465 billion in global annual total economic losses.

    The analysis showed that North America experienced significantly more cyber incidents than the rest of the world during the past eight-year period, experiencing almost four times the amount of European cyber incidents. However, of the total incidents encompassed by the study, the percentage of attacks that potentially could have been mitigated by zero trust was greater internationally, with 41% of European events assessed as potentially preventable through zero trust architecture compared to 31% of events in North America.

    Scott Stransky, Managing Director and Head of the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center, said: “Being able to quantify the cost associated with the lack of zero trust implementation has not been previously investigated. The figure demonstrates the value and benefit of such controls, and highlights the potential benefits of greater cyber hygiene across industries.”

    The report highlighted that the rise in ransomware incidents, which increased 126% in a single year, has elevated the proportion of events that zero trust could have mitigated globally. From a size perspective, companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue stood to benefit the most from zero trust implementation, with 60% of attacks being deemed mitigable.

    Stephen Singh, Global Vice President, M&A/Divestiture and Cyber Risk, Zscaler, said: “This report underscores the importance of recognizing Zero Trust as a fundamental cybersecurity control that fortifies cyber hygiene. With the external attack surface identified as a key predictor of potential breaches, adopting Zero Trust and phasing out outdated, high-risk technologies such as firewalls and VPNs, shows a dramatic reduction in risk exposure.”

    Zero trust significantly increases the security of enterprise IT infrastructure and limits the ability for attackers to cause widespread and costly damage, by requiring continuous verification of every user, application, and device accessing an enterprise.

    Darin Hurd, CISO at Guaranteed Rates, commented: “We now have independent validation that zero trust offers significant benefits for cyber security practitioners responsible for mitigating business risk – companies that prioritize zero trust investments gain a significant edge as cyber defenders.”

    Some Zscaler customers are already receiving more favorable policies when partnering with cyber insurance underwriters, using Zscaler to accurately quantify business risk. Risk360, a part of the Zscaler Zero Trust ExchangeTM security platform, is a powerful cyber risk quantification service that streamlines cyber insurance applications and renewals.

    Built on Zscaler’s powerful Data Fabric for Security, Risk 360 provides organizations with a comprehensive and accurate cyber risk profile. With more than 50 million devices using Zscaler agents to collect and share telemetry, the platform provides in-depth visibility across an IT estate, enabling customers to share their zero trust adoption during the underwriting process.

    Download the full version of the special report now to dive further into the data.

    About Zscaler

    Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) accelerates digital transformation so customers can be more agile, efficient, resilient, and secure. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ platform protects thousands of customers from cyberattacks and data loss by securely connecting users, devices, and applications in any location. Distributed across more than 160 data centers globally, the SASE-based Zero Trust Exchange™ is the world’s largest in-line cloud security platform.

    Media Contact
    Nick Gonzalez
    Sr. Manager, Media Relations
    press@zscaler.com

    The MIL Network –

  • Frederick Forsyth, ‘Day of the Jackal’ author, dies at 86

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    British novelist Frederick Forsyth, who authored best-selling thrillers such as “The Day of the Jackal” and “The Dogs of War,” has died aged 86, his publisher said.

    A former correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, and an informant for Britain’s MI6 foreign spy agency, Forsyth made his name by using his experiences as a reporter in Paris to pen the story of a failed assassination plot on Charles de Gaulle.

    “The Day of the Jackal”, in which an English assassin, played in the film by Edward Fox, is hired by French paramilitaries angry at de Gaulle’s withdrawal from Algeria, was published in 1971 after Forsyth found himself penniless in London.

    Written in just 35 days, the book was rejected by a host of publishers who worried that the story was flawed and would not sell as de Gaulle had not been assassinated. De Gaulle died in 1970 from a ruptured aorta while playing Solitaire.

    But Forsyth’s hurricane-paced thriller complete with journalistic-style detail and brutal sub-plots of lust, betrayal and murder was an instant hit. The once poor journalist became a wealthy writer of fiction.

    “I never intended to be a writer at all,” Forsyth later wrote in his memoire, “The Outsider – My Life in Intrigue”. “After all, writers are odd creatures, and if they try to make a living at it, even more so.”

    So influential was the novel that Venezuelan militant revolutionary Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was dubbed “Carlos the Jackal”.

    Forsyth presented himself as a cross between Ernest Hemingway and John le Carre – both action man and Cold War spy – but delighted in turning around the insult that he was a literary lightweight.

