NewzIntel.com

Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI Global: China: Xi Jinping has learned from Trump’s first trade war and is ready to fight back

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Harper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of East London

    The start of 2025 has been good for China and its reputation as a high-tech innovator. The unveiling of the Chinese-made artificial intelligence (AI) tool, DeepSeek, caused consternation on the US stock exchange and from potential competitors in Silicon Valley.

    Chinese firms are increasingly at the forefront of key high-level technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and AI, as reflected by the success of China’s electric vehicles, BYD, and now DeepSeek.

    These moves have made the Chinese economy more self sufficient than it was during Trump’s first term, and has made Beijing more confident about pushing back politically against Trump.

    This is all underlined by a high-level meeting hosted by President Xi Jinping at China’s Great Hall of the People this week. He told the heads of China’s leading tech firms it was time for them “to give full play to their capabilities” and spoke of it as a patriotic duty, according to official accounts.

    This comes as China starts being hit by US tariffs of an additional 10% on its goods, as well as a slew of anti-China rhetoric from the Trump government.

    But China’s high tech industries are on the up, and this is a significant boost for Xi. For instance, in January this year, sales of the Chinese EVs exceeded those of Tesla in the UK for the first time.

    Part of the Chinese EV’s success could be attributed to a backlash against Tesla’s co-founder Elon Musk, after he started backing far-right parties around the world.

    Another factor that Chinese high-tech goods have in their favour are lower prices. Prices for Chinese EVs start at £7,697 in the UK, for example – much lower than Tesla’s Model 3 at £25,490.

    This price difference will be significant in the latest phase of the Sino-US trade war, particularly in countries struggling with a cost-of-living crisis. China is also hoping its cheap prices and tech innovations will help it find new trading allies to counteract Washington’s proposed tariffs.

    What China has to offer

    China is a fast-growing economic and political power and is expected to account for nearly a quarter of the global economy by 2030.

    The success of BYD and DeepSeek comes at a time where Beijing feels more prepared for Trump’s tough tariffs and tension with Washington, than it did in his previous term. China has responded to Trump’s threats with reciprocal tariffs on US coal and liquefied gas, as well as a ban on the export of critical minerals. These are a key component for many US military technologies varying from communications equipment to missiles.

    China accounts for 72% of all rare earth imports for the US. Such measures contrast with the cautious approach taken by Beijing in 2017, when US tariffs during Trump’s first term met little retaliation from Beijing.

    The changes in China’s tactics can partly be attributed to what Beijing learned from the previous trade war. In 2017 there were weaknesses in the supply chains of many Chinese firms, most notably ZTE and Huawei.

    They struggled when Washington pressurised its own chipmakers and those of allied states, such as Britain’s Arm, to stop sales of semiconductor technology to China. As a result, finding long-term alternatives to US technology in the supply chain has become a key priority for Beijing.

    What is Deep Seek?

    Xi has recognised the value of firms such as Huawei and BYD in aiding China’s wider technological (and geopolitical) ambitions, most notably as part of the Made in China 2025 strategy, a national strategy to make China a leader in high-tech technology.



    Read more:
    DeepSeek: how China’s embrace of open-source AI caused a geopolitical earthquake

    Traditionally, China was seen as the home of cheap, low-quality goods, which had been central to its development in the 1980s and 1990s. But many of companies producing these products are increasingly moving to south-east Asia to take advantage of lower labour costs.

    However, Chinese industries are now gaining ground in fields that have traditionally been the preserve of developed nations. For instance, Huawei has developed a spin off, Honor, which has gone from producing cheap, simple smartphones and into AI technology.

    Meanwhile, the success of BYD and DeepSeek have demonstrated that China is, in some ways at least, far better placed for a prolonged trade war. Beijing is feeling more confident, which explains its willingness to push back against Washington this time.

    So the White House will have to deal with higher prices for US goods going into China, as well as additional trade spats with the EU, Canada and the UK. It might be a bumpy ride for US consumers.

    How Beijing responds and its new-found clout may determine the course of this new trade war, and potentially add to its long-term standing in the world.

    Tom Harper 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. China: Xi Jinping has learned from Trump’s first trade war and is ready to fight back – https://theconversation.com/china-xi-jinping-has-learned-from-trumps-first-trade-war-and-is-ready-to-fight-back-250101

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: A Palestinian film is an Oscars favorite − so why is it so hard to see?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Drew Paul, Associate Professor of Arabic, University of Tennessee

    Directors Basel Adra, left, and Yuval Abraham on stage at the 62nd New York Film Festival on Sept. 29, 2024. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

    For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar nomination is a golden ticket.

    The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases, along with more on-demand rentals and sales.

    However, for “No Other Land,” a Palestinian film nominated for best documentary at the 2025 Academy Awards, this exposure is unlikely to translate into commercial success in the U.S. That’s because the film has been unable to find a company to distribute it in America.

    “No Other Land” chronicles the efforts of Palestinian townspeople to combat an Israeli plan to demolish their villages in the West Bank and use the area as a military training ground. It was directed by four Palestinian and Israeli activists and journalists: Basel Adra, who is a resident of the area facing demolition, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor. While the filmmakers have organized screenings in a number of U.S. cities, the lack of a national distributor makes a broader release unlikely.

    Film distributors are a crucial but often unseen link in the chain that allows a film to reach cinemas and people’s living rooms. In recent years it has become more common for controversial award-winning films to run into issues finding a distributor. Palestinian films have encountered additional barriers.

    As a scholar of Arabic who has written about Palestinian cinema, I’m disheartened by the difficulties “No Other Land” has faced. But I’m not surprised.

    The role of film distributors

    Distributors are often invisible to moviegoers. But without one, it can be difficult for a film to find an audience.

    Distributors typically acquire rights to a film for a specific country or set of countries. They then market films to movie theaters, cinema chains and streaming platforms. As compensation, distributors receive a percentage of the revenue generated by theatrical and home releases.

    The film “Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat,” another finalist for best documentary, shows how this process typically works. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was acquired for distribution just a few months later by Kino Lorber, a major U.S.-based distributor of independent films.

    The inability to find a distributor is not itself noteworthy. No film is entitled to distribution, and most films by newer or unknown directors face long odds.

    However, it is unusual for a film like “No Other Land,” which has garnered critical acclaim and has been recognized at various film festivals and award shows. Some have pegged it as a favorite to win best documentary at the Academy Awards. And “No Other Land” has been able to find distributors in Europe, where it’s easily accessible on multiple streaming platforms.

    So why can’t “No Other Land” find a distributor in the U.S.?

    There are a couple of factors at play.

    Shying away from controversy

    In recent years, film critics have noticed a trend: Documentaries on controversial topics have faced distribution difficulties. These include a film about a campaign by Amazon workers to unionize and a documentary about Adam Kinzinger, one of the few Republican congresspeople to vote to impeach Donald Trump in 2021.

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of course, has long stirred controversy. But the release of “No Other Land” comes at a time when the issue is particularly salient. The Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip have become a polarizing issue in U.S. domestic politics, reflected in the campus protests and crackdowns in 2024. The filmmakers’ critical comments about the Israeli occupation of Palestine have also garnered backlash in Germany.

    Locals attend a screening of ‘No Other Land’ in the village of A-Tuwani in the West Bank on March 14, 2024.
    Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

    Yet the fact that this conflict has been in the news since October 2023 should also heighten audience interest in a film such as “No Other Land” – and, therefore, lead to increased sales, the metric that distributors care about the most.

    Indeed, an earlier film that also documents Palestinian protests against Israeli land expropriation, “5 Broken Cameras,” was a finalist for best documentary at the 2013 Academy Awards. It was able to find a U.S. distributor. However, it had the support of a major European Union documentary development program called Greenhouse. The support of an organization like Greenhouse, which had ties to numerous production and distribution companies in Europe and the U.S., can facilitate the process of finding a distributor.

    By contrast, “No Other Land,” although it has a Norwegian co-producer and received some funding from organizations in Europe and the U.S., was made primarily by a grassroots filmmaking collective.

    Stages for protest

    While distribution challenges may be recent, controversies surrounding Palestinian films are nothing new.

    Many of them stem from the fact that the system of film festivals, awards and distribution is primarily based on a movie’s nation of origin. Since there is no sovereign Palestinian state – and many countries and organizations have not recognized the state of Palestine – the question of how to categorize Palestinian films has been hard to resolve.

    In 2002, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected the first ever Palestinian film submitted to the best foreign language film category – Elia Suleiman’s “Divine Intervention” – because Palestine was not recognized as a country by the United Nations. The rules were changed for the following year’s awards ceremony.

    In 2021, the cast of the film “Let It Be Morning,” which had an Israeli director but primarily Palestinian actors, boycotted the Cannes Film Festival in protest of the film’s categorization as an Israeli film rather than a Palestinian one.

    Film festivals and other cultural venues have also become places to make statements about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and engage in protest. For example, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, the right-wing Israeli culture minister wore a controversial – and meme-worthy – dress that featured the Jerusalem skyline in support of Israeli claims of sovereignty over the holy city, despite the unresolved status of Jerusalem under international law.

    Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev wears a dress featuring the old city of Jerusalem during the Cannes Film Festival in 2017.
    Antonin Thuillier/AFP via Getty Images

    At the 2024 Academy Awards, a number of attendees, including Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Mahershala Ali, wore red pins in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, and pro-Palestine protesters delayed the start of the ceremonies.

    So even though a film like “No Other Land” addresses a topic of clear interest to many people in the U.S., it faces an uphill battle to finding a distributor.

    I wonder whether a win at the Oscars would even be enough.

    Drew Paul 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. A Palestinian film is an Oscars favorite − so why is it so hard to see? – https://theconversation.com/a-palestinian-film-is-an-oscars-favorite-so-why-is-it-so-hard-to-see-249233

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: We study mass surveillance for social control, and we see Trump laying the groundwork to ‘contain’ people of color and immigrants

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Brittany Friedman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California

    Black and Latino communities are disproportionately affected by mass surveillance, studies show. Vicente Méndez/Getty Images

    President Donald Trump has vowed to target his political enemies, and experts have warned that he could weaponize U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct mass surveillance on his targets.

    Mass surveillance is the widespread monitoring of civilians. Governments typically target specific groups – such as religious minorities, certain races or ethnicities, or migrants – for surveillance and use the information gathered to “contain” these populations, for example by arresting and imprisoning people.

    We are experts in social control, or how governments coerce compliance, and we specialize in surveillance. Based on our expertise and years of research, we expect Trump’s second White House term may usher in a wave of spying against people of color and immigrants.

    A man apprehended in an immigration raid on Jan. 28, 2025, sits in a holding cell in New York City.
    Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Spreading moral panic

    Trump is already actively deploying a key tactic in expanding mass surveillance: causing moral panics. Moral panics are created when politicians exaggerate a public concern to manipulate real fears people may have.

    Take Trump on crime, for example. Despite FBI data showing that crime has been dropping across the U.S. for decades, Trump has repeatedly claimed that “crime is out of control.” Stoking fear makes people more likely to back harsh measures purportedly targeting crime.

    Trump has also worked to create a moral panic about immigration.

    He has said, for example, that “illegal” migrants are taking American jobs. In truth, only 5% of the 30 million immigrants in the workforce as of 2022 were unauthorized to work. And in his Jan. 25, 2025, presidential proclamation on immigration, Trump likened immigration at the southern border to an “invasion,” evoking the language of war to describe a population that includes many asylum-seeking women and children.

    The second step in causing moral panics is to label racial, ethnic and religious minorities as villains to justify expanding mass surveillance.

    Building on his rhetoric about crime and immigration, Trump frequently connects the two issues. He has said that migrants murder because they have “bad genes,” echoing beliefs expressed by white supremacists. During the 2016 campaign, Trump’s coinage “bad hombre” invoked stereotypes of dangerous migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to steal jobs and sell drugs.

    The president has similarly connected Black communities with crime. At an August 2024 rally in Atlanta, Georgia, Trump called the majority-Black city “a killing field.” The month prior, he said the same thing about Washington, D.C.

    Primary targets

    History shows that in the U.S. moral panics are most likely to target Latino, Indigenous and Black communities as a precursor to surveillance and subjugation.

    In the 18th century, Colonial politicians passed legislation likening the Indigenous people of the American colonies to “savages” and passed laws identifying Indigenous tribes as political enemies to be assimilated. If “killing the Indian” out of people didn’t work, they were to be tracked down and removed from the population through imprisonment or death.

    Another early form of moral panics escalating to spying and mass surveillance were southern slave patrols, which emerged in the early 1700s after pro-slavery politicians proclaimed that Black escapees would terrorize white communities. Slave patrols tracked down and captured not only Black escapees but also free Black people, whom they sold into bondage. They also imprisoned any person, enslaved or not, suspected of sheltering escapees.

    Once a group of people becomes the subject of moral panics and targeted for government surveillance, our research shows, the effects are felt for generations.

    Black and Indigenous communities are still arrested and incarcerated at disproportionately high rates compared with their percentage in the U.S. population. This even affects children, with Indigenous girls imprisoned at four times the rate of white girls, and Black girls at more than twice the rate of white girls.

    Low-tech methods

    These 21st-century numbers reflect decades of targeted surveillance.

    In the 1950s, the FBI under Director J. Edgar Hoover created the counter-intelligence programs COINTELPRO, allegedly for investigating communists and radical political groups, and the Ghetto Informant Program. In practice, both programs broadly targeted people of color. From Martin Luther King Jr. to U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Black activists were identified as a threat, spied on, investigated and sometimes jailed.

    A 1964 letter from J. Edgar Hoover expressing his dislike for Martin Luther King Jr.
    Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on crime,” a sweeping set of federal changes that militarized local police in urban communities, continued this mass surveillance in the 1960s. Later came the “war on drugs,” which an aide to President Richard Nixon later said was designed explicitly to target Black people.

    In subsequent decades, politicians would stir up new moral panics about Black communities – remember the “crack babies” who never really existed? – and use fear to justify police surveillance, arrests and mass incarceration.

    These early examples of mass surveillance lacked the technology that enables spying today, such as CCTV and hacked laptop cameras. Nonetheless, past U.S. administrations have been remarkably effective at achieving social control by creating moral panics then deploying mass surveillance to contain the “threat.” They enlisted droves of police officers, recruited informants to infiltrate groups and locked people away.

    These textbook surveillance methods are still routinely used now.

    Police fusion centers

    For many Americans, the term “mass surveillance” evokes the Department of Homeland Security, which was founded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This national agency, which forms part of a federal intelligence apparatus of more than 20 agencies focused on surveillance, has played a key role in mass surveillance since 2001, especially of Muslim Americans.

    But it has local help in the form of police units known as fusion centers. These units feed identification information and physical evidence such as video footage to federal agencies such as the FBI and CIA, according to a 2023 whistleblower report from Rutgers Law School.

