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Category: Natural Disasters

  • MIL-OSI USA: Chairman Mast Delivers Opening Remarks at Hearing on State Department Authorization

    Source: US House Committee on Foreign Affairs

    Media Contact 202-321-9747

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast delivered opening remarks at a full committee hearing titled, “The Need for an Authorized State Department.”

    Watch Here

    -Remarks- 

    As I said, I called this hearing really to establish a simple fact: the State Department has many broken parts, and it’s been in many ways a broken part of our government for many years. It’s been too big. It’s had no clear mission or definition for public diplomacy, has very little command and control over the dollars that it sends across the globe. It’s spent your tax dollars in ways that would have been better if the State Department just lit the money on fire in many cases.

    Right now, more than 80% of the State Department is not authorized by Congress. That includes the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, with a budget of $57 million and 247 employees; the Bureau of International Organizations, with a budget of $90 million and 370 employees; and the Bureau of Administration, with a budget of $394 million and a staff of 700.

    Now, despite 80% of it not being authorized, the State Department’s bureaus, offices, and programs continued to grow each and every year. Last year, the State Department employed more than 80,000 people across the globe. Between the year 2000 and the year 2024, the State Department’s budget grew from roughly $9.5 billion to more than $55 billion over the course of that time.

    Where did that money go? Does our foreign policy feel like it’s five times more effective as we’ve spent five times more dollars? Instead, we’ve had a State Department with plenty of duplicative programs, but again, not a clear mission and a clear outline on how to go out there and affect the missions positively on behalf of the American people and all of our interests.

    The largest operation of the State Department in any of our lifetimes was the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was an abysmal failure. The State Department failed to plan everything from how many people would be requesting visas to how many people would be needed to process those visas and a thousand other things.

    The State Department is too big, and it’s also unaccountable because we’ve not conducted a comprehensive standalone reauthorization since 2002. It’s also prioritizing the wrong things, in my opinion. That is why we saw American dollars going out the door to foreign companies, foreign countries, foreign NGOs, and foreign adversaries like the Taliban with less oversight than it takes the average American citizen to get a driver’s license at the DMV.

    Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what the State Department’s funded with your tax dollars. Many of you heard me give lists of hundreds and hundreds of items. I’ll list just a couple: $14 million in cash vouchers for migrants at our southern border; $24,000 for a national spelling bee in Bosnia; $1.5 million to mobilize elderly, lesbian, transgender, non-binary, and intersex people to be involved in the Costa Rica political process; $20,000 for a drag show in Ecuador; $32,000 for an LGBTQ comic book in Peru.

    I would challenge anybody in here to refute that American tax dollars were not spent in this way. I don’t see anybody refuting that.

    I have hundreds of more examples of these, if not thousands. We have proof that these things happened. We have the documents. We have the photos. We have the receipts. These things are too stupid for us to try and make up, really.

    But this is not about scoring political points with each of those; otherwise, I’d give the full list. These programs were funded with American tax dollars because somewhere, some person down the line at the State Department thought that programs like that were actually public diplomacy. The spending was not life-saving. It didn’t make American citizens visiting those countries safer or American businesses operating there more prosperous or a better partner. It didn’t bring any of the countries in which the money was spent closer to America. In fact, many of these countries actively opposed what the State Department was actually doing.

    Yet State Department officials thought this was public diplomacy and exactly what America should be doing. Again, I personally disagree with that definition of public diplomacy, but we should have this debate and we should figure out what American tax dollars should and should not be used for abroad. That’s what the debate about a State Department reauthorization is all about. That’s what this hearing and a reauthorization process will accomplish.

    We need to restore command and control over the State Department so that you don’t have USAID betraying its core mission by funding an $850,000 transgender job fair in Bangladesh or $15 million in condoms to the Taliban. That did nothing to bolster America’s national security.

    Even worse, the lack of accountability allows USAID to create a bloated industry where D.C. contractors profited off sky-high overhead costs while people most in need received very little compared to what those contractors received. Even USAID admitted that just 12% of its grants went directly to local organizations.

    This lack of accountability at USAID is exactly why the agency needed to be brought back under the control of the State Department. And this is an idea that was embraced by Bill Clinton—President Bill Clinton—and President Joe Biden, and it’s a move that we should make permanent in our reauthorization bill.

    The State Department has been broken. That has been true. But it’s also our responsibility as the Foreign Affairs Committee to fix those issues permanently. Until now, the State Department has never shrunk. It’s never downsized its budget or eliminated an office or an envoy.

    President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Doge are already making changes, and they’re looking at us to be a partner in that process. We look forward to seeing Secretary Rubio to speak to us about that later in the month, next month. The only way that we do this as authorizers in the U.S. House of Representatives is by conducting that first full comprehensive State Department reauthorization again since 2002.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Fargo, ND Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Fargo – Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl announced today that Kadar Udai Pearson, age 21, from Fargo, North Dakota, appeared in federal court and was sentenced before Chief United States District Judge Peter D. Welte to 51 months in prison, consecutive to any other sentence, and 3 years of supervised release. Pearson pleaded guilty on November 20, 2024.

    As noted in court documents, in the afternoon of June 5, 2024, Fargo Police Department officers were in the area of the Arbors apartment complex after an earlier shots-fired report. They observed a person, later identified as Pearson, wearing a sweatshirt and pulling up a ski mask over his face, though the temperature was in the mid-70s. The sweatshirt pocket appeared to have something heavier than a cell phone in it. Officers further observed Pearson enter into a backyard in the neighborhood, where a resident of the home said Pearson did not have permission to be.

    Officers directed Pearson to halt, but he fled on foot. As officers gave chase, one officer observed Pearson throw what appeared to be a firearm beneath a vehicle in a nearby parking lot. Surveillance cameras captured the toss. On the ground beneath the vehicle, officers found a SIG Sauer 9mm pistol, loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, which was previously reported stolen in Fargo.

    At the time of the offense, Pearson was an inmate on escape status with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, under a state sentence imposed in October 2023, for his felony convictions of Possession with Intent to Deliver Fentanyl and Theft of a Firearm.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. PSN is based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

    This case was investigated by the Fargo Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jacob T. Rodenbiker and Trial Attorney Alyssa Levey-Weinstein in the Violent Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division at the United States Department of Justice.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Honduran National Indicted for Firearm Possession

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – Acting United States Attorney Michael M. Simpsonannounced that JHOSMY JOSUE PEREZ-ALVAREZ (“PEREZ-ALVAREZ”), age 24, a native of Honduras, was indicted on April 24, 2025, for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(5)(A) and 924(a)(8).

    According to court documents, on or about January 2, 2025, PEREZ-ALVAREZ, an individual unlawfully present in the United States, was found in possession of a Glock nine-millimeter handgun.  He was arrested by the New Orleans Police Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, for violating immigration laws.

    If convicted, PEREZ-ALVAREZ faces a maximum penalty of 15 years of imprisonment, up to a $250,000 fine, up to three years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson reiterated that an indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Simpsonpraised the work of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Enforcement and Removal Operations and the New Orleans Police Department in investigating this matter.  Assistant United States Attorney Spiro G. Latsis of the General Crimes Unit oversees the prosecution.

    This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Armed Felon Who Led Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputies on a Chase with His Child in the Car Sentenced to More Than Six Years in Prison

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Spokane, Washington – Acting United States Attorney Richard R. Barker announced that on April 23, 2025, United States District Judge Mary K. Dimke sentenced Keith Lamarr Williams, age 43, to 80 months in prison on one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition. Judge Dimke also imposed 3 years of supervised release.

    According to court documents and information presented at the sentencing hearing, on October 18, 2022, deputies with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of a domestic disturbance involving a weapon in Spokane Valley. K.D., who is Williams’ ex-girlfriend, with whom Williams shares children, told deputies that during the previous two weeks Williams had been parking and watching their daughter walk to school. On the day of the incident, Williams had been sitting in a parked vehicle with a view to the family’s apartment. When K.D. and her husband confronted and told Williams to leave, Williams pulled a gun, pointed it at K.D. and her husband, and demanded to see his daughter before leaving in his vehicle.

    Deputies found the vehicle Williams was driving and attempted a traffic stop, but Williams fled. Deputies pursued the vehicle until Williams crashed. Williams tried to escape on foot, but deputies took him into custody. Williams’ two-year-old son was in the vehicle during the pursuit and collision.

    Inside the vehicle, investigators located a Glock 9mm pistol with a bullet in the chamber. Deputies also located a Glock 9mm magazine that was loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition.

    Williams was previously convicted in federal court in Eastern Washington on drug charges and served 80 months in prison. He was released from prison on February 18, 2022. As a result of his felony conviction, Williams was not allowed to possess a firearm.

    “This case could have ended in tragedy,” stated Acting United States Attorney Barker. “Mr. Williams put his own family and others in danger by fleeing from law enforcement with a loaded gun in the car. Felons, who possess firearms are a threat to public safety, and we will continue to hold them accountable—especially when children are placed in harm’s way.”

    “Mr. Williams’s actions were extremely dangerous to the community, and in particular to his 2-year-old son,” said ATF Seattle Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Blais. “He knew he wasn’t supposed to possess firearms, yet he chose to carry two loaded pistols in the car with him and his child.  This sentence was well deserved.”

    This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael L. Vander Giessen and Alison L. Gregoire.

    2:23-cr-00060-MKD

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy Slams Trump’s First 100 Days: This Is A Story Of Incompetence, Theft, And Mind-Blowing Corruption