    “I am lightweight but popular. My books sell,” he once said.

    His books, fantastical plots that almost rejoiced in the cynicism of an underworld of spies, criminals, hackers and killers, sold more than 75 million copies.

    Behind the swashbuckling bravado, though, there were hints of sadness. He later spoke of turning inwards to his imagination as a lonely only child during and after World War Two.

    The isolated Forsyth discovered a talent for languages: he claimed to be a native French speaker by the age of 12 and a native German speaker by the age of 16, largely due to exchanges.

    He went to Tonbridge School, one of England’s ancient fee-paying schools, and learned Russian from two emigre Georgian princesses in Paris. He added Spanish by the age of 18.

    He also learned to fly and did his national service in the Royal Air Force where he flew fighters such as a single seater version of the de Havilland Vampire.

    THE REPORTER

    Impressing Reuters’ editors with his languages and knowledge that Bujumbura was a city in Burundi, he was offered a job at the news agency in 1961 and sent to Paris and then East Berlin where the Stasi secret police kept close tabs on him.

    He left Reuters for the BBC but soon became disillusioned by its bureaucracy and what he saw as the corporation’s failure to cover Nigeria properly due to the government’s incompetent post-colonial views on Africa.

    It was in 1968 that Forsyth was approached by the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and asked by an officer named “Ronnie” to inform on what was really going on in Biafra.

    By his own account, he would keep contacts with the MI6, which he called “the Firm”, for many years. His novels showed extensive knowledge of the world of spies and he even edited out bits of The Fourth Protocol (1984), he said, so that militants would not know how to detonate an atomic bomb.

    His writing was sometimes cruel, such as when the Jackal kills his lover after she discovers he is an assassin.

    “He looked down at her, and for the first time she noticed that the grey flecks in his eyes had spread and clouded over the whole expression, which had become dead and lifeless like a machine staring down at her.”

    THE WRITER

    After finally finding a publisher for “The Day of the Jackal,” he was offered a three-novel contract by Harold Harris of Hutchinson.

    Next came “The Odessa File” in 1972, the story of a young German freelance journalist who tries to track down SS man Eduard Roschmann, or “The Butcher of Riga”.

    After that, “The Dogs of War” in 1974 is about a group of white mercenaries hired by a British mining magnate to kill the mad dictator of an African republic – based on Equatorial Guinea’s Francisco Macias Nguema – and replace him with a puppet.

    The New York Times said at the time that the novel was “pitched at the level of a suburban Saturday night movie audience” and that it was “informed with a kind of post‐imperial condescension toward the black man”.

    Divorced from Carole Cunningham in 1988, he married Sandy Molloy in 1994. But he lost a fortune in an investment scam and had to write more novels to support himself. He had two sons – Stuart and Shane – with his first wife.

    His later novels variously cast hackers, Russians, al Qaeda militants and cocaine smugglers against the forces of good – broadly Britain and the West. But the novels never quite reached the level of the Jackal.

    A supporter of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, Forsyth scolded Britain’s elites for what he cast as their treachery and naivety.

    In columns for The Daily Express, he gave a host of withering assessments of the modern world from an intellectual right-wing perspective.

    The world, he said, worried too much about “the oriental pandemic” (known to most as COVID-19), Donald Trump was “deranged”, Vladimir Putin “a tyrant” and “liberal luvvies of the West” were wrong on most things.

    He was, to the end, a reporter who wrote novels.

    “In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached,” he wrote. “It is our job to hold power to account.”

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-OSI Russia: All members of CDC’s immunization advisory committee fired

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) — U.S. Surgeon General Robert Kennedy Jr. on Monday fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s immunization advisory committee, saying the move would restore public confidence in vaccines.

    About two-thirds of the commission’s members were appointed in the final year of the Biden administration, Kennedy Jr. said in announcing his decision in a column for the Wall Street Journal.

    “The CDC’s immunization advisers wield enormous influence,” the New York Times commented. They scrutinize vaccine data, debate the evidence, and decide who should get shots and when. Insurance companies and federal health insurance programs like Medicaid are required to pay for vaccines recommended by the committee.

    The committee was scheduled to meet from June 25 to 27. It is not yet known when the new members will be announced, but the meeting will go ahead as planned, according to a statement released by the Department of Health and Human Services.