    The New Jersey Regional Operations Intelligence Center, for example, is a police fusion center overseeing New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It employs advanced military technology to gather massive amounts of personal data on people perceived as potential security threats. According to the Rutgers report, these “threats” are highly concentrated in Black, Latino and Arab communities, as well as areas with a high concentration of political organizing, such as Black Lives Matter groups and immigrant aid organizations.

    The New Jersey police fusion approach leads to increased arrest rates, according to the report, but there’s no real evidence that it prevents crime or terrorism.

    Guantanamo and black sites

    Given Trump’s pledges to further militarize border enforcement and expand U.S. jails and prisons, we anticipate a rise in spending on fusion centers and other tools of mass surveillance under Trump. The moral panics he’s been stirring up since 2015 suggest that the targets of government surveillance will include immigrants and Black people.

    Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on April 2, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Sometimes, victims of mass surveillance go missing.

    The Guardian reported in 2015 that Chicago police had been temporarily “disappearing” people at local and federal police “black sites” since at least 2009. At these clandestine jails, under the guise of national security, officers questioned detainees without attorneys and held them for up to 24 hours without any outside contact. Many of the victims were Black.

    Another infamous black site was housed at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba, where the CIA detained and secretly interrogated suspected terrorists following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

    Trump seems to be reviving the Guantanamo black site, flying about 150 Venezuelan migrants to the base since January 2025. It’s unclear whether the U.S. government can lawfully detain migrants there abroad, yet deportation flights continue.

    The administration has not shared the identities of many of the people imprisoned there.

    The authors 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. We study mass surveillance for social control, and we see Trump laying the groundwork to ‘contain’ people of color and immigrants – https://theconversation.com/we-study-mass-surveillance-for-social-control-and-we-see-trump-laying-the-groundwork-to-contain-people-of-color-and-immigrants-221073

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Survey shows immigrants in Florida – even US citizens – are less likely to seek health care after passage of anti-immigrant laws

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Elizabeth Aranda, Professor of Sociology, University of South Florida

    For decades, many U.S. immigrants have received subpar health care, and asking about immigration status can make those disparities worse. Maskot via Getty Images

    Since arriving in the United States four years ago, Alex has worked at a primary care office. He has witnessed firsthand how difficult it was for immigrants to access preventive care.

    When he heard of the implementation of Florida’s Senate Bill 1718, Alex feared it would have dire consequences for the patients he served.

    Alex is a pseudonym for one of our research subjects.

    SB 1718, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023, imposed sweeping restrictions aimed at discouraging unauthorized immigration. Among its provisions, it requires hospitals that accept Medicaid funds to question patients about their immigration status and share data about how many immigrants they are serving within the state.

    The law had several more provisions. It mandated E-Verify, a system to check employment eligibility, be used for new hires in businesses employing more than 25 employees. It also criminalized driving into Florida with an unauthorized immigrant, and restricted community organizations from issuing IDs.

    After the law passed, Alex told his patients that they could refuse to divulge their legal status when asked on hospital forms. But he says his reassurances didn’t work. He watched as many immigrant patients hesitated to access necessary medical care for themselves and their children – or even left the state.

    Alex had legal documentation to be in the country, but as his immigrant community shrank, he wondered if he, too, should leave Florida.

    We are a group of social science professors and graduate students studying immigrant communities in Florida. We believe SB 1718 has important implications for immigrants, for Floridians and all Americans – particularly as the country faces surges in outbreaks of communicable diseases like measles and the flu.

    An environment of fear

    These concerns are based on our survey of 466 immigrants to Florida and adult U.S.-born children of immigrants between May and July of 2024.

    Nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. citizens and one-third of U.S. citizens who responded to our survey said they hesitated to seek medical care in the year after SB 1718 passed.

    “I was very sick recently and needed medical care, but I was scared,” one survey participant told us.

    While hospitals cannot deny care based on a patient’s immigration status, our data shows that anticipating they would be asked deterred not only immigrants lacking permanent legal status but also those with legal status, including U.S. citizens, from seeking care.

    We believe U.S. citizens are affected by spillover effects because they are members of mixed-status families.

    Our survey took place during the intense 2024 presidential election season when anti-immigrant rhetoric was prevalent. The immigrants we surveyed also reported experiencing discrimination in their everyday lives, and these experiences were also associated with a reluctance to access health care.

    Laws like SB 1718 amplify preexisting racial and structural inequities. Structural inequities are systemic barriers within institutions — such as health care and employment — that restrict access to essential resources based on one’s race, legal or economic status.

    These kinds of laws discourage immigrants from utilizing health resources. They foster an exclusionary policy environment that heightens fears of enforcement, restricts access to essential services and exacerbates economic and social vulnerabilities. Moreover, restrictive immigration policies exclude people from accessing services based on their race. Immigrants who have been discriminated against in everyday settings may internalize the expectation that seeking care will result in further hostility – or even danger.

    Consequences for public health

    U.S. history holds numerous examples of racial and ethnic barriers to health care. Examples include segregation-era hospitals turning away Black patients . It also involves systemic restrictions on health care access for non-English speakers, including inadequate language assistance services, reliance on untrained interpreters and lack of culturally competent care.

    President Donald Trump’s new executive orders signed in January 2025 threaten to further ostracize certain communities. For example, the order terminating federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs dismantles efforts to address racial disparities in public institutions. New restrictions on federally funded research on race and equity could hinder efforts to study and address these disparities.

    Civil rights advocates believe these measures represent a systemic rollback of rights and diversity practices that generations fought to secure and could accelerate a national shift toward exclusion based on race under the guise of immigration enforcement.

    Supporters of immigrants’ rights protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies on Feb. 7, 2025 in Homestead, Florida.
    Joe Raedle via Getty Images

    The results of our survey in Florida may be a warning sign for the rest of the country. Health care hesitancy like we documented could increase the likelihood of delayed treatment, undiagnosed conditions and worsening health disparities among entire communities.

    These legal restrictions are likely to increase the spread of communicable diseases and strain health care systems, increasing costs and placing a greater burden on emergency services and public health infrastructure.

    Elizabeth Aranda is affiliated with American Sociological Association.

    Deborah Omontese is affiliated with American Sociological Association

    Elizabeth Vaquera is a member of the American Sociological Association and has previously received funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health,

    Emely Matos Pichardo is affiliated with the Southern Sociological Society.

    Liz Ventura 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. Survey shows immigrants in Florida – even US citizens – are less likely to seek health care after passage of anti-immigrant laws – https://theconversation.com/survey-shows-immigrants-in-florida-even-us-citizens-are-less-likely-to-seek-health-care-after-passage-of-anti-immigrant-laws-248952

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s moves to strip employment protections from federal workers threaten to make government function worse – not better

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By James L. Perry, Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs Emeritus, Indiana University

    Federal workers’ jobs may become more precarious than in the past. mathisworks/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

    On top of efforts to fire potentially tens of thousands of federal workers, an early executive order from President Donald Trump’s second term seeks to reclassify the employment status of as many as 50,000 other federal workers – out of more than 2 million total – to make them easier for the president to fire as well.

    The order has already been challenged in court by two federal workers’ unions and other interest groups, though no judge has yet issued any orders. The Trump administration is drafting rules to put the order into effect.

    The Conversation U.S. politics editor Jeff Inglis spoke to James Perry, a scholar of public affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington, to understand what the order is trying to achieve and how it would affect federal workers, the government and the American public. What follows is an edited transcript of the discussion.

    Andrew Jackson, depicted here giving a speech, believed the president should be in control of most federal workers.
    PHOTOS.com / Getty Images Plus

    What is the standard situation for government employees?

    In the 1820s and 1830s, President Andrew Jackson popularized the idea that the president could, and should, hire supporters into government jobs. But by the early 1880s, there was concern on the parts of both Democrats and Republicans that the victor would control a lot of workers who would serve the president, not the American people whose tax dollars paid their salaries.

    So the parties came together in 1883 to pass the Pendleton Act stipulating that government workers are hired based on their skills and abilities, not their political views. That law was updated in 1978 with the Civil Service Reform Act, which added more protections for workers against being fired for political reasons.

    Those rules cover about 99% of staff in the federal civil service. Currently, there are just about 4,000 political appointees. I’ve seen various estimates that this new executive order would shift at least 50,000 positions from career positions to the political-appointments list.

    Some states, such as Mississippi, Texas, Georgia and Florida, have moved to strip employment protections from state government employees, turning protected employees into at-will workers, who can be fired at any time for any reason. These are largely red states, with strong control by Republican governors. Supporters of this move at the federal level argue that at-will employment can work in federal civil service.

    This argument is not backed by strong evidence. The evidence supporters offer is that human resources directors, who are often appointees of the governor who changed the statute, claim no one has complained about the change in policy. But that doesn’t include people who are likely to have a different perspective.

    It could be that nobody is talking about people being fired for political reasons in these states because they are afraid of getting fired themselves.

    What does this executive order change, and why?

    The rationale for the new policy is that the administration wants to get rid of federal workers whom leaders perceive as either intransigent or insubordinate – or who they fear might oppose Trump’s policy initiatives. This sets up a conflict between how government workers see their duties and how Trump appears to view them.

    Federal employees interviewed by sociologist Jamie Kucinskas during Trump’s first term say they are obligated to look beyond the president’s bidding: They took an oath to the Constitution when they started their jobs, and their salaries and benefits are paid for with taxpayer dollars.

    Trump, by contrast, says workers in the executive branch must answer to him and follow his orders.

    Trump and others have tried to cloak this effort in language about removing workers who perform poorly at their jobs. That concern is legitimate. The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which surveys hundreds of thousands of federal workers every year about various aspects of their work and working conditions, indicates that in 2024, 40% of those surveyed said people who perform poorly are not fired and do not improve.

    But taking action against only 50,000 of the 2 million-plus federal employees isn’t going to address such a wide problem.

    There’s a stereotype that in government it can be hard to discipline or fire workers who are not competent at their jobs. The flip side of that stereotype is, however, false: Private businesses are not better at holding poor performers accountable. Survey evidence shows the private sector has just as much difficulty as the government with getting workers to perform effectively.

    There’s room for legitimate disagreement about how far federal employees have to go to comply with presidential directives. The people who think loyalty is the key to merit still might not agree on whether that loyalty is owed to the person sitting in the Oval Office or to the Constitution.

    Protests against the Trump administration have been widespread, including against its policies aimed at federal workers.
    AP Photo/Sejal Govindarao

    How does this affect government workers?

    It’s not clear which positions might be targeted. The order calls them “policy influencing positions,” but drawing the line between policy and administration isn’t always easy.

    It’s also not clear whether the change will stick. When the George W. Bush administration reduced job protections for Department of Homeland Security employees in 2005, a major federal workers’ union sued the administration and won.

    In the first round of this effort under the first Trump administration, it seemed that most of the people affected would be at the top of the federal hierarchy, probably mostly based in Washington, D.C.

    Most of the workers in the federal civil service, though, are not there. They work for the Social Security Administration, giving out checks in Bloomington, Indiana, or other departments and offices around the country. It would be very difficult to classify them as influencing political policy or advocating for policies.

    But there are people who are not Senate-confirmed who do have an influence on policy. For instance, at the Department of Justice, assistant and deputy assistant secretaries have influence on civil rights policy or other policies that affect the president’s ability to pursue his agenda. The February 2025 resignation of Danielle Sassoon from her role as U.S. attorney in New York is an example of legitimate divergence between an appointee and the president’s policy direction.

    Any workers who lost their protections would likely feel threatened with losing their job and their livelihood. They might, out of fear, be more responsive to the dictates of their superiors.

    That might sound good – that if you do what your boss says, you’re doing a good job. But it’s different if your obligations are to the public interest and the Constitution.

    How does this affect everyday Americans?

    Large majorities of Americans believe government workers are serving the public over themselves. And as many as 87% of Americans say they want a merit-based, politically neutral civil service.

    The U.S. has attracted to government service workers who are good at their jobs and able to remain politically neutral at work. Saying that’s no longer important would change the relationship between government workers and their jobs. And it would hurt the nation as a whole if government cannot attract the best and the brightest, or if it sends the best and the brightest packing because they are not comfortable with their work situation, or if they stay but their performance declines.

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

    – ref. Trump’s moves to strip employment protections from federal workers threaten to make government function worse – not better – https://theconversation.com/trumps-moves-to-strip-employment-protections-from-federal-workers-threaten-to-make-government-function-worse-not-better-248086

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Brazil coup charges could end Bolsonaro’s political career − but they won’t extinguish Bolsonarismo

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Anthony Pereira, Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University

    The former president looked disappointed on Jan. 18, 2025, after a judge denied his request to travel to the U.S. for Donald Trump’s inauguration. Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images

    Brazilian politics are getting more dramatic again.

    The South American country’s attorney general filed five criminal charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro and 33 others in its Supreme Court on Feb. 18, 2025, detonating political shock waves. The charges include plotting a coup d’état to prevent Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidency. The other defendants include several former prominent officials, including a former spy chief, defense minister, national security adviser and Bolsonaro’s running mate.

    Lula took office in Brazil for a third time in January 2023, after he defeated Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election. Bolsonaro, a right-wing politician allied with U.S. President Donald Trump, had served the previous four-year term. Bolsonaro and his codefendants are also charged with trying to poison Lula and assassinate his vice presidential running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes; participating in an armed criminal organization; and seeking to violently overthrow the democratic rule of law. He denies doing anything wrong.

    As a professor of Brazilian politics, I believe that Bolsonaro’s legal troubles threaten to definitively end his political career. There’s also a possibility that the 69-year-old former president will be sentenced to prison. But, at the same time, the charges could also galvanize Bolsonaro’s base – playing into a narrative that sees the right-wing leader as stymied, unfairly, by the government he used to run.

    No sash passed

    Bolsonaro’s behavior before, during and after his second presidential campaign was unusual for any president seeking another term. He claimed, when he was still in office, that Brazil’s electronic voting system was not secure and predicted that fraud might crop up in the 2022 elections.

    Although he never produced any evidence to support this claim, he promoted it on social media, fostering skepticism about the election among some voters.

    Bolsonaro never formally conceded his narrow electoral defeat to Lula in October 2022, insinuating that instead the election had been stolen. In 2023, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Court ruled that he had abused his power and banned him from running for political office again for the next eight years.

    Instead of attending Lula’s inauguration on Jan. 1, 2023, where he would have been expected to participate in the traditional passing of the sash from the incumbent to the incoming president, Bolsonaro flew to Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 30, 2022. He stayed in Kissimmee, Florida, for the next three months.

    That meant Bolsonaro was not in Brazil when thousands of his supporters rampaged through and vandalized three government buildings in Brasília on Jan. 8, 2023. The incident was strikingly similar to Trump supporters’ assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    The new charges accuse Bolsonaro of taking part in a conspiracy to delegitimize the elections. The indictment also alleges that after the results were announced, Bolsonaro and the other defendants encouraged protests and urged the armed forces to intervene, declare a state of siege and prevent the peaceful transition of power from Bolsonaro to Lula.

    Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro can still draw crowds of supporters, as happened on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro on April 21, 2024.
    Buda Mendes/Getty Images

    Possibility of prison

    The evidence in this indictment is based, in part, on plea-bargained testimony by one of the alleged conspirators, the former presidential adviser and army Lt. Col. Mauro Cid.

    The attorney general has also accused Bolsonaro and his associates of being linked to businessmen who paid for buses to take Bolsonaro supporters to Brasília so they could participate in the Jan. 8 attacks, which caused damage estimated at 20 million Brazilian reais (US$3.5 million). And the indictment alleges that the coup plot failed because the commanders of Brazil’s army and air force refused to support the conspiracy, although the commander of the navy did, which explains why he was named as a defendant.

    If Brazil’s Supreme Court accepts the charges, which seems likely, the legal battle will begin. If Bolsonaro is convicted, he could go to prison.

    Bolsonaro’s defense team, for its part, says that the charges are “inept” and unconvincing. His lawyers expressed confidence that they could win the case.

    President Lula, wearing a hat, walks alongside Brazil’s first lady, Rosangela Janja da Silva, in a pink suit, during a rally in Brasilia on Jan. 8, 2025 – two years after supporters of his predecessor staged a failed coup attempt.
    Claudio Reis/Getty Images

    Narrow path

    Bolsonaro and his supporters have long criticized Brazil’s Supreme Court, arguing that it has exceeded its constitutional powers and become a judicial “dictatorship.” They have also pushed for Congress to grant amnesty to everyone who took part in or helped carry out the Jan. 8 attacks, including Bolsonaro.

    To date, Brazil’s Supreme Court has convicted 371 people for participating in the attacks. Those convicted have received prison sentences of between three and 17 years.

    Unlike in the United States, however, there has been a broad consensus in Brazil that the attacks were illegitimate and unacceptable. This consensus includes many lawmakers on the right and center-right in Brazil’s Congress, as well as in state and local governments.

    So, although the example of Donald Trump returning to the presidency and pardoning the participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol inspires Bolsonaro’s supporters, his path to achieving a similar result is narrower than was Trump’s.

    Meanwhile, Trump’s media company, which owns Truth Social and Rumble, sued Moraes, the judge Bolsonaro is accused of plotting to kill, for ordering the suspension of social media accounts and thereby undermining the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens. The case was filed in federal court in Tampa, Florida, on Feb. 19.

    Any trial of Bolsonaro and the other alleged coup plotters could spark a political struggle.

    Brazil’s right wing is currently divided between advocates of hard-line Bolsonarismo – a disruptive ideology that advocates social conservatism, a lightly regulated economy, militarism and a strong executive branch – and a more pragmatic conservatism that works within the conventional rules of politics and is mainly focused on patronage and the management of the spoils of office.

    Should Bolsonaro and his fellow defendants be tried in the Supreme Court, those hard-liners could be mobilized and energized.

    They would see the trial as the political establishment’s persecution of their political hero. And a struggle to find Bolsanaro’s successor, most likely between his son Eduardo and the former president’s wife, Michelle, would ensue.

    The successor would claim the mantle of opposition to Lula, who is eligible to seek a fourth presidential term and claims to want to run for reelection in 2026 – when he would be about to celebrate his 81st birthday.

    High stakes

    There are, to be sure, some Brazilian politicians who are more moderate than Bolsonaro and would also like to run against Lula next time. They would bring much less baggage to that presidential race.

    Their candidacies might offer a possible return to the relative political stability Brazil had experienced for almost two decades before 2013, when the main dividing line in Brazilian politics was between coalitions led by the center-right Social Democratic Party and the center-left Workers’ Party.

    To be clear, it’s hard to overstate the potential consequences of the Supreme Court’s deliberation and judgment in this case.

    The trial, should it occur, would be televised and also have a geopolitical dimension, because it would be closely watched by advocates of hard-right populism in other countries across the Americas and beyond. The stakes are high.

    In the meantime, I have no doubt that Bolsonaro’s supporters will try to use his legal woes to rally his political movement. The judgment of Brazil’s Supreme Court, should it decide to hear this case, could therefore end Bolsonaro’s political career. However, no matter what happens, I believe that Bolsonarismo would still be alive and well as a political force in Brazil and a factor in the 2026 elections.

    Anthony Pereira has received funding in the past from the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of the UK.

    I am a senior fellow at Canning House, a think tank based in London. This is an unpaid position.

    – ref. Brazil coup charges could end Bolsonaro’s political career − but they won’t extinguish Bolsonarismo – https://theconversation.com/brazil-coup-charges-could-end-bolsonaros-political-career-but-they-wont-extinguish-bolsonarismo-250478

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: I’m Still Here: a vibrant testament to female resilience that mourns Brazil’s dark past

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Belén Vidal, Reader in Film Studies, King’s College London

    Director Walter Salles’s first feature film since 2012, the Oscar-nominated I’m Still Here is a return to home ground, and a return to strength, for the Brazilian auteur. At 68, Salles reconnects with his youth, telling a story in which he does not figure, but takes up the role of witness to the pain of others.

    I’m Still Here is adapted from the autobiographical novel Ainda Estou Aqui by Salles’s contemporary, the writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva. The novel recounts Paiva’s father’s disappearance in 1971, under the repressive dictatorship of Emílio Garrastazu Médici, through the memories of the author’s mother, Eunice Paiva.

    In Salles’s film, the Paivas lead an enchanted life in a house facing Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro, until the long arm of the military regime wrecks their dream.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Beloved family head, Rubens (Selton Mello), an engineer and congressman secretly collaborating with the underground opposition, is kidnapped by state police under the pretence of a routine interrogation. It then befalls his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) to sustain family life and give their children a sense of future while trying to find out what happened to her husband.

    It’s the second act of the film, particularly the harrowing yet restrained sequences of Eunice’s days-long detention, that reveal the stakes of the story. Her traumatic experience in jail and increasingly desperate search for her husband afterwards is framed as a transformative journey. It’s one that will culminate 25 years later, when the memory of the disappeared is reinstated in the official archives of the nation’s history.

    I’m Still Here adopts a linear style of storytelling and classical three-act structure (stability, disruption, reparation) that serves historical closure, reinforced by the display of the Paiva family’s photographic archive in the closing credits.

    This familiar convention takes on a special poignancy in I’m Still Here, where the private archive is a powerful alternative to a discredited “official” media narrative. The reconstruction of everyday life conveys endurance and resistance. This in turn brings to the fore the gendered dynamics of the Paiva household.

    Rubens’s underground political activity against the regime means that he leads a double life to which Eunice, for all her loving closeness to her husband, remains ignorant of. This is sorely tested when Rubens disappears. With him the main source of income, it leaves Eunice and the children to cobble together a new existence in São Paulo.

    Adopting Eunice’s perspective throughout, the film observes how her relationship with her eldest daughters begins to fracture as they find different ways of coping with traumatic loss and an uncertain future. However, the film stays clear of melodrama, leaving Eunice to internalise the process instead.

    In the lead role, the prolific 59-year-old actor Fernanda Torres carries the film as effortlessly in fitted pencil skirts and chic geometric patterns of late 1960s fashion. Her screen chemistry with the slightly younger Selton Mello – they are the perfect couple while happiness lasts – is palpable.

    Torres’s controlled, nuanced performance navigates the family’s shift in fortunes with measured calm and steely determination, even as she gradually comes to terms with the fact that she’s on her own.

    In this way, the film is a clear-cut tribute to a “feminine” politics of resilience. This matches the preference for a linear biopic over focus on fraught alliances and betrayals that may have determined the course of 1970s political life in Brazil.

    Despite its stark subject matter and suffering heroine, the retro pleasures of I’m Still Here form one of the film’s strongest aspects. The measure of the family’s loss is given by a sweeping first act. Despite the all too readable signs of what’s to come (the film opens with Eunice enjoying a solitary swim in crystalline waters, disturbed by the sound of helicopters hovering above), the viewer is invited to live in the joyous present of the Paiva household.

    The dynamic camerawork captures the energy of the children, connecting the space of the beach with the open-doors house where Eunice and Rubens act as genial hosts for their friends.

    Through references to the vibrant tropicália musical movement the film celebrates and mourns not only the centrality of music to Brazilian cultural life, but the tastes of a cosmopolitan, white liberal middle class (to which Salles also belongs) whose lives and aspirations were cut short by the dictatorship.

    Torres’s real-life mother, the decorated Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro, plays the older Eunice in the film’s closing scenes. The match is near perfect, as they both command the same intense yet guarded look.

    Eunice’s character arc signifies the nation’s rise to consciousness. She goes back to study in her forties, becoming a lawyer working on behalf of the rights of indigenous women and in support of the families of the disappeared.

    This personal engagement in justice and reparation is blighted by dementia. In 2014, the nonagenarian Eunice played by Montenegro is a silent, wheelchair-bound Alzheimer sufferer. This epilogue, shot in bleached digital textures vividly contrasts with the vibrant memories captured in the (recreated) Super-8 films shot by the Paivas.

    As Brazil pulls itself together after the twin catastrophes of COVID and Bolsonarism, I’m Still Here’s cautionary tale for the present may be curtailed by the fact that its emotional core is placed so firmly in mourning its past, depicted as a idyllic moment of happiness and optimism before Brazil was robbed of its future.

    Belén Vidal receives funding for her research project AGE-C. Ageing and Gender in European Cinema, Co-investigator which is funded by VolkswagenStiftung, 2023-2026.

    – ref. I’m Still Here: a vibrant testament to female resilience that mourns Brazil’s dark past – https://theconversation.com/im-still-here-a-vibrant-testament-to-female-resilience-that-mourns-brazils-dark-past-250194

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Stop notice served to prevent further unauthorised works at Earlsdon property

    Source: City of Coventry

    The Council has taken the action to serve a Stop Notice and Enforcement Notice to prohibit further works being undertaken on the site of a former Natwest Bank in Earlsdon.

    The Council’s Planning Enforcement Team served a Temporary Stop Notice (TSN) following unauthorised demolition of 34-36 Earlsdon Street at the beginning of January.

    Since then, the Local Authority has been listening to the concerns of local residents and working hard with ward cllrs to find a solution.

    The existing TSN required all unauthorised works of construction / development and / or demolition to cease immediately. The legislation only permits a TSN to have effect for a maximum period of 56 days and consequently the Notice expires at midnight on Tuesday 25 February 2025.

    Unfortunately, to date no valid planning application has been received for the rebuilding of 34-36 Earlsdon Street and so the Council considers it necessary to take the further action to ensure that no further unauthorised works happen on site until planning permission has been the granted.

    This is the first time in around 20 years that the Council has served a Stop Notice.  

    Legislation does not permit a further TSN to be served which is why the Council has therefore served a Stop Notice and Enforcement Notice to prohibit further works being undertaken on site.

    Andrew Walster, Director of City Services at the Council, said: “We have been listening to the concerns of residents and working with ward councillors to find a solution, but so far, we have not received any future plans from the property owners.

    “This is frustrating for everyone concerned and we are determined to find a way forward. That’s why we have taken the step of servicing a Stop Notice.

    “The Earlsdon area was designated a conservation area, and the demolition work carried out so far has had a serious impact on the character of the neighbourhood.”

    Friday, 21st February 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Paul Y liquidation impact monitored

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    In response to Paul Y Engineering Group’s application for provisional liquidation, the Development Bureau today said it is believed the impact of Paul Y’s situation on relevant public works projects is manageable and it will closely monitor the situation.

    The Government noted that an application was made by Paul Y to the court recently to appoint a provisional liquidator for its five subsidiaries to handle debts and formulate a restructuring plan, and the court approved the application today.

    As there have been market rumours and media reports of financial difficulties and layoffs at Paul Y for some time, the Government has been paying close attention to the situation and making preparations to reduce the impact on works projects and subcontractors and assist the affected employees.

    Paul Y’s subsidiaries are undertaking the construction of 13 public works contracts, among which 12 are undertaken by Paul Y and other construction companies by way of joint venture.

    These contracts are managed by government departments including the Civil Engineering & Development Department, the Architectural Services Department, the Electrical & Mechanical Services Department, the Highways Department, the Drainage Services Department, the Water Supplies Department and the Environmental Protection Department.

    As the majority of the contracts are undertaken by joint ventures, regardless of whether Paul Y is liquidated eventually, the other participants of the joint venture contracts must complete the remaining works in accordance with the contract requirements.

    The bureau has assessed that the joint venture participants concerned are capable of undertaking the remaining works, and they have also expressed that they will continue to execute the contracts. The only project solely undertaken by Paul Y has largely entered the completion stage.

    On the other hand, Paul Y has also undertaken works projects of other public organisations, some of which are undertaken by joint ventures. The bureau said it is believed the impact is manageable.

    For other projects solely undertaken by Paul Y, the public sector owners have replaced the main contractor of most of the projects in accordance with the established mechanism to ensure their smooth completion. Owners of a few other projects are also carrying out such arrangements to minimise the impact on the projects.

    The bureau said that as the majority of the government and public sector projects will be undertaken by other participants of the joint ventures or have the main contractor replaced in accordance with the mechanism, if Paul Y is liquidated by the court eventually, the succeeding contractor will follow the Government and public sector owners’ request to try to accommodate the situation of existing subcontractors and workers so that they can continue to work on the projects for the sake of maintaining continuity.

    Employees of Paul Y and its subcontractors who have enquiries on their employment rights and benefits may call the Labour Department’s dedicated hotline at 3580 8721 or visit the branch offices of its Labour Relations Division.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI: DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. Announces First Quarter 2025 Earnings Release Date and Conference Call Details

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSX-V: DMGI) (OTCQB: DMGGF) (FRANKFURT: 6AX) (“DMG” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated blockchain and data center technology company, announces it will release financial results for its first quarter 2025 ending December 31, 2024 on Monday, March 3, 2025 after the market close.

    First Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call Details

    The Company will host a conference call to review its results and provide a corporate update on Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 4:30 PM ET. Participants should register for the call via the registration link.

    In addition to a live Q&A session via chat, management will also address pre-submitted questions. Those wishing to submit a question may do so via email at investors@dmgblockchain.com, using the subject line ‘Conference Call Question Submission,’ through 2:00 PM ET on March 4, 2025.

    About DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc.

    DMG is a publicly traded and vertically integrated blockchain and data center technology company that manages, operates and develops end-to-end digital solutions to monetize the digital asset and artificial intelligence compute ecosystems. Systemic Trust Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of DMG, is an integral component of DMG’s carbon-neutral Bitcoin ecosystem, which enables financial institutions to move bitcoin in a sustainable and regulatory-compliant manner.

    For more information on DMG Blockchain Solutions visit: www.dmgblockchain.com
    Follow @dmgblockchain on X and subscribe to DMG’s YouTube channel.

    For further information, please contact:

    On behalf of the Board of Directors,

    Sheldon Bennett, CEO & Director
    Tel: +1 (778) 300-5406
    Email: investors@dmgblockchain.com
    Web: www.dmgblockchain.com

    For Investor Relations:
    investors@dmgblockchain.com

    For Media Inquiries:
    Chantelle Borrelli
    Head of Communications
    chantelle@dmgblockchain.com

    Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

    Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

    This news release contains forward-looking information or statements based on current expectations. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release include the filing of the first quarter 2025 results and hosting a conference call, the Company’s strategy for growth, the planned monetization of certain product and service offerings, developing and executing on the Company’s products, services and business plans, the launch of products and services, events, courses of action, and the potential of the Company’s technology and operations, among others, are all forward-looking information.

    Future changes in the Bitcoin network-wide mining difficulty or Bitcoin hashrate may materially affect the future performance of DMG’s production of bitcoin, and future operating results could also be materially affected by the price of bitcoin and an increase in hashrate and mining difficulty.

    Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as “may”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, market and other conditions, volatility in the trading price of the common shares of the Company, business, economic and capital market conditions; the ability to manage operating expenses, which may adversely affect the Company’s financial condition; the ability to remain competitive as other better financed competitors develop and release competitive products; regulatory uncertainties; access to equipment; market conditions and the demand and pricing for products; the demand and pricing of bitcoin; security threats, including a loss/theft of DMG’s bitcoin; DMG’s relationships with its customers, distributors and business partners; the inability to add more power to DMG’s facilities; DMG’s ability to successfully define, design and release new products in a timely manner that meet customers’ needs; the ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; competition in the industry; the impact of technology changes on the products and industry; failure to develop new and innovative products; the ability to successfully maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; the impact of intellectual property litigation that could materially and adversely affect the business; the ability to manage working capital; and the dependence on key personnel. DMG may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the demand for its products, the ability to successfully develop software, that there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business, anticipated costs, the ability to secure sufficient capital to complete its business plans, the ability to achieve goals and the price of bitcoin. Given these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The securities of DMG are considered highly speculative due to the nature of DMG’s business. For further information concerning these and other risks and uncertainties, refer to the Company’s filings on www.sedarplus.ca. In addition, DMG’s past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance.

    Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, equipment failures, lack of supply of equipment, power and infrastructure, failure to obtain any permits required to operate the business, the impact of technology changes on the industry, the impact of viruses and diseases on the Company’s ability to operate, secure equipment, and hire personnel, competition, security threats including stolen bitcoin from DMG or its customers, consumer sentiment towards DMG’s products, services and blockchain technology generally, failure to develop new and innovative products, litigation, adverse weather or climate events, increase in operating costs, increase in equipment and labor costs, equipment failures, decrease in the price of Bitcoin, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, government regulations, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of or statements made by third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 21 February 2025 Departmental update World Health Day 2025 to spotlight women and babies’ survival, urging solidarity at a critical moment for global health

    Source: World Health Organisation

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially announced the theme of World Health Day 2025, Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures, which will focus on improving maternal and newborn health and survival.

    World Health Day is marked around the world on 7th April, the anniversary of WHO’s founding in 1948. Each year, it draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world.

    “The focus of this campaign comes at a crucial moment, aiming to help countries regain lost progress while showcasing new research and evidence that will enhance the health of women and babies globally,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO. “As rollbacks to humanitarian assistance jeopardize a critical lifeline for millions, it will also be an opportunity to step up support and collaboration for global health – and deliver hope to those in urgent need of lifesaving care.”

    Helping every woman and baby survive and thrive

    According to the most recent estimates, close to 300 000 women lose their life due to pregnancy or childbirth each year; over 2 million babies die in their first month of life, and around 2 million more are stillborn. This is roughly 1 preventable death every 7 seconds – losses which bring tremendous sadness and heartache to millions of families around the world.

    While maternal and newborn deaths occur in all regions, the vast majority are in the poorest countries and those facing conflict and other crises. When health care facilities close, facilities are attacked, access routes denied or supplies disrupted, pregnant women and babies – who need regular access to health services – face severe, often life-threatening risks.

    Based on current trends, a staggering 4 out of 5 countries are off track to meet the United Nations’ global targets for improving maternal survival by 2030; 1 in 3 will fail to meet targets for reducing newborn deaths. Current funding constraints could further jeopardize progress, as many programmes providing critical health services have stalled alongside important medical research focused on pregnant and breastfeeding women and children.

    This year’s campaign, which will run until 2026, will urge governments, donors and the health community to invest in proven, high-impact interventions, as part of efforts to improve overall quality of care. These include pregnancy related services to detect complications and lifesaving emergency obstetrics – noting that the vast majority of maternal and newborn deaths happen during or shortly after birth – as well as special care for small and preterm babies. Complications relating to prematurity are now the leading cause of death of children under-5 worldwide.

    WHO will also highlight the evolving need for health systems to address the many underlying health issues that impact maternal and newborn health. These include not only direct obstetric complications but also mental health conditions, malnutrition (including under and overnutrition as well as nutritional deficiencies), and an increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases.

    Listening to women and supporting families

    Moving beyond actions to save lives, the campaign will urge increased global attention to women’s longer-term health and well-being. This includes advocating for laws and policies that safeguard their health and rights, such as paid maternity leave and other critical employment protections, and access to vital family planning services.

    “It is not sufficient that women survive childbirth, they must also be able to enjoy their lives in good health,” said Dr Pascale Allotey, Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. “Women and girls everywhere need access to health providers who listen to their concerns and meet their needs, while ensuring they can plan their fertility, take charge of their futures, and protect their health.”

    Efforts are also needed to address the particular risks of climate change for pregnant women and newborns,  as evidence shows an association between higher temperatures and preterm births, stillbirth, hypertension and gestational diabetes, as well as infant mortality.

    An investment, not a cost

    In low- and middle-income countries, every US$1 invested in maternal and newborn health is estimated to yield around US$9 to 20 in return. Evidence shows that spending on maternal and newborn health leads to economic development and happier, healthier societies.

    Around the world, WHO is supporting essential maternal and newborn health programmes including through:

    • Intensive support to 55 countries through the Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere initiative, which is working to expand access to lifesaving emergency obstetric and newborn care units, family planning and other critical services;
    • Guidance relating to diverse aspects of maternal and newborn health through pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.  New recommendations will be published later this year to help clinicians manage postpartum haemorrhage, one of the world’s leading causes of maternal deaths, and noncommunicable diseases in pregnancy;
    • Research to improve clinical care options for pregnant women and newborns, including during epidemics when it is critical to ensure high-risk populations are not left behind;
    • Ensuring maternity and newborn care during humanitarian emergencies, like mobile clinics and health posts in Syria and Sudan, where millions of women and babies would otherwise miss out on lifesaving medical screenings, vaccinations and treatments.
    • Support for health workers providing essential care to pregnant women and babies, such as efforts to strengthen the vital role of midwives within health systems through training, accreditation and related guidance.

    Get involved

    Here’s what you can do to support the campaign

    • Spread awareness: share information about the campaign using #HopefulFutures and #HealthForAll;
    • Participate: attend our global events to learn more about what it will take to end maternal and newborn mortality; organize your own local activities;
    • Donate: contribute to the WHO Foundation, which supports WHO’s work to protect mothers and babies in countries around the world;
    • Share personal experiences: Across its platforms, WHO will be launching new content to help women share birth stories and lived experiences from around the world, and to thank those who provide quality care.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Côte d’Ivoire: One year on: Evicted Gesco Rivière farmers must be compensated for devastating loss of livelihoods

    Source: Amnesty International –

    The Ivorian authorities must urgently compensate the 133 farmers, their employees and families whose livelihoods were destroyed following the forced evictions on the Gesco Rivière site in Abidjan, Amnesty International said on the first anniversary of the demolitions.

    On 21 February 2024, as part of a series of forced evictions in Abidjan neighbourhoods, farms and fishponds belonging to members of the Agro-Past Eburny association were demolished without prior consultation or notice. The farmers had settled on the Gesco Rivière site, a 4.6 hectares area which had been granted to them in 2011 by a state-owned company for the creation of an agro-pastoral zone, according to Guillaume Ballé Zilé, the association’s president.

    One year after the demolitions, despite the suspension of forced evictions in November 2024 and the authorities’ repeated commitments to compensate and rehouse those affected, none of the farmers has received compensation for their losses, estimated to be at around 650 million FCFA, or 1 million euros, according to president of the Agro-Past Eburny association.

    Where evictions are unavoidable, the authorities must fully adhere to national and international human rights standards.

    Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s interim regional director for West and Central Africa

    “While we have welcomed the authorities’ commitment to suspend evictions and demolitions in Abidjan and to implement compensation measures, the Gesco Rivière farmers have so far not benefited from any of these plans. It is essential that all those affected by forced evictions who have not received compensation are able to benefit from it without delay,” said Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s interim regional director for West and Central Africa.

    Guillaume Ballé Zilé said: “Since February 2024, no government body, in particular the Ministry of Animal Production and Fisheries Resources, to which we were reporting, has reacted, nor has the Yopougon town hall or the Autonomous District of Abidjan.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Amnesty International responds to B.C. court ruling in Indigenous land defenders’ trial

    Source: Amnesty International –

    Amnesty International will consider prisoner-of-conscience designations in the cases of three Indigenous land defenders in Canada whose convictions were upheld by a British Columbia court.

    Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham), a Wing Chief (Cas Yikh house) of the Gidimt’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet’suwet’en family connections, and Corey “Jayohcee” Jocko, a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), had asked the court to void their convictions on constitutional grounds. They argued that their arrests during – and detention after – a highly militarized November 2021 police raid on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory violated their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

    On Tuesday, a British Columbia judge ruled that the conduct, including anti-Indigenous racist statements, of some Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)/Community Industry Response Group (C-IRG) members during the raid did indeed violate the defenders’ Charter rights. The ruling validates both the experiences of these land defenders and the broader experience of colonial violence that Indigenous Peoples have faced for more than 100 years from the RCMP. However, the judge refused to stay all charges against the defenders and said he would instead consider reduced sentences.

    Amnesty International is reviewing the implications of Tuesday’s decision. Should they receive a sentence that arbitrarily deprives them of their liberty, Amnesty will designate the affected land defenders as prisoners of conscience.

    “We are heartened by Justice Tammen’s stern condemnation of the racist and violent treatment Sleydo’, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey ‘Jayohcee’ Jocko endured during their arrests. Unfortunately, the systematic racism that led to their arrests remains unaddressed”

    -Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section

    “We are heartened by Justice Tammen’s stern condemnation of the racist and violent treatment Sleydo’, Shaylynn Sampson and Corey ‘Jayohcee’ Jocko endured during their arrests,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section. “Unfortunately, the systematic racism that led to their arrests remains unaddressed. B.C. and Canada must take immediate steps to stop the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders in the first place. No one should be intimidated, harassed, or arrested, let alone convicted in a criminal court case, for exercising their constitutionally protected rights and protecting the natural environment we all share.

    France-Isabelle Langlois, general director of Amnistie internationale Canada francophone, declared: “Peaceful actions were taken by the Indigenous land defenders with the aim of protecting natural ecosystems that lessen the impacts of climate change. In this global context of the climate crisis, to punish them is preposterous, to say the least, no matter how small the sentence. These actions need to be widely applauded rather than scrutinized by the Court.

    “The Court’s decision to uphold the convictions of the three land defenders is part of a broader context of shrinking civic space in Canada, where Indigenous land defenders, environmentalists, and human right defenders are frequently the victims of political or police repression,” she added. “It is disappointing that we must remind the country and its institutions of their obligations under international law since Canada prides itself on being a leader in human rights.”

    “Peaceful actions were taken by the Indigenous land defenders with the aim of protecting natural ecosystems that lessen the impacts of climate change. In this global context of the climate crisis, to punish them is preposterous, to say the least, no matter how small the sentence. These actions need to be widely applauded rather than scrutinized by the Court”

    -France-Isabelle Langlois, general director of Amnistie internationale Canada francophone

    Amnesty International has vehemently condemned the criminalization of Wet’suwet’en and other land defenders opposed to the construction of Coastal GasLink (CGL) liquefied natural gas pipeline through the Nation’s unceded, ancestral territory. Construction on the 670-kilometre pipeline began without the free, prior and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, on behalf of their clans. This violates Canadian and international human rights law and standards, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was legislated into Canadian law on June 21, 2021.

    Based in part on witness testimony of four large-scale RCMP raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, Amnesty’s 2023 report ‘Removed from our land for defending it’: Criminalization, Intimidation and Harassment of Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders found that Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters were arbitrarily detained for peacefully defending their land against the construction of the CGL pipeline and exercising their Indigenous rights and their right to peaceful assembly.

    In June and July 2022, the B.C. Prosecution Service (BCPS) charged 20 land defenders, including Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko, with criminal contempt for disobeying an injunction order to stay away from pipeline construction sites, an order that unduly restricted the human rights of the land defenders and the Indigenous rights of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. Seven of the 20 land defenders pleaded guilty because of restrictive bail conditions, as well as the familial, psychological and financial impacts that the criminal proceedings imposed on them. Five other defenders had their charges dropped, and five more are awaiting trial.

    “This whole process has been a violation of my rights and responsibilities as an Indigenous person and my responsibility to the health and wellness of future generations and the Yintah,” Sleydo’ said during a news conference after the decision was handed down on Tuesday afternoon. “The colonial courts are not where our ability to live out our laws and ways of life should be determined. And yet here we are, over three years later, in a showdown between Wet’suwet’en law and colonial law after years of police violence and repression by the C-IRG, with no accountability. I refuse to allow the colonial courts to dehumanize and criminalize me. I belong to my land, my ancestors, and my people.

    “I am a mother, a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a good friend, and a leader. I am a singer, a hunter, a teacher, and a revolutionary. I am following the footsteps of my ancestors, and I carry their teachings with me in everything that I do.”

    “This whole process has been a violation of my rights and responsibilities as an Indigenous person and my responsibility to the health and wellness of future generations and the Yintah. (…) I refuse to allow the colonial courts to dehumanize and criminalize me. I belong to my land, my ancestors, and my people”

    -Sleydo’

    If Amnesty International names Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko prisoners of conscience, it will be the second time the organization has applied that designation to a person held by Canada. In July 2024, Amnesty declared another Wet’suwet’en land defender – Likhts’amisyu Clan Wing Chief Dsta’hyl – a prisoner of conscience after the British Columbia court sentenced him to 60 days of house arrest. Like Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko, Chief Dsta’hyl was charged and later convicted for allegedly violating the terms of the B.C. court injunction banning land-defence actions near the CGL pipeline, including in areas of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s territory.

    “If the Canadian state decides to unjustly criminalize and confine Sleydo’, Shaylynn, and Corey, Amnesty International will not hesitate to designate them as prisoners of conscience,” said Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International. “Canada is on the sadly long list of countries in the Americas where land defenders remain at risk for their essential work.”