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
    [embedded content]
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to deliver a scathing indictment of President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Murphy detailed the litany of corrupt acts that have defined this Administration, including the sale of White House access for the Trump family’s personal profit, manipulation of federal agencies for financial gain, and the systematic dismantling of anti-corruption safeguards.
    “This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days. I just detailed 40 instances of mind-blowing corruption in just 40 days, capped off by an attempt to just sell access to the White House to people who put money in the pocket of Donald Trump’s personal businesses. Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open. But this is not how government works. This has been the story of his first 100 days, but it’s our choice as a nation to allow it to be the story of the rest of his term. We need to expose what he is doing. We need to rally everybody, from the left to the right. Nobody in this country, whether you’re a hardened conservative or a hardened progressive, should root for the president of the United States to be enriching himself off of this position. We need to rally this nation against this corruption and bring it to an end, because if Donald Trump gets what he wants, and we just start allowing our government’s leaders to openly steal from us during the first 100 days or for the rest of his term, then I am telling you, American democracy is not going to survive.”
    Last month, he highlighted Trump’s first six weeks of corruption.
    A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
    MURPHY: “Thank you, Mr. President. My colleagues, you’re going to hear a lot of stories about the first 100 days of President Trump’s second presidency, and indeed there are a lot of stories. There is a story of incompetence. We’re dealing with multiple measles outbreaks all across the country. There is the story about abdicating our responsibility to lead around the world – Vladimir Putin is laughing at us as Trump goes about the business of handing Ukraine to a brutal Kremlin dictator. There is the story of a transferring wealth from the poor and the middle class through massive cuts to Medicaid, to the very, very wealthy, who are asking for another massive tax cut. 
    “But I would argue, Mr. President, that the most important story to tell is a story of corruption. A story of mind-blowing, massive, scalable corruption. That story is important because we are watching the theft of taxpayer money by the decision of the Republican Party to look the other way as Donald Trump essentially monetizes at scale the White House and the powers given to him by the Constitution and the American people in order to enrich himself and his friends. And if we don’t tell this story, and if we don’t mount a national bipartisan, apolitical resistance to this thievery, to this corruption, and it becomes normalized as just a part of doing business in America, a normal facet of residents in the White House, then shame on us, because our democracy will not survive this level of corruption, grift, and graft. 
    “So I am going to try to tell the story really quickly. I’ve got two charts and it’s hard to read – these words are really small – because over the course of 100 days, there are 40, 50, 60 individual acts of precedent-breaking corruption. And that’s intentional because what President Trump is trying to do is engage in so much public corruption that you just become normalized to it, that you stop paying attention to the corruption because can it be corruption if it is just playing out in public? He’s trying to make you think that this kind of stuff happens all the time behind the scenes and now all that’s different is you are seeing it publicly. 
    “But that is not true. This is not actually how government works. And I refuse to accept that just because the corruption is happening in public, in front of the cameras for everybody to see, that we should accept it. 
    “Okay. I’m going to try to do this. I’m going to try to do this as quickly as possible. I’m just going to highlight for you maybe the 40 most egregious examples of corruption in the first 100 days, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. 
    “So, on January 6th – this is before Trump is even sworn in – Amazon, which has a ton of business before the incoming Trump White House, pays $40 million to the Trump family to license a documentary in a series about Melania Trump. Just a cash payment from a company that has huge interests before the incoming White House to the Trump family. 
    “On January 17th, a few days before Trump is sworn in – maybe the most corrupt act in the history of the White House – this is the creation of the Trump meme coin. This is just a backdoor way for anybody with business before the Trump administration to send him millions of dollars in total secret. Trump doesn’t disclose who buys the coin. He launders his income from the coin through an unregulated Chinese exchange. He promotes the coin on his social media feeds. In the first minute of trading, one buyer – and what we know is that this was likely a Chinese individual – purchases six million coins, sending the price through the roof and immediately making a ton of money for Trump, who makes money off of every transaction. Trump knows who this person is, no doubt, but American citizens do not. 
    “January 20th, he is now sworn in and he fulfills a campaign promise to the oil and gas industry. There’s a report from the campaign that says they came down to Mar-a-Lago, I think, and said ‘We’ll give you a billion dollars in campaign contributions.’ This is not me alleging this, this is an open report. The oil and gas industry says we’ll give you a billion dollars in campaign contributions if you do what we want when you are sworn in. And the day he’s sworn in, Trump issues an executive order gutting environmental rules so that the oil and gas industry can start making bigger amounts of money. 
    “On January 25th, Trump eliminates the Inspectors General, the ethics officials in government and whistleblower offices. It’s a late-night purge, so you know it’s fishy. On January 25th, 17 Inspectors General get fired, clearing the way for the president to engage in even more corruption because that’s what the Inspectors General do. They sit in these agencies and they look for corruption. Now the Inspectors General are gone. They’re just gone. 
    “But that’s not good enough because on that same day, Trump fires the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Why would you do that? Well, that office is an investigative and prosecutorial office that works to end government and political corruption and protects government employees who become whistleblowers. That office is gone now, along with all of the whistleblowers. 
    “Two days later, Trump illegally fires NLRB member Gwen Wilcox. This effectively shuts down, illegally, the NLRB for a period of time. Why is that important? Because the guys who were standing behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day, people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, they are being investigated at the moment by the NLRB for massive workplace violations. Now the NLRB is shut down, a big gift to the people who financed Donald Trump’s inauguration and stood behind him to give him political endorsement and cover on his inauguration day. 
    “On January 31st, a trend begins: enforcement actions are paused against Trump loyalists. This is Representative Andy Ogles from Tennessee. He was being investigated for illegal, or potentially illegal, loans made to his 2022 campaign. But right after Rep. Ogles introduces a bill to amend the constitution to allow Trump to serve for a third term, what happens? Trump makes the investigation go away. Because as you will see, Trump’s justice system will often look the other way if you cheat or steal but you are a friend of Donald Trump.
    “At the same time, another of Trump’s friends, his IRS nominee Billy Long, gets his donors – almost all of them have direct interest before the IRS – to pay off his six-figure campaign debt. It’s a fabulously corrupt thing to do, but it’s just all normal now. So when Trump is showing you the way, then the folks who work for him follow suit. 
    “Alright, we’ll jump to February now. February 4th. We’re into Week 2 of the Trump White House. Trump hauls the PGA and the Saudi government into the White House to broker an agreement between the two rival golf leagues so that Trump can make more money hosting golf tournaments. He’s in business with one of the entities, the Saudi-owned LIV league. In a normal world, the president of the United States wouldn’t be in business with any foreign government. But the president is, and not only is that okay, but it is also apparently okay for him to bring the golf league that he’s in business with into the White House and pressure the other golf league, the rival golf league, to cut a deal. And guess what happens? The PGA, which had long said they were not going to host events at Trump’s courses, after being hauled into the White House, looking the president of the United States in the eye – somebody they clearly have to do business with – they announce that they’re going to start allowing their tournaments to be held at Trump courses. Big benefit to Donald Trump’s personal bottom line. 
    “February 6th, two days later: Trump ends the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Do you know what this is? You should. It requires people who are being paid by foreign governments to register. It’s no longer going to be enforced, so now members of the Trump administration can get backdoor payments from foreign governments and nobody is going to enforce the law. This isn’t theoretical. There were people who got arrested for doing this exact same thing, getting paid by foreign governments while working for the Trump administration, in term one. He wants to make sure it’s not a problem in term two, so he pauses enforcement of the actual act. 
    “Four days later, Trump eliminates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is just a magnificent present to all of his billionaire enablers because this is the agency that stops big businesses, banks, and other financial firms from ripping off consumers and now it is just shut down. 
    “The same day, DOJ drops charges against Eric Adams in a mind-blowingly public and brazen quid pro quo. Adams says he will pledge loyalty to Trump and support Trump’s political priorities in New York City, Trump drops the corruption charges against Adams. Just like the Ogles case, the door is now wide open to engage in corruption or criminality as long as you support Donald Trump. The thing that makes this one so egregious is that Adams and the White House go on TV to announce the corrupt deal. They don’t hide it. They just say that Adams is now supporting Donald Trump and we’re now going to drop the charges against him, and everybody gets the message. There’s a lot of stuff I can get away with as a corrupt official as long as I am in bed politically with Donald Trump. 
    “Same day, February 10th, DOJ pauses enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This is the law that stops American companies from bribing foreign governments in order to get business. On February 10th, Trump suspends enforcement of an antibribery statute, paving the way for his friends in corporate America to start bribing foreign governments again. 
    “Two days later, the State Department forecasts that they are going to dramatically upscale the amount of money that they’re going to send to Tesla. This is the first time that Elon Musk shows up in this story. By February 12th, Elon Musk is pretty well embedded in the White House, and guess what? The State Department is now going to spend $400 million for armored Teslas – its largest expected contract in the upcoming year. 
    “February 12th, the same day, Musk infiltrates the Department of Labor and OSHA, giving him exclusive secret access to labor law violation data against him and his competitors. Unethical, corrupt, but this stuff is just happening every single day. A few days later, on February 15th and 16th, Musk now starts really testing the limits of what his boss will let him get away with. He fires a specific set of regulators at the FDA that are reviewing one of his medical products, Neuralink. The message is clear: you’ve got to do right by my applications or you risk getting the ax too. 
    “Three days later, on February 19th, Trump’s new U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, starts to use his government power to harass Trump critics. He launches something called Operation Whirlwind and is pretty unapologetic about the fact that this is going to be an enforcement operation against anybody who just seeks to get in the way of DOGE. He doesn’t say he’s going after people who are acting illegally. He says anybody who tries to stop or protest or harass DOGE’s work is now going to be the subject of Operation Whirlwind, and he starts trolling critics of DOGE online. The U.S. Attorney for D.C. is now trolling DOGE critics online, obviously threatening criminal enforcement. 
    “You see what’s happening here? We’re 30 days into the administration, and everybody in Trump’s world, including the supposedly independent U.S. Attorneys, are getting the message: that it is now part of your job, if you work for Trump, to use your government powers to either enrich yourself or Trump or to help Trump politically. 
    “February 21st, two days later, the SEC drops a major investigation into a company called Robinhood. Why does this matter? You guessed it: this firm donated $2 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. 30 days later, the SEC drops an investigation into that firm. 
    “Put a pin in that, because you’re going to hear stories like it over and over again. 
    “Throughout February, we watched the rich guys that are surrounding Trump come up with new ways to monetize their positions. Kash Patel is a perfect example. He’s the nominee to head the FBI – maybe the most important independent bureau in the federal government – and while he’s going through that process, he is selling merchandise online ranging from T-shirts to playing cards, with the proceeds supposedly going to whistleblowers’ education and defamation cases. 
    “February 26th, news breaks that the FAA is considering giving a $2.4 billion contract to Elon Musk’s Starlink. But it’s not like a regular contract that’s up for bid. It’s a contract that was already awarded to one of Musk’s competitors, Verizon, and word leaks that the White House is thinking of just ripping the contract away from Verizon – because Verizon is not a political supporter of Donald Trump in the way Elon Musk is – and just giving it to Elon Musk. Now, that doesn’t happen. As reported, the contract has not been canceled yet. But there are regular reports of the administration still relentlessly attacking Verizon in a clear attempt to try to undermine their contract. 
    “February 27th, the next day, Trump drops a lawsuit against Capital One. Why does this matter? Capital One donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. It’s now just kind of automatic. You donate a big amount of money to Trump’s inauguration, and you can ask him for something. 
    “We’re not done. That same day, the SEC drops a lawsuit against Coinbase. You got the story now. Coinbase donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. They are now told it’s okay to keep cheating consumers. 
    “We’re not done. On February 28th, a day later, the DOJ announced that it would drop a complaint against SpaceX, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for labor discrimination. Elon is like wait a second, all these other big donors to your inauguration are getting out of jail free, I want my get out of jail free card as well. He gets it from DOJ. 
    “We’re now into March. March 1st, a report breaks – this is maybe second to [the meme coin], the most stunning act of corruption. On March 1st, word breaks that Trump is selling meetings at Mar-a-Lago. On at least one occasion, Trump charged guests $1 million to dine with him at Mar-a-Lago. According to the same report, business leaders can secure a one-on-one meeting with the president of the United States for a $5 million payment to Donald Trump. 
    “If you were mayor of a medium-sized town and it was reported that you were selling meetings for like $200, you would be arrested. You would be run out of town. But not Donald Trump. He’s selling meetings for $5 million, according to this report. And because the corruption in this White House is daily and normal, he gets away with it. 
    “March 2nd, Trump launches a crypto reserve fund. This is going to involve government taxpayer dollars purchasing and holding a variety of digital assets in a strategic reserve fund –a move that definitely inflates and protects Trump’s investment portfolio, [which], by now, you understand, [is] very heavily dependent on crypto assets. This normally wouldn’t be a problem because normally when somebody takes a high position like president or governor or mayor, they divest from their own personal assets, or they put it all in a blind fund. Trump does none of that. He’s controlling his own assets, his family is controlling their own assets, while he makes policy that benefits himself and his family financially. 
    “On March 3rd, a really curious thing: DOJ intervenes in an obscure but open-and-shut 2020 Colorado elections case. This is the case of Tina Peters, who tampered with voting machines on Trump’s behalf in Mesa County, Colorado. She was convicted by a jury of her peers, open and shut. But because Peters is a MAGA loyalist, now DOJ, on March 3rd, said it’s going to step in and review the case because there are concerns about how it was prosecuted. This is just President Trump again clearly shielding those that violated the law to help him from consequences. 
    “Same thing, different day. No, not even a different day. This is actually still March 3rd. Yuga Labs, a blockchain company, donated $100,000 to the Trump inauguration fund. They now get in line. They get what everybody else is getting. The SEC closes an ongoing investigation into the company. 
    “On March 4th, DOGE lays off thousands of IRS employees. This is bad for a lot of reasons, but it certainly helps Trump’s Mar-a-Lago friends because the IRS now cannot enforce the law against the big, giant tax cheats in the way that it could have when it had those personnel on the books. Mar-a-Lago is celebrating. 
    “March 4th – same day – word breaks that the Commerce Department is considering changes to this very specific rural broadband program and who’s eligible. Why? Because Elon Musk wants to dominate that program. Under the program’s original rules, Starlink was capped at $4.1 billion. This curious change now will allow Elon Musk’s company, Starlink, to receive between $10 billion and $20 billion from the rural broadband program. 
    “This is like a broken record, but six days later, the CFPB – which is basically shut down but exists in name only – drops a lawsuit against the Bank of America and J.P. Morgan. Bank of America donated $500,000 to the inauguration. J.P. Morgan donated $1 million to the inauguration.
    “On March 11th, a day later, Trump and Musk hold this now very well-known advertisement for Tesla on the White House lawn. This is just taxpayer dollars used to support the personnel at the White House and the White House being used to sell cars for Elon Musk, and the message again is pretty simple here: if you are loyal to me, and you pay any kind of price for your loyalty to me, I will use government resources to help you, to get you out of trouble, even including free advertising. 
    “On March 19th – we’re eight days later – the GEO Group donated $500,000 for Trump’s inauguration fund. This is a private prison company, and the NLRB drops its investigation into this company. It’s really getting disgusting at this point. I don’t know that there’s anybody left that made a major donation to the inauguration fund that has not gotten their favor from Donald Trump. 
    “On March 24th, the Treasury Department guts something called the Corporate Transparency Act. This is the regulation that requires businesses to reveal their true owners to the government. These new rules now make it easier for billionaires to hide money, to avoid taxes, to engage in corruption – less accountability for corporations. 
    “March 25th, a day later, the SEC reduces, from $125 million to $50 million, an existing fine. So, this has already been litigated: this company, Ripple, it’s a blockchain-based digital payment company. It’s been fined, and Trump comes in and reduces the fine from $125 million to $50 million. You know the story by now. These guys made a big investment in the inauguration. Most of these companies that got a get-out-of-jail-free or had their investigations terminated were giving $500,000, $1 million. Ripple wanted to make sure they got it right. They made a $5 million donation to Trump’s inaugural fund, and they got their fine reduced by $75 million. 
    “March 28th, Trump pardons the founder of Nikola Autos, one of his campaign mega donors. Again, this is a pardon for one of his major campaign contributors. When asked about the pardon, Trump said ‘They say the thing they did was wrong, but he was one of the first people who supported me for president.’ He just tells you what he did. He said, ‘yeah, they said what he did was wrong, he did something that was probably pretty wrong, but he supported me for president, so I’m giving him a pardon.’ I’m not saying that there hasn’t been a lot of really bad stuff that’s happened in the pardon program under Democratic and Republican presidents, but let’s just name it when Donald Trump names it. 
    “April 8th, we’re into April. Trump issues an executive order to expand coal mining. This is part of his down payment on the promise he made to those oil executives. The shares of the company owned by Joseph Kraft, the billionaire coal magnate who helped lead those Trump fundraising efforts during the presidential campaign, immediately shoots up.
    “On April 9th, this really curious timeline of events plays out, in which Trump posts on his social media, ‘This is a great time to buy.’ A lot of his followers complied; they make investments in the market. There’s reports and speculation that many of his inner circle might have done the same thing, and then a couple hours later, he announces that he’s pausing most of his tariffs, and the market shoots up. People who followed his directions online make a lot of money, and potentially other people who had access to that insider information might have made a lot of money as well. 
    “On April 17th, Musk steers billions of taxpayer dollars to something called the Golden Dome. Reuters, on April 17th, reports that Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company, SpaceX, has emerged as the frontrunner to develop Trump’s proposed Golden Dome. This is a really ill-defined, technologically unproven defense system. It supposedly has a price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars, money that now looks as if it will be funneled directly to Elon Musk. At this point it is just head-shaking.
    “On April 23rd, now it’s like he can do anything he wants. He has just blown the lid off of any expectations about what a president can and cannot do to enrich himself. On April 23rd, a message appears on the homepage of the website for Trump’s meme coin declaring that the top 220 meme coin holders would be invited for an exclusive dinner with Trump and the top 25 coin holders – these are private investors in Donald Trump’s financial empire–would get a special VIP tour of the White House. After the message went up, the price of Trump’s coin jumped by more than 50%. In the two days following the announcement of the special VIP tour in the people’s house, the White House, Trump and his allies made nearly a million dollars in trading fees alone. They are just selling access to the White House out in the open.
    “April 26th, Trump’s family, this is just last weekend, announces the launch of a private club called the Executive Branch, a new private club in Washington. The initiation fee is around half a million dollars. It is advertised as a place where you can hold secret audiences with the Trump administration, as long as you pay Donald Trump’s family and their financial backers over $500,000 in membership fees. It is apparently already sold out.
    “This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days. I just detailed 40 instances of mind-blowing corruption in just 40 days, capped off by an attempt to just sell access to the White House to people who put money in the pocket of Donald Trump’s personal businesses. 
    “Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he’s owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he’s just doing it out in the open. But this is not how government works. This has been the story of his first 100 days, but it’s our choice as a nation to allow it to be the story of the rest of his term. We need to expose what he is doing. We need to rally everybody, from the left to the right. Nobody in this country, whether you’re a hardened conservative or a hardened progressive, should root for the president of the United States to be enriching himself off of this position. We need to rally this nation against this corruption and bring it to an end, because if Donald Trump gets what he wants, and we just start allowing our government’s leaders to openly steal from us during the first 100 days or for the rest of his term, then I am telling you, American democracy is not going to survive.
    “I yield the floor.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: New FERC-NERC Report Details Increased Resiliency of Natural Gas Systems During Recent Winter Weather Events

    Source: Independent Petroleum Association of America

    Headline: New FERC-NERC Report Details Increased Resiliency of Natural Gas Systems During Recent Winter Weather Events

    Apr 17, 2025 New FERC-NERC Report Details Increased Resiliency of Natural Gas Systems During Recent Winter Weather Events

    WASHINGTON, D.C., April 17, 2025 – The Natural Gas Council (NGC), whose members represent the full natural gas value chain, welcomed a new joint report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corporation recognizing the strong performance of the nation’s natural gas system during recent winter weather events and periods of record demand.

    The report finds that the natural gas market was able to meet record demand, with natural gas infrastructure – including wellheads, gathering, processing, pipeline transportation, and local gas distribution – performing well during the January 2025 arctic events. Moreover, the natural gas system appears to have experienced fewer disruptions than during Winter Storms Uri (2021) and Elliott (2022) and did not have widespread freezing, mechanical, or production loss issues. The report highlights several factors that contributed to the overall performance, including advanced preparations, incorporating lessons learned from past storms, diversity of fuel supplies, and natural gas storage. More specifically:

    • “Natural gas entities appear to be showing continuous improvement from prior winter storm experiences on their cold weather performance, preparations, and communications.”
    • “Not only were the production losses lower compared to prior winter storms, but the duration of the losses was much shorter compared to prior winter storms.”
    • “Interstate natural gas pipelines appear to have issued more proactive and more frequent notices, including Operational Flow Orders (OFOs) to communicate with their customers and the electric industry stakeholders; pipeline personnel also participated in their situational awareness calls to better coordinate on natural gas inventories, compressor station availability, and pipeline readiness.”
    • “VACAR South noted it benefited from the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which reached full capacity in January 2025 for the first time since it became operational in June 2024. VACAR South indicated that the pipeline played a crucial role in maintaining reliable electric supply during this high demand period by sustaining stable pipeline pressure.”

    The report also highlighted how the natural gas system supported record-breaking demand of over 150 Bcf/day at the peak of Storm Enzo. This number is 9.5% above peak consumption during the 2014 Polar Vortex. Also, the report shows that during Winter Storm Enzo, natural gas generation provided a record additional 122 GW above what has typically been observed for typical winter hours (291 GW compared to 169 GW), more than any of the previous winter storms.

    The results of the FERC-NERC report are consistent with the findings from PJM’s recently released winter assessment. PJM stated in its operational assessment that the “[g]eneral consensus is that the upstream gas sector (producers, gatherers, and processors) has ramped up their winter preparedness and equipment winterization efforts since Winter Storm Elliott.

    The U.S. natural gas market began 2025 in record territory: January was the coldest in more than three decades, based on gas-weighted heating degree days (HDDs). As of January 28, cumulative HDDs for the lower-48 states totaled 982, making it the fifth highest since 1982 and the highest since 1994. Additionally, the recent Arctic blast pushed lower-48 natural gas demand to an all-time high. (See AGA’s Natural Gas Market Indicators for January 30 here.)

    The NGC would also like to recognize the efforts of regional operators that took steps to provide gas fired generators with a better opportunity to prepare and make their natural gas arrangements in advance of the winter weather through early commitments and improvements in load forecasting. Actions that increase the ability of generators to procure supply in advance of winter events greatly enhances generator fuel availability.

    Although the increased focus on natural gas system reliability has been very successful, as evidenced by the performance outlined in this report, the U.S. energy system continues to be stretched to its limits. Natural gas infrastructure will need to stay apace to continue to reliably meet growing demand from AI data centers, crypto mining, and electrification.

    ###

    The Natural Gas Council was formed in 1992, uniting all sectors of the natural gas industry to work together toward common goals. The five full members of the Council — the American Gas Association, the American Petroleum Institute, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Natural Gas Supply Association — collectively represent nearly all the companies that produce, transport and distribute natural gas consumed in the United States. Leadership of the NGC rotates annually.

    MIL OSI Economics –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Pettersen Statement on President Trump’s First 100 Days

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Brittany Pettersen (Colorado 7th District)

    WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Representative Brittany Pettersen (CO-07) released the following statement as President Trump marks his first 100 days back in office:

    “In just 100 days, Donald Trump has done more to inflict harm on families than any other president. The cost of groceries, housing, transportation and everything in between is getting more expensive for families and businesses, and it will only get worse.

    “Not only are costs going up for all of us, he’s also slashing health care for kids and seniors, food assistance for veterans and families, and cutting education funding that our schools rely on. And all of this just to make the ultra-rich richer while also increasing our deficit by trillions.