    “This is the latest in a series of steps by Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, to destroy decades of immunization standards,” the statement said. The advisory committee, which is more aligned with the views of R. Kennedy Jr., could significantly change or even reverse recommendations for immunizations for Americans, including childhood vaccinations. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • Russia’s latest drone strikes hit Kyiv, maternity ward in Odesa, Ukraine says

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Russia launched another prolonged drone attack on Ukraine, killing one person and damaging swathes of Kyiv as well as striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, regional officials said early on Tuesday.

    The overnight strikes followed Russia’s biggest drone assault on Ukraine on Monday – part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv’s recent brazen attacks in Russia.

    At least four people were hospitalised as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city’s 10 districts, city officials said.

    “You can’t break Ukrainians with terror,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said in a Telegram post after the attacks.

    Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to military data.

    “A difficult night for all of us,” Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military district, said on Telegram. “Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorized Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city.”

    The attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighbourhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters’ witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky.

    Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the darkness in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known.

    Moscow has dramatically increased the pace of its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv’s strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.

    The attacks come despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump on both sides to move towards a resolution on the war. Moscow and Kyiv returned to negotiations for the first time in more than three years, but outside an agreement on the exchange of war prisoners, there has been no tangible progress.

    In addition to swarms of drones and missiles launched in recent days, Russia has also been advancing further on the ground along the frontline in eastern Ukraine, claiming on Tuesday to take more territory there.

    In the southern port of Odesa, a “massive” overnight drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, said on Telegram.

    A 59-year-old man was killed in the attack on a residential area, and four people were injured, but patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, Kiper said.

    He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damage to the facade of several buildings.

    Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war. But thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

    (Reuters)

  • 15 states sue over Trump move to return seized rapid-fire devices for guns

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Fifteen Democratic-led U.S. states filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to block Republican President Donald Trump’s administration from returning thousands of previously seized devices that can be used to convert semiautomatic rifles into weapons that can shoot as quickly as machine guns.

    The states filed the lawsuit in federal court in Baltimore in the wake of the administration’s May 16 settlement that resolved litigation involving a ban on certain “forced-reset triggers” imposed by the government under Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. The states in the lawsuit said such devices remain illegal to possess under federal law.

    The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under Biden issued the ban after it determined that some of these devices should be classified as illegal machine guns under a federal law called the National Firearms Act.

    “We will not stand by as the Trump administration attempts to secretly legalize machine guns in an effort to once again put firearms industry profits over the safety of our residents,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

    The lawsuit was led by New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, and also included the states of Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington as well as the District of Columbia.

    The Trump administration’s settlement reversed course on the Biden administration’s policies.

    The settlement resolved lawsuits brought by a gun rights group challenging the ban and cases brought by Biden’s Justice Department against a manufacturer of the devices. Those cases had resulted in conflicting court rulings over the legality of classifying these devices as illegal machine guns.

    As part of the settlement, the Trump administration agreed to not apply the machine gun ban to such devices as long as they are not designed for use with handguns and agreed to return nearly 12,000 forced-reset triggers that had been seized by the government to their owners. The new lawsuit seeks to block the return of these devices to their owners.

    The states said conversion devices like forced reset triggers have been frequently used in recent years in violent crimes and mass shootings, and that at least 100,000 such devices that were distributed nationally in recent years should be considered illegal machine guns.

    The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    (Reuters)

  • US deploys Marines to Los Angeles as police break up fourth day of protests

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    The U.S. military will temporarily deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles until more National Guard troops can arrive, marking another escalation in President Donald Trump’s response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies.

    Tensions have been rising since Trump activated the National Guard on Saturday after street protests erupted in response to immigration raids in Southern California. It is the biggest flashpoint yet in the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to deport migrants living in the country illegally.

    The announcement that marines would be deployed was made on the fourth straight day of protests. Late on Monday police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held.

    National Guard forces had formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Then a phalanx of Los Angeles police moved up the street, starting to push people from the scene and firing “less lethal” munitions such as gas canisters. Police had used similar tactics since Friday.

    The LAPD said late on Monday afternoon that some protestors had started throwing objects at officers and the use of less lethal munitions had been authorized, adding in an X post: “Less lethal munitions may cause pain and discomfort.”

    California sued the Trump administration to block deployment of the National Guard and the Marines on Monday, arguing that it violates federal law and state sovereignty.