    “If the Canadian state decides to unjustly criminalize and confine Sleydo’, Shaylynn, and Corey, Amnesty International will not hesitate to designate them as prisoners of conscience. Canada is on the sadly long list of countries in the Americas where land defenders remain at risk for their essential work”

    -Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International

    The criminalization of Wet’suwet’en land defenders has sparked an international outcry and calls for Canada to respect Indigenous rights. Last year, Sleydo’, Sampson and Jocko were a featured case in Write for Rights, Amnesty International’s annual global letter-writing campaign. Since the fall, thousands of people around the world have sent letters and signed petitions calling on Canada to drop the charges against the three defenders.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Video: State of Play: Conflict in the Middle East | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025

    Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

    Ongoing conflict in the Middle East is having ripple effects across the world as the toll on human lives continues to rise.

    Join this town hall to explore the measures and actions leaders can take to de-escalate tensions and seek long-term stability.

    Speakers: David Ignatius, Ayman Al Safadi

    The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will provide a crucial space to focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability.

    This Annual Meeting will welcome over 100 governments, all major international organizations, 1000 Forum’s Partners, as well as civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets.

    The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

    World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/
    Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/
    YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef
    Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/
    X ► https://twitter.com/wef
    LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum
    TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum
    Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF

    #Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #wef25

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrnMFQ–uJU

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI Video: Russia: What Next? | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025

    Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

    In 2024 Russia overtook Japan as the world’s fourth largest economy in purchasing power parity terms, yet there is a deteriorating fiscal context and faltering economic stability as a sharp downturn looms.

    On foreign policy, Moscow has doubled down on efforts to consolidate a counterweight to the G7, even as it faces setbacks in the Middle East.

    How will Russia and its place in the world fare in 2025?

    Speakers: Ravi Agrawal, Valdis Dombrovskis, Elisabeth Svantesson

    The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will provide a crucial space to focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability.

    This Annual Meeting will welcome over 100 governments, all major international organizations, 1000 Forum’s Partners, as well as civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets.

    The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

    World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/
    Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/
    YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef
    Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/
    X ► https://twitter.com/wef
    LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum
    TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum
    Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF

    #Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #wef25

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5GbGmQrnHY

    MIL OSI Video –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Solar power set to boost energy levels at city’s leisure centre

    Source: City of Norwich

    Work to install more than 600 solar panels over the car park and on the roof of Riverside Leisure Centre will begin on Monday 24 February, thanks to a project backed by Sport England.

    The initiative, which received planning permission last year, will enhance the centre’s long-term sustainability while minimising its environmental impact.

    By producing renewable energy on-site, the project is set to reduce the electricity bills of the building by 33 percent and cut 75 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. These financial and carbon savings will help secure the future of this venue, as well as supporting Norwich City Council’s efforts to reach net zero. New trees will also be planted in the carpark area to further boost these eco credentials.

    The venue, which has been run by Places Leisure on behalf of the city council since 2013, received 350,000 visits last year.

    As part of the project, the centre’s car park will be closed for six weeks to facilitate essential construction. While there will be some short-term disruption, these efforts are aimed at future-proofing the centre and significantly reducing its carbon footprint. Blue-badge spaces will be made available from Tuesday 25 February, so only unavailable for one day. Places Leisure have contacted members and customers directly.

    The new energy system is expected to start producing power from April, with full project completion anticipated by this summer. From April onwards, disruption should be minimal, ensuring that visitors and members can continue enjoying the facilities with ease.

    Funding of £520,000 has been secured from the government and Sport England’s £60m Swimming Pool Support Fund, while the remaining £375,000 is being paid for by the city council.

    At the time funding was awarded, Councillor Emma Hampton, cabinet member for climate change, said:

    “I’m delighted that we have been able to secure funding to install such a large solar array at Riverside Leisure Centre, future proofing the venue by reducing emissions and ensuring that we can continue to provide these much-loved community facilities for years to come.

    “By placing solar panels on the roof and in the car park, we’re putting that empty space to good use – something we should aim to do more and more across the city as we work towards a net zero Norwich by 2045.”

    This project underscores the city council’s dedication to sustainability, ensuring a more energy-efficient future. We appreciate the patience and support of both users of the centre and residents living nearby during this time.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India Japan partnership rooted in brotherhood, democracy,culture and economic cooperation: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal

    Source: Government of India (2)

    India Japan partnership rooted in brotherhood, democracy,culture and economic cooperation: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal

    The partnership reflects a unique fusion of Sushi and Spices, distinct yet complementary: Shri Goyal

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 5:07PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal stated that India and Japan share a globally recognized strategic partnership rooted in brotherhood, democracy, culture, and economic cooperation. This was stated by the Minister at his keynote address at the India-Japan Economy and Investment Forum today.

    The Minister highlighted that the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan have origins in Indian tradition, underscoring the deep cultural ties between the two nations. He noted that the relationship between India and Japan reflected Sushi and spices, a fusion of distinct yet complementary elements, contributing to an extraordinary partnership. Japan has been a key ally in India’s economic growth, with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from Japan exceeding $43 billion between 2000 and 2024, making it India’s fifth-largest source of foreign investment, added the Minister.

    The Minister highlighted that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed in 2011 has significantly strengthened bilateral trade, with over 1,400 Japanese companies operating in India and 11 industrial townships across eight states hosting Japanese enterprises. He pointed out that major infrastructure projects such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail and metro systems in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai reflect Japan’s active participation in India’s development. He expressed optimism about the commencement of the Shinkansen bullet train service between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in the near future.

    The Minister stated that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the ‘Make in India’ initiative launched in 2014 has provided a significant boost to India’s manufacturing sector. He stated that India and Japan are collaborating to build globally competitive brands, citing the example of Maruti exporting vehicles to various countries, including Japan. He reiterated the objective of increasing the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP to 25%, with Japan playing a crucial role in achieving this target.The Minister cited the Prime Minister, emphasizing that trade, technology, tourism, and investment will remain key pillars of India’s international economic strategy, with the partnership with Japan playing a crucial role in strengthening economic ties.

    He also noted India’s commitment to fostering a business-friendly environment, emphasizing that ease of doing business improvements are being implemented at both central and state levels. Infrastructure development, public-private partnerships in innovation, and a strengthened R&D ecosystem, supported by recent budget announcements, reflect the government’s strategic focus on economic growth. He underscored that India has the world’s largest number of STEM graduates, with women accounting for 43% of them, contributing to the country’s skilled workforce.

    The Minister pointed out five key drivers of India’s economic growth—decisive leadership, demographic dividend, democracy, diversity, and demand generated by 1.4 billion people—stating that these factors collectively shape India’s growing economy. He reiterated that large-scale investments will coexist in India with MSMEs to provide global solutions.

    Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi “ Today’s India inspires confidence in the world”, Shri Goyal added that  with a young and skilled workforce India today is a destination to invest and a destination to source goods and services.

    On quality standards, the Minister stated that Japan serves as a benchmark for excellence and that India seeks to adopt similar high standards in manufacturing. He noted that Indian manufacturers are being encouraged to embrace ‘Kaizen’ (continuous improvement) and Lean Six Sigma principles to enhance quality and efficiency. He further stated that efforts are being made to balance trade between India and Japan, with a focus on increasing Indian exports to ensure reciprocal benefits.The Minister invited participation in India’s growth story, particularly in green energy, renewable energy, high-tech manufacturing of semiconductors, electronic goods, and artificial intelligence. He emphasized that digital technologies will drive progress towards prosperity, reinforcing India’s commitment to innovation and sustainable development.

    ***

    Abhishek Dayal/ Abhijith Narayanan

    (Release ID: 2105293) Visitor Counter : 120

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Gender participation in governance is fundamental to bring about equality and to cut into inequities: Vice President of India, Dr Jagdeep Dhankhar

    Source: Government of India

    Gender participation in governance is fundamental to bring about equality and to cut into inequities: Vice President of India, Dr Jagdeep Dhankhar

    India is trying to leverage its technology for empowering people, to mitigate the suffering and to cut corruption and to generate transparency and accountability: Vice President

    Vice President of India, Dr Jagdeep Dhankhar addressed the conference of African-Asian Rural Development Organization

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 4:47PM by PIB Delhi

    Addressing the delegates at the conference of African-Asian Rural Development Organization in New Delhi today the Vice President of India, Dr Jagdeep Dhankhar said that the gender participation in governance is fundamental to bring about equality and to cut into inequities. India perhaps the only country in the world that has constitutionally structured participation of women in governance. He said that in village and municipal one third seats has been reserved for women. Pertaining to women empowerment he said that his government has taken initiatives that women at all level right from the Panchayat to be empowered. He informed that lakhs of women are frequently being elected through the election process in Panchayat, Cooperative etc. level. They are heading challenges of governance at village Panchayat and district level. He said that elections have been fortified in the constitution it’s a legal framework of functioning of various democratic institution, where the participation of women has been given priority.

    Dr Jagdeep Dhankhar informed that in a country of 1.5 billion people, drastic change is seen in every field in last one decade, education, economy and other basic immunity providing sectors like internet, electricity, cocking gas, toilet etc. He said that massive transformative steps have been taken through two aspects by the government that has helped the country with enormously benefited people. Of them one is education and the second is empowering of the people, when it comes to internet uses per capita India is more than USA & China.

    He said that when it comes to formalization of economy or digital transfer, we account more than 50 percent of the global communities. In decade ago, our economy had only double digit in global bench mark and now we are fifth position in the world and on the way to becoming third economic power of the world in next two years. He said that our nation is set for target that India would be a developed nation by 2047; there was a time our nation has to deposit its gold with Banks in Switzerland to sustain our fiscal credibility by then the foreign exchange reserve was only 11 billion US dollar, if it can be compared to the present situation the volume has gone to 7 hundred billion US dollar. Dr Dhankhar said that India is an example for the rest of the world that what could be impacts of the good initiatives in the field of rural development; empowerment of people etc. This convergence is a significant mile stone that would take the nation to a new height. Vice President said that this conference of African-Asian Rural Development Organization would go a long way in defining the stability of the world, he said that if World’s stability is to be defined then growth of rural sector, agriculture and corporative sector etc.  are top most important. 

    He said that the world is facing challenges for its safe existence. Indicating climate change the Vice President Shri Dhankhar said that it’s a menace created only by us by reckless exploitation of natural resources of which we are not the owner.  He said that we thought that this planet is meant for only human being not for others but there are also other challenges that include hunger, poverty. In one hand we have exploited technology to its maximum extent and on the other hand we have problem like hunger & poverty. In such a situation India is trying to leverage its technology for empowering people, to mitigate the suffering and to cut the corruption and to generate transparency and accountability.

    *****

    MG/NR

    (Release ID: 2105287) Visitor Counter : 51

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: LegCo Spring Luncheon (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    LegCo Spring Luncheon (with photos)
    LegCo Spring Luncheon (with photos)
    ***********************************

    The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:    The President of the Legislative Council (LegCo), Mr Andrew Leung, hosted a spring luncheon today (February 21) in the Dining Hall of the LegCo Complex for the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, Executive Council Members, senior Government officials and LegCo Members. Nearly 200 guests and Members attended the luncheon to celebrate the Chinese New Year.     Mr Leung said that as Hong Kong navigates a complex international geopolitical environment while addressing a financial deficit, Hong Kong must promote our innovation development and economic transformation by all means and at full speed. He added that the LegCo will continue to fully support the Government in swiftly implementing all development plans that benefit Hong Kong. He also expressed his wish for the country and Hong Kong to successfully overcome challenges and thrive in the Year of the Snake.     Before attending the luncheon, Mr Lee, accompanied by Mr Leung, visited the PANDA GO! FEST HK exhibition in the Main Lobby of the LegCo Complex and took photos with the panda sculptures.

     
    Ends/Friday, February 21, 2025Issued at HKT 18:50

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Government responds to provisional liquidation of Paul Y Engineering Group Limited

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         In response to the application for provisional liquidation by Paul Y Engineering Group Limited (Paul Y), a Government spokesman today (February 21) gave the following response:
          
         The Government noted that an application was made by Paul Y to the court recently to appoint a provisional liquidator for its five subsidiaries to handle debts and formulate a restructuring plan, and that the court held a hearing and approved the application today. Since it was a corporate decision of Paul Y to submit the application, and legal proceedings are underway, it is inappropriate for the Government to comment on the details.
          
         The Government spokesman said that any enterprise encountering financial difficulties has its own reasons, and the enterprise has to find a suitable solution based on its actual circumstances. As there have been market rumours and media reports of financial difficulties and layoffs at Paul Y for some time, the Government has been paying close attention to the situation and making preparations to reduce the impact on relevant works projects and subcontractors and to assist affected employees.
          
         Regarding public works projects, Paul Y’s subsidiaries are undertaking the construction of 13 public works contracts, among which 12 contracts are undertaken by Paul Y and other construction companies by way of joint venture. These contracts are managed by various government departments separately, including the Civil Engineering and Development Department, the Architectural Services Department, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, the Highways Department, the Drainage Services Department, the Water Supplies Department and the Environmental Protection Department. As the majority of the contracts are undertaken by joint ventures, regardless of whether Paul Y is liquidated eventually, the other participants of the joint venture contracts must complete the remaining works in accordance with the contract requirements. The Development Bureau (DEVB) has assessed that the joint venture participants concerned are capable of undertaking the remaining works, and they have also expressed that they will continue to execute the contracts. The only project solely undertaken by Paul Y has largely entered the completion stage. Overall, the DEVB believes that the impact of the situation of Paul Y on relevant public works projects is manageable, and will closely monitor the situation.
          
         On the other hand, Paul Y has also undertaken works projects of other public organisations, some of which are undertaken by joint ventures. As aforementioned, it is believed that the impact is manageable. For other projects solely undertaken by Paul Y, the public sector owners have replaced the main contractor of most of the projects in accordance with the established mechanism to ensure the smooth completion of the projects. Owners of a few other projects are also carrying out such arrangements with a view to minimising the impact on the projects.
          
         As the majority of the Government and public sector projects will be undertaken by other participants of the joint ventures or have the main contractor replaced in accordance with the mechanism, if Paul Y is liquidated by the court eventually, the succeeding contractor will follow the request made by the Government and public sector owners to try to accommodate the situation of existing subcontractors and workers so that they can continue to work on the relevant projects for the sake of maintaining continuity.
          
         In respect of Paul Y’s debt matters, the affected subcontractors or suppliers can apply for claims through legal means. The Government, including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), has been in contact with the construction industry and the banking sector. If subcontractors or suppliers face cash-flow pressure due to the Paul Y incident, the HKMA and the DEVB, together with the Construction Industry Council, will communicate with the Hong Kong Association of Banks so that banks can consider providing assistance on a case-by-case basis. Relevant enterprises can proactively contact lending banks and provide all relevant information so that the banks can understand the actual circumstances of the enterprises in a timely manner and provide flexible arrangements as far as feasible.
          
         In respect of employment rights and benefits, the Labour Department (LD) has all along been requiring Paul Y to pay wages and provide statutory rights to its employees in accordance with the Employment Ordinance (EO) and fulfil its obligations under the EO as a main contractor to pay the first two months’ unpaid wages of an employee who is employed by its subcontractors. The LD will continue to maintain contact with Paul Y, its subcontractors and relevant stakeholders to co-ordinate assistance for employees. Employees of Paul Y and its subcontractors who have enquiries on their employment rights and benefits may call the LD’s dedicated hotline at 3580 8721 or visit 10 branch offices of the Labour Relations Division in the territory.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India Assumes Chairmanship of Bay of Bengal Inter-Governmental Organisation at the 13th Governing Council Meeting in Malé, Maldives

    Source: Government of India

    India Assumes Chairmanship of Bay of Bengal Inter-Governmental Organisation at the 13th Governing Council Meeting in Malé, Maldives

    Pledges Stronger Regional Cooperation for Strengthening Blue Economy and Protection of Marine Ecosystems

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 5:21PM by PIB Delhi

    In a historic move, India assumed Chairmanship of Bay of Bengal (BOB) Inter-Governmental Organisation from Bangladesh at the 13th Governing Council Meeting at Malé, Maldives today, in the presence of senior government representatives from Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh. The event was part of the high-level conference ‘Policy Guidance for Mainstreaming Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) in Small-Scale Fisheries’, hosted by the Ministry of Fisheries & Ocean Resources of the Maldives government, in collaboration with the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO), that has been successfully convened from February 20 to 22, 2025, in Lankanfinolhu, Maldives.  

       

    The Indian delegation, led by Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Government of India (GoI) assumed the Chair during the event. Secretary, Department of Fisheries highlighted that India is committed to upholding and building upon the achievements of the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP-IGO) as the leadership transitions from Bangladesh to India. He assured that the Department of Fisheries (GoI) would diligently work towards elevating the success of BOBP- IGO to newer heights and will be forthcoming in providing definitive guidance for all future endeavours for the development of fisheries sector across all member countries.

     

    Further, Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi underscored the importance of regional collaboration, and the crucial role India and other countries are playing in advancing the interests of the developing nations. Key areas of focus for increased regional co-operation include marine resource management, training & capacity building programs, research & policy advocacy, addressing Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, resolving regional issues etc.  As India remains optimistic about receiving continued support and collaboration from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and other relevant organizations, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (GoI) urged all member nations to enhance and foster mutual support through exchange of knowledge, technology, experiences, data and best practices. The collaborations are expected to strengthen region’s blue economy, harmonize economic development along with protection of marine ecosystem and help in poverty alleviation. During the meeting, Secretary, Department of Fisheries (GoI) highlighted India’s developmental policies aimed at improving the well-being of small-scale fisheries and the sustainability measures being implemented under its various schemes and programs.

    With the successful culmination of this important event and India assuming Chair of the BoBP-IGO, it will be the endeavour of the Department of Fisheries, under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to not only lead the member nations in the most effective and efficient manner through collaborative efforts but also ensure that significant progress is made in the development of Small-scale fisheries (SSF) in the region. This achievement not only bestows international leadership and responsibilities on India, it is also expected to bring in multifaceted advancements for achieving the national goal of ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’.

    India’s Thrust on Small Scale Fisheries & The Way Forward

    ****

    Aditi Agrawal

    (Release ID: 2105308) Visitor Counter : 59

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, will Chair the 27th meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Pune, Maharashtra on Saturday, February 22

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, will Chair the 27th meeting of the Western Zonal Council at Pune, Maharashtra on Saturday, February 22

    Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has stressed on the need to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism for all round development of the country

    Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, has stressed on the cooperative federalism approach to empower states and promote better understanding between the Centre and the states

    In the Modi Government, role of Zonal Councils has been changed from advisory to action platform to make them effective

    Zonal Councils discuss broad issues relating to infrastructure, mining, environment and forests, food security parameters and other subjects of common interest at the regional level

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 1:16PM by PIB Delhi

    Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah, will chair the 27th meeting of the Western Zonal Council on Saturday, 22nd February, 2025 at Pune, Maharashtra. The Western Zonal Council comprises the states of Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. Maharashtra Government is hosting the meeting which is being organized by the Inter State Council Secretariat under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra.

    The 27th meeting of the Western Zonal Council will be attended by the Chief Ministers of the member states and the Administrator of the Union Territories, along with two senior ministers from each state. The Chief Secretaries, Advisors and other senior officers of the State Governments and Union Territories and Union Home Secretary, Secretary, Inter State Council and other senior officers of the Central Government will also participate in the meeting.

    Five Zonal Councils were established in the year 1957 under Section 15-22 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956. Union Home Minister is the Chairman of these five Zonal Councils, while the Chief Ministers of the States included in the respective Zonal Council and the Administrator/Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territories are its members. Chief Ministers of the states included in Zonal Council become vice-its chairman by turn. Two more ministers from each state are nominated by the Governor as members of the council. Each Zonal Council has also constituted a Standing Committee at the level of Chief Secretaries.

    Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has stressed the need to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism for the all-round development of the country. In the spirit that strong States make strong nations, Zonal Councils provide a platform to enhance cooperation through a systematic mechanism for regular dialogue and discussion on issues affecting two or more states or the Center and the States.

    Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, has stressed on the cooperative federalism approach to empower states and promote better understanding between the Centre and the States. In the Modi Government, role of Zonal Councils has been changed from advisory to action platform to make them effective. Meetings of respective standing committees of all five Zonal Councils, except Southern Council, were organized last year.

    The Zonal Councils take up issues involving the Centre and the States and between one or more States in the region. Thus, the Zonal Councils provide an excellent platform for resolving disputes and issues between the Centre and the States and between the several States in the region. The Zonal Councils hold discussions on a wide range of issues including speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children and implementation of Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) for expeditious disposal of such cases, facilitation of banks/India Post Payment Bank branches within 5 kms in each village, implementation of Emergency Response Support System (ERSS-112), issues relating to infrastructure, mining, environment and forests, food security parameters and other subjects of common interest at the regional level.

    Many issues of national importance are also discussed in each meeting of the Zonal Councils. These include power operations, urban master plan, eliminating malnutrition among children through POSHAN Abhiyan, discussion on reducing the dropout rate of school children, participation of government hospitals in Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, strengthening Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) and other issues of common interest.

    *****

    RK/VV/ RR/ PS

    (Release ID: 2105216) Visitor Counter : 28

    Read this release in: Hindi

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurates the first edition of the SOUL Leadership Conclave

    Source: Government of India (2)

    Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurates the first edition of the SOUL Leadership Conclave

    The School of Ultimate Leadership (SOUL) will shape leaders who excel nationally and globally: PM

    Today, India is emerging as a global powerhouse: PM

    Leaders must set trends: PM

    In future leadership, SOUL’s objective should be to instill both the Steel and Spirit in every sector to build Viksit Bharat: PM

    India needs leaders who can develop new institutions of global excellence: PM

    The bond forged by a shared purpose is stronger than blood: PM

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 12:54PM by PIB Delhi

    The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the School of Ultimate Leadership (SOUL) Leadership Conclave 2025, the first of its edition, at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi today. Welcoming all the distinguished leaders and the upcoming young leaders of the future, Shri Modi remarked that some events are very dear and today was one such event. “Development of better citizens is necessary for Nation building, Development of excellent Leaders is necessary in every field”, said the Prime Minister. He remarked that it was necessary to groom excellent leaders in every sector, which is the need of the hour. Therefore, he highlighted, the School of Ultimate Leadership is an important milestone in the development journey of Viksit Bharat. Adding that SOUL was not just in the name of the organization, the Prime Minister remarked that SOUL would be the soul of the social life of India. He added that in another sense, SOUL also beautifully captures the essence of spiritual experience. Extending his greetings to all the stakeholders of SOUL, Shri Modi announced that a new, vast campus of SOUL would be ready near GIFT City, Gujarat in the near future. 

    The Prime Minister said that today when SOUL is taking the first step in its journey, India has to remember its critical role in shaping the institutes’ future. Quoting Swami Vivekanand, Shri Modi said the visionary leader always wanted to free India from the shackles of slavery and transform it with the help of merely 100 effective and efficient leaders. He remarked that the country has to move ahead with the same zeal. Noting that every citizen is working round the clock to achieve the dreams of a 21st-century Viksit Bharat, Shri Modi underlined the need for good leadership across all sectors in a country with a population of 140 crores. He expressed hope that the School of Ultimate Leadership will create leaders who will leave a mark all over the world, including in the field of Politics. The Prime Minister also highlighted the critical role of both human and natural resources and their role in the progress of any nation. He also cited an instance to show how Gujarat has emerged as a top state due to its leadership driven by its human capital, despite lack of sufficient natural resources. He added, “Human Resource has the greatest potential”. He said that the 21st century calls for resources capable of leading innovation and channelizing skills. He pointed out the growing importance of skills across various sectors. Shri Modi further stressed the need for leadership development for embracing new skills, which must be pursued through scientific and structured approach. Acknowledging the significant role that institutes like SOUL will play in the process, the Prime Minister was pleased to learn that it has already begun work in this direction. He also mentioned that workshops have been conducted for State Education Secretaries, State Project Directors, and other officials for the effective implementation of the new National Education Policy. Additionally, a leadership development camp has been organized for the Chief Minister’s Office staff in Gujarat. He stated that this is just the beginning, and SOUL must aim to become the world’s leading institution for leadership development.

    “India is emerging as a global powerhouse”, emphasized the Prime Minister. He remarked that for this momentum and speed to increase across all sectors, world-class leaders and international leadership are needed. Highlighting the potential of leadership institutions like SOUL to be game changers, he stated that such international institutions are not only a choice but a necessity. “There is a need for energetic leaders in every sector who can find solutions to global complexities and needs while prioritizing the nation’s interests on the global stage”, underscored Shri Modi. He emphasized that these leaders should have a global approach but retain a local mindset. He noted the importance of preparing individuals who understand both the Indian mind and the international mindset, and who are ready for strategic decision-making, crisis management, and futuristic thinking. The Prime Minister highlighted that to compete in international markets and global institutions, leaders who understand international business dynamics are required. He added that the role of SOUL is to prepare such leaders, with a large scale and scope, and with high expectations from them. 

    Shri Modi advised everyone to keep in mind that future leadership will not be limited to power, but leadership roles will require capabilities in innovation and impact. He highlighted the need for individuals in the country to emerge according to this necessity. He stated that SOUL will develop critical thinking, risk-taking, and solution-driven mindsets in these individuals. He expressed confidence that the institution will produce leaders who are prepared to work amidst disruptive changes. 

    Stressing the need to create leaders who set trends rather than just follow them, the Prime Minister remarked that as India advances new leadership in sectors ranging from diplomacy to tech innovation, the influence and impact of the country will multiply across various sectors. Highlighting that India’s entire vision and future depend on a strong leadership generation, Shri Modi stressed the importance of treading forward by combining global thinking with local upbringing. Underscoring the need to make governance and policy-making world-class, the Prime Minister said that this can be achieved when policymakers, bureaucrats, and entrepreneurs frame policies incorporating global best practices. He emphasised the significant role institutions like SOUL will play in this regard.

    Reiterating the need for rapid progress in all sectors to build a Viksit Bharat, Shri Modi quoted the scriptures emphasizing that people follow the conduct of great individuals. Therefore, he underscored the importance of leadership that reflects and conducts itself according to India’s national vision. He highlighted that the objective of SOUL should be to instill the necessary strength and spirit for constructing a developed India. He expressed confidence that the necessary changes and reforms will follow naturally once strong leadership is established.

    Emphasizing the need to develop both strength and spirit in public policy and social sectors, the Prime Minister remarked on the necessity of preparing leadership for emerging sectors such as deep-tech, space, biotech, and renewable energy. He highlighted the importance of creating leadership for conventional sectors like sports, agriculture, manufacturing, and social service. He stressed that India must not only aspire to excellence in all sectors but also achieve it. Shri Modi remarked “India needs leaders who can develop new institutions of global excellence”. He noted that India’s history is filled with glorious stories of such institutions and emphasized the need to revive that spirit. Expressing confidence that there are many capable individuals among those present at the event, Shri Modi stated that the institute should be a laboratory for their dreams and vision. He stressed that the foundation being laid today should be a source of pride for future generations, who will remember it with pride 25-50 years from now. 

    Shri Modi emphasized the need for the institute to have a clear understanding of the aspirations and dreams of crores of Indians. He remarked that the sectors and factors that present both challenges and opportunities should be well-defined. “When we move forward with a common goal and collective effort, the results are extraordinary”, said the Prime Minister. He stated that the bond forged by a shared purpose is stronger than blood, uniting minds, fueling passion, and standing the test of time. He remarked that a significant common goal and purpose lead to the development of leadership and team spirit. He noted that individuals dedicate themselves to their goals, bringing out their best capacities. Shri Modi stressed that a shared purpose not only brings out the best in individuals but also enhances their capabilities according to the larger objective. He highlighted that this process develops leaders who strive to acquire the necessary skills to reach higher levels.

    “A shared purpose fosters an unprecedented sense of team spirit”, said Shri Modi. He remarked that when people walk together as co-travellers with a shared purpose, a strong bond develops. He highlighted that this process of team building also gives rise to leadership. He cited the example of India’s freedom struggle as the best illustration of a shared purpose, noting that it produced leaders not just in politics but in other sectors as well. Shri Modi stressed the need to revive the spirit of the freedom movement and draw inspiration from it to move forward.

    Quoting a Sanskrit verse, the Prime Minister emphasised that there is no word that cannot be turned into a mantra, no herb that cannot become medicine, and no person who is incapable. He highlighted the need for a planner to properly utilize and guide individuals. He remarked that SOUL plays the role of such a planner. Shri Modi noted that many leaders who were present at the event, have learned and honed their leadership skills. He cited a quote emphasizing the different levels of development: personal success through self-development, organizational growth through team development, and explosive growth through leadership development. He stressed that these principles should always remind everyone of their duties and contributions. 

    Highlighting the formation of a new social order in the country, being shaped by the youth born in the 21st century as well as in the past decade, Shri Modi said that this generation will truly be the first developed generation of India, referring to them as the “Amrit Peedhi”. Expressing confidence that the new institution, SOUL, will play a significant role in preparing the leadership of this “Amrit Peedhi”, he extended his best wishes to everyone associated with the institute.

    The Prime Minister of Bhutan, H.E. Mr. Dasho Tshering Tobgay, Chairman of the SOUL Board, Shri Sudhir Mehta and Vice Chairman, Shri Hasmukh Adhia were present among other dignitaries and delivered the keynote address at the event. Shri Modi also thanked the Prime Minister of Bhutan for being present at the event on such an important day of the birthday of the King of Bhutan. 