    “I promise to do everything in my power to keep fighting back, and I know you will too. Our kids and country deserve so much better than this.”

    For a full list of actions taken by the Trump administration in its first 100 days, see the attached fact sheet. Some of the most egregious actions include:

    • Attempting to slash Medicaid and Head Start funding, threatening more than 11,600 Colorado families and children who rely on Head Start and health care for over 400,000 kids.
    • Raising tariffs on essential goods, driving up costs for Colorado small businesses and families.
    • Fast-tracking oil and gas drilling on public lands, setting back Colorado’s clean energy goals and putting lands at risk.
    • Firing federal land management staff and freezing wildfire mitigation and recovery funding, undercutting wildfire mitigation efforts ahead of wildfire season.
    • Rolling back education funding, weakening support for public schools that serve low-income and rural communities, jeopardizing all Colorado students. 

    Rep. Pettersen has spent the past three months holding town halls with record-breaking attendance and community meetings across Colorado, and hearing directly from families and small businesses who have been impacted. She continues to lead efforts in Congress to defend access to child care, health care, and education.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s Statement on Trump’s First 100 Days

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)

    WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, issued the following statement marking the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second occupancy of the White House.

    “Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been a damning masterclass of cruelty, callousness, chaos, and corruption. From slashing essential services and attacking reproductive freedom to terrorizing immigrants and firing thousands of dedicated federal workers—Trump has governed with a reckless disregard for the Constitution and contempt for everyone who calls America home.

    “In just 100 days, Trump has launched a full-scale assault on workers, families, and our most vulnerable communities. He is gutting Medicaid, slashing funding for Head Start, defunding life-saving scientific and medical research, and ending critical programs that put food on the table and keep our families safely housed. He has torn immigrant families apart through mass deportations and unlawful detentions—including the abduction and detention of my constituent Rümeysa Öztürk—and pushed through policies that would rip away healthcare, threaten access to abortion care, and restrict our bodily autonomy. And he has consistently sought to erase Black history, resegregate society, and roll back decades of civil rights progress—all while enacting tariffs that will raise the cost of groceries, housing, and other essentials.

    “Trump has attacked everyone and everything except the rising cost of living, and now Republicans are marking the 100-day milestone by advancing a reconciliation bill that would end Medicaid as we know it and make the largest cuts to food assistance and other essential programs in American history. The cruelty is the point.

    “As Congresswoman for the Massachusetts 7th, I will not be silent, and I refuse to be complicit. I will continue using every tool at my disposal—legislation, litigation, and mobilization—to stand in the gap and fight for the dignity, safety, and economic wellbeing of my constituents and communities across this country.”

    Congresswoman Pressley has been a leading voice in Congress speaking out against Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s unprecedented assault on our democracy, and she has been a steadfast advocate for protecting the essential services that federal workers and agencies provide.

    • On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Trump Administration’s abrupt reinstatement of international student visas. 
    • On April 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Markey and Rep. McGovern, published an op-ed in the New York Times in which they discussed their meeting with Rümeysa Öztürk in detention and warned the American people of the dangers posed by the Trump administration’s unlawful attacks on our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process.
    • On April 24, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined Senator Elizabeth Warren and Massachusetts lawmakers sounding the alarm on the Trump Administration’s cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities staff and grants.
    • On April 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues visited the ICE detention facilities in Basile and Jena, Louisiana with her colleagues, where Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil are being unlawfully detained, respectively.
    • On April 22, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Markey and Warren demanded answers about the Trump Administration’s concerning pattern of ripping individuals from their communities and shipping them to jurisdictions more favorable to the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
    • On April 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Warren and Markey demanded the State Department release a memo and documents related to Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest after a recent report indicated that an internal State Department memo concluded that the key premise underlying her arrest was false.
    • On April 14, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined Senator Ed Markey and the Massachusetts congressional delegation demanding answers on the sudden termination of the federal staff responsible for administering the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
    • On April 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she slammed Trump’s Executive Order attacking Smithsonian museums – namely the National Museum of African American History and Culture, or Blacksonian – and his blatant attempt to erase Black history. 
    • On April 9, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined the Massachusetts delegation in sending a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding answers after the abrupt shuttering of the entire HHS Regional Office in Boston.
    • On April 9, 2025, Rep. Pressley led lawmakers in sending a letter to Trump’s trade official demanding he resign from holding multiple positions with clear conflicts of interest that would further harm federal workers.
    • On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Warren and Markey sounded the alarm on Rumeysa Ozturk’s medical neglect in ICE custody and renewed their urgent calls for her release.
    • On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey led over 30 lawmakers demanding information from DHS about the arrest and detention of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk and similar incidents across the country.
    • On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming Trump’s executive order to end collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
    • On March 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and detained Rumeysa Ozturk, an international student with legal status in a graduate program at Tufts University. 
    • On March 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Boston and other municipalities in Massachusetts.
    • On March 21, 2025, Rep. Pressley led Massachusetts lawmakers in a letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sharply criticizing and demanding answers about the impact of the Musk-Trump Administration’s mass firings of federal workers in Massachusetts.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley spoke out against the U.S. Department of Education’s mass layoffs of over 1,300 workers, which effectively guts the agency.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley voted against Republicans’ shameful government budget bill, which would harm vulnerable families and provide a blank check for Elon Musk and Donald Trump to continue their unprecedented assault on our democracy. She later issued a statement condemning its final passage in the Senate.
    • On March 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined 13 of her colleagues on a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding answers and the immediate release of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, whose illegal abduction is an attack on his constitutional right to free speech and due process.
    • On March 4, 2025, Rep. Pressley walked out of the House chamber in protest during Donald Trump’s presidential joint address to Congress.
    • On March 4, 2025, Rep. Pressley welcomed Claire Bergstresser, an Everett constituent, dedicated public servant, AFGE union member, and former HUD worker who was unjustly terminated as part of Musk and Trump’s assault on federal agencies as her guest to the presidential joint address to Congress.
    • On February 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley led 85 lawmakers in a letter urging the Office of Special Counsel to immediate reinstate and expand protections for all unfairly fired federal workers.
    • On February 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined over 200 Democrats in filing an amicus brief defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before a U.S. District Court.
    • On February 26, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley discussed what true government efficiency looks like and denounced Elon Musk and Donald Trump for utilizing DOGE to gut the essential services that keep people safe, fed, and housed.
    • On February 25, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley condemned Elon Musk’s abuse of government efficiency through the fraudulent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
    • On February 25, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a floor speech in which she railed against Republicans’ cruel budget resolution that would slash Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion.
    • On February 20, 2025, Rep. Pressley and her Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs issued a statement condemning the Trump Administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.
    • On February 13, 2025, in a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley emphasized the critical role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in safeguarding consumers and sharply criticized Donald Trump and Elon Musk for halting the critical work of the agency.
    • On February 10, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied with Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member Maxine Waters, and advocates to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s unlawful takeover of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
    • On February 11, 2025, in a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley criticized the Trump-Musk administration for halting the critical work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with crypto scams on the rise.
    • On February 10, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming the Trump Administration’s harmful cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to support hospitals, universities, and research institutions conducting lifesaving research.
    • On February 10, 2025, as Trump and Musk threaten to dismantle the essential work of the U.S. Department of Education, Rep.  Pressley delivered a powerful floor speech to affirm the role of public education in American democracy.
    • On February 6, 2025, in a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful rebuke of Republicans’ efforts to gut diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and eliminate essential services for vulnerable communities.
    • On February 5, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied outside the U.S. Department of Treasury to protest Elon Musk’s unlawful assault on federal agencies and our democracy.
    • On January 30, 2025, Rep. Pressley slammed Donald Trump for blaming the tragic plane crash at Reagan National Airport, which killed over 60 people, including some families from Massachusetts, on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
    • In January 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement slamming Trump’s illegal freeze on federal grants and loans and its harmful impact on vulnerable communities.
    • On January 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech condemning Republicans’ cruel anti-abortion bill that criminalizes providers and denies families care.
    • On January 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined her colleagues to reintroduce the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, a bill to repeal an outdated law that has been used to target innocent immigrants without due process rights.
    • On January 22, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Trump Administration’s harmful executive actions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Robberies of Convenience Stores in Vinton Lead to Arrest and Conviction of Sunset Man

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    LAKE CHARLES, La. – Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that Bracelon Armon Charles, 22, of Sunset, Louisiana, has been sentenced by United States District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. to 155 months (12 years, 11 months) in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, for brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.  

    According to information presented in court, on or about October 6, 2023, Charles and a juvenile used a 2018 Kia which had been stolen from a residence in Lafayette, to drive to Vinton, Louisiana. Charles and the juvenile entered Tiger Mart, a gas station and convenience store located in Vinton, and entered the store brandishing firearms and demanded money from the store clerk. The clerk complied and gave them money from the cash register in the amount of $400. Charles and the juvenile immediately left the Tiger Mart.

    Just minutes later, Charles and the juvenile entered More 4 Less, another gas station and convenience store in Vinton. As in the previous store just minutes before, Charles and the juvenile brandished their firearms and demanded money from the store clerk as they pointed their firearms at the clerk. The clerk complied and gave all the money in the cash drawer over to Charles and the juvenile, which was $400.

    Charles and the juvenile then traveled into Texas where law enforcement officers engaged them in a high speed chase back into Louisiana where they were subsequently apprehended. Charles was charged in a federal indictment and pleaded guilty to using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. 

    The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lauren L. Gardner.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Boat wakes aren’t just a nuisance, they harm freshwater shorelines and wildlife

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Chris Houser, Professor in Department of Earth and Environmental Science, and Dean of Science, University of Waterloo

    After long winters, Canadians love their summers. For some, that means summer vacations by a lake, along a river or on a bay for some much-needed rest and relaxation. For some, it’s time to disconnect at the dock, while for others it’s a time to cruise the lake or enjoy the thrill of water-skiing, tubing and wake-boarding.

    Over the last decade, there’s been a strong growth in the sale of new and pre-owned motorboats, and in particular, wake boats that are designed to generate large wakes.

    While recreational boating is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada, and enjoyed by many — including me — there has been increasing concern among cottage owners and other advocacy groups about the impact of the wakes generated by these boats.

    Recreational boat wake and jet ski jumping wakes in cottage country in Ontario. (Chris Houser)

    There is increasing evidence that boat wakes erode the shoreline, disrupt aquatic ecosystems, degrade water quality and pose a safety hazard to those at the shoreline or also on the water.

    Stronger than waves

    In Ontario’s cottage country, boat wakes represent a significant portion of total wave energy.

    Except for lakes where motorboats are restricted, the energy generated by wakes is greater than the energy of the waves generated by winds. The exact amount depends on the size, shape and depth of the body of water, but recent research I conducted with colleagues suggests wakes can account for up to 90 per cent of the total wave energy in small lakes with widths up to five kilometres.

    One respondent to our survey noted that:

    “The shore is eroding. I’m losing land and trees into the water. The water is more murky than ever before and the constant large waves makes it unsafe for my kids to swim at times.”

    Wakes not only represent an increase in the number of waves, but they are also responsible for waves of greater height and energy, particularly those generated by wake boats. The smaller the lake, the greater the wake energy at the shoreline, but it is also larger along rivers, lake arms and in bays due to the types and frequency of boating in those areas.

    There is limited impact along rocky shorelines, our research has found, but change can occur where the shorelines are muddy or sandy and the water is shallow.

    Just like large storm waves, wakes can erode the shoreline and uproot and undermine shoreline vegetation. The resuspension of bottom sediment and organic material can also degrade water quality and clarity, leading to the development of algae blooms and hypoxia and the dispersion of contaminants.

    “We have boats that are enhanced for sale surfing and our lake is not wide enough or deep enough to handle the energy generated by the wakes that are produced by these boats. We have parts of our lake that are less than 20 metres wide and less than eigth feet deep, and these boats are generating cut-outs on the bottom of the lake bed, which of course stirs up silt from the floor bed and harms water clarity.” A cottager on Fairy Lake, north of Toronto.

    Dangers to loons, fish, docks and people

    The turbulence can also disturb loon nests and fish spawning in shallow water by destroying nests, washing away eggs and displacing juvenile fish, leading to reduced reproductive success.

    “It is not a coincidence we have not had loons nesting on our point for 10 years since our channel became a busy wake-surfing mecca.” A cottager on Lake Joseph, north of Toronto.

    In our research, residents and cottage owners also raised concerns that wakes cause damage to shoreline infrastructure and docked vessels, leading to greater maintenance and repair costs. Large wakes can make it difficult for smaller slower boats to navigate safely, and at the shoreline, those waves pose a hazard to swimmers, who may be knocked off balance or even swept out by larger waves.

    While studies suggest that wakes represent a significant portion of the wave energy on small lakes, there has been little actual documentation of impacts, and we discovered that there was little direct evidence of erosion. Most examples were extreme and highlighted potential hotspots of shoreline change associated with boat wakes.

    “Our shoreline has eroded approximately six feet in the last 10 years, causing trees and shoreline to collapse into the lake.” A Lake Joseph cottager.

    Most respondents to the survey identified boat operation, the experience of the operators and use of the lake by other users (for example, those fishing, swimming and relaxing) as the primary issues associated with wakes and boating in general. This is consistent with another recent study that found no evidence of shoreline erosion, but an increase in sediment resuspension and phosphorus availability.

    Speed limits, no-wake zones

    Further study is needed to determine when and where boat wakes are a physical and/or ecological stressor rather than simply being a disturbance to the peaceful cottage country scene.

    Through these studies, it will be possible to implement appropriate speed limits and no-wake zones, limits to wakeboat use and improve education and awareness as the industry continues to improve hull designs to reduce the wake.

    There is no doubt that the debate over the impact of boat wakes will continue this summer, but hopefully it won’t make our time on the dock this summer too rocky.

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

    – ref. Boat wakes aren’t just a nuisance, they harm freshwater shorelines and wildlife – https://theconversation.com/boat-wakes-arent-just-a-nuisance-they-harm-freshwater-shorelines-and-wildlife-251958

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: New Data Reveals Strong Economic Momentum

    US Senate News:

    Source: The White House
    “It’s no surprise the leftovers of Biden’s economic disaster have been a drag on economic growth, but the underlying numbers tell the real story of the strong momentum President Trump is delivering. Robust core GDP, the highest gross domestic investment in four years, job growth, and trillions of dollars in new investments secured by President Trump are fueling an economic boom and setting the stage for unprecedented growth as President Trump ushers in the new Golden Age.” — Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
    Here are the facts:
    GDP is a backward-looking indicator. Today’s headline figure reflects the end of the Biden economic disaster, not the beginning of the economic boom that President Trump is delivering.
    January growth, especially in consumer spending — which has an outsized weight on the Q1 figure — was hampered by colder-than-usual weather and California wildfires, and mostly occurred before President Trump took office.

    Core GDP grew at a robust 3.0%. This signals strong underlying economic momentum that occurred after President Trump’s inauguration.
    Gross domestic investment soared by 22%. This is the highest in four years and comes as businesses and consumers — bolstered by rising take-home pay — fuel an economic boom.
    Monthly indicators, which capture growth trends at a much higher frequency, all point to accelerating growth AFTER President Trump took office. Private employment gains, consumer spending, capital investment, and aggregate hours worked have all accelerated since January, while inflation has decelerated.
    An unprecedented surge in imports due to tariff frontrunning contributed to most of the decline.
    The forward-looking indicators highlight the momentum that has occurred in anticipation of President Trump’s economic agenda. Exports still rose at a healthy 1.8% rate, implying no major disruption to flow of U.S. goods and services to our trading partners abroad.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Statements on Ukraine and Middle East by Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and foreign Affairs, at the UN Security Council

    Source: France-Diplomatie – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development

    Ministers,

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    My European partners and I would have preferred not to have to convene this Security Council meeting on Ukraine, but Russia’s high-intensity war of aggression continues to ravage Ukraine, as reiterated by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, with drastic humanitarian consequences in violation of international law and in violation of the Charter of the United Nations: our Charter.

    How did this happen?

    It started with the aspirations of the Ukrainian people to freedom and democracy, which Russia sought to repress in the 2014 Maidan Uprising.

    Ten years ago, a fragile ceasefire was agreed in Minsk. It was violated twenty times.

    Three years ago, Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, a unilateral, brutal, unjustifiable war of aggression that must end now. A war that was not a defensive war, and that was not inevitable. A war that was not justified, and continues to be unjustifiable. It is quite simply the expression of an overt revisionist plan.

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    On 24 February this year, the Security Council adopted an American resolution, Resolution 2774, and I wish to cite it as a reminder: “the Security Council […] implores a swift end to the conflict”.

    What has Ukraine done since 24 February?

    On 9 March, Ukraine accepted the principle of a total and unconditional ceasefire, in accordance with Resolution 2774, showing its good faith and sincere desire to move towards peace.

    And what has Russia done since 24 February and the adoption of Resolution 2774?

    It has continued its war crimes and crimes against humanity by striking infrastructures and targeting civilians, women and children, and humanitarian workers.

    While it is totally violating international law, Russia would have us believe that is in within its right and that it may lay claim to the Ukrainian territories in the name of the principle of self-determination. But it is a diversion; it is false. What is true is that Russia is violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Russia is attacking its neighbour, and in this war of aggression, it is violating international law and international humanitarian law. Everyone can see that, and everyone knows it.

    And today, the only obstacle now to the ceasefire, the only obstacle to the implementation of Resolution 2774 adopted by the Council on 24 February, is Vladimir Putin.

    So why oppose the implementation of this resolution in this way?

    Vladimir Putin’s Russia most likely wants to push Ukraine to surrender. But France, like many other members of this Council, is opposed to this, and will continue to oppose it.

    First, because it is a security challenge for Europe and France, which Russia seeks to destabilize.

    Yes, ladies and gentlemen, France has already been targeted.

    Since the beginning of the conflict, our country, a supporter of Ukraine, has been targeted by Russian cyber attacks originating in the Russian military intelligence services, GRU, carried out by threat actor APT28. They targeted a dozen French entities including public services, enterprises, and sports organizations involved in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We condemn these cyber attacks in the strongest terms. They are unworthy of a permanent member of the Security Council and contrary to the framework set by the United Nations. They must cease immediately.

    But if France, like other members of this Council, is opposed to any form of surrender by Ukraine, it is not only for the sake of Europe’s and France’s security, it is also for the sake of global peace and security. Because such an outcome in this war would enshrine the concept of “might is right”, and inevitably lead the world into a frenetic arms race, and most certainly proliferation.

    I believe that quite simply we must return to some of the elementary principles of our Charter, which I would once again like to cite to refresh the memories of all members of this Council. In Chapter I, Article 2, Paragraph 4, it states that: “States shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations (…)”.

    So let’s get back to simple principles: aggressors must not be rewarded at the victim’s expense; borders are intangible; and States, no matter which, are sovereign.

    I therefore call on President Putin to say to him:

    Cease fire!

    Cease fire!

    Cease fire!

    That is when peace will become possible again.

    A just and true peace.

    A peace that complies with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

    A peace that respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of Ukraine.

    We can succeed.

    That is why, while commending the mediation efforts undertaken by the United States of America and at the highest level, France wants this Council to unanimously demand a total, immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and by that I mean that weapons be laid down.

    Thank you.

    Open debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinain issue

    Statement by the Minister for Europe and Foreign affairs, Jean Noel Barrot

    Dear Secretary-General,

    Ministers,

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    I wanted to make the debate on the Middle East a focus of the French Presidency of the Security Council.

    The anti-Semitic massacres on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing military conflagration have upended the region.

    As we are speaking here today, Gaza has been devastated by war, Lebanon is struggling to recover, Syria is engaged in a fragile and uncertain transition, and Iran is pursuing its dangerous race towards nuclear weapons. This spiral of destabilization must not lead us to a situation that cannot be undone. That is why we must work together to find a path to peace and security for all.

    Our first priority is to stop the hostilities and end the suffering of civilian populations.

    In Lebanon, in close cooperation with our American partners, we managed to achieve a ceasefire agreement five months ago. Its implementation still needs to be fine-tuned, but it has brought about peace. It is crucial and must be upheld.

    In Gaza, war rages on. The fact that the ceasefire has been broken and Israel has resumed its military strikes should alarm us all. It is a huge step backwards for the Palestinian civilian population, for the Israeli hostages and their loved ones, and for the security of the entire region. Negotiations urgently need to resume and bring about a lasting ceasefire. We support mediators’ efforts to achieve that.

    This ceasefire must bring about the unconditional and immediate release of all the hostages being held arbitrarily by Hamas. I would like to take a moment to mention before this Council our fellow Frenchman, Ofer Kalderon, who was released after 484 days in captivity. I would also like to pay homage to the memory of another fellow Frenchman, Ohad Yahalomi, taken hostage on 7 October, arbitrarily held and murdered in Gaza. He has left behind a widow and three innocent children.

    The ceasefire must also bring about deliveries of massive amounts of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic, as all humanitarian aid has been blocked for two months. I was able to see this for myself when I visited the Egyptian border and I testify before you that this situation is unacceptable. Because since the end of March, Israeli bombings have killed more than 1,300 people, including many civilians, women and children. And these military strikes have also killed humanitarian workers and UN staff members. The tremendous suffering of the civilian populations in Gaza has to stop. I call on Israel to remove all obstacles so that massive amounts of humanitarian aid can finally be delivered to Gaza.

    France is fully doing its part to address this humanitarian emergency. Since 2023, we have contributed €250 million in humanitarian aid to civilian populations. A portion of this aid was distributed via UNRWA and France supports UNRWA’s action and efforts of committed reform. In close cooperation with our regional partners, including Egypt and Jordan, we have also directly provided healthcare, food and shelter for people living in Gaza who are victims of the war.

    Our second priority is to help the territories ravaged by conflicts to recover.

    The International Conference in Support of Lebanon’s People and Sovereignty held in Paris on 24 October 2024 raised more than $1 billion. This aid went to the population and security forces. The new authorities have begun reform and reconstruction efforts that we support. When the time is right, we will hold an international conference in support of Lebanon’s economic recovery in Paris. The role of the United Nations throughout this process will be key.

    Lebanon needs to recover its sovereignty – its full sovereignty. We call on Israeli forces that are still in Lebanon to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory so that the Lebanese Armed Forces can be redeployed there. It is up to them to ensure the security and sovereignty of the State, assisted by UNIFIL and the supervision mechanism in which France participates alongside the United States, and which includes the United Nations. France is continuing its efforts with determination to ensure the full implementation of Council’s Resolution 1701.

    In Syria, a historic transition process has begun since Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship was overthrown. France is prepared to provide support. With its European partners, it has started to lift the first sanctions under certain conditions. The transition process must respect and protect the rights of all Syrians, regardless of their ethnic background, religion or gender. It must also ensure effective and determined action to counter terrorism. I will say this before the United Nations General Assembly: the terrible crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime must not be forgotten. The UN has an important role to play against impunity and in Syria’s reconstruction.

    In Gaza, we will support our Arab partners’ efforts to build a robust and credible framework for the “day after”. This framework should enable the reconstruction, governance and security of the enclave. But these efforts can only produce their effects if they are carried out from a political standpoint.

    That is why our third priority is to work on political solutions ensuring a just and lasting peace

    There is only one solution to achieve a political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: it is the two-state solution, the only solution that can ensure peace and security over the long term for both Israelis and Palestinians.

    This solution is now being threatened by the increasing settlement building in the West Bank, by the violence of extremist settlers, by the desire to weaken the Palestinian Authority and by discourse on an annexation and forced displacement of the population.

    Amid faits accomplis on the ground, the prospect of a Palestinian State has to be protected. That is why France is holding an international conference on the implementation of the two-state solution with Saudi Arabia here in New York in June. Our aim is clear: to advance the recognition of Palestine and the normalization of relations with Israel. That is how we will successfully ensure Israel’s security and regional integration, while responding to the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians to have a State. This roadmap for the effective implementation of the two-state solution also involves disarming Hamas, defining a credible governance from which it will be excluded, and reforming the Palestinian Authority. The UN and its agencies must have a full role in this process.

    Also, we are not toning down our efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the challenge related to the headlong pursuit of Iran’s nuclear programme. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi explained the situation clearly yesterday during our meeting on non-proliferation.

    Amid destabilizing interference, we have to continue to work on reinforcing the sovereignty of the States in the region.

    Having just visited Iraq, I would like to stress how much headway this country is making. Destroyed recently by conflicts and power plays, it is now on the sidelines of regional tensions. Iraq has resumed its role as a hub for balance and stabilization. The third Baghdad Conference, which will be held at the end of 2025, testifies to this. It will provide an opportunity to work on regional cooperation and security, countering the fragmentation and confrontation approach at work today.

    Secretary-General,

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    France is working for peace and sovereignty; without them nothing is possible. We are deeply committed to the Middle East for historic and geographic reasons. Today, everyone’s security and stability depend on this region. We are therefore determined to build a path to peace there, for you and with you.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: California City Councilmember Charged with Hazardous Waste Transportation Conspiracy that Risked Death or Serious Bodily Injury

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)

    Michael Kulikoff, 39, of California City, was arrested today on an indictment charging him with conspiracy to transport and cause to be transported a hazardous waste without a manifest and placing another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

    According to court documents, in February 2024, Kulikoff was a city councilmember in California City and owned a car wash business. On Feb. 25, 2024, Kulikoff learned that a mercury exposure incident had occurred at his car wash. An individual had spilled a jar containing several ounces of mercury inside the cabin of a sports utility vehicle and had attempted to clean up the mercury using a vacuum cleaner. The individual then drove the contaminated SUV to a residence in California City, where he called 911 because he was experiencing symptoms related to mercury exposure.

    California City emergency services personnel responded to the scene and scanned the SUV for mercury. They detected approximately 20 times the allowable limit of mercury inside the SUV’s cabin and put yellow caution tape around the SUV to deny entry to it. They also shut down the car wash business. Kulikoff attempted to clean up the business himself but was told by the emergency services personnel that he had to stop because it was a hazardous materials scene and was unsafe.

    Early the following morning, Kulikoff conspired with another person to move the contaminated SUV outside of city limits. He directed the other person to drive the contaminated SUV from California City to Boron because the SUV was causing problems for Kulikoff in California City, and he wanted the SUV to be outside the jurisdiction of California City emergency services personnel. Emergency services personnel left the location of the contaminated SUV scene to respond to a report of a fire that turned out to be a false report. When they returned to the scene, the contaminated SUV was gone. A couple of hours later, Kern County emergency services personnel found the contaminated SUV at the residence of the individual who had moved the vehicle at Kulikoff’s direction. That individual also complained of symptoms related to mercury exposure.

    This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey A. Spivak and Arelis M. Clemente are prosecuting the case.

    If convicted, Kulikoff faces a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to transport hazardous waste and a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine per day of violation for placing another person in imminent danger. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant 

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Solano County Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Second Conviction of Being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)

    Jeremiah Malik Jefferson, 27, of Benicia, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez to seven years in prison for his second federal felon-in-possession of a firearm case, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

    According to court documents, On Oct. 1, 2023, while on supervised release following a 2021 conviction in a prior federal gun case, Jefferson brandished a firearm during an argument with a female victim. Jefferson had been released from prison only 10 months prior. During a search of Jefferson’s residence on Nov. 1, 2023, law enforcement officers recovered a firearm that was loaded with a high-capacity magazine and had previously been reported stolen. Jefferson is prohibited from possessing a firearm due to multiple prior felony convictions, including for burglary and a previous federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Jefferson was also sentenced to two years in prison (the applicable statutory maximum) for violating his terms of supervised release to be served concurrently with the 7-year sentence.

    This case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Probation Office, the Benicia Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI’s Solano County Violent Crimes Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian T. Kinsella prosecuted the case.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.  For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Alley Theatre to host powerful reflection on the impact of flooding

    Source: Northern Ireland – City of Derry

    Alley Theatre to host powerful reflection on the impact of flooding

    30 April 2025

    On the 8th and 9th of May, the Alley Theatre will host a special installation piece reflecting the devastating impact of flooding on local communities.

    ‘In at Midnight and Away by Morning: The Uninvited Guest’, is a powerful sound and light installation from the BluePrint Project, capturing the lived experience of communities facing the reality of flooding and their ongoing adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

    The BluePrint Project, which is funded by Creative Ireland, led by University College Cork with support from The Playhouse, Derry City and Strabane District Council, and Mayo County Council, involved a co-creation process with flood-affected communities in Eglinton and Newtownstewart, and an All-Island learning exchange with Mayo.

    The poetic piece features the sonification of historic and predicted rainfall data and has been shaped through the voices and creativity of flood-affected communities in Eglinton and Newtownstewart.  It was created in collaboration with artist Sara Walmsley, and this immersive work explores resilience, community action and hope in the face of an uncertain climate future.

    On May 8th the Sound and Light Installation will be shared at a special event in the Alley Theatre attended by the Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Councillor Lilian Seenoi Barr, the Director of Creative Ireland, government representatives, researchers, artists and community organisations.

    Looking ahead to the event, Mayor Barr said: “The Blueprint Project is a call to action and we must respond to this climate emergency with a renewed sense of urgency. The fight against climate change requires all of us to play our part, the simple changes we can all make in our everyday life can have a collective impact. It’s time for us to step up as a community.”

    The evening will also mark the launch of the BluePrint Toolkit, a resource capturing insights from this co-creation process and all-island exchange with Mayo. Designed to support government and community actors, the Toolkit offers guidance and inspiration for climate adaptation and flood resilience efforts across Ireland.

    ‘In at Midnight and Away by Morning: The Uninvited Guest’, will be open to the public from 10am to 3pm on the 9th of May at the Alley Theatre.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Cortez Masto Highlights Pain Trump’s First 100 Days Have Caused Nevada Working Families and Businesses

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
     ***VIDEO AVAILABLE***
    FTPs for TV stations is available here.
    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) spoke on the Senate floor on the 100th day of President Donald Trump’s second term to highlight the disastrous impacts President Trump’s agenda have had on hardworking Nevadans and their businesses.
    Throughout the start of Trump’s term, the Senator Cortez Masto has pushed multiple Departments under the Trump Administration for detailed, public information regarding the impacts of President Trump’s federal funding freeze, hiring freeze, and terminations on Nevada – including to the Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, General Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
    Senator Cortez Masto has also repeatedly called out President Trump and Congressional Republican’s attempts to slash Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. And she has continued to push the Trump Administration to address the impacts of Trump’s tariffs on working families, small businesses, and Nevada’s travel and tourism economy.
    Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery:
    While campaigning last year in Bozeman, Montana, Donald Trump said, “Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.”
    Well, it’s been 100 days since he entered the White House, and here’s what he’s given us so far:
    His tariffs are increasing costs for the average family by more than $4,000 a year.
    He has slashed billions from programs that everyday Americans rely on, including $1 Billion for mental health care services.
    He has directed Elon Musk and his unqualified loyalists to fire more than 121,000 federal employees delivering essential services – everyone from to Park Rangers tasked with keeping Americans safe to scientists researching cures to deadly diseases.
    He’s pushing House and Senate Republicans to rubber stamp a plan to cut nearly $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid in order to give tax cuts to billionaires.
    And he’s created endless chaos and uncertainty.
    I could go on and on – that’s just how much damage President Trump has caused to our country in 100 days – but I want to take some time to focus on the impact his economic agenda is having on our small businesses.
    I’m from Nevada, where there are almost 300,000 small businesses.
    These mom-and-pop shops are the lifeblood of our economy and are a part of the fabric of every community.
    And it’s these small businesses that are bearing the brunt of President Trump’s destructive tariffs.
    Now, I believe targeted tariffs on our adversaries can be a useful tool to protect American jobs and support our national security.
    But these blanket tariffs are the opposite of that.
    These last two weeks – while back home in Nevada – I got a first-hand account of what small businesses are having to deal with.
    I heard these concerns from three small business owners in Las Vegas: Juanny, Santy, and Kristen. All three of these women own shops that serve specialty drinks and incredible food to Nevadans – from coffee and boba to tacos.
    In Vegas – as you may know – travel and tourism are the backbone of our economy.
    When people come to Las Vegas they don’t just visit the Strip. They go to Chinatown, and the arts district, and all over the valley to patronize our small businesses.
    For many business owners – like Juanny, like Santy, like Kristen – their margins are already razor-thin, and tourism is key to meeting their bottom line.
    But because of President Trump’s tariffs, we’re already seeing a decline in visitors coming to Las Vegas. 
    Whether people are staying home because they don’t have any room in their budgets for a vacation, or international tourists are choosing other destinations – Trump’s economic agenda is threatening to crater our $2 trillion tourism economy. 
    That hurts our small businesses!
    And when they can’t keep up because costs are rising, because they have fewer patrons, or because of the higher cost of importing their supplies – they’re forced to raise their prices and pass the burden onto customers.
    It’s unsustainable.
    And this same sentiment is echoed in the Northern part of our state.
    In Reno, I spoke to Mark, a small coffee shop owner who is already asking himself how he can continue to navigate everyday operations amid the uncertainty.
    He doesn’t want to pass higher costs onto customers, but if Trump’s erratic tariff agenda continues, he may have no choice.
    Trump says Americans must accept short-term pain for long-term gain, but what is there to be gained if hardworking Nevadans have to close the doors of their businesses?
    I think to myself, if it’s only been 100 days, how much damage is he going to potentially cause in the next 100?
    In the 1361 days left in his term?
    It’s been 100 days, and small businesses across the United States may soon be faced with having to close up shop.
    What’s going to happen to Juanny, to Mark, to Santy, to Kristen?
    Will they make it through the rest of Trump’s term?
    I don’t know the answer.
    But I hope my Republican colleagues stop rubber stamping Trump’s harmful agenda and actually stand up for working families and small businesses.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Chester Man Sentenced for Tax Evasion, False Statements, and Illegal Gun Possession in Multi-Million Dollar Business Scheme

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lawrencium Germaine Martin, a/k/a Germaine Martin, 47, of Chester, has been sentenced to 57 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal tax evasion, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and making false statements to federal investigators.

    According to evidence presented in court, from 2019 through 2021, Martin operated a business known as Lancaster Tactical Supply (LTS) through the website LTacticalSupply.com. Martin presented LTS as if it were a legitimate business that sold firearm accessories and parts, including 80% build kits, firearm slides, imitation suppressors, optics, and body armor. He also modified and customized firearms.  Build kits are products that include the component parts of an operable firearm with some parts disassembled. When the parts are combined, the product is converted into a fully functioning firearm, often without a manufacturer or serial number, making the firearm more difficult to trace.  

    At least 380 customers from 43 states complained that they were defrauded by LTS, generally reporting that LTS took their money and failed to ship the products they purchased. Martin generated substantial revenue through LTS, including more than $2 million in 2020 alone.  Although Martin personally operated LTS and deposited its proceeds into his personal bank accounts, Martin failed to pay state or federal income tax any year from 2015 through 2022. 

    Martin also evaded federal income tax by using the identity of a former employee without authorization to set LTS payment systems up in a way that caused the IRS to identify the former employee as the person who owed income tax for the business, rather than Martin.

    When agents searched Martin’s residence and business in Chester, pursuant to a federal search warrant, he was found in possession of numerous firearms – including a 5.56 x 45 mm “80%” rifle; a 9 x 19 mm “80%” pistol, with a stabilizer brace and muzzle attachment; a 9mm pistol; and another 9mm pistol loaded with 16 rounds. Only one of the firearms had a serial number. Martin had 15 prior criminal convictions at the time, many of which are felonies, which made firearm possession illegal for Martin under federal law.

    As for false statements, when agents searched his house and business, Martin told FBI agents that he had never heard of LTS, that he had never received money from LTS, and that he did not know how his name became associated with the businesses, all of which Martin knew were untrue.

    United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. sentenced Martin to 57 months in federal prison, the high end of the advisory guidelines, with 3 years supervision by U.S. Probation to follow. Martin was also ordered to pay $215,374.00 in restitution to the IRS.

    The case was investigated by the FBI Columbia field office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation, with critical assistance from the Chester County Sheriff’s Department and the Rock Hill Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott B. Daniels is prosecuting the case.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Roanoke Man Sentenced for Killing Drug Supplier, Setting Body on Fire

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke man, who robbed, shot, and killed his drug supplier then later burned the body to conceal his crimes, was sentenced yesterday to 35 years in federal prison.

    Joseph Richard Walker, 30, pled guilty in February to one count of Hobbs Act Robbery and one count of possessing, brandishing, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and a crime of violence.

    A second man, Garrett Isaac Williams, has also pled guilty to related charges and is awaiting sentencing.

    According to court documents, from about December 2021, to about April 17, 2023, Walker engaged in a conspiracy to distribute marijuana with Williams. Beginning no later than January 2023, both Walker and Williams acquired marijuana and marijuana wax from E.B., who would travel from Pennsylvania to meet the pair at Walker’ s residence in Roanoke, Virginia.

    At some point in April 2023, Williams owed E.B. a large sum of money for marijuana that had been fronted. After having difficulty reaching Williams to discuss this debt, E.B. attempted to contact Walker, but inadvertently called Walker’s mother instead.

    This phone call caused Walker and Williams to set in motion a plan to end their relationship with E.B. However, instead of paying E.B. the money that was owed, they planned to order more marijuana from E.B., rob E.B. of that marijuana when he made the delivery, and in so doing, scare him from returning to Virginia.

    After receiving the “order” from Williams, on April 17, 2023, E.B. traveled from Pennsylvania to Walker’s residence in Roanoke, bringing with him approximately ten pounds of marijuana and two pounds of marijuana wax. Prior to E.B.’s arrival, Walker concealed on his person a Sig Sauer, model 1911, .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol, intending to use it in the robbery. Upon E.B.’s arrival,  Walker confronted E.B. about the phone call to Walker’s mother. This resulted in a brief verbal exchange and was followed by Walker committing the robbery against E.B., during which Walker shot E.B. twice, resulting in his death. To conceal the crime, Walker dragged E.B. ‘s body out of his residence, placed it in the trunk of E.B. ‘s car, and then drove the car out to Bedford County, Virginia, where he set it on fire. Prior to departing his residence in E.B.’s car, Walker took the marijuana that E.B. had brought with him.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Virginia State Police, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, the Roanoke City Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the Roanoke City Police Department, the Roanoke County Police Department, the City of Lynchburg Police Department, and the Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office investigated the case.

    Acting United States Attorney Zachary T. Lee, Stanley M. Meador, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division and Col. Matthew D. Hanley, Superintendent of the Virginia State Police, announced the sentence today.

    The Star City Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, comprised of officers from the Roanoke City Police Department, Roanoke County Police Department, City of Salem Virginia Police Department, the Vinton Police Department, and Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Salem Field Office, also aided in the investigation.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys M. Coleman Adams and Kelly J. McGann are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorney Drew O. Inman.

    This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Old Town National City Gang Member Sentenced to 10 Years for Distributing Methamphetamine Near School

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)

    SAN DIEGO – Manuel Joseph Mariscal, an Old Town National City criminal street gang member known by the moniker “Pony,” was sentenced today in federal court to 120 months in prison. 

    In June of 2022, task force officers from the East County Regional Gang Task Force conducted two controlled purchases involving the distribution of methamphetamine, a Ruger Mini Thirty CAL. 7.62 x 39 rifle and several rounds of ammunition from Mariscal. The distribution occurred at Mariscal’s residence located just 852 feet away from Zamorano Elementary School in San Diego.

    On June 21, 2023, a state search warrant was executed on Mariscal’s residence, wherein additional methamphetamine, a firearm, ammunition, a firearm silencer, a firearm laser sign with gun mount parts, heroin and a composition book with pay and own information common in the drug trafficking business were discovered. On that date, Mariscal was arrested on the federal charges stemming from the June 2022 controlled purchases.

    In addition to the federal charges, Mariscal is currently facing state charges for the additional contraband seized in connection to the search warrant execution on his residence in San Diego County Superior Court, Dkt. No. CD301145, charging Mariscal with child abuse, possession for sale of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm by a possessor of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm by a felon, and a prohibited person owning firearm/ammunition.

    Mariscal, a serial offender marking his fourth conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, entered a guilty plea on this federal case on September 17, 2024.

    This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lyndzie M. Carter.

    DEFENDANT                                               Case Number 23cr1470-JLS                            

    Manuel Jospeh Mariscal                                 Age: 49                                   San Diego, CA

    SUMMARY OF CHARGES

    Distribution of Methamphetamine Near a School – Title 21, U.S.C., Sections 841(a)(1) and 860

    Maximum penalty: Eighty years in prison and $10 million fine

    Felon in Possession of a Firearm – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 922(g)(1)

    Maximum penalty: Ten years in prison and $250,000 fine

    Felon in Possession of Ammunition– Title 18, U.S.C., Section 922(g)(1)

    Maximum penalty: Ten years in prison and $250,000 fine

    INVESTIGATING AGENCIES

    East County Regional Gang Task Force

    Federal Bureau of Investigation

    San Diego County Sheriff’s Office

    National City Police Department

    San Diego County District Attorney’s Office

    *The charges and allegations contained in an indictment or complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: BATON ROUGE MAN SENTENCED TO 151 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR BANK ROBBERY

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Acting United States Attorney April M. Leon announced that U.S. Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick sentenced Jonathan Wayne Lanaute, age 40, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to 151 months in federal prison following his conviction for bank robbery. The Court further sentenced Lanaute to serve three years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment and ordered him to pay $20,000 in restitution.

    According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, on the morning of May 3, 2024, Lanaute entered United Community Bank, located on Bluebonnet Boulevard in Baton Rouge, and stated that he needed to cash a check. He approached a counter and passed a handwritten note to the bank teller which stated, “give me all the money in the cash resgister [sic] before everybody die in here.” The teller, fearful of bodily harm, directed the bank’s computer to begin dispensing $100 bills. While waiting for the bills to be dispensed, Lanaute was fidgeting in his sweatshirt pockets as if he had a firearm. He told the teller to “hurry up, hurry up,” and not to make any moves.   

    The machine dispensed fifty $100 bills at a time and ran through four (4) cycles. When complete, Lanaute took the money from the teller and walked towards the bank to leave. Before exiting the building, he heard the machine continuing to dispense money and he returned to the teller counter to retrieve the additional bills before finally exiting the building with $20,000.   

    Law enforcement was dispatched to the scene and retrieved video footage from the bank’s surveillance system. The surveillance footage showed Lanaute entering the bank wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and a black Saints baseball cap, and ultimately fleeing the scene in a dark colored sedan with a spoiler on the rear of the vehicle. Law enforcement identified the vehicle as a dark grey Mitsubishi Lancer which had been reported stolen during an armed robbery near the bank the previous night.   

    The vehicle was identified around the immediate area of United Community Bank and law enforcement visually confirmed the driver to be the same individual identified as the robber from the bank’s video surveillance. Officers attempted a traffic stop of the vehicle. Lanaute refused to stop and a vehicle pursuit ensued. During the pursuit, he drove the vehicle into ongoing traffic, ran another motorist off the road, and drove in the wrong direction on the interstate. The pursuit of the vehicle ended when the driver crashed head-on into an innocent motorist on the interstate.

    After the crash, Lanaute fled on foot. Following a short foot pursuit, he was apprehended and taken into custody. Lanaute was wearing the same clothing as seen in the bank’s video surveillance.  Approximately $8,207.89 was recovered from his person.

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Baton Rouge Police Department, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kristen Lundin Craig.

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amal Elawady, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University

    A downburst blasts Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017. Natapat Ariyamongkol/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    From a distance, a downburst can look like a torrent of heavy rain. But at ground level, its behavior can be far more destructive.

    When a downburst’s winds hit the ground, they shoot out horizontally in all directions, sometimes with enough force to shatter windows and overturn vehicles.

    These winds behave in complicated ways, particularly in cities, as our latest research shows. Downburst winds can deflect off tall buildings, increasing the pressure on neighboring buildings’ windows and walls. The result can blow out glass and chip off facade. Even buildings designed to survive hurricanes can suffer major damage in a downburst.

    As engineers, we study downbursts with the goal of designing buildings, components such as solar panels and windows, and infrastructure such as power lines that can stand up to that powerful force. To do this, informed by field measurements, we create our own powerful downbursts using a hurricane simulator known as the Wall of Wind at Florida International University.

    An illustration of how the winds of a downburst fan out in open space. In a city with tall buildings, the wind can deflect off buildings, causing damage in unexpected ways.
    NASA/Wikimedia Commons

    What is a downburst?

    Downbursts can be as destructive as tornadoes, but their winds develop in a very different way.

    A downburst forms when a thunderstorm pulls cooler, heavier air down from high in the atmosphere. As this rain-cooled air rushes downward, it gains speed. Once it slams into the ground, it has nowhere to go but outward, sending strong winds in all horizontal directions.

    Dust in the air shows the curling rotation of a downburst’s winds.
    NOAA

    The wind speed in a downburst can reach over 150 miles per hour. That’s the strength of a Category 4 hurricane and strong enough to knock down trees and power lines, damage buildings and flip vehicles.

    These winds also rotate, but not in the same way tornadoes do. Downburst winds are typically considered straight-line winds, but they rotate around a horizontal axis as the wind curls upward after hitting the ground. Tornadoes, in contrast, spin around a vertical axis.

    Powerful storm systems known as derechos are often made up of multiple downburst clusters, each containing many smaller downbursts, sometimes called microbursts.

    Recreating Houston’s downburst in a warehouse

    On May 16, 2024, a derecho hit Houston with a downburst that was so strong, it blew out windows in several high-rise buildings that had been built to survive Category 4 hurricanes. The winds also pried off chunks of buildings’ facades.

    Two months later, Hurricane Beryl hit Houston with similar wind speeds, yet it left minimal damage to the downtown buildings.

    When a downburst hit downtown Houston on May 16, 2024, it shattered windows on some sides of buildings but not others, and not always in the line of the storm. The damage offered clues to how downbursts interact with tall buildings.
    Cécile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

    To understand how a downburst like this can be so much more destructive – and what cities and building designers can do about it – we simulated both the Houston downburst winds and Hurricane Beryl’s winds in the Wall of Wind.

    The test facility is equipped with a dozen jet fans, each almost as tall as the workers who run them and powerful enough to simulate a Category 5 hurricane. Our team used these fans to recreate powerful downburst winds that hit horizontally with the maximum wind speeds near ground level. Then, we put several models of buildings to the test to see how roofs, windows, facades and the structures of power lines reacted under that force.

    How the Wall of Wind’s fans mimic a downburst’s horizontal force.

    In the Houston derecho, a downburst hit downtown with 100 mph winds. It cracked some lower windows, likely with blowing debris, but it also caused widespread unexpected damage midway up some of the buildings.

    The Chevron Building Auditorium actually suffered the most damage on a side that wasn’t directly in the line of the storm but was facing another tall building. That left some intriguing questions. It suggested that the way the buildings channel the wind may have created a strong suction that blew out windows midway up the tower. Another burning question is whether building design codes are outdated when it comes to how well their cladding can stand up to these localized winds.

    Using the Wall of Wind, we were able to test those pressures on models of the Houston buildings and see how downburst winds increased the pressured on a tall building model with excessive forces near the ground level.

    The ability to simulate these winds is important for improving engineers’ understanding of the differences in how downbursts and other wind events exert force on buildings. The results ultimately inform building standards to help create more resilient and better-protected communities.

    Building better power lines

    Big storms, like downbursts, can also take down power lines.

    Power lines extend hundreds of miles between cities and states, making them more susceptible to a hit from a localized severe storm, such as a downburst. If one of the towers falls, it can cause a chain reaction, like dominoes falling one after another. That can knock out power for large numbers of people.

    The derecho that hit Houston with a downburst also crumpled transmission towers in Texas.
    AP Photo/David J. Phillip

    With colleagues, we have been testing transmission towers and multispan power-line systems under downburst and hurricane winds to understand how these structures respond, with the goal of developing better construction techniques. That work has helped to update the American manual for the design of power lines, which engineers use for designing safer, more storm-resilient transmission towers.

    What’s next

    Low-rise and mid-rise buildings are also vulnerable to downbursts, but the effects are less well understood. Downburst winds are most intense between 10 and 300 feet above the ground, meaning the roofs and walls of some low-rises can be hit with intense horizontal wind.

    Recent building codes have offered design guidelines to help ensure these buildings can withstand tornadoes. However, the way downbursts rotate in a short time around a building or a community of buildings puts pressure on the walls and the roof in different ways. Similar to straight-line winds, we expect high suction on the roof. Due to their short duration, varying wind direction and intense wind speed, downbursts may also cause excessive vibrations and varying pressure distribution on the roof components.

    How microbursts form.

    We’re now testing downburst damage to low- and mid-rise buildings to better understand the risks and help highlight changes that can make buildings more resilient.

    As populations grow, cities are adding more buildings. At the same time, powerful storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. Understanding the effects of different types of storms will help engineers construct high-rises, low-rises and power lines that are better able to withstand extreme weather.

    Amal Elawady receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Fahim Ahmed, Mohamed Eissa, and Omar Metwally do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-downburst-these-winds-can-be-as-destructive-as-tornadoes-we-recreate-them-to-test-building-designs-254931

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By F. Chris Curran, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Florida

    School discipline has evolved over the years. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    The Trump administration is trying to reshape how schools discipline students – and alter the federal government’s role in the process.

    On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order suggesting schools have been using racially discriminatory discipline policies. It sets in motion new federal guidance that would reverse policies supported by the Obama and Biden administrations aimed at reducing racial disparities in how Black children and other students of color are disciplined in school.

    I believe the order could have far-reaching consequences and is likely to prompt pushback and legal challenges. As a researcher who studies school discipline, I can explain why this is happening and what it means for schools and students.

    Local control, federal influence

    School discipline has historically been locally controlled, though federal law does mandate a few disciplinary responses, such as expulsion for possessing firearms. School boards create codes of conduct. School principals and teachers make and enforce rules.

    However, federal guidance over the past decade has increasingly shaped these local decisions.

    In 2014, for example, the U.S. departments of Education and Justice issued guidance to reduce racial disparities in school discipline. This Obama-era letter suggested that higher rates of discipline for racial minorities could be evidence of discrimination. The guidance signaled how the U.S. Department of Education would interpret federal law and what might be cause for federal investigation.

    In the following years, schools reduced suspensions and adopted alternatives such as restorative practices, which focus on talking through and repairing harm instead of removing students from the classroom. But some people saw this as a weakening of school discipline. Politicians and policy advocates even claimed that these changes in discipline contributed to school shootings.

    Even though the guidance was rescinded during the first Trump administration, the federal government continued to investigate disparities in discipline. And without alternative guidance, many schools continued practices guided by the Obama-era policies.

    These efforts to reduce disparities in school discipline continued under President Joe Biden, though without reinstating the Obama-era guidance.

    In the return to schooling after COVID-19 shutdowns, however, schools grappled with reports of increasing student misbehavior. Nationally, almost 9 in 10 principals reported negative effects of the pandemic on student behavior.

    At the same time, there were reports that some schools were not properly documenting serious misbehavior – hiding high or disparate rates of discipline. These problems created an opportunity for the Trump administration to push new federal guidance.

    What Trump’s executive order does

    Trump’s new executive order sets the stage for further federal influence over discipline policy and practices. Here’s a breakdown of what it contains.

    First, the executive order states that schools should no longer focus on differences in rates of discipline across subgroups. It contends that doing so has led to schools failing to report incidents and making decisions based on students’ race rather than objective facts.

    Next, the executive order calls on the secretary of education to develop new school discipline guidance for states and schools. It also calls for the secretary of education and attorney general to work with state leaders to reshape how their states can prevent racial discrimination in discipline.

    Finally, the executive order requires a report on “the status of discriminatory-equity-ideology-based” school discipline. The order does not explicitly say what such discipline is, but it presumably includes alternatives to suspension and approaches that focus on considering race in disciplinary decisions.

    The report is to provide model policies that the order claims will uphold “American values and traditional virtues” and provide examples of discipline not based on “equity ideology.”

    Part of the report will also include an evaluation of past federal civil rights investigations and federal funding supporting organizations that promote discipline approaches deemed problematic under the new order. This addresses concerns that the threat of federal investigation over discipline disparities was used to influence schools’ discipline policies.

    In short, the order suggests expanded federal involvement in school discipline. It does so despite noting that it is an “obvious conclusion” that “disciplinary decisions are best left in the hands of classroom teachers and administrators.”

    Meaning of ‘discrimination’ in anti-DEI era

    The executive order claims to provide “protections against racial discrimination” in school discipline. Interestingly, the policies Trump is seeking to undo were similarly intended to reduce racial disparities.

    This seeming contradiction can be understood when the executive order is viewed against the backdrop of current education policy debates. A wide set of policies grounded in efforts of diversity, equity and inclusion and related topics have been at the forefront of debates over schooling in the past five years. From debates around “critical race theory” – the idea that racism is embedded in our social systems – to the content of school libraries, the “culture wars” are at the schoolhouse door.

    It is no coincidence, then, that the executive order uses the term “discriminatory equity ideology” to describe discipline policies it prohibits.

    I argue this reframing of DEI from diversity, equity and inclusion to discrimination illustrates that the new executive order is not just about school discipline. It is part of a bigger debate on the value and impacts of DEI and politicized contention over public schooling.

    What order means for schools and students

    In the short term, I believe educators will face much uncertainty. The executive order is vague. It does not name specific discipline policies that should be avoided or used.

    But in the coming months, the executive order promises increased federal influence over school discipline. The full scope or impact of this is not yet clear. However, it is reasonable to expect that, just like other contested issues in education, there will be legal challenges and pushback in some locales.

    In short, the “common sense” discipline reforms called for in the executive order are unlikely to be seen as common sense for everyone.

    F. Chris Curran has received funding from the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Educational Research Association for research on school discipline and safety.

    – ref. Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students – https://theconversation.com/trump-seeks-to-reshape-how-schools-discipline-students-255377

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Courtney McGinnis, Professor of Biology, Medical Sciences and Environmental Sciences, Quinnipiac University

    A bee enjoys lunch on a flower in Hillsboro, Ore. HIllsboro Parks & Rec, CC BY-NC-ND

    The problem with climate change isn’t just the temperature – it’s also how fast the climate is changing today.

    Historically, Earth’s climate changes have generally happened over thousands to millions of years. Today, global temperatures are increasing by about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade.

    Imagine a car speeding up. Over time, human activities such as burning fossil fuels have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the Sun. This is like pressing the gas pedal. The faster the driver adds gas, the faster the car goes.

    The 21st century has seen a dramatic acceleration in the rate of climate change, with global temperatures rising more than three times faster than in the previous century.

    The faster pace and higher temperatures are changing habitat ranges for plants and animals. In some regions, the pace of change is also throwing off the delicate timing of pollination, putting plants and pollinators such as bees at risk.

    Some species are already migrating

    Most plant and animal species can tolerate or at least recover from short-term changes in climate, such as a heat wave. When the changes last longer, however, organisms may need to migrate into new areas to adapt for survival.

    Some species are already moving toward higher latitudes and altitudes with cooler temperatures, altering their geographic territory to stay within their optimal climate. Fish populations, for example, have shifted toward the poles as ocean temperatures have risen.

    Pollinators such as bees can also shift their ranges.

    Bumblebees, for example, are adapted for cooler regions because of their fuzzy bodies. Some bumblebee populations have been disappearing from the southern parts of their geographic range and have been found in cooler regions to the north and in more mountainous areas. That could increase competition with existing bumblebee populations.

    Plants and pollinators can get out of sync

    Plants and their pollinators face another problem as the rate of climate change increases: Many plants rely on insects and other animals for seed and pollen dispersal.

    Much of that pollen dispersal is accomplished by native pollinators. About 75% of plant species in North America require an insect pollinator – bees, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, birds and bats. In fact, 1 in 3 bites of food you eat depend on a pollinator, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    So, even if a species successfully migrates into a new territory, it can face a mismatch of pollination timing. This is known as phenological mismatch.

    Monarch butterflies migrate each year and rely on plants blooming along their path to provide food.
    Clint Wirick/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

    During the winter, insects go into a hibernation known as diapause, migrate or take up shelter underground, under rocks or in leaf litter. These insect pollinators use temperature and daylight length as cues for when to emerge or when to migrate to their spring and summer habitats.

    As the rate of climate change increases, the chances of a timing mismatch between pollinators and the plants they pollinate rise.

    With an increase in temperature, many plants are blooming earlier in the spring. If bees or other pollinators emerge at their “normal” time, flowers may already be blooming, reducing their chance for pollination.

    If pollinators emerge too early, they may struggle to survive if their normal food sources are not yet available. Native bees, for example, rely on pollen for much of the protein they need for growing and thriving.

    Wild bees are emerging earlier

    This kind of shift in timing is already happening with bees in the U.S.

    Studies have shown that the date wild bees emerge in the U.S. has shifted by 10.4 days earlier over the past 130 years, and the pace is accelerating.

    One study found wild bees across species have been changing their phenology, or timing of seasonal activities, and over the past 50 years the emergence date is four times faster. That means wild bees were emerging roughly eight days earlier in 2020 than they did in 1970.

    A bee pollinates an almond tree in an orchard.
    David Kosling/U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC BY

    This trend of earlier emergence is generally consistent across organisms with the accelerating rate of climate change. If the timing mismatches continue to worsen, it could exacerbate the decline of pollinator populations and result in inadequate pollination for plants that rely on them.

    Pollinator decline and inadequate pollination already account for a 3% to 5% decline in global fruit, vegetable, spice and nut production annually, a recent study found.

    Without pollinators, ecosystems are less resilient − they are unable to absorb disturbances such as wildfires, adapt to changes, and recover from environmental stressors such as pollution, drought or floods.

    Managing climate change

    Pollinators face many other risks from human activities, including habitat loss from development and harm from pesticide use. Climate change adds to that list.

    Taking steps to reduce the activities driving global warming can help keep these species thriving and carrying out their roles in nature into the future.

    Courtney McGinnis is affiliated with You Got This Kid Leadership Foundation. She receives funding from Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

    – ref. Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways – https://theconversation.com/bees-fish-and-plants-show-how-climate-changes-accelerating-pace-is-disrupting-nature-in-2-key-ways-255384

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Amal Elawady, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Florida International University

    A downburst blasts Bangkok, Thailand, in 2017. Natapat Ariyamongkol/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    From a distance, a downburst can look like a torrent of heavy rain. But at ground level, its behavior can be far more destructive.

    When a downburst’s winds hit the ground, they shoot out horizontally in all directions, sometimes with enough force to shatter windows and overturn vehicles.

    These winds behave in complicated ways, particularly in cities, as our latest research shows. Downburst winds can deflect off tall buildings, increasing the pressure on neighboring buildings’ windows and walls. The result can blow out glass and chip off facade. Even buildings designed to survive hurricanes can suffer major damage in a downburst.

    As engineers, we study downbursts with the goal of designing buildings, components such as solar panels and windows, and infrastructure such as power lines that can stand up to that powerful force. To do this, informed by field measurements, we create our own powerful downbursts using a hurricane simulator known as the Wall of Wind at Florida International University.

    An illustration of how the winds of a downburst fan out in open space. In a city with tall buildings, the wind can deflect off buildings, causing damage in unexpected ways.
    NASA/Wikimedia Commons

    What is a downburst?

    Downbursts can be as destructive as tornadoes, but their winds develop in a very different way.

    A downburst forms when a thunderstorm pulls cooler, heavier air down from high in the atmosphere. As this rain-cooled air rushes downward, it gains speed. Once it slams into the ground, it has nowhere to go but outward, sending strong winds in all horizontal directions.

    Dust in the air shows the curling rotation of a downburst’s winds.
    NOAA

    The wind speed in a downburst can reach over 150 miles per hour. That’s the strength of a Category 4 hurricane and strong enough to knock down trees and power lines, damage buildings and flip vehicles.

    These winds also rotate, but not in the same way tornadoes do. Downburst winds are typically considered straight-line winds, but they rotate around a horizontal axis as the wind curls upward after hitting the ground. Tornadoes, in contrast, spin around a vertical axis.

    Powerful storm systems known as derechos are often made up of multiple downburst clusters, each containing many smaller downbursts, sometimes called microbursts.

    Recreating Houston’s downburst in a warehouse

    On May 16, 2024, a derecho hit Houston with a downburst that was so strong, it blew out windows in several high-rise buildings that had been built to survive Category 4 hurricanes. The winds also pried off chunks of buildings’ facades.

    Two months later, Hurricane Beryl hit Houston with similar wind speeds, yet it left minimal damage to the downtown buildings.

    When a downburst hit downtown Houston on May 16, 2024, it shattered windows on some sides of buildings but not others, and not always in the line of the storm. The damage offered clues to how downbursts interact with tall buildings.
    Cécile Clocheret/AFP via Getty Images

    To understand how a downburst like this can be so much more destructive – and what cities and building designers can do about it – we simulated both the Houston downburst winds and Hurricane Beryl’s winds in the Wall of Wind.

    The test facility is equipped with a dozen jet fans, each almost as tall as the workers who run them and powerful enough to simulate a Category 5 hurricane. Our team used these fans to recreate powerful downburst winds that hit horizontally with the maximum wind speeds near ground level. Then, we put several models of buildings to the test to see how roofs, windows, facades and the structures of power lines reacted under that force.

    How the Wall of Wind’s fans mimic a downburst’s horizontal force.

    In the Houston derecho, a downburst hit downtown with 100 mph winds. It cracked some lower windows, likely with blowing debris, but it also caused widespread unexpected damage midway up some of the buildings.

    The Chevron Building Auditorium actually suffered the most damage on a side that wasn’t directly in the line of the storm but was facing another tall building. That left some intriguing questions. It suggested that the way the buildings channel the wind may have created a strong suction that blew out windows midway up the tower. Another burning question is whether building design codes are outdated when it comes to how well their cladding can stand up to these localized winds.

    Using the Wall of Wind, we were able to test those pressures on models of the Houston buildings and see how downburst winds increased the pressured on a tall building model with excessive forces near the ground level.

    The ability to simulate these winds is important for improving engineers’ understanding of the differences in how downbursts and other wind events exert force on buildings. The results ultimately inform building standards to help create more resilient and better-protected communities.

    Building better power lines

    Big storms, like downbursts, can also take down power lines.

    Power lines extend hundreds of miles between cities and states, making them more susceptible to a hit from a localized severe storm, such as a downburst. If one of the towers falls, it can cause a chain reaction, like dominoes falling one after another. That can knock out power for large numbers of people.

    The derecho that hit Houston with a downburst also crumpled transmission towers in Texas.
    AP Photo/David J. Phillip

    With colleagues, we have been testing transmission towers and multispan power-line systems under downburst and hurricane winds to understand how these structures respond, with the goal of developing better construction techniques. That work has helped to update the American manual for the design of power lines, which engineers use for designing safer, more storm-resilient transmission towers.

    What’s next

    Low-rise and mid-rise buildings are also vulnerable to downbursts, but the effects are less well understood. Downburst winds are most intense between 10 and 300 feet above the ground, meaning the roofs and walls of some low-rises can be hit with intense horizontal wind.

    Recent building codes have offered design guidelines to help ensure these buildings can withstand tornadoes. However, the way downbursts rotate in a short time around a building or a community of buildings puts pressure on the walls and the roof in different ways. Similar to straight-line winds, we expect high suction on the roof. Due to their short duration, varying wind direction and intense wind speed, downbursts may also cause excessive vibrations and varying pressure distribution on the roof components.

    How microbursts form.

    We’re now testing downburst damage to low- and mid-rise buildings to better understand the risks and help highlight changes that can make buildings more resilient.

    As populations grow, cities are adding more buildings. At the same time, powerful storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. Understanding the effects of different types of storms will help engineers construct high-rises, low-rises and power lines that are better able to withstand extreme weather.

    Amal Elawady receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

    Fahim Ahmed, Mohamed Eissa, and Omar Metwally do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs – https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-downburst-these-winds-can-be-as-destructive-as-tornadoes-we-recreate-them-to-test-building-designs-254931

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Government must distance itself from Blair’s latest ‘dodgy dossier’ say Greens

    Source: Green Party of England and Wales

    30 April 2025/ 30 April 2025 by Green Party

    Commenting on Tony Blair’s call for a major rethink of net zero policies which comes as the Climate Change Committee warns the UK is critically unprepared for the escalating threats of the climate crisis, co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer, said:

    “Tony Blair has decided to mimic Nigel Farage on net zero and sounds like he is speaking on behalf of petro-states like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan for whom he has lobbied for more years than he was prime minister.

    “It is vital that the government distance itself from this latest dodgy dossier from Blair and turn its attention instead to what the Climate Change Committee is saying today. Their report could not be clearer: we are woefully unprepared for the impacts of climate breakdown as a country. Tomorrow is likely to be the hottest local election day on record – a potent reminder that we need a comprehensive plan to prepare for increasingly extreme weather events.

    “Tony Blair and Nigel Farage apparently need reminding that a huge 89% of the world’s people want stronger action to fight the climate crisis, not a reset or watering down of ambition. And the CBI points to the fact that the UK’s net zero sector expanded 10 per cent last year, three times faster than the rest of the economy.

    “The future is green; Labour must not allow yesterday’s man to drag us back into the dark ages. The government must press ahead with the drive towards clean energy and the green economy and all the advantages that will bring in creating good quality jobs, cutting energy bills and creating a healthier society.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Global: In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Jessica Maddox, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama

    Influencer Alix Earle, a self-described ‘hot mess,’ has legions of online haters. Greg Doherty/Getty Images for Revolve

    Since 2020, content creator Remi Bader had accumulated millions of TikTok followers by offering her opinions on the fits of popular clothing brands as a plus-size woman.

    In 2023, however, Bader appeared noticeably thinner. When some fans asked her whether she’d undergone a procedure, she blocked them. Later that year, she announced that she would no longer be posting about her body.

    Enter snark subreddits. On Reddit, these forums exist for the sole purpose of calling out internet celebrities, whether they’re devoted to dinging the late-night antics of self-described “hot mess” Alix Earle or venting over Savannah and Cole LaBrant, a family vlogging couple who misleadingly implied that their daughter had cancer.

    While the internet is synonymous with fan culture, snark subreddits aren’t for enthusiasts. Instead, snarkers are anti-fans who hone the art of hating.

    Remi Bader attends New York Fashion Week on Feb. 10, 2025.
    Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tory Burch

    After Bader’s refusal to talk about her weight loss, the Remi Bader snark subreddit blew up. Posters weren’t upset that Bader had lost weight or had stopped posting about her body size. Instead, they believed Bader the influencer, who’d built her brand on plus-size inclusion in fashion, wasn’t being straight with her fans and needed to be taken to account.

    It worked. During a March 2025 appearance on Khloe Kardashian’s podcast, Bader finally revealed that she had, in fact, had weight-loss surgery.

    Some critics see snarkers as a big problem and understandably denounce their tendency to harass, body shame and try to cancel influencers.

    But completely dismissing snark glosses over the fact that it can serve a purpose. In our work as social media researchers, we’ve written about how snark can actually be thought of as a way to call out bad actors in the largely unregulated world of influencing and content creation.

    Grassroots policing

    Before there were influencers, there were bloggers. While bloggers covered topics that ranged from entertainment to politics to travel, parenting and fashion bloggers probably have the closest connection to today’s influencers.

    After Google introduced AdSense in 2003, bloggers were easily able to run advertising on their websites. Then brands saw an opportunity. Parenting and fashion bloggers had large, loyal followings. Many readers felt an intimate connection to their favorite bloggers, who seemed more like friends than out-of-touch celebrity spokespersons.

    Brands realized they could send bloggers their products in exchange for a write-up or a feature. Furthermore, advertisers understood that parenting and fashion bloggers didn’t have to adhere to the same industry regulations or code of ethics as most news media outlets, such as disclosing payments or conflicts of interest.

    This changed the dynamic between bloggers and their fans, who wondered whether bloggers could be trusted if they were sometimes being paid to promote certain products.

    In response, websites emerged in 2009 to critique bloggers. “Get Off My Internets,” for example, fashioned itself as a “quality control watchdog” to provide constructive criticism and call out deceptive practices. As Instagram and YouTube became more popular, the subreddit “r/Blogsnark” launched in 2015 to critique early influencers, in addition to bloggers.

    Few guardrails in place

    Today the influencer industry has a valuation of over US$250 billion in the U.S. alone, and it’s on track to be worth over $500 billion by 2027.

    Yet there are few regulations in place for influencers. A few laws have emerged to protect child influencers, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has established legal guidelines for sponsored content.

    That said, the influencing industry remains rife with exploitation.

    It goes both ways: Corporations can exploit influencers. For example, a 2021 study found that Black influencers receive below-market offers compared with white influencers.

    Savannah and Cole LaBrant came under fire for implying that their daughter had cancer, in what their critics called a ploy for attention.
    Danielle Del Valle/Getty Images for Lionsgate

    Likewise, influencers can deceive or exploit their followers. They might use unrealistic body filters to appear thinner than they are. They could hide who’s paying them. They may promote health misinformation such as the controversial ParaGuard cleanse, a fake treatment pushed by wellness influencers that claimed to rid its users of parasites.

    Or, in the case of Remi Bader, they might gain a huge following by promoting body positivity, only to conceal a weight-loss procedure from their fans.

    For disappointed fans or followers who feel burned, snark can seem like the only regulatory guardrail in an industry that has gone largely unchecked. Think of snark as a Better Business Bureau for the untamable world of influencing – a form of accountability that brings attention to the scammers and hustlers.

    Keeping it real

    Todays’s snark exists at the intersection of gossip and cancel culture.

    Though cancel culture certainly has its faults, we approach cancel culture in our writing as a worthy tool that allows audiences to hold the powerful accountable. For example, communities of color have joined forces to call out racists, as they did in 2024 when they exposed lifestyle influencer Brooke Schofield’s anti-Black tweets.

    Influencers build trust with their audiences based on being “real” and relatable. But there’s nothing preventing them from breaking that trust, and snarkers can swoop in to point out bad behavior or hypocrisy.

    Within the competitive world of family vlogging, snarkers see themselves as doing more than stirring the pot. They’re truth-tellers who bring injustices to light, such as abuse and child labor exploitation. Some of this exposure is paying off, with more and more states introducing and passing family vlogger laws that require children to one day receive a portion of their parents’ earnings or restrict how often children can appear in their parents’ videos.

    Yes, snark can veer into cyberbullying. But that shouldn’t discount its value as a tool for transparency. Influencers are ultimately brands. They sell audiences ideas, lifestyles and products.

    When people feel as if they’ve been misled, we think they have every right to call it out.

    Jess Rauchberg receives funding from Microsoft Research.

    Jessica Maddox 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. In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior – https://theconversation.com/in-the-250b-influencer-industry-being-a-hater-can-be-the-only-way-to-rein-in-bad-behavior-253010

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gross Domestic Product, 1st Quarter 2025 (Advance Estimate)

    Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis

    Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (January, February, and March), according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2024, real GDP increased 2.4 percent.

    The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected an increase in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, and a decrease in government spending. These movements were partly offset by increases in investment, consumer spending, and exports. For more information, refer to the “Technical Notes” below.

    Compared to the fourth quarter, the downturn in real GDP in the first quarter reflected an upturn in imports, a deceleration in consumer spending, and a downturn in government spending that were partly offset by upturns in investment and exports.

    Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 3.0 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

    The price index for gross domestic purchases increased 3.4 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 3.6 percent, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 3.5 percent, compared with an increase of 2.6 percent.

    Real GDP and Related Measures
    (Percent change from Q3 to Q4)
      Advance Estimate
    Real GDP -0.3
    Current-dollar GDP 3.5
    Real final sales to private domestic purchasers 3.0
    Gross domestic purchases price index 3.4
    PCE price index 3.6
    PCE price index excluding food and energy 3.5
    For definitions, statistical conventions, updates to GDP, and more, visit “Additional Information.”

    Next release:
    May 29, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. EDT
    Gross Domestic Product (Second Estimate),
    Corporate Profits (Preliminary Estimate),
    1st Quarter 2025

    Technical Notes

    Sources of change for real GDP

    Real GDP decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent (less than 0.1 percent at a quarterly rate1) in the first quarter, primarily reflecting an increase in imports and a decrease in government spending that were partly offset by increases in investment, consumer spending, and exports.

    • Exports and imports primarily reflected Census-BEA U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services data as well as the Census Advance Economic Indicators Report for March.
      • Within imports, the increase primarily reflected an increase in imported goods, led by consumer goods, except food and automotive (mainly medicinal, dental, and pharmaceutical preparations, including vitamins); and by capital goods, except automotive (mainly computers, peripherals, and parts).
      • Within imports of industrial supplies and materials in the National Economic Accounts (NEAs), BEA identified and removed an increase in imports of silver bars as a form of investment in the first quarter. Similar to nonmonetary gold, silver can be used for two purposes: for industrial use (as an input into the production of goods and services) and for investment (as a store of wealth and a hedge against inflation). BEA’s NEAs do not treat transactions in valuables, such as nonmonetary gold and silver, as investments and therefore purchases of metals as a form of investment are not included in consumer spending, gross private domestic investment, or government spending. For more information, refer to “How are exports and imports of nonmonetary gold treated in BEA’s National Economic Accounts?”.
    • The decrease in government spending reflected a decrease in federal government spending (led by defense consumption expenditures) that was partly offset by an increase in state and local government spending (led by compensation of employees).
    • The largest contributor to the increase in investment was private inventory investment, led by an increase in wholesale trade (notably, drugs and sundries). The estimates of private inventory investment were based primarily on Census Bureau inventory book value data and a BEA adjustment in March to account for a notable increase in imports. For more information on the source data and BEA assumptions for inventories, refer to the key source data and assumptions table (available at 10 a.m.).
    • The increase in consumer spending reflected increases in both services and goods. Within services, increases were widespread, led by spending on health care as well as housing and utilities. Within goods, an increase in nondurable goods was partly offset by a decrease in durable goods.

    More information on the source data and BEA assumptions that underlie the first-quarter estimate is shown in the key source data and assumptions table (available at 10 a.m.).

    Impact of California Wildfires on first-quarter 2025 estimates

    In January 2025, a series of wildfires burned across Southern California, primarily impacting Los Angeles County. These disasters disrupted consumer and business activities and prompted emergency services and remediation activities. The responses to this disaster are included, but not separately identified, in the source data that BEA uses to prepare the estimates of GDP; consequently, it is not possible to estimate the overall impact of the California wildfires on first-quarter GDP. The destruction of fixed assets, such as residential and nonresidential structures, does not directly affect GDP or personal income. BEA estimates disaster losses in NIPA table 5.1, “Saving and Investment.” BEA’s preliminary estimates show that the California wildfires resulted in losses of $34.0 billion in privately owned fixed assets ($136.0 billion at an annual rate) and $11.0 billion in state and local government-owned fixed assets ($44.0 billion at an annual rate).

    For additional information, refer to “How are the measures of production and income in the national accounts affected by a disaster?“ and “How are the fixed assets accounts (FAAs) and consumption of fixed capital (CFC) impacted by disasters?“.

    1 Percent changes in quarterly seasonally adjusted series are displayed at annual rates, unless otherwise specified. For more information, refer to the FAQ Why does BEA publish percent changes in quarterly series at annual rates?. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Warning issued against unauthorised building work in Bassetlaw

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Warning issued against unauthorised building work in Bassetlaw

    The Environment Agency has issued a warning against unauthorised building near rivers and flood defences in Bassetlaw, North Nottinghamshire.

    • Unauthorised works prompts warning to residents, landowners and developers
    • Environmental permits may be needed before works can begin
    • Offenders could face an unlimited fine or two years imprisonment

    The Environment Agency is reminding residents, landowners and developers in Bassetlaw about the law for carrying out work near main rivers and flood defences.

    Among the Environment Agency’s statutory duties are powers to manage flood risk from the sea and main rivers.

    These types of works, known as flood risk activities, may need an environmental permit before they can begin.

    The warning comes after the Environment Agency has become aware of unauthorised works in the Bassetlaw district in north Nottinghamshire.

    The environment permitting process ensures that proposed works are not going to increase flood risk or cause other environmental harm.

    A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:

    We are encouraging anyone planning work near a river or flood defence to seek advice early.

    People may need an environmental permit before they can begin the work.

    It is a criminal offence to undertake unauthorised flood risk activities and offenders could face an unlimited fine and up to 2 years imprisonment.

    If people have concerns about works being carried out near a river or flood defence they should call our hotline on 0800 807060.

    More information

    Our officers have visited several sites in the Bassetlaw area where works have been conducted without the right permission.

    Check if your activity is regulated.

    You may need to apply for permission to do any of the following regulated flood risk activities:

    • erecting any temporary or permanent structure in, over or under a main river, such as a culvert, outfall, weir, dam, pipe crossing, erosion protection, scaffolding or bridge
    • altering, repairing or maintaining any temporary or permanent structure in, over or under a main river, where the work could affect the flow of water in the river or affect any drainage work
    • building or altering any permanent or temporary structure designed to contain or divert flood waters from a main river
    • dredging, raising or removing any material from a main river, including when you are intending to improve flow in the river or use the materials removed
    • diverting or impounding the flow of water or changing the level of water in a main river
    • quarrying or excavation within 16 metres of any main river, flood defence (including a remote defence) or culvert
    • any activity within 8 metres of the bank of a main river, or 16 metres if it is a tidal main river
    • any activity within 8 metres of any flood defence structure or culvert on a main river, or 16 metres on a tidal river
    • any activity within 16 metres of a sea defence structure
    • activities carried out on the floodplain of a main river, more than 8 metres from the river bank, culvert or flood defence structure (or 16 metres if it is a tidal main river), if you do not have planning permission (you do not need permission to build agricultural hay stacks, straw stacks or manure clamps in these places)

    To find out more or to apply for a permit, visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/flood-risk-activities-environmental-permits

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    Updates to this page

    Published 30 April 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: Warren Reads 100 Acts of Trump Corruption Into Congressional Record To Mark 100 Days of the Trump Administration

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
    April 30, 2025
    “[I]nstead of following through on his promise [to lower costs], Trump and his administration have paved the way for the president, his top officials, and his billionaire buddies to personally feed at the trough of government corruption.” 
    “That’s 100 corrupt acts in 100 days. Americans deserve accountability. We need to fight back—all of us.” 
    Video of Speech (YouTube)
    Washington, D.C. – On the 100th day of this Trump administration, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) read 100 reports of corruption from President Trump’s term so far into the Congressional record. 
    Senator Warren pointed to all the ways President Trump, his family, and associates like Elon Musk have used the presidency to enrich themselves, give favors to donors, and made it more difficult to hold him accountable for corruption. 
    Transcript: “One Hundred Days, One Hundred Acts of Corruption”U.S. Senate FloorApril 29, 2025
    As Prepared for Delivery
    Senator Elizabeth Warren: So here we are: one hundred days; one hundred acts of corruption.
    Today, I’m reading into the congressional record 100 reports of corruption from Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. When he ran for office, Trump promised repeatedly that he would lower costs “on day 1.”  But instead of following through on his promise, Trump and his administration have paved the way for the president, his top officials, and his billionaire buddies to personally feed at the trough of government corruption. 
    So, count with me: In just one hundred days, Donald Trump, his family, and his Administration have:
    Turned the White House into a Tesla dealership.
    Fired independent commissioners at the FTC.
    Punished former officials who opposed his 2020 election lies.
    Paid for the White House Easter Egg roll by soliciting corporate sponsors who have business pending with the government.
    Helped Trump’s son set up a club — pay $500,000 for access to Trump’s cabinet.
    Declared that there would be NO tariff exceptions. Then permitted Apple’s CEO “behind the scenes” access — and poof, iPhone tariffs were cut.
    Created an opening for insider trading by reportedly giving Wall Street exclusive information about trade talks.
    Hosted million-dollar dinners between Big Pharma CEOs and their regulator RFK Jr.
    Launched crypto memecoin right before inauguration to make millions of dollars, then increased the value of those coins by signing executive orders making crypto a priority.
    Launched a meme coin for Melania, too. 
    Promised his “rich-as-hell” donors a giant tax handout, and is working to deliver. 
    Weakened rules insulating government workers from politics.
    Limited corporate foreign bribery investigations.
    Halted enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act.
    Offered a private dinner with Trump himself—and a special tour of the White House—for the top 220 holders of his memecoin, permitting Trump and his family to profit both from the run up in the value of the coin AND the increase in trading on the Trump platform.
    Accepted $40 million for First Lady Melania’s documentary from Jeff Bezos – way above the market rate.
    Pointed to Bezos’s multi-million-dollar documentary payment as a model, when Warner Bros. asked Trump’s team how to improve its own relationship with the White House.
    Struck a deal with Amazon to stream Trump’s old show The Apprentice, which will mean more money for Trump as Amazon seeks tax breaks and other federal benefits.
    Coercing law firms to offer almost $1 billion in free legal work in an arrangement that experts say could run afoul of anti-bribery laws.
    Started undermining Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices after Big Pharma companies gave millions to Trump’s inauguration.
    Filed a meritless lawsuit against 60 Minutes and launched a baseless FCC investigation.
    Tried to get the AP to bend the knee and kicked them out of the White House briefing room when they refused.
    Hired Defense Secretary Hegseth’s younger brother to serve in a key role.
    Hired a longtime former partner of Don Jr. to serve as Ambassador to Greece. 
    Nominated Jared Kushner’s father to serve as Ambassador to France. 
    Selected Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law to serve as an adviser.
    Appointed an oil and gas executive to lead the Department of Energy.
    Selected a Chief of Staff who was a big-time lobbyist for clients like tobacco and mining companies.
    Named officials who had recently lobbied for oil and chemical giants to help write E-P-A rules.
    Appointed Mehmet Oz, who has close ties to Medicare Advantage insurers, to lead CMS to set payment rates and otherwise help out Medicare Advantage insurers.
    Appointed John Phelan, a major donor with no military or government experience, to lead the Navy and hand out Navy construction contracts.  
    Appointed Pam Bondi, a former lobbyist for a federal detention contractor, to lead the DOJ.
    Announced the DOJ would stop prioritizing enforcement of restrictions on foreign lobbyists, under the leadership of Bondi, who herself is a former foreign lobbyist for Qatar.
    Appointed Howard Lutnick, who has billions invested in companies accused of illegally facilitating crypto money laundering, to lead the Commerce Department.
    Appointed Marty Makary, the former executive of a company selling weight-loss drugs, to lead the FDA, which would regulate his company.
    Appointed Sean Duffy, who lobbied for the airline industry, to Transportation Secretary.
    Tapped Pete Hegseth, whose wife owns stock in large defense contractors, to lead the Defense Department.
    Tapped Doug Burgum — who made money from leasing land to Big Oil — to lead the Interior Department.
    Nominated a Big Oil lobbyist to run the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
    Nominated as IRS head Billy Long, an aggressive salesman for a fraud-riddled tax credit, who received donations after being nominated to clear old campaign debts. 
    Tapped Paul Atkins, a former crypto lobbyist, to lead the SEC.
    Appointed a former tax lobbyist, to lead tax policy.
    Appointed RFK Jr., who planned to get paid for anti-vax lawsuits while heading up HHS.
    Appointed a top Pentagon official who led a firm investing in defense contractors and has directed D-O-D to outsource as much as it can.
    Appointed someone who lobbied to privatize Medicare to lead OMB’s healthcare budget.
    Installed Steve Davis to effectively lead DOGE while also leading a Musk company.
    Installed another DOGE leader to control Treasury’s payment system while still holding down his day job as a software CEO.
    Handed power over crypto policy to a White House crypto czar who leads a venture capital firm that heavily invests in crypto.
    Selected a border czar who led a firm that got tens of millions of dollars of federal contracts for homeland security companies.
    Appointed Treasury Secretary Bessent who is gutting the IRS so that it can’t audit rich tax cheats — he’s a tax-dodging mega-millionaire.
    Pardoned Rod Blagojevich, former Illinois governor convicted for corruption, after his vocal support for Trump.
    Pardoned January 6 insurrectionists who tried to overturn an election he lost.
    Pardoned a Trump loyalist found guilty of wire fraud.
    Pardoned the son of a longtime Republican donor.
    Pardoned a corporation that had been fined $100 million for money laundering.
    Launched his own stablecoin while preparing to sign legislation that will help the stablecoin and let him oversee it. 
    Sold merch with presidential branding.
    Disbanded DOJ’s crypto unit after business talks between Binance and a Trump-backed crypto company ramped up.
    Halted SEC enforcement actions against crypto companies that enriched Trump. 
    Met with crypto executives who are asking Treasury to back off of oversight of their companies — all while exploring a deal to list a Trump-linked crypto company’s new stablecoin.
    Maintained financial ties between Trump officials and Trump’s media company. That includes: FBI Director Kash Patel who was gifted a huge award of Trump media company stock.
    Nominated Attorney General Bondi who owned $2 million in DJT shares.
    Paid the Education Secretary almost $1 million in Trump Media company shares.
    Intelligence Board nominees who have millions in Trump Media company shares.
    Selected a Special Envoy to the Middle East who wants to develop real estate in Gaza while running his own real estate firm.
    Appointed an FBI Director who consulted for the Qatari government.
    Picked that FBI Director even though he also received millions from a Cayman Island holding company with ties to China.
    Decided to cancel the Direct File program, which will help the bottom line of Intuit, which gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.
    Took its largest inauguration donation from a poultry company under DOJ scrutiny. After the donation, the SEC approved its parent company for the New York Stock Exchange.
    Dropped a probe into sexual misconduct allegations against Trump’s Education Secretary’s husband.
    Hosted dozens of foreign, federal, and state officials at Mar-a-Lago, helping enrich Trump. 
    Hosted a GOP retreat at another one of Trump’s resorts.
    Circumvented the normal contracting process to pick a company with close ties to Trump’s former campaign manager.
    Awarded a $30 million ICE contract to Trump insider Peter Thiel.
    Continued developing new Trump properties overseas, including in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
    Hatched a plan for the State Department to pay Tesla $400 million dollars.
    Accepted a $4 million inauguration donation from a GOP megadonor and nominated him as UK ambassador the same day.
    And Donald Trump took actions that could advance the personal interests of his co-president Elon Musk: 

    Fired EEOC leaders investigating and suing Tesla.
    Illegally fired the NLRB Chair, which filed a complaint against SpaceX.
    Gutted CFPB staff and fired the Director after they investigated complaints against Musk’s companies.
    Gutted the Department of Labor office investigating Tesla and Space X.
    Fired the USAID Inspector General, who launched a probe into satellite terminals made by Musk’s Starlink. 
    Targeted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration staff who were reportedly, quote, a “thorn in Tesla’s side.”
    Said Musk would self-police his conflicts of interest. Yeah right…
    Pressured the Administrator of the FAA, which fined Musk’s SpaceX, to resign .
    Permitted Musk to keep his financial disclosure hidden. I’ve got a new bill to fix that!
    Allowed Musk’s Starlink to start working with the FAA after Musk criticized the FAA’s air traffic telecom system. 
    Made Musk’s SpaceX the frontrunner for a new lucrative Golden Dome contract.
    Stood by Musk when his X executives told an advertising firm to increase ad revenue — threatening that Musk could interfere with a pending merger.
    Permitted Musk to join Trump’s interview with the Air Force secretary nominee while SpaceX held billions of dollars in contracts with the Air Force. 
    Permitted the National Transportation Safety Board to share news related to the airplane crashes in Washington and Philadelphia only on Musk-owned X.
    Permitted the Social Security Administration to only share important public communication on X.
    Dropped DOJ’s anti-discrimination complaint against Musk’s SpaceX.
    Fired FDA staffers reviewing Elon Musk’s Neuralink clinical trial applications.
    And for our closing six moves that make every bit of this corruption even harder to root out, Trump got rid of cops on the beat:

    Fired 18 Inspectors General who make sure the federal agencies follow the law.
    Fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel who protects whistleblowers and makes sure that civil service laws are fired.
    Fired the head of the Office of Government Ethics who watches to see that the President and his Administration follow the laws on conflicts of interest, bribery and other ethics issues.
    Fired DOJ prosecutors who worked on January 6th investigations.
    Sidelined DOJ’s office that reviews the legality of executive orders.
    Gutted DOJ’s office that prosecutes misconduct by public officials.
    That’s 100 corrupt acts in 100 days. Americans deserve accountability. We need to fight back—all of us. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 1, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Confirmed: Australian weapons sold to Israel, reveals Declassified Australia

    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. –

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Michelle Fahy

    The Australian counter-drone weapons system seen at a weapons demonstration in Israel recently is actually just one of a few that were sold by the Canberra-based company Electro Optic Systems (EOS) and sent through its wholly-owned US subsidiary to Israel, Declassified Australia can reveal.

    It was the ABC who broke the news of the EOS weapons system being provided for the demonstration trial. In response, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continued to insist, as he has since the war in Gaza began, that Australia does not sell weapons to Israel.

    However the weapon displayed wasn’t just provided on loan for the demonstration – the weapon has been “sold” to the Israelis. Declassified Australia can reveal that EOS, by its own admission, sold more than one of its R400 weapons systems to the Israelis prior to the demonstration.

    • READ MORE: Other Declassified Australia reports

    An EOS company presentation, titled “2024 Full Year Results”, describes a “potential new customer” for the R400 weapon in the “Middle East” (page 36). The presentation, prepared for EOS shareholders and lodged with the Australian Stock Exchange, is dated 25 February 2025.

    EOS describes this potential new customer for its R400 as a “Preliminary” stage opportunity, valued at less-than-A$100 million, and states that more than one weapon was sold:

    “Sample products sold, demo held, discussions underway.” [Emphasis added]

    The company also points out a sense of urgency with the potential sale:

    “Potential to accelerate due to operational requirements.”

    In another section of the report (page 16), EOS reports a single entry in the “Preliminary” stage of a potential sale of R400 weapons, with the “Bid being prepared or submitted”.

    EOS states (page 36) the “estimated opportunity size” of the sale is up to “$100 million”. At a unit price per system of A$1.55 million that potential contract is enough to purchase 60 of the R400 counter-drone system.

    Under the heading “Notable Demonstrations” (page 15), EOS refers to “Counter Drone evaluation testing with New Customer”, held in January 2025, with an accompanying photograph of its R400 counter-drone cannon with five senior Israeli defence leaders posing beside it at the testing site.

    EOS itself has revealed that the new customer is clearly Israel.

    EOS states it had “supported a local prime [a major local weapons company] to demonstrate counter-drone capabilities in a high profile local demonstration”. EOS states that its R400 weapon system had “performed extremely well, earning high praise from the organisers.”

    An extract from the Electro Optic Systems (EOS) company document titled “2024 Full Year Results”, showing a photograph of the EOS R400 counter-drone weapon system that was demonstrated to gathered Israeli defence and industry officials in January 2025. Image: Electro Optic Systems

    The location of the demonstration of the Australian weapon is verified as being in Israel’s southern Negev Desert by a 5 February press release about the weapon testing, released by Israel’s Ministry of Defence.  [Note: Since publication of this article, the Press Release has been taken down from the Israeli Defense Ministry website, but is still available here, for now.]

    An Israel Defense Force photograph included with the press release, is the same photo of the R400 weapon and Israeli officials, as published in the EOS document. Israel’s Ministry of Defence also posted this video of the final demonstration event, with a firing of the EOS R400 weapons system appearing at 01:06.

    In the photograph standing behind the Australian company’s weapon are four senior Israeli defence officials, together with an Israeli defence industry CEO.

    A photo distributed with an Israel Ministry of Defense press release showing the EOS R400 counter-drone weapons system at operational trials testing advanced counter-drone technologies organised by the Directorate of Defence Research & Development in January 2025. Pictured: Acting director-general of the Israel Ministry of Defence, Itamar Graf (from left); Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz; CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Boaz Levy; Head of Israel Defence Force’s Planning and Force Build-Up Directorate, Maj.Gen. Eyal Harel; Head of the Israel Directorate of Defence Research & Development, Brig.Gen. (retd) Dr Daniel Gold. Image: Israel Ministry of Defense

    Countering drone attacks
     EOS’ powerful R400 remote weapons system has a 2km range and is renowned for its lethality and precision in targeting. Using a sophisticated gimbal, its accuracy is maintained even when the system is mounted and used atop a moving vehicle. The weapon can be seen in use on a moving vehicle here in this video clip.

    The EOS R400 is not solely a counter-drone weapons system. It can be configured to fire weapons ranging from machine guns, to 30mm cannons, automatic grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and 70mm rockets, meaning it can be used against multiple types of targets in addition to drones — including people, buildings, armoured vehicles, and tanks.

    The R400 Slinger variation is marketed by EOS as a system designed solely to counter modern drone threats with a single, lethal shot.

    The Australian company’s customer in Israel is noted in the EOS company document as being an Israeli “local prime” arms manufacturer. Both Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems participated in the demonstration trials, each demonstrating a Counter Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) that incorporated a 30mm cannon.

    EOS sees a big future for the R400 and its suite of remote weapons systems. The EOS 2024 Financial Report was lodged with ASX on 25 February 2025. In the “Market Overview”section, it discusses weapons contracts signed in 2024, and notes (page 8) that:

    “[EOS] Defence Systems is in active discussions and contract negotiations for the provision of RWS [Remote Weapons Systems] and related components with other potential customers.”

    “Assuming the evaluation of these systems progresses positively, EOS would hope to move to sell larger, commercial quantities to these customers.” 

    EOS R-400S Mk 2 30mm Remote Weapons Station being fired while mounted to a tactical vehicle. Image: Video screen shot/Defence Technology Review Magazine

    Australia obliged to act on defence transfers
     In October 2024, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory reported on the implementation of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) findings that Israel may be committing “genocide”.

    As reported by Kellie Tranter in Declassified Australia in November, the Australian government’s international legal responsibilities extend to investigating and regulating individuals and corporate entities who act in and from Australia to support the legally proscribed conduct of the Israeli State.

    The Commission stated:

    “Thus, the Commission recommends that any State engaged in such transfer or trade to Israel shall cease its transfer or trade until the State is satisfied that the goods and technology subject to the transfer or trade are not contributing to maintaining the unlawful occupation or to the commission of war crimes or genocide and thereafter throughout any period when the State is not so satisfied.” [Emphasis added]

    The UN Commission makes clear what trade it refers to:

    “On the issue of arms and military transfer and trade relating to Israel’s military capability, States have a duty to conduct a due diligence review of all transfer and trade agreements with Israel, including but not limited to equipment, weapons, munitions, parts, components, dual use items and technology, to determine whether the goods or technology subject to the transfer or trade contribute to maintaining the unlawful occupation or are used to commit violations of international law.” [Emphasis added]

    If the government becomes aware of an impending military transfer of weapons or technology defined above, to Israel – as the stated intentions of EOS reported here make clear – it is obliged to investigate and if necessary intervene to halt the transfer:

    “This includes both preexisting agreements and future transfers to Israel. States are obliged to demonstrate that any transfer or trade relating to military capability is not being used by Israel to maintain the unlawful occupation or commit violations of international law.” [Emphasis added]

    Words are not enough
     The Australian government and the Defence Department have continued their obfuscation of Australia’s weapons trade with Israel, as Declassified Australia has been reporting repeatedly.

    ABC television has reported how the government continues to insist no weapons or ammunition had been supplied “directly to Israel” since its latest genocidal war on Gaza began. The addition of the word “directly” is a notable change to the government’s wording, since this EOS news emerged.

    In response to the ABC report, Prime Minister Albanese said: “We do not sell arms to Israel . . .  We looked into this matter and the company has confirmed with the Department of Defence that the particular system was not exported from Australia. Australia does not export arms to Israel.”

    Declassified Australia has previously reported on the Albanese Government’s repeated and misleading use of the phrase “to Israel”. Arms companies are known for exporting their weaponry, or parts and components thereof, via third party countries in an attempt to cover their tracks.

    A defence industry source told the ABC the Australian-made components of the EOS R400 remote weapons system were assembled at the company’s wholly-owned US subsidiary in Alabama USA, before being shipped to Israel without an Australian export approval.

    Military exports, including ammunition, munitions, parts and components, do not need to travel ‘directly’ to Israel to be prohibited under the Arms Trade Treaty.

    Governments are required to find out where their weapons will, or may, end up and then make responsible decisions that comply with the treaty. A government must consider and assess the potential ‘end users’ of its military exports.

    A UN expert panel has issued repeated demands that States and companies cease all arms transfers to Israel or risk complicity in international crimes, possibly including genocide. It stated:

    “An end to transfers must include indirect transfers through intermediary countries that could ultimately be used by Israeli forces, particularly in the ongoing attacks on Gaza.…” [Emphasis added.]

    Greens’ defence spokesperson, Senator David Shoebridge, has said, “What we might be seeing here is the impact of what’s called AUKUS Pillar 2, the removal of any controls for the passage of weapons between Australia and the United States, and then Australia permitting the United States to send Australian weapons anywhere”.

    The EOS R400 remote weapon system integrated with the Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. Image: US Army

    Not the first time
     EOS has a history of supplying its remote weapons systems to military regimes accused of extensive war crimes.

    During the catastrophic Yemen war which started in 2014, despite significant evidence of war crimes, EOS sold its weapons systems to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. EOS enjoyed the full support of the Turnbull coalition government and its defence industry minister Christopher Pyne.

    In early 2019, ABC TV reported, Saudi Arabia awarded Australian weapons manufacturer EOS a contract to supply it with 500 of its R400 Remote Weapons Systems.

    The company has also benefited from the government-industry ‘revolving door’. Former chief of army, Peter Leahy, was on the EOS board from 2009 until late 2022, encompassing the period of the Yemen war. He served as the company’s chair from mid-2021 until his departure.

    The two longest-serving current members of the EOS board are former chief of air force, Geoff Brown (joined 2016) and former Labor senator for the ACT, Kate Lundy (joined 2018).

    The release of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report in 2023 raised serious concerns about EOS and its Saudi Arabian arms deals.

    HRW’s report revealed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of unarmed migrants and asylum-seekers had been killed at the Yemen-Saudi border in the 15 months between March 2022 and June 2023, allegedly by Saudi officers.

    Human Rights Watch says it identified on Google Earth what looks like “a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle” near a Saudi border guard posts north of the Yemeni refugee trail in January 1, 2023.

    The vehicle has what appears to be “a heavy machine gun mounted in a turret on its roof”. This description closely matches the military equipment that Australia sold to Saudi Arabia a few years earlier.

    Declassified Australia put a number of questions to EOS, the Department of Defence, and the offices of the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, and the Foreign Minister. None responded to our questions on this matter.

    Michelle Fahy is an independent writer and researcher, specialising in the examination of connections between the weapons industry and government, and has written in various independent publications. She is on X @FahyMichelle, and on Substack at UndueInfluence.substack.com. This article has been republished from Declassified Australia with permission.

    This article was first published on Café Pacific.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    April 30, 2025
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