    U.S. Marines have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the September 11, 2001, attacks, but it is extremely rare for U.S. military troops to be used for domestic policing.

    For now, the Trump administration was not invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

    The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that a contingent of 2,000 National Guard troops would be doubled to 4,000. Trump said on Monday he felt he had no choice but to increase the level of force to prevent violence from spiraling out of control.

    Trump also said he supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan that California Governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested over possible obstruction of his administration’s immigration enforcement measures. “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters.

    Democrats said Trump’s decision to deploy military force to handle the protests amounts to an abuse of presidential power, and California’s lawsuit claimed it was illegal.

    “The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented,” Newsom’s press office said on X.

    FOUR DAYS OF PROTESTS

    The protests so far have resulted in a few dozen arrests and some property damage, including some self-driving Waymo vehicles that were set ablaze on Sunday evening. The Los Angeles Police Department said five officers sustained minor injuries on Saturday and Sunday, as did five police horses used in crowd control.

    Before the police intervention on Monday, several hundred protesters chanted “free them all” outside the Los Angeles federal detention facility where immigrants have been held.

    “What is happening effects every American, everyone who wants to live free, regardless of how long their family has lived here,” said Marzita Cerrato, 42, a first-generation immigrant whose parents are from Mexico and Honduras.

    Some in the crowd punched and tossed eggs at a Trump supporter at the event, while others fired paintballs from a car at the federal building.

    Protests also sprang up in at least nine other U.S. cities on Monday, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news outlets.

    The Trump administration has argued that Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration allowed far too many immigrants to enter the country and that Democratic-run cities such as Los Angeles are improperly interfering with efforts to deport them. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the U.S.-Mexico border, setting a goal of at least 3,000 daily arrests.

    Trump can deploy Marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief.

    The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked President George H.W. Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King.

    More than 50 people were killed in the 1992 riots, which also caused some $1 billion in damage over six days.

    Federal law allows the president to deploy the National Guard if the nation is invaded, if there is “rebellion or danger of rebellion,” or the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Targeted willow control in Ahuriri catchment

    Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council

    Date:

    Work programme protects waterways and wetland health

    Waterway management and wetland health is a primary focus of the work in the Ahuriri Catchment in the Upper Waitaki. The aim is to protect the ongoing health of Lake Benmore as well as identify and protect wetlands in the area. 

    “Wilding willows draw a huge amount of water, so where we have them invading wetlands and slow-flowing streams, they can reduce freshwater availability and degrade habitats,” said Jess Hishon-Knowles, senior land management advisor for the Mackenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki.

    “That’s why it was important to be mindful of the issues at play and get control under way.”

    Collaboration with landowners key

    Targeted spraying work was done by helicopter over a single day in late summer, just as trees were beginning to turn in the dry conditions. Plans were developed in collaboration with landowners, focusing on early-stage wilding willow seedlings. By the end of the day, more than 270 hectares had been sprayed across seven farms.

    “This was about targeting areas where wilding willows are a threat to biodiversity and water quality and supporting landowners who are already invested in improving the health of waterways,” said Hishon-Knowles.

    “The timing aligned well with work already happening through the Wairepo Catchment Group and their restoration project around the Wairepo Ponds.”

    The Wairepo Ponds are small man-made lakes joined to Lake Ruataniwha, a lake south of Twizel that forms part of the Waitaki hydroelectric scheme.

    Targeted aerial spraying of willow trees was undertaken in collaboration with landowners

    Willow control a balancing act

    Willow control remains a balancing act for us, with some willow varieties used in a managed way for erosion and flood protection.

    “Achieving the ideal outcome usually comes down to one simple principle—the right tree in the right place,” said Hishon-Knowles.

    Vegetation clearance in wetlands is a permitted activity, however, there are regulations and best practice guidelines that need to be followed, especially for aerial spraying.

    For any property owners in the Ahuriri and Upper Waitaki area looking to do this type of work, please contact Jess Hishon-Knowles, senior land management advisor.

    Environment Canterbury © 2025
    Retrieved: 3:29pm, Tue 10 Jun 2025
    ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/zone-news/upper-waitaki/targeted-willow-control-in-ahuriri-catchment/

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Government rightfully sued over illegal climate ‘plan’

    Source: Green Party

    Last week, world-leading climate scientists called out the Government’s approach to agricultural emissions. This week, climate lawyers have sued the Government because its Emissions Reductions Plans do not add up.