    Background

    The two day SOUL Leadership Conclave from 21st to 22nd February will serve as a premier platform where leaders from diverse domains like politics, sports, arts and media, the spiritual world, public policy, business and the social sector will share their inspiring life journeys and discuss aspects relating to leadership. The conclave will foster an ecosystem of collaboration and thought leadership, facilitating learning from both failures and successes, to inspire young audiences.

    School of Ultimate Leadership is an upcoming leadership institution in Gujarat to enable authentic leaders to advance public good. The aim is to broaden the landscape of political leadership in India through formal training and to include those who rise through merit, commitment, and passion for public service and not just from political lineage. SOUL brings in insights, skills and expertise necessary to navigate the complex challenges of leadership in today’s world.

     

     

    ***

    MJPS/SR/RT

    (Release ID: 2105209) Visitor Counter : 107

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: HKSAR Government sets up Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk and “iAM Smart” self-registration kiosk in Dongguan (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    HKSAR Government sets up Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk and “iAM Smart” self-registration kiosk in Dongguan (with photos)
    HKSAR Government sets up Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk and “iAM Smart” self-registration kiosk in Dongguan (with photos)
    ******************************************************************************************

         ​To advance the development of a digital government, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is collaborating with Guangdong Province to promote the Cross-boundary Public Services initiative. The Digital Policy Office (DPO) announced today (February 21) the setting up of a Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk in Dongguan to enable residents and enterprises in Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to access public services of Hong Kong without the need to travel to Hong Kong in person.      Starting today, the public can use the Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk located on 2/F, Dongguan Citizen Service Center to access various public services of Hong Kong. The opening hours of the kiosk in the Center are 9am to noon and 1pm to 5pm, Monday to Friday (except public holidays on the Mainland). For details, please visit the Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services thematic website at www.crossboundaryservices.gov.hk/en/home/index.html.      Following the Hong Kong Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosks that commenced operation earlier in Guangzhou, Qianhai and Futian in Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Foshan as well as Huizhou, the Cross-boundary Public Services self-service kiosk in Dongguan also provides over 70 public services from 12 government bureaux and departments as well as related organisations, encompassing eight areas commonly used by enterprises and the public including taxation, company registration, property and vehicle enquiry and registration, application for personal identification documents and entry of talent, welfare and education, healthcare, immigration clearance, urgent assistance as well as culture and tourism. Members of the public can use the self-service kiosks to perform data entry, document scanning and result printing to enjoy one-stop access when applying for various public services.       An “iAM Smart” self-registration kiosk is also set up at the Dongguan location to enable Hong Kong residents working and living on the Mainland to register for “iAM Smart+” and directly use the “iAM Smart” mobile app for one-stop public services, covering more than 400 Hong Kong public services, such as renewal of a vehicle licence, enrolment for the Contactless e-Channel, and application for student grant. For details and registration requirements, please visit the “iAM Smart” thematic website at www.iamsmart.gov.hk/en/reg.html.      A spokesman for the DPO expressed sincere gratitude to the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Government Service and Data for its strong support, and to the Center for its full co-operation. The DPO will continue to discuss with the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Government Service and Data to set up self-service and self-registration kiosks in more Mainland cities of the GBA to cope with the demands of residents and enterprises in the GBA for public services of Hong Kong.           To implement the State Council’s Guiding Opinions to all provincial governments on Cross-provincial Public Services and their comprehensive deployment, the HKSAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Administration of Government Service and Data jointly commenced work of the GBA Cross-boundary Public Services in 2021, and jointly introduced a dedicated service area/thematic website for Cross-boundary Public Services in November 2023. The initiative enables enterprises and the public in both regions to enjoy simple and convenient cross-boundary services, with a view to facilitating the provision of public services and investment in the GBA, and enhancing the satisfaction and sense of contentment of enterprises and the public in accessing services across the boundary.

     
    Ends/Friday, February 21, 2025Issued at HKT 15:30

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Day 2 #CTDDR2025: The 9th MahaKumbh for Drug Research

    Source: Government of India

    Day 2 #CTDDR2025: The 9th MahaKumbh for Drug Research

    Drug Resistance, Car T Cell Therapy, Parasitic, Viral disease and Natural Product Chemistry was the main theme of the Day

    Experts from different area shared their recent findings with the participants

    Posted On: 21 FEB 2025 11:35AM by PIB Delhi

    Today, on the second day of the 9th “International Symposium on Current Trends in Drug Discovery Research” at CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, observed important scientific deliberations by eminent scientists. Researchers and scholars presented their work through visually compelling posters, fostering discussions and knowledge exchange

    Pan-drug-resistant Gram-negative isolates are major risk for life,

    novel beta-lactam enhancerwould be helpful to manage the Pan-drug resistant: Sachin S. Bhagwat

    In scientific session II on “Concept to point of care: Drugs pending submission/approval or recently approved,” Dr. Sachin S. Bhagwat from the Wockhardt Research Center, Aurangabad, India, delivered his talk on the discovery of a novel mechanism of action-based β-lactam + β-lactam enhancer combination, WCK 5222, with comprehensive coverage of pan-drug resistant Gram negatives. He highlighted AMR has rendered many existing antibiotics ineffective, posing a major global health crisis.The widespread prevalence of MDR, XDR, and PDR Gram-negative pathogens, including carbapenem-resistant strains, has rendered many last-line antibiotics ineffective. The ICMR data shows concerning carbapenem resistance rates: over 90% in Acinetobacter, 45% in P. aeruginosa, and 69% in Klebsiella. As a result, clinicians frequently use medications with diminished safety or unproven combinations. These infections are responsible for up to 8.85 lakh deaths annually, with an additional 9.6 lakh linked to sepsis. Further, he shared his research on the development of a novel β-lactam enhancer, Zidebactam, which, in combination with cefepime (WCK 5222), demonstrated potent activity against 35,000 global pan-drug-resistant Gram-negative isolates. He mentioned that WCK 5222 has saved over 45 lives under compassionate use and completed successful trials in severe documented meropenem-resistant infections and is expected to change the treatment paradigm for life-threatening Gram-negative infections.

    Dr. Sachin S. Bhagwat speaking at the 9th “International Symposium on Current Trends in Drug Discovery Research” #CTDDR2025 at CSIR-CDIR, Lucknow.

    CAR-T cell therapy is an emerging approach for cancer care: Prof. Rahul Purwar

    Prof. Rahul Purwar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, shared the journey on First “Make in India” CAR-T cell therapy: from R&D to clinic to market. Cancer is a worldwide issue and India has the second-highest cancer mortality rate. The CAR-T cell therapy is an emerging approach for cancer care. However, this technology is extremely expensive (500,000 USD/patient) and not available in India. To ensure its accessibility to all, they developed a robust, safe and affordable technology platform and validated through Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. He further noted that, CD19 CAR-T is approved by CDSCO for commercial use in October 2023, and now over 300 patients are treated across the country.

    Prof. Rahul Purwar from IIT, Bombay speaking at the 9th “International Symposium on Current Trends in Drug Discovery Research” #CTDDR2025 at CSIR-CDIR, Lucknow.

    Mitochondrial translation can be targeted for new possibilities of new therapeutic development for Apicomplexan parasites borne diseases: Prof. Dominique Soldati-Favre

    In her Plenary Lecture on Toxoplasma gondii Mitoribosome from highly fragmented rRNAs to a functional Machine, Prof. Dominique Soldati-Favre from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, shared her research on Toxoplasma gondii Mitoribosome. Apicomplexan parasites are responsible for severe human diseases such as malaria, toxoplasmosis, and babesiosis. She said, these parasites, in addition to small mitochondrial genome, contain fragmented mitoribosomal rRNAs, which complicates our understanding of mitoribosome assembly. Using apicoplast-less T. gondii parasites, they have identified drugs that specifically target mitochondrial translation. This approach offers exciting new possibilities for therapeutic development.

    Prof. Dominique Soldati-Favre speaking at the 9th “International Symposium on Current Trends in Drug Discovery Research” #CTDDR2025 at CSIR-CDIR, Lucknow.

    HACK-indices provides a rational basis for selecting next-generation probiotics and live biotherapeutic products: Dr. Tarini Shankar Ghosh

    Dr. Tarini Shankar Ghosh from The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, presented the efforts to identify the Health-Associated Core-Keystones (HACK) across population groups. The availability of HACK-indices provides a rational basis for selecting next-generation probiotics and live biotherapeutic products to promote general health. Through global meta-analysis of gut microbiomes from 127 studies, his group investigated 196 taxa for their association with three hallmark properties, i.e., prevalence/community-influence in non-diseased subjects, longitudinal stability and host health and integrated them into a single measure, the HACK-index. Using this HACK-index, they presented a ranking order of microbiome taxa based on their estimated contribution to both microbiome stability and host-health.

    Host-directed therapy for infectious diseases may be new hope for targeting antimicrobials: Prof. Christian Doerig

    Prof. Christian Doerig from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia, explained about the host-directed therapy that offers untapped targets limiting cross-resistance to existing antimicrobials and reduced susceptibility to de novo resistance. Using an antibody microarray directed against human signalling proteins, they identified potential antiviral targets as well as lead compounds. He further reported the identification of some erythrocytic kinases that are activated by infection with Plasmodium falciparum. Inhibitors targeting these kinases display high potency against parasite proliferation.

    Prof. Christian Doerig speaking at the 9th “International Symposium on Current Trends in Drug Discovery Research” #CTDDR2025 at CSIR-CDIR, Lucknow.

    Single-dose liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) as a game changer in the management of visceral leishmaniasis: Prof. Shyam Sundar

    Prof. Shyam Sundar from the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, shared the journey of the epidemic of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), starting from its origin to elimination, in India. He emphasized single-dose liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) as a game changer in the management of VL in India. He noted that the elimination target for VL needs to hold in 2025 to obtain the WHO certification.

    The open science discovery of DNDi-6510 led to an orally bioavailable SARS-CoV2 antiviral: Dr. Peter Sjö

     

    In Session IV today, Dr. Peter Sjö from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Switzerland, shared about the need for broad-spectrum oral antivirals. He reported the results of the COVID Moonshot, a fully open-science, crowd sourced, structure-enabled drug discovery campaign targeting the SARS-CoV-2 main protease. He further discussed the lead series discovery and approaches to overcome ADMET issues which lead to the front runner preclinical candidate DNDI-6510 against SARS-CoV2.

    Novel antivirals to provide immediate therapeutic options against serious viral infections is need of the day: Prof. Sudhanshu Vrati

    Prof. Sudhanshu Vrati from the Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad, also mentioned the need for the novel antivirals to provide immediate therapeutic options against serious viral infections. As the new viral pathogens are constantly emerging and posing a serious threat of imminent epidemics. He presented the background to the science of antiviral development with an example of a novel antiviral against Chikungunya virus, developed in his lab.

    New rapid antigen tests are being developed for dengue, zika and chikungunya: Prof. Gaurav Batra

    Prof. Gaurav Batra fromthe Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad delivered their novel findings on the diagnostics of Arboviral infections, which include, dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. He presented the data on the development of ELISA and rapid NS1 tests with high sensitivity, serotype-independent performance, and significantly improved detection of secondary infections of dengue virus. They are also developing rapid antigen tests for Zika and chikungunya, with the goal of integrating them into a multiplex diagnostic platform. These advanced diagnostics could enhance clinical trial design, patient selection, and treatment evaluation, ultimately contributing to more effective therapeutic strategies and public health responses.

    The V Parallel Session of #CTDDR2025 was dedicated on Natural product chemistry for novel drugs.

    Prof. Inder Pal Singh from NIPER, SAS Nagar, shared his research on development of wound healing and anti-inflammatory formulations from Seabuckthorn plant Hippophae rhamnoides L. They developed a cost effective method for plant extraction leading to isolation of Seabuckthorn fruit oil (IPHRFH) which showed good wound healing activity and was developed into Cream and Gel formulation.

    Dr. Chandra Kant Katiyar from Emami Ltd, Gurgaon, shared his thoughts on new drug discovery from medicinal plants: Issues, challenges and way forward. His talk shared insights into the multifaceted approaches to developing plant-based drugs, covering forward pharmacology, where compounds are screened for biological activity, and reverse pharmacology, which builds on traditional knowledge to validate therapeutic claims. He emphasized that, by integrating traditional knowledge with technology guided by regulations, medicinal plants can continue to be a cornerstone in addressing unmet medical needs globally.

    Dr. Ashutosh Pandey from the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi, delivered a talk on “Engineering crops for value addition of health-beneficial natural products: From fundamentals to applications”. He presented insights into how plant metabolites regulate, interact with cellular signalling pathways, and modulate gene expression. Additionally, he discussed the regulatory roles of transcriptional factors and their interplay in fine-tuning flavonoid biosynthesis in agriculturally important crops like chickpea and banana. This knowledge can be leveraged for genetic manipulation to enhance the nutritional value of crops.

    In the Flash Talks & Poster Session Young Investigators presented their novel findings

    In the flash talk session, selected students and young faculty from different scientific fields, related to drug development, delivered their novel findings. In the Poster session today more than 180 posters were presented by the young investigators.

    ***

    NKR/PSM

    (Release ID: 2105196) Visitor Counter : 8

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Remarks by the Prime Minister, Honourable Fiame Naomi Mata’afa on the occasion of the 185th Waitangi Day Reception hosted by the New Zealand High Commissioner, H.E Si’alei Van Toor

    Source: Government of Western Samoa

    Share this:

    (Friday, 7 February 2025 at 6.30 – 9.00pm,Taumeasina Island Resort)

    Reverend Siaosi Salesulu

    Lau Afioga, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II and Masiofo

    Members of the Council of Deputies

    Ministers of Cabinet,

    Chief Justice and Members of the Judiciary,

    Speaker of the Legislative Assembly

    Leader of the Opposition

    Members of Parliament,

    High Commissioner of New Zealand, Your Excellency, Si’alei Van Toor

    Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

    Distinguished Guests gathered here tonight,

    Talofa lava and Good evening to you all.

    It is a pleasure for me to join you all at the reception this evening to celebrate the 185th anniversary of the signing of New Zealand’s founding document, “Te Tiriti o Waitangi” the “Treaty of Waitangi”. On behalf of the Government and People of Samoa I convey through you, Excellency Si’alei Van Toor our warm congratulations and felicitations to the Government and the People of Aotearoa New Zealand on the celebration of your national day.

    This evening, we join in the celebration of the commemoration of Waitangi Day around New Zealand and other parts of the world in remembrance of the signing of the treaty. The occasion is an important marker in your country’s history and I understand that numerous events are held around the world and nationally to reflect the significance of the Treaty to national unity and the richness of New Zealand’s history and culture. I am told that the Kapa Haka Performers from Tauranga, the “Te Paringa Tai” are here and will perform for us this evening. Earlier on in the day, Te Paringa Tai had treated the Samoan public to another spectacular performance of songs and dances at the Matagialalua Friendship Park showcasing a bit of Aotearoa’s rich heritage and culture.

    This occasion is an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come in our partnerships towards the achievement of common goals, for people, peace and prosperity. Have they remained relevant and mutually beneficial?

    Samoa and New Zealand continue to enjoy a warm and close friendship underpinned by the foundation of our shared history and a unique “Treaty of Friendship”. There have been exchanges of high-level visits of Heads of State and Government, ministers and parliamentarians reflecting the prominence both countries accord to strengthening people-to-people links. The exchange of high-level visits signifies the maturity of our relations and the mutual respect we hold in high regard for each other. It is not unusual for us to ask ourselves how far the uniqueness of our Treaty of Friendship can go; particularly as we crave for facilitative short-term travel to visit families or explore business opportunities.

    Last October, we hosted leaders of the Commonwealth including New Zealand’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. We take this opportunity to again express the sincere appreciation of the Government of Samoa and its people to the Government of New Zealand and its people and Samoa’s other key partners, for the generous support and assistance provided, ensuring that Samoa and the Pacific successfully hosted the first meeting of Commonwealth leaders in our Blue Pacific region. A mammoth undertaking it was, but made possible through the generosity and magnanimity of our development partners including New Zealand and the commitment and dedication of many people. What we did not have the resources for, was provided, the capacity gaps were filled even if temporarily and the readiness to support was assured. The high standard and quality of the services provided left a legacy of Samoa’s enhanced ranking and capability to deliver high-quality logistical support for future international meetings.

    The close relations between our two countries is reaffirmed by the 2024 Statement of Partnership – O le Fogavaa e Tasi which identifies the priority areas of cooperation including partnerships, security, empowering communities, building climate resilience and inspiring growth which are in alignment with Samoa’s aspirations and priorities as outlined in the “Pathway for the Development of Samoa.” We also acknowledge with gratitude the confidence of the Government of New Zealand in the use of country systems reflected in the extension of budget support under the Joint Policy Action Matrix involving our other development partners as well.

    Samoa appreciates the continued commitment of the Government of New Zealand to diligently carry out the Operation Resolution for the HMNZS Manawanui working in tandem with the Samoan authorities and other development partners for the removal of fuel and pollutants from the site. Like our Pacific neighbours, the coastal and marine environment are significant for the sustenance of our local communities and we will continue to work in partnership with the Government of New Zealand and our other development partners to ensure the success of this Operation.

    Excellency,

    We look forward to the continuation of the excellent bilateral relations and partnership between Samoa and New Zealand for the benefit of our two countries and our peoples.

    To conclude, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I respectfully invite you all to join me in proposing a toast:

    “To the unity and prosperity of the Government and the People of New Zealand. Happy Waitangi Day!”

    SOIFUA

    Photo by the Government of Samoa (Leaosa Faaifo Faaifo)

    Share this:

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: BCP clearance services, transportation and other arrangements for 15th National Games athletics (marathon) test event

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    BCP clearance services, transportation and other arrangements for 15th National Games athletics (marathon) test event
    BCP clearance services, transportation and other arrangements for 15th National Games athletics (marathon) test event
    ******************************************************************************************

         The 2025 Shenzhen-Hong Kong marathon and the 15th National Games (NG) athletics (marathon) test event will be held on Sunday (February 23). The entire track is 42.195 kilometres long, of which the section in Hong Kong is 21.841km. Setting off from the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center, the races will enter Hong Kong via the Shenzhen Bay Port, run along the Shenzhen Bay Bridge and Kong Sham Western Highway Viaduct, then turn back to the Shenzhen Bay Port through the same route, and finally end at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center. The event comprises men’s and women’s races, with the women’s group to depart at 7am and the other to set off at 7.30am. The athletes will enter the Hong Kong section upon completion of approximately 2km of the race route. Both groups are expected to spend around two hours in the Hong Kong section.      To facilitate the smooth running of the race, clearance services of the Shenzhen Bay Port (including all passenger and cargo clearance services) will be suspended during part of the morning on the event day, while temporary control measures will be implemented on the Shenzhen Bay Bridge and other related roads that day. Members of the public and travellers should pay attention to the following key points:      Arrival and departure clearance services at the Shenzhen Bay Port will be suspended from 2am to 11am on the event day, and passengers and vehicles will be prohibited from entering the port. In the meantime, temporary control measures will be implemented on Shenzhen Bay Bridge, Kong Sham Western Highway and Ha Tsuen Interchange. During the temporary control period, Shenzhen Bay Bridge, Kong Sham Western Highway and Ha Tsuen Interchange will be closed to all vehicular traffic from eastbound and westbound of Yuen Long Highway and Ha Tsuen Road.      Cross-boundary vehicles (including good vehicles, passenger vehicles and private cars) with valid closed road permits for the Shenzhen Bay Port may choose to use the Lok Ma Chau, Heung Yuen Wai and Man Kam To boundary control points (BCP) according to the operating hours of the relevant control points on the event day. The above special arrangement will cease upon the reopening of the Shenzhen Bay Port.      Cross-boundary coach services running between Hong Kong and the Mainland via the Shenzhen Bay Port as well as local public transport services serving the Shenzhen Bay Port, including franchised buses, green minibuses (GMB), urban and New Territories taxis, will be suspended during the implementation of the temporary control at the Shenzhen Bay Port on the day of event. The bus companies and GMB operators will display notices at termini and en-route stops of the affected routes to inform affected passengers. Travellers should choose other control points to Shenzhen.      During the suspension of the Shenzhen Bay Port departure service, the Transport Department (TD) expects that the roads leading to the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Station Public Transport Interchange, Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang, Man Kam To and Heung Yuen Wai BCPs, including San Tin Interchange, San Sham Road and Lok Ma Chau Road, will be busy with traffic. The full clearance services at the Shenzhen Bay Port are expected to resume at around 11am that day, by then traffic will be expected to be relatively busy. Therefore, the TD appeals to travellers and drivers who plan to use all BCPs concerned on that day to plan their trips in advance. Cross-boundary private cars and other drivers are also advised to avoid driving to the above districts during the relevant hours unless necessary. Depending on the prevailing traffic conditions in the different areas, the Police will deploy appropriate manpower and implement corresponding crowd management measures or special traffic arrangements at the affected control points and relevant road sections.      For details of the special traffic and transport arrangements for the test event, please refer to the Transport Department Notice (www.td.gov.hk/en/traffic_notices/index_id_79334.html) and the Police’s press release on the special traffic arrangements for the test event (www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202502/13/P2025021300398.htm).      The National Games Coordination Office (Hong Kong) (NGCO) has liaised with relevant government departments and organisations to disseminate information of the relevant BCP clearance services and transportation arrangements to be implemented for the event to the public, travellers and stakeholders through various channels.      The TD will liaise with public transport operators to suitably adjust the services to cater for passenger demand, and issue transport departmental notice of the traffic and transport arrangements for the test event and appeal for cross-boundary and local travellers and members of the public via various channels to take heed of arrangements for various public transport travelling to and from the Shenzhen Bay Port and plan their journeys early, including the HKeMobility mobile application, variable messages signs at strategic roads and tunnels, public announcement at MTR stations, Agent T Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AgentT.hk) as well as the social media platform of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Development Office and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Guangdong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.      The Marine Department has liaised with cross-boundary ferry operators, with a view to working out manpower and sailing schedule arrangements for ferry services to and from Shekou, Shenzhen, in advance.      The Home Affairs Department has disseminated the relevant message through the district network (including District Councils, Area Committees and District Committees, Youth Committees, as well as District Services and Community Care Teams). On the day of the test event, the Care Teams will deploy staff to inspect the districts of Tuen Mun and Yuen Long, and provide appropriate assistance to members of the public in need (e.g. responding to enquiries).      Hong Kong Customs has informed the transport trades of the traffic arrangements on that day and to use other land BCPs as far as possible for entry and exit. Customs has also posted notices at the clearance facilities of the Hong Kong Port and informed the public through its website (www.customs.gov.hk/en/home/index.html) and social media platform.      The Immigration Department (ImmD) will update the situation of the control points in real time through its mobile application on the event day. Travellers are advised to check the waiting time situation of the Shenzhen Bay Control Point and other land BCPs through the ImmD’s mobile application before travelling to make better planning for their itinerary and minimise waiting time.      The Police will also remind the public of the temporary traffic control arrangements through its social media platform (www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce).      The Tourism Commission (TC) has informed the hotel sector through their trade associations to remind their guests of the special transportation arrangements. The TC has also informed licensed travel agents through the Travel Industry Authority and the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong to avoid bringing tour groups across the Shenzhen Bay Bridge on the event day. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has also notified its trade partners and disseminated the relevant information on its website (www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/index.html) to facilitate visitors’ itinerary planning.      Shenzhen will broadcast the event online, while Hong Kong has also arranged for live webcast by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) (RTHK weblink: www.rthk.hk/nationalgames and RTHK YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/RTHK).      A spokesperson for the NGCO said as the NG is the country’s highest-level event, this marathon test event has to meet stringent requirements in terms of the selection of race course and the organisational arrangements to ensure the safety of athletes. Relevant departments will work together to facilitate the special traffic and transportation arrangements to minimise the impact on the public and travellers who usually use the Shenzhen Bay Port. The spokesperson thanked members of the public and travellers for their understanding, as well as the contributions of various organisations and departments to implementing the relevant arrangements.

     
    Ends/Friday, February 21, 2025Issued at HKT 12:00

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Applications for Bun Scrambling Competition in Cheung Chau to close next Friday

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    Applications for Bun Scrambling Competition in Cheung Chau to close next Friday
    Applications for Bun Scrambling Competition in Cheung Chau to close next Friday
    *******************************************************************************

         The e-ballot application period for joining the Bun Scrambling Competition, which is the finale of the 2025 Bun Carnival at Cheung Chau, will end next Friday (February 28). Physically fit climbers aged 18 or above who are interested in the competition should apply now.      The final selection exercise, to be held on April 13, will consist of two rounds. Twenty-four contestants recording the shortest time in the preliminary round (including no fewer than six female participants) will be eligible to enter the semi-final on the same day to compete for 12 finalist places (including no fewer than three female participants). The 12 finalists will enter the Bun Scrambling Final to be held from 11.30pm on May 5 to 12.45am on May 6. Trophies will be awarded to the champion as well as the first and second runners-up in the men’s division, and to the champion in the women’s division. The contestant who bags the highest number of buns within the time limit will be the prize winner of “Full Pockets of Lucky Buns”.      To acknowledge the outstanding achievements of the winners and enhance the appeal of the event, any male or female athlete who has been the champion for three times in the Bun Scrambling Competition since 2016 will be the “King of Kings” or the “Queen of Queens” of the competition and be awarded a trophy.      Persons interested in participating in the competition should complete SmartPLAY user registration and identity authentication, and submit their electronic ballot applications via the SmartPLAY website (www.smartplay.lcsd.gov.hk/home), the mobile app (My SmartPLAY) or Smart Self-service Stations on or before February 28. To register as SmartPLAY users, please refer to the link (www.smartplay.lcsd.gov.hk/website/en/user-registration/how-to-register.html).      The maximum number of entrants for the Bun Scrambling Competition is 200. All places will be allocated by ballot via SmartPLAY. Applicants who live, work or study at Cheung Chau will be accorded priority in the ballot. All selected applicants are required to complete the safety training sessions on bun tower climbing and prevention of falls on April 6 to be eligible for the competition. Details are provided in the prospectus available at the SmartPLAY website, the mobile app (My SmartPLAY) and the 2025 Bun Carnival dedicated website (www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/bun/index.html).      The 2025 Bun Carnival is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Cheung Chau Bun Festival Committee and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). Besides the Bun Scrambling Competition, the Bun Tower Climbing Team Relay will be held on the morning of April 27. Local tertiary institutions, Government Departments, public utilities and commercial and industrial organisations will be invited to take part in the relay. Members of the public are welcome to watch the game on-site and cheer for the contestants. At the Climbing Carnival to be held in the afternoon on the same day, there will be a bun tower climbing fun day, game stalls, handicrafts making and variety shows. A Wishing Bun Tower will also be set up and the winning entries of the Student Drawing Competitions will be displayed. Members of the public are welcome to attend the carnival.         For enquiries, please contact the Islands District Leisure Services Office of the LCSD at 2852 3220, or visit the 2025 Bun Carnival dedicated website.

     
    Ends/Friday, February 21, 2025Issued at HKT 12:00

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: New York ETO celebrates Year of Snake with Georgia (with photos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

    New York ETO celebrates Year of Snake with Georgia (with photos)
    New York ETO celebrates Year of Snake with Georgia (with photos)
    ****************************************************************

         ​The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (New York ETO) celebrated the Year of the Snake with Atlanta, Georgia, at the Hong Kong Spring Reception on February 19 (Atlanta time).           In her welcome remarks, the Director of New York ETO, Ms Maisie Ho, emphasised the strong ties between Hong Kong and Atlanta and the state of Georgia.           “Last year, total exports from Georgia to Hong Kong reached US$980 million, a 14.5 per cent year-on-year increase. This makes Georgia the fifth largest exporter to Hong Kong among all 50 US states in 2024,” she said.           Ms Ho also highlighted Hong Kong’s resilience in navigating global uncertainties, noting that the city’s GDP growth of 2.5 per cent last year is a testament to its ability to maintain stability and leverage its strategic position as a gateway between East and West.           “Looking ahead, we remain committed to enhancing our existing strengths, including our competitiveness as an international financial centre,” she added. “We are also exploring and investing in emerging sectors, such as fintech, biotech, and green energy. These sectors are not only reshaping our economic landscape but also paving the way for sustainable growth and innovation.”           Some 200 guests from Atlanta’s academic, business, diplomatic, finance, and political sectors, as well as students from Hong Kong, attended the annual event cohosted by New York ETO and the Hong Kong Association of Atlanta. Ms Ho encouraged them to visit Hong Kong and experience first-hand the city’s vibrant offerings – from delectable culinary delights and iconic skyline to its breathtaking natural scenery and the dynamic arts and cultural scene, which seamlessly blend East and West.           To further showcase Hong Kong’s vibrant culture and culinary flair, the event featured two inflatable installations designed by popular Hong Kong creative brand Chocolate Rain, as well as two Hong Kong-themed cocktails.

     
    Ends/Friday, February 21, 2025Issued at HKT 11:30

    NNNN

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Video: “2025 will be a year of consequences” #Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #BorgeBrende

    Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

    The 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will provide a crucial space to focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability.

    This Annual Meeting will welcome over 100 governments, all major international organizations, 1000 Forum’s Partners, as well as civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets.

    The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

    World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/
    Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/
    YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef
    Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/
    X ► https://twitter.com/wef
    LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum
    TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum
    Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF

    #Davos2025 #WorldEconomicForum #wef25

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBt7u-k14w

    MIL OSI Video –