    “Luxon’s Government has chosen to pour oil, coal and gas on the climate crisis fire. Their climate ‘plan’ is not worth the paper it is written on. That’s why they’re being sued today,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and spokesperson for climate change, Chlöe Swarbrick. 

    “I called it a demonstrable lie when the Prime Minister told Parliament in December 2023 that he wasn’t weakening actions on climate – while he was actively weakening actions on climate. It was and remains a demonstrable lie. This is the first leg of the legal case.

    “The Luxon Government’s second Emissions Reduction Plan relies on unproven, economically unfeasible technologies and plastering our country in pine trees. This is the second leg of the legal case.

    “Christopher Luxon has spent the better part of two years telling the country everything is fine while he dismantles effective climate policy, gives handouts to the fossil fuel sector and platforms lobbyist’s pseudoscience on agricultural emissions. This would be a meme – a joke – if it wasn’t so serious.

    “The Greens have shown we can reduce climate-changing emissions five times faster than the Government’s ‘plan,’ while reducing the cost of living and improving our quality of life.

    “New Zealanders deserve so much better than this Government taking them for chumps,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

    NOTES:

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump orders Marines to Los Angeles as protests escalate over immigration raids, demonstrating the president’s power to deploy troops on US soil

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By William C. Banks, Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University

    National Guard members watch protests in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    President Donald Trump ordered a contingent of about 700 Marines to Los Angeles on June 9, 2025, in response to what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described as “increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings.”

    This dramatic escalation of the military presence in Los Angeles followed Trump’s June 7 order to send about 2,000 National Guard troops into the city.

    Both measures were Trump’s response to what he called “numerous incidents of violence and disorder” by those protesting his administration’s actions rounding up and deporting immigrants in the Los Angeles area.

    State and local officials decried Trump’s actions, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom calling the move “purposefully inflammatory,” as well as “an illegal act.” California sued the Trump administration on June 9 to block its deployment of National Guard members. Other critics of Trump’s actions said the scale and character of the protests did not warrant such extreme measures.

    Amy Lieberman, a politics and society editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with William C. Banks, a scholar of the role of the military in domestic affairs, to understand the extent of a president’s power to send American troops to Los Angeles.

    Hundreds of protesters march in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025, demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace raids.
    Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Can American troops be used inside the country?

    They can, but it is an extraordinary exercise of authority to use troops domestically. It has rarely been done in the U.S. as a way of responding to a civil disturbance.

    Congress has delegated that authority of deploying American troops domestically to the president in limited circumstances. Otherwise, the only authority is exercised by governors, who have control of the National Guard.

    Why was American law set up this way?

    The U.S. was founded in response to heavy-handed English use of the military by King George to interfere with the civil liberties and rights of the colonists in the lead-up to the American Revolution. So, when the founders created the U.S. Constitution, they were very careful to insert roadblocks that would make it difficult for the government to use troops to carry out its own programs.

    The country’s framers also understood there might be occasions when it would be necessary to use the military domestically. They did a couple of things to control the exercise of military authority. One was to ensure that the commander in chief of the military was a civilian. Second, they gave the authority to call up the National Guard, what was known as the “militia” in those days, to Congress, not to the president, in order to create a separation of powers.

    Under what circumstances can the president deploy troops to an American city?

    Under the Insurrection Act, which was signed into law in 1807, a president can deploy troops during what is called an insurrection, simply meaning when all hell breaks loose. The president can decide that it is “impracticable,” according to the Insurrection Act, to enforce the laws of the U.S. in a given city, and he may call forth the military or the National Guard to help restore law and order.

    In order to invoke the Insurrection Act, the president first has to make a proclamation to those he calls the insurrectionists to cease and desist. Unless the alleged insurrectionists immediately do what the president says, the president then has the authority to deploy forces.

    Trump has repeatedly called the protesters in Los Angeles “insurrectionists,” but has also walked those remarks back and hasn’t made any kind of formal proclamation yet. When Trump ordered California’s National Guard members to deploy to Los Angeles on June 7, he did so on a narrow statutory authority to protect federal buildings, properties and personnel that were trying to enforce immigration laws.

    What is the Posse Comitatus Act and how does it apply to the current situation in Los Angeles?

    Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878. This act’s name derives from an arcane Latin term that means “the power of the county.” This law establishes a legal presumption in the U.S. that the military, if it is deployed domestically, should not engage in law enforcement.

    This act is an important part of American law. It means that the military and National Guard are trained on this principle that they are not to engage in domestic law enforcement activities. Those are reserved for police, sheriffs and marshals. Invoking the Insurrection Act is the principal exception to this law.

    So the Insurrection Act allows the military to act as law enforcement officials?

    That’s right. By invoking the Insurrection Act the military could act as cops and have the right to arrest, investigate and detain civilians, with only the Constitution as a check on its power.

    This is not a situation that California National Guard members have trained for. They are trained to fight actual wildfires, but this is something entirely different.

    Demonstrators hold signs and fly flags, facing California National Guard members, in Los Angeles on June 9, 2024.
    Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

    Are there any legal roadblocks that could curb the president’s authority to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles?

    The short answer to this question is no.

    Can state governors or other elected officials prevent U.S. troops from being sent to their cities?

    In many ways that is the main question right now. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has said that the state doen’t need these military forces. Newsom’s June 9 lawsuit against the Trump administration argues that the authority over the National Guard is reserved for states, “unless the State requests or consents to federal control.” That has not happened in this case.

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

    – ref. Trump orders Marines to Los Angeles as protests escalate over immigration raids, demonstrating the president’s power to deploy troops on US soil – https://theconversation.com/trump-orders-marines-to-los-angeles-as-protests-escalate-over-immigration-raids-demonstrating-the-presidents-power-to-deploy-troops-on-us-soil-258527

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Kustoff Op-Ed: The ‘one big, beautiful bill’ will restore the American dream

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative David Kustoff (TN-08)

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman David Kustoff (R-TN) published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner titled, “The ‘one big, beautiful bill’ will restore the American dream.” In the op-ed, Congressman Kustoff highlights the historic tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and lays out how they will jumpstart the economy. He urges the Senate to pass this bill as soon as possible.

    The ‘one big, beautiful bill’ will restore the American dream
    By: Congressman David Kustoff 

    When President Donald Trump was elected in November, he made a series of promises to the people. One of those promises was to reinvigorate our economy and create more opportunities for families, farms, and small businesses across the nation.

    Republicans in Congress have worked in lockstep with Trump to deliver on that promise. The key to jumpstarting our economy is for Congress to extend the successful provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 through a wonky legislative process known as reconciliation. Reconciliation allows lawmakers to expedite legislation and enact policy quickly. Trump has dubbed this the “one big, beautiful bill.”

    Passed in 2017, TCJA was one of the hallmarks of the first Trump administration and was the first major reform to the federal tax code in over 30 years. It lowered individual income rates, reduced the corporate tax rate, changed rules for estate and retirement planning, and minimized taxes for small businesses. Essentially, it cut taxes across the board. 

    The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ignited a red-hot economy that lit an economic fire across our nation. After its passage, businesses were expanding, and families had more money in their pockets.

    Unfortunately, if Congress does not act, many of the provisions in TCJA will expire at the end of the year. If that happens, the average family in my district of West Tennessee will face a nearly 26% tax hike. A child inheriting the family farm could pay such steep estate taxes that he is forced to sell it. And a small business owner competing with larger corporations could see her taxes nearly double.

    These are not just numbers on a chart in Washington. These provisions affect each and every one of us. If they expire, the American dream could be unachievable for many of our citizens. 

    While Democrats were spending tax dollars over the past few years like our economy was a game of Monopoly, the House Ways and Means Committee was preparing for this moment. 

    As the chief tax writing committee in Congress, we held hearings across the nation to hear directly from individuals, business owners, manufacturers, and farmers. The number one thing they told us was that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act worked, and we cannot let its important provisions expire. 

    If we want to revitalize our economy, we must ensure that workers and businesses have the support they need from our tax code. My colleagues and I took what the public told us and crafted a tax bill that benefits both businesses and workers, incentivizes innovation, and creates more opportunities from coast to coast. 

    This tax bill prioritizes pocketbooks by solidifying and increasing the doubled standard deduction, boosting the doubled child tax credit, expanding the small business deduction, and making the doubled death tax exemption permanent for family-owned farms. It even goes a step further and incorporates Trump’s priorities of no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and tax relief for seniors.  

    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will be the cornerstone of Trump’s “America First” agenda. I am proud that the House of Representatives did its part and passed this historic legislation to ensure families and businesses are not forced to give more of their hard-earned money to Uncle Sam. 

    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is once-in-a-generation, nation-building legislation that will drive economic growth, create jobs, and prioritize American families and businesses. Time is of the essence. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass this bill that will safeguard the American dream for all.
     

     

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Three arrests, stolen property recovered from Nelson burglaries

    Source: New Zealand Police

    A 45-year-old man has been arrested and faces charges relating to a series of burglaries and thefts from vehicles in the Richmond and Stoke areas in recent months.

    A number of search warrants were executed in the Nelson area over the last couple of weeks, where Police recovered numerous items of stolen property, as well as two firearms and both class A and class C drugs.

    A 33-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were also arrested following one of the warrants, charged with receiving stolen property, unlawful possession of firearms and possession of drugs with intent to supply.

    We would like to thank the members of the public who reported these incidents to Police, as the information provided assisted greatly in making the arrests.

    We would also like to remind everybody to lock their vehicles and not keep any valuables inside if your vehicle is unoccupied. If you own any tools, ensure these remain out of sight and you have recorded a list of all the serial numbers, or engrave your initials into them.

    The 45-year-old man is due to appear in the Nelson District Court on 1 September, facing a number of charges including burglary and unlawfully being in an enclosed area.

    The 33-year-old man is due to reappear in the Nelson District Court on 7 July, and the 31-year-old woman will reappear in the Nelson District Court on 16 June.

    ENDS

    Issued by Police Media Centre

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: UPDATE 2: Coast Guard responds to vessel fire offshore Adak, Alaska

    Source: United States Coast Guard

    U.S. Coast Guard sent this bulletin at 06/09/2025 09:45 PM EDT

    News Release

    		  

    U.S. Coast Guard 17th District Alaska
    Contact: 17th District Public Affairs
    Office: (907) 463-2065
    After Hours: (907) 463-2065
    17th District online newsroom

     

    06/09/2025 09:21 PM EDT

    UPDATE 2: Coast Guard responds to vessel fire offshore Adak, Alaska

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Fatal house fire, Trentham

    Source: New Zealand Police

    One person has died following a house fire in Upper Hutt overnight.

    Emergency services were called to the Tararua Street property, between Ross Grove and Louis Street, about 2.25am, and found the house fully ablaze.

    Sadly, one person was found deceased at the property.

    A scene guard was in place overnight and Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand investigators carried out a scene examination this morning. The cause of the fire is still to be determined, but it is not believed to be suspicious.

    At this time, no further details are available.

    ENDS

    Issued by the Police Media Centre

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Amata Honors Henry Saaga and Thousands of Heroes for D-Day and Battle of Midway Anniversaries

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Aumua Amata (Western Samoa)

    Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is honoring the memory of Henry Saaga, who fought in the Normandy invasion, as the United States and World War II allies commemorate the anniversaries of two of the great turning points of the global war – D-Day in Europe in 1944, and the Battle of Midway in the Pacific in 1942. 

    Holding Henry Saaga family photo

    June 6th is anniversary of D-Day, in which Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, successfully but at great cost in lives. Also, this week, June 4-7 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Midway, a major air and sea battle that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific earlier in World War II. 

    Briefing at Aisne Marne American Cemetery in 2023

    “On these historic dates, we honor the valor of many thousands who changed the world and advanced the cause of freedom for generations, which our living Veterans and Service Members have since helped protect,” said Congresswoman Aumua Amata. “These anniversaries are sobering reminders of the sacrifices of war, but celebrations of these heroes and their enduring legacy of bravery and honor.”

    A Normandy Wreath-laying in 2023

    “Henry Saaga was a young Samoan soldier who was born and raised in Utulei Village, American Samoa. He fought in the invasion of Normandy, and was last seen fighting bravely in the hedgerow combat,” Amata continued. “He is honored on a commemorative wall in France, where names are highlighted with wet sand from the nearby beach – the only acceptable reason to take sand from the protected beach.”

    Henry Saaga’s name enshrined in France

    Known as D-Day, the invasion in Normandy demanded enormous logistical effort. Once the Allies established landings in France, the U.S. and Allied forces began pushing back the Nazi forces and liberating western Europe. General Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the troops across the English Channel with the message, “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hoped and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”

    Likewise, in the Pacific, the Battle of Midway was a difference-making three days of intense sea and air battle that historians agree changed the direction of the naval war for the years of fighting ahead.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –