Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI: Unlimited Rolls Out Two New Hedge Fund Replication ETFs

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Unlimited and its CEO and CIO, Bob Elliott, today rolled out two new actively managed ETFs: the Unlimited HFMF Managed Futures ETF (HFMF) and the Unlimited HFEQ Equity Long/Short ETF (HFEQ), offering investors exposure to managed futures and equity long/short hedge fund strategies, respectively. These latest additions to the Unlimited lineup align with Unlimited’s mission to provide investors with access to transparent, liquid, and cost-effective hedge fund-style returns. These new strategies will allocate across a diversified basket of ETFs and exchange-listed futures contracts, adjusting dynamically based on evolving market conditions.

    Today’s launch expands Unlimited’s ETF roster to cover the primary hedge fund strategy sectors. “With the addition of our Managed Futures and Equity Long/Short strategies, Unlimited now offers complementary strategies to help achieve diversification in a wide range of investor portfolios,” said Mr. Elliott. “Deploying these strategies in the ETF wrapper, which offers intraday liquidity, affords the manager flexibility to adjust through volatile markets.”

    Each of Unlimited’s sector ETFs were designed to offer a volatility target aligned with equity markets as an investor-friendly way to add the diversification features of alternatives to a balanced portfolio:

    • Unlimited HFMF Managed Futures ETF – trend-following approach that seeks to generate alpha with low expected correlation to broad bond and equity markets.
    • Unlimited HFEQ Equity Long/Short ETF – equity-focused strategy that takes long and short positions across equity sectors, factors, and geographies, aiming to generate alpha relative to broad equity market exposure.
    • Unlimited HFGM Global Macro ETF – seeks to capitalize on global market mispricing opportunities spanning currency, fixed income, equity, credit and exchange rate markets.

    Over time, high fees and inefficient tax structures in hedge funds erode returns, and top tier private funds are often inaccessible to the majority of investors. Unlimited developed proprietary machine learning technology to analyze near real-time hedge fund investment returns and efficiently replicate the underlying exposures while maintaining an expense ratio significantly lower than the standard “2 & 20” hedge fund fee model.

    Unlimited’s ETFs are managed by Mr. Elliott, former investment committee member at Bridgewater Associates, and Bruce McNevin, co-founder and Chief Data Scientist at Unlimited. Mr. McNevin brings extensive experience in quantitative modeling and data science.

    For more information on Unlimited HFMF, HFEQ, HFGM and HFND please visit https://www.unlimitedetfs.com/.

    About Unlimited
    Founded in 2022 by Bob Elliott, Bruce McNevin and Matt Salzberg, Unlimited is an investment firm using proprietary technology to create strategies that offer lower-cost access to 2 & 20-style alternative investment strategies, such as hedge funds, to a wide range of investors. Mr. Elliott has built innovative hedge fund strategies for more than two decades, including at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Mr. McNevin is a Professor of Economics at New York University and has held various data science positions at hedge funds Clinton Group and Midway Group, along with positions at Bank of America and BlackRock. Mr. Salzberg is a Co-Founder and Chairman of various companies, including Unlimited. Learn more at unlimitedfunds.com.

    Media Contacts:

    Sarah Lazarus Zach Kouwe
    Dukas Linden Public Relations Dukas Linden Public Relations
    +1 617-335-7823 +1 551-655-4032
    sarah@dlpr.com zkouwe@dlpr.com
       

    Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus. A prospectus may be obtained by visiting www.unlimitedetfs.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

    Important Risks
    Underlying ETFs Risks. The Fund will incur higher and duplicative expenses because it invests in Underlying ETFs. There is also the risk that the Fund may suffer losses due to the investment practices of the Underlying ETFs. The Fund will be subject to substantially the same risks as those associated with the direct ownership of securities held by the Underlying ETFs.

    Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed and may not meet its investment objective based on the Sub-Adviser’s success or failure to implement investment strategies for the Fund.

    Machine Learning, Model and Data Risk. The Fund relies heavily on proprietary “machine learning” selection processes. In addition, the composition of the Fund’s portfolio is heavily dependent on proprietary quantitative models as well as information and data supplied by third parties (“Models and Data”).

    Volatility Risk. The Fund seeks to achieve a higher level of volatility than its target hedge fund industry sector, which may result in substantial price fluctuations over short periods. As a result, the value of the Fund’s investments may rise or fall significantly, and investors should be prepared for increased levels of volatility compared to traditional
    equity funds.

    Commodity Risk. Underlying ETFs that invest in the commodities markets may subject to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities.

    Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s or an Underlying ETF’s derivative investments have risks, including the imperfect correlation between the value of such instruments and the underlying assets or index; the loss of principal, including the potential loss of amounts greater than the initial amount invested in the derivative instrument; the possible default of the other party to the transaction; and illiquidity of the derivative investments.

    Emerging Markets Risk. The Fund may invest in Underlying ETFs that invest in securities issued by companies domiciled or headquartered in emerging market nations. Investments in securities traded in developing or emerging markets, or that provide exposure to such securities or markets, can involve additional risks relating to political, economic, currency, or regulatory conditions not associated with investments in U.S. securities and investments in more developed international markets.

    Fixed Income Securities Risk. The Fund may invest in Underlying ETFs that invest in fixed income securities. The prices of fixed income securities may be affected by changes in interest rates, the creditworthiness and financial strength of the issuer and other factors. An increase in prevailing interest rates typically causes the value of existing fixed income securities to fall and often has a greater impact on longer-duration and/or higher quality fixed income securities.

    Foreign Securities Risk. Foreign securities held by Underlying ETFs in which the Fund invests involve certain risks not involved in domestic investments and may experience more rapid and extreme changes in value than investments in securities of U.S. companies.

    Futures Contracts Risk. The Fund or Underlying ETFs may invest in futures contracts.
    Risks of futures contracts include: (i) an imperfect correlation between the value of the futures contract and the underlying asset; (ii) possible lack of a liquid secondary market; (iii) the inability to close a futures contract when desired; (iv) losses caused by unanticipated market movements, which may be unlimited; (v) an obligation for the Fund or an Underlying ETF, as applicable, to make daily cash payments to maintain its required margin, particularly at times when the Fund or Underlying ETF may have insufficient cash; and (vi) unfavorable execution prices from rapid selling.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Short Selling Risk. The Fund may make short sales of securities of Underlying ETFs, which involves selling a security it does not own in anticipation that the price of the security will decline. Short sales may involve substantial risk and leverage. Short sales expose the Fund to the risk that it will be required to buy (“cover”) the security sold short when the security has appreciated in value or is unavailable, thus resulting in a loss to the Fund. Short sales also involve the risk that losses may exceed the amount invested and may be unlimited.

    Swap Agreement Risk. The Fund or an Underlying ETF may invest in swap agreements. Swap agreements could result in losses if the underlying asset or reference does not perform as anticipated. Swaps can have the potential for unlimited losses. They are also subject to counterparty risk. If the counterparty fails to meet its obligations, the Fund (or the Underlying Fund) may lose money.

    Definitions:
    2 & 20 strategy: Describes the standard fee structure charged by advisers of private funds, which generally includes a 2% asset-based management fee, in addition to a 20% performance fee charged on the profits on investments.

    Distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI: “Crypto Week” ignites market frenzy: Bitcoin soars to a record high, Mint Miner launches revolutionary cloud mining solution

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Los Angeles, CA, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the US “Crypto Week” officially kicked off on July 14, the global cryptocurrency market ushered in a wave of excitement. The legislature will review three heavyweight bills, including the GENIUS Act, the Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which aim to clarify key areas such as stablecoin regulation, crypto asset custody and central bank digital currency monitoring.

    Bitcoin prices have soared all the way, breaking through the $123,000 mark for the first time.

    At the same time, Mint Miner, a pioneer in cloud mining, has launched an innovative product in this round of market boom-the “AI Cloud Mining +” plan, marking the mining industry has entered a new era of intelligence and greening.

    The core advantages of Mint Miner’s new solution include:
    Computing power as a service: users do not need to purchase expensive mining machines, they can participate in mining by leasing computing power. The threshold is low and the operation is simple, which is especially suitable for crypto investment enthusiasts.
    AI intelligent scheduling system: real-time monitoring of cryptocurrency prices, optimization of mining pool allocation through intelligent algorithms, and improvement of yield.
    Green energy priority: use renewable energy power fields to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen the platform’s ESG social responsibility.
    Flexible income mechanism: provide daily income method, users can view the mining income of the day in real time.

    Guide to joining Mint Miner cloud mining
    1. Register an account to get free computing power: register an account on the Mint Miner official website, fill in the user name and email address, and set a password to get a $15 reward.

    2. Choose the right computing power contract: Mint Miner provides a variety of contract options to meet the needs of different users. Each contract guarantees fixed income and daily income to ensure a transparent and profitable mining experience.
    The following are some of the contract options:
    [New User Experience Contract]: Investment amount: $100, contract period: 2 days, maturity income: $100 + $10
    [Avalon Miner A13]: Investment amount: $500, contract period: 5 days, maturity income: $500 + $30.5
    [Bitcoin Miner S19 XP+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $1,500, contract period: 9 days, maturity income: $1,500 + $178.2
    [ETC Miner E9 Pro]: Investment amount: $3,200, contract period: 14 days, maturity income: $3,200 + $672
    [Antminer L7 ]: Investment amount: $5,200, contract period: 20 days, maturity income: $5,200 + $1,612
    [Bitcoin MinerS21+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $10,000, contract period: 28 days, maturity income: $10,000 + $4,760

    For more contracts, please log in to the Mint Miner official website

    3. Start mining to view income and withdraw: After the contract is activated, the platform automatically starts mining, without manual operation. Log in to the dashboard to view daily income and contract operation status.

    Mint Miner spokesperson said: The new plan lowers the threshold for user participation, allowing more people to share the crypto dividends, especially during the period of strong Bitcoin growth. According to Mint Miner internal data, the average daily computing power during the operation phase of the new plan increased by 32%, and user satisfaction exceeded 96%.

    Summary
    The current “Crypto Week” policy dividends, coupled with the strengthening of Bitcoin’s attributes as digital gold, and the improvement of Mint Miner’s cloud mining model efficiency, jointly promote the next stage of industry explosion. This trend also opens a new window for ordinary investors-through Mint Miner, you can easily take this wave of institutional wealth trains without huge funds and hardware configurations to achieve stable appreciation of digital assets.

    Media Contact:
    Contact Email: info@mintminer.com
    Official Website: https://mintminer.com/

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI: “Crypto Week” ignites market frenzy: Bitcoin soars to a record high, Mint Miner launches revolutionary cloud mining solution

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Los Angeles, CA, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the US “Crypto Week” officially kicked off on July 14, the global cryptocurrency market ushered in a wave of excitement. The legislature will review three heavyweight bills, including the GENIUS Act, the Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which aim to clarify key areas such as stablecoin regulation, crypto asset custody and central bank digital currency monitoring.

    Bitcoin prices have soared all the way, breaking through the $123,000 mark for the first time.

    At the same time, Mint Miner, a pioneer in cloud mining, has launched an innovative product in this round of market boom-the “AI Cloud Mining +” plan, marking the mining industry has entered a new era of intelligence and greening.

    The core advantages of Mint Miner’s new solution include:
    Computing power as a service: users do not need to purchase expensive mining machines, they can participate in mining by leasing computing power. The threshold is low and the operation is simple, which is especially suitable for crypto investment enthusiasts.
    AI intelligent scheduling system: real-time monitoring of cryptocurrency prices, optimization of mining pool allocation through intelligent algorithms, and improvement of yield.
    Green energy priority: use renewable energy power fields to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen the platform’s ESG social responsibility.
    Flexible income mechanism: provide daily income method, users can view the mining income of the day in real time.

    Guide to joining Mint Miner cloud mining
    1. Register an account to get free computing power: register an account on the Mint Miner official website, fill in the user name and email address, and set a password to get a $15 reward.

    2. Choose the right computing power contract: Mint Miner provides a variety of contract options to meet the needs of different users. Each contract guarantees fixed income and daily income to ensure a transparent and profitable mining experience.
    The following are some of the contract options:
    [New User Experience Contract]: Investment amount: $100, contract period: 2 days, maturity income: $100 + $10
    [Avalon Miner A13]: Investment amount: $500, contract period: 5 days, maturity income: $500 + $30.5
    [Bitcoin Miner S19 XP+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $1,500, contract period: 9 days, maturity income: $1,500 + $178.2
    [ETC Miner E9 Pro]: Investment amount: $3,200, contract period: 14 days, maturity income: $3,200 + $672
    [Antminer L7 ]: Investment amount: $5,200, contract period: 20 days, maturity income: $5,200 + $1,612
    [Bitcoin MinerS21+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $10,000, contract period: 28 days, maturity income: $10,000 + $4,760

    For more contracts, please log in to the Mint Miner official website

    3. Start mining to view income and withdraw: After the contract is activated, the platform automatically starts mining, without manual operation. Log in to the dashboard to view daily income and contract operation status.

    Mint Miner spokesperson said: The new plan lowers the threshold for user participation, allowing more people to share the crypto dividends, especially during the period of strong Bitcoin growth. According to Mint Miner internal data, the average daily computing power during the operation phase of the new plan increased by 32%, and user satisfaction exceeded 96%.

    Summary
    The current “Crypto Week” policy dividends, coupled with the strengthening of Bitcoin’s attributes as digital gold, and the improvement of Mint Miner’s cloud mining model efficiency, jointly promote the next stage of industry explosion. This trend also opens a new window for ordinary investors-through Mint Miner, you can easily take this wave of institutional wealth trains without huge funds and hardware configurations to achieve stable appreciation of digital assets.

    Media Contact:
    Contact Email: info@mintminer.com
    Official Website: https://mintminer.com/

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI: “Crypto Week” ignites market frenzy: Bitcoin soars to a record high, Mint Miner launches revolutionary cloud mining solution

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Los Angeles, CA, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the US “Crypto Week” officially kicked off on July 14, the global cryptocurrency market ushered in a wave of excitement. The legislature will review three heavyweight bills, including the GENIUS Act, the Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which aim to clarify key areas such as stablecoin regulation, crypto asset custody and central bank digital currency monitoring.

    Bitcoin prices have soared all the way, breaking through the $123,000 mark for the first time.

    At the same time, Mint Miner, a pioneer in cloud mining, has launched an innovative product in this round of market boom-the “AI Cloud Mining +” plan, marking the mining industry has entered a new era of intelligence and greening.

    The core advantages of Mint Miner’s new solution include:
    Computing power as a service: users do not need to purchase expensive mining machines, they can participate in mining by leasing computing power. The threshold is low and the operation is simple, which is especially suitable for crypto investment enthusiasts.
    AI intelligent scheduling system: real-time monitoring of cryptocurrency prices, optimization of mining pool allocation through intelligent algorithms, and improvement of yield.
    Green energy priority: use renewable energy power fields to reduce carbon emissions and strengthen the platform’s ESG social responsibility.
    Flexible income mechanism: provide daily income method, users can view the mining income of the day in real time.

    Guide to joining Mint Miner cloud mining
    1. Register an account to get free computing power: register an account on the Mint Miner official website, fill in the user name and email address, and set a password to get a $15 reward.

    2. Choose the right computing power contract: Mint Miner provides a variety of contract options to meet the needs of different users. Each contract guarantees fixed income and daily income to ensure a transparent and profitable mining experience.
    The following are some of the contract options:
    [New User Experience Contract]: Investment amount: $100, contract period: 2 days, maturity income: $100 + $10
    [Avalon Miner A13]: Investment amount: $500, contract period: 5 days, maturity income: $500 + $30.5
    [Bitcoin Miner S19 XP+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $1,500, contract period: 9 days, maturity income: $1,500 + $178.2
    [ETC Miner E9 Pro]: Investment amount: $3,200, contract period: 14 days, maturity income: $3,200 + $672
    [Antminer L7 ]: Investment amount: $5,200, contract period: 20 days, maturity income: $5,200 + $1,612
    [Bitcoin MinerS21+ Hyd]: Investment amount: $10,000, contract period: 28 days, maturity income: $10,000 + $4,760

    For more contracts, please log in to the Mint Miner official website

    3. Start mining to view income and withdraw: After the contract is activated, the platform automatically starts mining, without manual operation. Log in to the dashboard to view daily income and contract operation status.

    Mint Miner spokesperson said: The new plan lowers the threshold for user participation, allowing more people to share the crypto dividends, especially during the period of strong Bitcoin growth. According to Mint Miner internal data, the average daily computing power during the operation phase of the new plan increased by 32%, and user satisfaction exceeded 96%.

    Summary
    The current “Crypto Week” policy dividends, coupled with the strengthening of Bitcoin’s attributes as digital gold, and the improvement of Mint Miner’s cloud mining model efficiency, jointly promote the next stage of industry explosion. This trend also opens a new window for ordinary investors-through Mint Miner, you can easily take this wave of institutional wealth trains without huge funds and hardware configurations to achieve stable appreciation of digital assets.

    Media Contact:
    Contact Email: info@mintminer.com
    Official Website: https://mintminer.com/

    Attachment

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Ambassador of Belarus S.Terentiev meets the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt for European Affairs

    Source: APO


    .

    On July 13, 2025, on the occasion of the completion of his diplomatic mission, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Arab Republic of Egypt, Sergei Terentiev, met with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt for European Affairs, Wael Hamed.

    The interlocutors noted the dynamics of the development of Belarusian-Egyptian contacts at various levels, emphasised the need to hold the planned political and economic events and implement the outlined agreements as soon as possible.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation Participates in the National Workshop for the United Nations (UN) “Convergence” Initiative on Integrating Health and Food Systems with Climate Action

    Source: APO


    .

    H.E. Dr. Rania A. Al-Mashat, Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, delivered an opening speech at the National Workshop of the UN “Convergence” Initiative, which focuses on linking health and food systems with climate action.

    This initiative was launched by the UN Secretary-General during COP28 in the United Arab Emirates, aiming to align the transformation of food systems with climate action to achieve the 2030 Agenda and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

    The UN Food Systems Coordination Hub is responsible for its implementation.

    In her speech, delivered via video, H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat emphasized Egypt’s keenness to enhance its leadership in linking food systems, nutrition, and the climate agenda, within the ambitious vision of the UN initiative.

    H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat pointed to the UN Secretary-General’s statement, which indicated that while the midpoint towards 2030 has been reached, more than half of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are still lagging. She added that despite this, the future of food systems and the future of climate action are not parallel paths but are deeply interconnected.

    H.E. Minister Al-Mashat highlighted that Egypt has chosen a different path based on integration, innovation, and investment. Egypt has taken bold steps to become one of the first in the region to conduct a comprehensive national dialogue on food systems, bringing together government, private sector, civil society, and academia to reimagine how food systems function. This dialogue formed the foundation for the national pathway.

    H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat also underscored the launch of the National Climate Change Strategy 2050, which reflects Egypt’s belief that food security and climate resilience are two sides of the same coin. She also noted the launch of the “NWFE” platform (Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy), not merely as a tool for development, but as a genuine investment tool linking planning with capital.

    H.E. Minister Al-Mashat mentioned that through “NWFE,” Egypt is mobilizing over $14.7 billion in climate-aligned investment opportunities, clarifying that the United Nations and various institutions have praised the platform as a model for converting national climate commitments into investable projects, particularly in the areas of food and water security. She affirmed that Egypt is currently transitioning from the planning stage to partnerships, and from policies to implementation.

    H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat reiterated that through the UN initiative for the convergence of food systems and climate action, further steps will be taken on the path of integration. When food policies align with climate goals, and when nutrition is treated as a foundation for development rather than a secondary matter, it strengthens resilience in national policies and the economy.

    H.E. Minister Al-Mashat pointed out that according to global estimates, every dollar invested in reducing malnutrition can yield a return of up to $16 through improved health, productivity, and economic growth. She referred to the “Golden Thousand Days” initiative, which represents a crucial window for achieving human development, ensuring that today’s investments bear fruit for decades to come.

    H.E. Dr. Al-Mashat outlined the vital role of the private sector in this process, noting that with agriculture contributing 11% of Egypt’s GDP and 28% of total employment, this sector remains a key pillar for both economic growth and rural livelihoods. She stressed that opening up to private investment and innovation across food value chains will be key to achieving long-term sustainability.

    H.E. Minister Al-Mashat concluded by referencing the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) estimates showing that food and agriculture systems account for one-third of total greenhouse gas emissions, yet receive less than 10% of climate finance. She explained that through “NWFE” and initiatives like the current workshop, Egypt is working to bridge this gap by advancing the ability of projects that achieve development and climate goals to attract investment.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Planning, Economic Development, and International Cooperation – Egypt.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Government launches “Good Food Cycle” to transform Britain’s food system 

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Government launches “Good Food Cycle” to transform Britain’s food system 

    New “Good Food Cycle” framework serves up healthier eating, stronger food security and greener supply chains  

    Getty images

    The government has served up its new “Good Food Cycle” today (15 July) – a recipe aimed at driving a generational change in the nation’s relationship with food.   

    The Good Food Cycle identifies ten priority outcomes needed to build a thriving food sector while tackling challenges from rising obesity rates to climate change impacts on production, representing a pivotal milestone in the government’s work to develop a comprehensive food strategy      

    Key outcomes to create a good food cycle include:   

    • An improved food environment that supports healthier and more environmentally sustainable food sales    

    • Access for all to safe, affordable, healthy, convenient and appealing food options     

    • Conditions for the food sector to thrive and grow sustainably, including investment in innovation and productivity, and fairer more transparent supply chains     

    This fresh approach sets out the government’s vision for a modern food system, that sits at the heart of the government’s Plan for Change, tackling multiple critical challenges at once and helping to put more money back in people’s pockets.   

    Building stronger, more resilient food supply chains protects Britain from potential disruptions and strengthens our national security. Making sure everyone can afford healthy food drives our health mission by helping people stay well and reducing pressure on the NHS. We’re also working to give children the nutritious start they need to thrive at school and beyond to give every child the best possible start in life, whatever their background.  

    Minister for Food Security Daniel Zeichner, said:    

    Food security is national security – we need a resilient food system that can weather any storm while ensuring families across the country can access affordable, healthy food.   

    The Good Food Cycle represents a major milestone. We are actively defining the outcomes we want from our food system to deliver a whole system change that will help the amazing businesses that feed our nation to grow and thrive, which means more jobs and stronger local economies, while making it easier for families to eat and feel better.   

    This isn’t just about what’s on our plates today, it’s about building a stronger food system for generations to come, supporting economic growth, health and opportunity as part of our Plan for Change. 

    The ten outcomes have been informed by expert advice from departments across government, the Food Strategy Advisory Board, workshops with interested charities and businesses, as well as members of the public from a Citizen Advisory Council to ensure everyone stands to benefit from a nutritious, sustainable and resilient food system, as part of the Plan for Change.    

    The Good Food Cycle builds on recent government measures to curb diet-related health problems. Fresh partnerships with big food companies will see them share data on healthy food sales, creating more transparency and a level playing field across the industry.   

    With two-thirds of adults in England currently overweight or living with obesity and costing the NHS over £11.4 billion annually, the new approach will help make sure healthier choices don’t get squeezed off supermarket shelves by less nutritious options.   

    Minister for Health Ashley Dalton, said:  

    We want to make sure all families have the option of healthy, high-quality food – not least because it helps tackle the epidemic of obesity, which costs our NHS over £11 billion a year.  

    The Good Food Cycle will be good for the health of our communities and help us curb the rising tide of cost and demand on the NHS.  

    This builds on measures in our new 10 Year Health Plan to make the healthy choice the easy choice, including launching a world-first partnership with food manufacturers and retailers.

    Evidence shows that children living in poverty are far less likely to have enough nutritious food to eat, with almost 1 in 5 living in food insecurity, affecting their health and attainment at school. The Good Food Cycle will improve access to healthy, affordable food for families and give them the skills and support to cook and eat healthily.  

    This is a key part of the Government’s wider action to tackle child poverty and support families with the cost of essential goods. It builds on the expansion of Free School Meals to an additional 500,000 children and the rollout of free breakfast clubs for primary school pupils and will form part of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy published in the Autumn.  

    Minister for Employment, Alison McGovern, who sits on the Ministerial Food Strategy Group and the Child Poverty Taskforce, said:   

    It’s unacceptable that children in Britain are growing up without access to healthy and affordable food – holding back their learning and development.  

    Along with making over half a million more children eligible for free school meals and rolling out breakfast clubs to all primary schools, the Good Food Cycle will ensure the next generation are well fed and ready to reach their full potential.  

    This framework marks an important step in our mission to tackle child poverty, to support families and give all children the very best start in life.  

    Food Security Minister Daniel Zeichner announced the strategy at Darley Street Market in Bradford as part of their 2025 City of Culture celebrations.    

    Cities like Bradford are already pioneering the kind of community-focused food initiatives that the Good Food Cycle strategy aims to scale up nationwide.    

    Bradford’s plans include ensuring primary school pupils get hands-on experience with growing, cooking and eating fresh food – directly supporting the strategy’s goal of giving children the best start in life through better nutrition and food education. The city is also backing venues where citizens of all ages can cook and eat together, creating the kind of inclusive food spaces that help build stronger communities while celebrating local food culture.   

    Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for Healthy People and Places, said:     

    We’re delighted to welcome Minister Zeichner to our new Darley Street Market today to launch the Good Food Cycle.   

    Having a clear direction on food policy is vital if we are to tackle some of the key issues that affect communities in our district, such as food poverty and obesity while also supporting our food producers and protecting our environment.  This is why we worked closely with the district’s Sustainable Food Partnership to launch our own food strategy last year which sets out our plans to support residents with healthy and sustainable food, and to reduce health inequalities.  

    It is really fitting to launch this important national framework here in Bradford. Our district has a proud food culture and history which we want to build on. Backing our local producers so they can provide quality, nutritious food to local people is a key part of part of our ambition and why we have invested in this new market.  

    Additional quotes   

    Dan Bates, Executive Director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said:  

    At Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, we’re proud to celebrate our district’s rich cultural identity through its diverse culinary traditions. Whether it’s family recipes passed down through generations, a commemorative biscuit tin containing heritage stories, or even a curry festival; these all offer a unique lens into Bradford’s history, creativity and community spirit. We’re delighted that Bradford has been chosen to launch the [Good Food Cycle] at the new Darley Street Market, full of independent local traders to help showcase the city’s dynamic contemporary culture to the world.  

    Professor Susan Jebb, Chair of the Food Standards Agency, said:  

    We welcome the ambitions set out in the Good Food Cycle today and support the outcomes it describes.  

    We continue to work closely with other departments in the delivery of the strategy, playing our part to make it easier for consumers to access food that is healthier and more sustainable. 

    Sarah Bradbury, CEO at IGD, said:   

    As co-secretariat of the FSAB, we partnered with the Defra team earlier this year to host multi-stakeholder workshops, engaging over 150 organisations across the agri-food supply chain. Their insights have directly shaped the Good Food Cycle’s ambition to build a food system that works for everyone. A powerful example of what can be achieved through collaboration.

    Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability at the BRC, said:  

    Retailers welcome the ambition and direction of the framework. They know customers want more British food, sustainably produced and with clear healthy choices; something we believe this approach can help to deliver. 

    Kate Nicholls, Chair of UKHospitality, said:   

    Hospitality is a central cog in our food system – serving Britain with great food and drink 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The food supply chain shares the Government’s ambitions to create a healthier, more sustainable food system, and it’s critical the Government works with businesses to do that in a pragmatic and achievable way.    

    Diverse and vibrant food cultures are part of what makes our communities thrive, and we look forward to working with the Government to develop a food strategy that recognises hospitality’s vital importance to the food system, economy and society.

    Dalton Philips, CEO of Greencore plc, said:    

    The Good Food Cycle is a bold and timely step toward a healthier, fairer and more sustainable food system. It sets the right direction for industry, government and communities to work together to drive lasting change.   

    Tim J Smith CBE, Chairman of Cranswick, said:     

    As we mark the launch of the Good Food Cycle today and as a member of the Food Strategy Advisory Board I would like to commend the government for its progress on establishing a set of priorities which we can all get behind. This matters for everyone. Wherever we live, whoever we are, we’re all connected to the food system. Food matters. The pace at which this work has developed has been remarkable as has the very unusual cross-government working needed to get us to this point: where our food system is closer to being healthier, more sustainable and affordable and where that system is fair for all.  

    Balwinder Dhoot, Director of Sustainability and Growth, The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said:   

    From the everyday staples found in kitchen cupboards, fridges and freezers, like oats, yoghurts, tins of beans and frozen vegetables, to ready meals, confectionary and new healthier snacks, UK food and drink manufacturers help the nation have a balanced and varied diet, amid busy lifestyles.   

    We welcome this strategy’s holistic view that considers all of the factors affecting our sector – from creating the right conditions to drive investment in new healthier products, through to removing barriers to trade and ensuring we have the skilled workers we need. We’re pleased to see government acknowledge the importance of our industry to achieving a resilient, sustainable and healthy food system for the UK and look forward to working together to develop this ambitious Food Strategy.

    Citizens Advisory Council: 

    Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation, said:   

    The Food Strategy is an opportunity to reset the rules governing the food system so we start winning the fight against diet related disease and unlock progress  in delivering our nature and climate targets. The wellbeing of citizens must be at the heart of these changes, with food businesses now being encouraged to sell and promote healthier options. This should also be a signal to investors that British food companies making nutritious foods hold the keys to future growth and productivity.  Most importantly it holds the promise of getting our children back on track for long, healthy and fruitful lives.  

    Sue Pritchard, Chief Executive, Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, said:     

    What’s exciting about this approach is that citizens don’t want to see a strategy gathering dust on a shelf. They are really interested in how it will be delivered – and the difference it will make to their everyday lives. They want to see healthy food, sustainably produced, easily available to everyone everywhere. Citizens tend to cut to the chase. They’re interested in what works, and where it is working already, around the UK and elsewhere in the world. They want to make sure that government focuses on making a real difference – for health, for nature, for climate and for a fairer food system for everyone.

    Citizens Advisory Council members:  

    “I think it’s very important to get out and speak to people from different corners of the UK and from all different social aspects and social standings, to understand what the real problems are at the ground level.” – Kevin Robson, Tyne & Wear  

    “I’d love it if we end up in a place where providing healthy, good food for your family becomes a little less confusing. At the moment, I think lots of citizens do find it confusing. It shouldn’t be a struggle to provide healthy food for a family.” – David Njoku, Berkshire  

    “I think what I’m really looking for is change. Defra have been really vocal that they want to hear us and they want to centre citizen voices as a key part of their strategy.” – Emmanuela Kumi, London

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Electric Car Grant launched

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Written statement to Parliament

    Electric Car Grant launched

    Car manufacturers can apply for vehicle eligibility for the grant from 16 July 2025.

    The government is making it easier and cheaper to own an electric vehicle. Today (15 July 2025), the government has launched an Electric Car Grant to support the transition to zero emission vehicles and incentivise sustainable automotive manufacturing. This intervention gives clarity about the government’s commitment to the zero emission vehicle transition, at a time of unprecedented uncertainty for the automotive sector.

    £650 million of grant funding will be available to purchase new zero emission cars priced at or under £37,000. Grants of £1,500 or £3,750 will make these cars more affordable and enable even more people to access the savings associated with driving electric. The grant will help unlock potential further savings of up to £1,500 a year in running costs for drivers, it will back UK and other manufacturers, with eligibility dependent on the highest manufacturing sustainability standards, driving growth in our automotive and charging sectors.

    Grants are available from tomorrow (16 July 2025), subject to confirmation of vehicle eligibility by the Department for Transport. A list of eligible vehicles will be updated on the department website as vehicles are approved. The scheme has funding available until financial year 2028 to 2029. The closure date will remain under review and the scheme will be subject to amendment or early closure, with no notice, should funds become exhausted.

    The Electric Car Grant has 2 bands. £3,750 for the most sustainably produced cars and £1,500 for cars that meet some environmental criteria. This is in recognition of the need to address embedded carbon emissions across a vehicle’s lifetime, as well as tailpipe emissions. Vehicles that do not meet minimum sustainability standards will not be eligible for a grant.

    The minimum environmental criterion is for manufacturers to hold a verified science based target. Science based targets are commitments corporate entities make to reduce their environmental impact, in line with the UK’s international climate commitments, which are verified by the independent Science Based Targets Initiative. The amount of grant available per vehicle will depend on the level of emissions associated with production of the vehicle. Emissions from vehicle production are assessed against the carbon intensity of the electricity grid in the country where vehicle assembly and battery production are located.

    The government has also announced a wider package of measures to support the continued deployment of charging infrastructure. These include £25 million of funding to deliver cross-pavement charging channels, £30 million grant funding to install chargepoints at depots for vans, coaches and HGVs, supporting the transition of the road freight and coach sectors, £8 million of funding to install chargers at NHS sites and changes to allow EV hubs to be signed from major roads. All of these measures will support the more than £6 billion of private funding already in the pipeline to further boost the UK’s chargepoint roll-out by 2030.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: How 1860s Mexico offered an alternative vision for a liberal international order

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Long, Professor of International Relations, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

    The Execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, June 19, 1867 Edouard ManetWikimedia Commons

    In 1867, the world’s most powerful statesmen, including Austria’s Emperor Franz Josef, France’s Napoleon III and US secretary of state, William H. Seward, petitioned the Mexican government to spare the life of a condemned man.

    Mexico’s ragtag army and militias had just humbled France, then Europe’s preeminent land power. The costly six-year campaign drained the French treasury and eroded Napoleon III’s domestic support. Napoleon’s ambition to transform Mexico into a client empire under a Vienna-born, Habsburg archduke, crowned Maximilian I, ended in spectacular failure.

    After his defeat, Maximilian was brought before a Mexican military tribunal. European monarchs regarded the prisoner as their peer, but Mexican liberals convicted him as a piratical invader, usurper and traitor. Despite indignant appeals from European courts, President Benito Juárez refused to commute his sentence. The would-be emperor was executed by firing squad.


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    The controversy went beyond one monarch’s fate. It crystallised a clash between opposed visions of global order — as Peru’s president Ramón Castilla said at the time, it was a “war of the crowns against liberty caps”.

    Today, world politics are in flux. The so-called liberal international order, nominally grounded in multilateralism, open markets, human rights and the rule of law, is facing its gravest crisis since the second world war. Former advocates such as the United States now openly flout international law and undermine the very norms they once championed. China remains ambivalent, while Russia unabashedly hastens the order’s unravelling.

    More broadly, the old post-second world war order appears out of step with the global south and with widespread anger over double standards exposed by the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.
    Amid today’s crises, a world order arranged for and by the great powers looks both insufficient and doomed to lack legitimacy. Reordering will require support from diverse actors, including states across the global south.

    1860s: a turbulent decade

    The 1860s were a turbulent, although often overlooked, moment of global reordering. Technological shifts – the telegraph, electricity, steamships and railways – appeared as disruptive then as AI does today. Combined with shifting power dynamics, these transformations accelerated imperial expansion. Yet the rules of the emerging order remained uncertain, even among the imperial powers themselves.

    In Europe, networks of dynastic rule still carried weight in international politics. Under growing pressure, the ancien régime sought to reinvent and reassert itself. The old empires often justified their expansion by promising to bring order and progress to supposedly backward peoples. But that “civilising mission” clashed with a worldview emerging from Spanish America – where countries had thrown off colonial rule to establish independent republics.

    As we wrote in a recent article in American Political Science Review, Spanish American diplomats articulated a republican vision of international order centred on the protection of weaker states from domination by great powers.

    Fending off Europe’s empires

    Divided by civil conflict, Mexico became an easy target for European empires. Mexico’s Liberal party had regained power but faced internal dissent and crippling foreign debt. Britain, France and Spain formed a coalition to invade and demand repayment. France, however, had more ambitious designs.

    Exploiting the distraction of the US civil war, Napoleon III dreamed of transforming Mexico into a Latin stronghold against Yankee expansion. Best of all, Napoleon thought the scheme would turn a profit. A stable Mexican empire could repay the costs of the intervention – with interest – by increasing production from the country’s famed silver mines. Meanwhile, France would gain a receptive market for its exports and a grateful geopolitical subordinate.

    Maximilian, a young Austrian prince of the house of Hapsburg, somewhat naively accepted the offer to rule a distant and unfamiliar land. He dreamed of regenerating Mexico through a liberal monarchy while reviving his family’s declining dynasty.

    Led by Juárez, Mexico’s liberals fiercely resisted Maximilian’s rule. While militarily Juárez was consistently on the defensive, he remained diplomatically proactive. The Juaristas encouraged US sympathies that proved decisive after the end of the civil war. They also enjoyed solidarity – though limited material support – from other Spanish American republics. Although the monarchies of Europe all recognised Maximilian as Mexican emperor, Juárez’s defiance became a rallying point for liberals and republicans in Europe.

    Hero to the liberals: a monument to Juárez in central Mexico City.
    Hajor~commonswiki, CC BY-ND

    Vision of a new order

    Beyond stoking sympathies, Juárez and his followers offered trenchant critiques of unequal international rules and practices cloaked in liberal guise.

    First, the “republican internationalism” of Mexico’s Juaristas stood in direct opposition to European liberals’ “civilising mission”. Latin American republicans rejected the notion that progress could be imposed on their countries from abroad – though some echoed civilising rhetoric toward their own non-white populations, who like in the US were subject to campaigns of violence and dispossession that stretched from northern Mexico to the Patagonia. Many Latin American liberals likewise remained silent about empire elsewhere.

    Second, the Juarista vision placed popular sovereignty, not dynastic ties, at the heart of legitimate statehood. These ideas drew on Mexico’s independence tradition and the principles enshrined in the 1857 constitution. European intervention, in this view, aimed to suppress popular rule in the Americas and extend the reaction against the failed revolutions of 1848, which had seriously threatened the old order when they raged across Europe.

    Third, popular sovereign states were equal under international law, regardless of power, wealth, or internal disorder. Sovereign equality also underpinned Latin America’s strong commitment to non-intervention. Liberal writer and diplomat Francisco Zarco, a close confidante of Juárez, condemned frequent European economic justifications for intervention as the work of “smugglers and profiteers who wrap themselves in the flags of powerful nations”.

    Finally, Mexican liberals called for an international system premised on republican fraternity, drawing on aspirations for cooperation that went back to liberator Simón Bolívar. The independence leader and committed republican convened a conference in 1826, hoping that a confederation of the newly independent Spanish American states would “be the shield of our new destiny”.

    Similar arguments for an international order that advances non-domination still resonate in the global south today. The Mexican experience also underscores that the architects of international order have never come exclusively from the global north – and those who shape its future will not either.

    Tom Long receives support from UK Arts and Humanities Research Council grant AH/V006622/1, Latin America and the peripheral origins of the 19th-century international order.

    Carsten-Andreas Schulz receives support from UK Arts and Humanities Research Council grant AH/V006622/1, Latin America and the peripheral origins of the 19th-century international order.

    ref. How 1860s Mexico offered an alternative vision for a liberal international order – https://theconversation.com/how-1860s-mexico-offered-an-alternative-vision-for-a-liberal-international-order-260228

    MIL OSI

  • IMD strengthens India’s weather preparedness with accurate forecasts

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    As extreme weather events grow more frequent and unpredictable due to climate change, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is expanding its capabilities to make India a weather-resilient nation. With its legacy dating back to 1875, the IMD, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has become the backbone of the country’s weather forecasting, disaster preparedness, and climate monitoring efforts.

    IMD has earned widespread recognition for its accurate monsoon predictions. From 2021 to 2024, it achieved 100% accuracy in forecasting all-India southwest monsoon rainfall within the permissible margin of error. Its seasonal forecasts—issued in April and updated in June—play a key role in supporting agriculture, water resource management, and economic planning.

    Beyond monsoon predictions, IMD has made major strides in cyclone forecasting. It accurately predicted cyclones like Fani, Amphan, Tauktae, and Biparjoy, helping reduce cyclone-related fatalities from 10,000 in 1999 to zero between 2020 and 2024. The department has also expanded its Doppler Weather Radar network from 15 in 2014 to 39 in 2023, enhancing real-time monitoring by 35%.

    Technology has also driven IMD’s success. Tools like the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model and the Electric Weather Research and Forecasting (EWRF) model are now being used for real-time rainfall and lightning forecasts. The launch of Mausamgram in January 2024—a public weather platform inaugurated by the Vice President—offers localized forecasts to users across India.

    To further modernize India’s climate forecast infrastructure, the government launched Mission Mausam in September 2024. This ambitious Central Sector Scheme aims to make Bharat a “weather-ready and climate-smart” nation by improving forecasting capabilities and disaster response.

    Mission Mausam utilizes advanced tools like AI, high-resolution weather radars, better satellite instruments, and powerful computing systems. It is structured around nine verticals—ranging from real-time data collection and air quality tools to early warning systems and public communication strategies.

    The scheme, which builds on the earlier ACROSS initiative, is being implemented in two phases: 2024–2026 and 2026–2031. By combining scientific research, cutting-edge technology, and inter-agency collaboration, IMD and Mission Mausam aim to safeguard lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure from the growing risks of extreme weather.

  • IMD strengthens India’s weather preparedness with accurate forecasts

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    As extreme weather events grow more frequent and unpredictable due to climate change, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is expanding its capabilities to make India a weather-resilient nation. With its legacy dating back to 1875, the IMD, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has become the backbone of the country’s weather forecasting, disaster preparedness, and climate monitoring efforts.

    IMD has earned widespread recognition for its accurate monsoon predictions. From 2021 to 2024, it achieved 100% accuracy in forecasting all-India southwest monsoon rainfall within the permissible margin of error. Its seasonal forecasts—issued in April and updated in June—play a key role in supporting agriculture, water resource management, and economic planning.

    Beyond monsoon predictions, IMD has made major strides in cyclone forecasting. It accurately predicted cyclones like Fani, Amphan, Tauktae, and Biparjoy, helping reduce cyclone-related fatalities from 10,000 in 1999 to zero between 2020 and 2024. The department has also expanded its Doppler Weather Radar network from 15 in 2014 to 39 in 2023, enhancing real-time monitoring by 35%.

    Technology has also driven IMD’s success. Tools like the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model and the Electric Weather Research and Forecasting (EWRF) model are now being used for real-time rainfall and lightning forecasts. The launch of Mausamgram in January 2024—a public weather platform inaugurated by the Vice President—offers localized forecasts to users across India.

    To further modernize India’s climate forecast infrastructure, the government launched Mission Mausam in September 2024. This ambitious Central Sector Scheme aims to make Bharat a “weather-ready and climate-smart” nation by improving forecasting capabilities and disaster response.

    Mission Mausam utilizes advanced tools like AI, high-resolution weather radars, better satellite instruments, and powerful computing systems. It is structured around nine verticals—ranging from real-time data collection and air quality tools to early warning systems and public communication strategies.

    The scheme, which builds on the earlier ACROSS initiative, is being implemented in two phases: 2024–2026 and 2026–2031. By combining scientific research, cutting-edge technology, and inter-agency collaboration, IMD and Mission Mausam aim to safeguard lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure from the growing risks of extreme weather.

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Just back from holiday and not feeling well? Here are the symptoms you should take seriously

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

    What are you bringing back with you? The Picture Studio/Shutterstock

    Summer is synonymous with adventure, with millions flocking to exotic destinations to experience different cultures, cuisines and landscapes. But what happens when the souvenir you bring back isn’t a fridge magnet or a tea towel, but a new illness?

    International travel poses a risk of catching something more than a run-of-the-mill bug, so it’s important to be vigilant for the telltale symptoms. Here are the main ones to look out for while away and when you return.


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    Fever

    Fever is a common symptom to note after international travel – especially to tropical or subtropical regions. While a feature of many different illnesses, it can be the first sign of an infection – sometimes a serious one.

    One of the most well-known travel-related illnesses linked to fever is malaria. Spread by mosquito bites in endemic regions, malaria is a protozoal infection that often begins with flu-like symptoms, such as headache and muscle aches, progressing to severe fever, sweating and shaking chills.

    Other signs can include jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes), swollen lymph nodes, rashes and abdominal pain – though symptoms vary widely and can mimic many other illnesses.

    Prompt medical attention is essential. Malaria is serious and can become life threatening. It’s also worth noting that symptoms may not appear until weeks or even months after returning home. In the UK, there are around 2,000 imported malaria cases each year.

    Travellers to at-risk areas are strongly advised to take preventative measures. This includes mosquito-bite avoidance as well as prescribed antimalarial medications, such as Malarone and doxycycline. Although these drugs aren’t 100% effective, they significantly reduce the risk of infection.

    Aside from malaria, other mosquito-borne diseases can cause fever. Dengue fever, a viral infection found in tropical and subtropical regions, leads to symptoms including high temperatures, intense headaches, body aches and rashes, which overlap with both malaria and other common viral illnesses.

    Most people recover with rest, fluids and paracetamol, but in some instances, dengue can become severe and requires emergency hospital treatment. A vaccine is also available – but is only recommended for people who have had dengue before, as it provides good protection in this group.

    Any fever after international travel should be taken seriously. Don’t brush it off as something you’ve just picked up on the plane – please see a doctor. A simple test could lead to early diagnosis and might save your life.

    Avoiding being bitten is a good defensive measure.
    Jaromir Chalabala/Shutterstock

    Diarrhoea

    Few travel-related issues are as common – or as unwelcome – as diarrhoea. It’s estimated that up to six in ten travellers will experience at least one episode during or shortly after their trip. For some, it’s an unpleasant disruption mid-holiday; for others, symptoms emerge once they’re back home.

    Traveller’s diarrhoea is typically caused by eating food or drinking water containing certain microbes (bacteria, viruses, parasites) or their toxins. Identifying the more serious culprits early is essential – especially when symptoms go beyond mild discomfort.

    Warning signs to look out for include large volumes of watery diarrhoea, visible blood in the stool or explosive bowel movements. These may suggest a more serious infection, such as giardia, cholera or amoebic dysentery.

    These conditions are more common in regions with poor sanitation and are especially prevalent in parts of the tropics.

    Some infections may require targeted antibiotics or antiparasitic treatment. But regardless of the cause, the biggest immediate risk with any severe diarrhoea is dehydration from copious fluid loss. In serious cases, hospital admission for intravenous fluids may be necessary.

    The key message for returning travellers: if diarrhoea is severe, persistent or accompanied by worrying symptoms, see a doctor. What starts as a nuisance could quickly escalate without the right care.

    And if you have blood in your stool, make sure you seek medical advice.

    Jaundice

    If you’ve returned from a trip with a change in skin tone, it may not just be a suntan. A yellowish tint to the skin – or more noticeably, the whites of the eyes – could be a sign of jaundice, another finding that warrants medical attention.

    Jaundice is not a disease itself, but a visible sign that something may be wrong with either the liver or blood. It results from a buildup of bilirubin, a yellow pigment that forms when red blood cells break down, and which is then processed by the liver.

    Signs of jaundice should be taken very seriously.
    sruilk/Shutterstock.com

    Several travel-related illnesses can cause jaundice. Malaria is one culprit as is the mosquito-borne yellow fever. But another common cause is hepatitis – inflammation of the liver.

    Viral hepatitis comes in several forms. Hepatitis A and E are spread via contaminated food or water – common in areas with poor sanitation. In contrast, hepatitis B and C are blood-borne, transmitted through intravenous drug use, contaminated medical equipment or unprotected sex.

    Besides jaundice, hepatitis can cause a range of symptoms, including fever, nausea, fatigue, vomiting and abdominal discomfort. A diagnosis typically requires blood tests, both to confirm hepatitis and to rule out other causes. While many instances of hepatitis are viral, not all are, and treatment depends on the underlying cause.

    As we’ve seen, a variety of unpleasant medical conditions can affect the unlucky traveller. But we’ve also seen that the associated symptoms are rather non-specific. Indeed, some can be caused by conditions that are short-lived and require only rest and recuperation to get over a rough few days. But the area between them is decidedly grey.

    So plan your trip carefully, be wary of high-risk activities while abroad – such as taking drugs or having unprotected sex – and stay alert to symptoms that develop during or after travel. If you feel unwell, don’t ignore it. Seek medical attention promptly to identify the cause and begin appropriate treatment.

    Dan Baumgardt 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. Just back from holiday and not feeling well? Here are the symptoms you should take seriously – https://theconversation.com/just-back-from-holiday-and-not-feeling-well-here-are-the-symptoms-you-should-take-seriously-260013

    MIL OSI

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Government launches SEPs Consultation to Boost UK Innovation

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Government launches SEPs Consultation to Boost UK Innovation

    Businesses and stakeholders invited to respond by 7 October 2025

    Further details:

    • Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) are building blocks of our connected future, enabling our devices to communicate seamlessly. They help power our connected economy and deliver real technological change for real people

    • the Government is seeking views on proposed Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) measures to support the UK’s technology-driven economic growth

    • proposals aim to address challenges in transparency, dispute resolution and licensing efficiency

    • further evidence sought on ways to address knowledge and information gaps between parties in SEPs negotiations, helping avoid complex and costly litigation

    • interested parties from across the SEP ecosystem are invited to submit views and evidence by 7 October 2025

    The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has today launched a consultation on potential measures to address challenges in the UK’s Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) ecosystem.

    A patent that protects technology which is essential to implementing a technical standard (such as 5G) is known as a Standard Essential Patent (SEP). SEPs help our devices to communicate seamlessly – from smartphones to electric vehicles, smart manufacturing to innovations in healthcare. They are the building blocks of our connected future and help deliver real technological change.

    However, available evidence points to inefficiencies in the UK’s SEP ecosystem that may create barriers to innovation – particularly for smaller businesses when seeking to implement standardised technologies.

    These challenges include knowledge and information gaps between SEP holders and implementers, a lack of transparency in the SEPs licensing process, and a costly and often complex dispute resolution environment. Resolving disputes can be costly and time-consuming – one recently reported case cost £31.5 million.

    The Government is consulting on policy options to ensure the UK’s SEP framework operates more efficiently, supporting both patent holders and technology implementers. The proposals aim to reduce frictions in licensing, achieve greater efficiency in dispute resolution, and more effectively deal with knowledge and information gaps between parties.

    The proposed measures aim to enable businesses of all sizes, including start-ups and scale-ups, to navigate the SEP framework more confidently.

    Proposed measures include

    Specialist rate determination track: Introducing a specialist track to provide licence rates for SEP portfolios on a case-by-case basis. This could increase consistency and transparency in SEP pricing. It could give businesses of all sizes a more efficient and cost–effective route to obtain a SEP licence rate.

    Mandatory provision of searchable information: Requiring patent holders to disclose standard-related patent information to the IPO. This would help address the current lack of transparency around SEPs and licensing obligations.

    We are gathering further evidence on

    The use of pre-action protocols: We are seeking further evidence on pre-action protocols to establish if they work well in SEPs negotiations, by encouraging early disclosure of relevant information.  This will help establish if a specialist SEP pre-action protocol may be needed in cases where negotiations are less likely to reach agreement and may move towards litigation.

    Essentiality checking solutions: Conducting a landscape review of essentiality checking solutions, to establish whether they are accessible for all parties, and establish if there is a case for government to introduce an essentiality determination opinion service.

    SEP remedies:  We are seeking to better understand whether the patent framework provides adequate remedies for SEP disputes.

    Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) measures: We are also looking to understand the current provision of ADR services that can resolve SEP disputes, and the extent to which they are used and accessible for all businesses, especially smaller businesses.

    Minister for Intellectual Property Feryal Clark MP said:

    Intellectual property is central to the Government’s growth mission and underpins the technologies that power our connected future, from 5G and electric vehicles to smart manufacturing and healthcare.

    This consultation will help make the licensing of these technologies more straight forward and accessible – driving innovation, reducing costly litigation, and helping UK firms lead in developing the technologies of tomorrow.

    President of the IP Federation Sarah Vaughan said:

    The IP Federation welcomes the Government’s open and evidence-based approach in launching this consultation on standard essential patents (SEPs). As long-standing advocates for a balanced and effective IP framework, we support measures that enhance transparency, facilitate timely and fair licensing negotiations, and promote efficient dispute resolution.

    President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) Bobby Mukherjee said:

    The UK patent profession is one of the most skilled and experienced in the world in the SEP arena and we welcome the IPO’s energy and vision in initiating activity in a vital support area for our market leading offering. CIPA members welcome the opportunity to participate in this evidence-led consultation openly, reflecting the spectrum of views from SEP rights holders to implementers.

    Chief Executive of the Intellectual Property Office Adam Williams said:

    This consultation is a critical opportunity for all stakeholders to help build a SEP ecosystem that works for everyone. We particularly want to hear from businesses developing or using standardised technologies about how proposed measures could affect their innovation, investment and growth plans.

    The proposals outlined seek to address the diverse needs within our innovation ecosystem and take a balanced approach. By combining possible regulatory interventions with market-driven solutions, we want to create a framework that enhances the UK’s competitiveness while ensuring fairness and transparency across the technology value chain.

    The Government is encouraging responses from interested parties across the SEP ecosystem.  These include patent holders and innovators who develop standard-essential technologies, technology implementers who incorporate SEPs into their products, legal services and academia. We are also encouraging views from start-ups and scale-ups who may face particular challenges with the current licensing system.

    Industry bodies and standards organisations, intellectual property experts and research institutions involved in standardized technologies, and consumer groups representing end-users of SEP-enabled technologies are also encouraged to share their views.

    The evidence and insights gathered will help ensure our proposed measures address a broad set of needs across the innovation ecosystem and support balanced growth across the UK economy.

    The consultation is open until 7 October 2025. Full details and response information are available at the consultation page.

    END

    Additional information:

    1. The consultation document is available on GOV UK.

    2. A technical standard is an agreed or established technical description of an idea, product, service, or way of doing things, which enables the sharing of knowledge. Standards can encourage innovation, enable jobs and growth, and ensure the interoperability, safety and quality of products.

    3. The number of patents declared as essential (SEPs) worldwide has been estimated to have more than tripled over the last decade, growing from 82,000 in 2010 to around 305,000 in 2021.

    4. This number is expected to continue to increase. Standard development organisations (SDOs), like ETSI, publish thousands of new technical standard specifications every year. Standards are currently being developed for emerging technologies, such as 6G and artificial intelligence, to support interoperability.

    5. The telecommunications sector alone adds over £40 billion annually to UK GDP, with SEP-dependent technologies playing an essential role.

    6. The consultation follows extensive research since 2021 to establish if the current system of licensing SEPs is functioning effectively.

    7. In July 2024, the IPO launched the world’s first SEP resource hub to help UK businesses navigate the SEP ecosystem more confidently.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: TRUMP: Swinney meeting with extremist President is out of step with Scotland’s values

    Source: Scottish Greens

    Later this month when convicted criminal Donald Trump visits Scotland he will meet with SNP First Minister John Swinney in a move described as “out of step with Scotland’s values” by the Scottish Greens.

    The US President was found guilty of 34 felonies in 2023 relating to falsified business records, after he paid $130,000 in hush money to cover up an affair with an American porn star. Trump also has dozens of sexual assault allegations against him dating back to the 1970’s. Since his return to power he has pursued a dangerous and increasingly far right agenda.

    The Scottish Greens have long called for an investigation into Donald Trump’s finances in Scotland through an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO).

    A UWO is a power held by the Scottish Government to investigate the finances of politically active individuals who have gained wealth through suspicious means. Given Donald Trump’s Menie Estate golf course, which he is set to visit this month, was cited in one of his felony charges, it’s now clearer than ever that a UWO must be used.

    Scottish Greens Co-Leader Patrick Harvie MSP said:

    “Donald Trump is a convicted criminal and political extremist, there can be no excuses for trying to cosy up to his increasingly fascist political agenda.

    “We’ve all watched in recent months as the US President has sent troops to threaten their own citizens on the streets of Los Angeles, kidnapped innocent people under the guise of mass deportations and now they are constructing a concentration camp in Florida.

    “This is a man who has a complete lack of respect for human rights and democracy in America, and whose climate denial threatens everyone around the world.

    “The SNPs decision to meet with this convicted felon is a tragic one, and is out of step with Scotland’s values. Appeasing political extremists like Trump won’t save us from his misinformation and toxic rhetoric. His Vice President has already attacked our parliament by lying to international media about a bill passed by Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay.

    “If the Scottish Government won’t make it clear to Trump, then I’m sure the people of Scotland on the streets protesting his every move will make it loud and clear. Donald Trump is not welcome here.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Birmingham fraudster spent part of Covid loan funds at safari park, restaurants and paying off personal credit card debt

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Birmingham fraudster spent part of Covid loan funds at safari park, restaurants and paying off personal credit card debt

    Money from the loans was only supposed to be used for the economic benefit of the business

    • Fitness company owner Junaid Dar dishonestly obtained £45,500 in Covid Bounce Back Loans during 2020 

    • Dar used some of the funds for legitimate purposes, but he also used money for personal spending at retailers, restaurants and leisure attractions 

    • The 34-year-old was handed a suspended sentence following investigations by the Insolvency Service 

    A Birmingham fraudster who secured three Covid loans for his company when businesses were only entitled to one used some of the funds for personal spending at restaurants and a safari park. 

    Junaid Dar, 34, made fraudulent applications to three separate banks for Bounce Back Loans worth a combined total of £45,500 during 2020 for his JDARPT Ltd fitness company. 

    Dar, of Stratford Road, Birmingham, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday 10 July. 

    He was also ordered to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity, 180 hours of unpaid work, and pay costs of £2,400. 

    David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: 

    Junaid Dar deliberately made false representations to fraudulently receive three Bounce Back Loans when businesses were only entitled to one.  

    Instead of using this money to support his fitness business through the pandemic as intended, he diverted significant sums for personal spending.  

    Bounce Back Loans were designed to provide quick and simple financial support to businesses genuinely affected by Covid. The Insolvency Service will not tolerate abuse of the public purse and will continue to pursue fraudsters who exploited schemes designed to help legitimate businesses during a national crisis.

    JDAPRT was incorporated in March 2017 with Dar as its sole director. The company’s trading activities were recorded as fitness facilities on Companies House. 

    Dar’s first fraudulent application was for a £13,000 Bounce Back Loan in May 2020.  

    In the application, Dar claimed JDAPRT’s turnover was £55,000. 

    Just two days later, Dar made a second application to a different bank for a Bounce Back Loan of £15,000.  

    In this application, Dar said his company’s turnover was now £60,000. 

    Dar’s third and final fraudulent application in September 2020 was for a Bounce Back Loan of £17,500.  

    This time, Dar falsely claimed his company’s turnover was £70,000. Insolvency Service analysis of the bank account revealed the company’s turnover was closer to £61,000. 

    Dar used some of the Bounce Back Loan funds for legitimate purposes. However, several transactions were recorded which Insolvency Service investigators found to be for personal use. 

    Payments were made to Amazon and Argos, along with spending at restaurants and meat stores. Further spending was identified at West Midlands Safari Park and making credit card payments. 

    JDARPT went into liquidation in July 2021. 

    Dar was also disqualified as a company director for 11 years from April 2022 for his misconduct at JDARPT. 

    Further information  

    About us 

    The Insolvency Service is a government agency that helps to deliver economic confidence by supporting those in financial distress, tackling financial wrongdoing and maximising returns to creditors. 

    The Insolvency Service is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Business and Trade

    Read more about what we do 

    Press Office 

    Journalists with enquiries can call the Insolvency Service Press Office on 0303 003 1743 or email press.office@insolvency.gov.uk (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). 

    Out of hours 

    For any out of hours media enquiries, please contact the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) newsdesk on 020 7215 2000.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Shopping and business complexes will appear near city railway stations in the Northern Administrative District

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    As part of the implementation of large-scale investment projects (MaIP), the city provided investors in the Northern Administrative District with land for the construction of retail, business and other commercial facilities. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Vladimir Efimov.

    “Implementation of large-scale commercial investment projects allows for the development of territories, organizing business activity centers and jobs. This helps create favorable conditions for business and improve the quality of life of Muscovites. Currently, 10 MAIPs are at various stages of implementation in the Northern Administrative District, for which more than 10 hectares of land have been allocated near the city’s railway stations. There will be shopping, public, business and multifunctional complexes with a total area of about 500 thousand square meters,” said Vladimir Efimov.

    A large-scale investment project is a special status that can be granted to various objects, the construction of which is aimed at the development of the capital. For their construction, city plots are provided for rent.

    “The construction of commercial real estate in the north of Moscow stimulates economic activity in the district. New shopping centers, cafes, restaurants and company offices will expand opportunities for leisure and employment for local residents. For example, a multifunctional complex consisting of two buildings will appear between the Polezhaevskaya and Khoroshevskaya metro stations. In addition to office space, it will include space for shops, restaurants and service enterprises. A land plot of almost 1.4 hectares has been allocated for the implementation of this large-scale investment project,” she noted.

    Ekaterina Solovieva, Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Moscow Department of City Property.

    Earlier, Sergei Sobyanin said that it is planned to implement it by 2030 37 projects on land plots located near 32 Moscow city railway stations and metro stations.

    Get the latest news quickly official telegram channel the city of Moscow.

    Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    .

    MIL OSI Russia News

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Senegal joins growing list of countries that have eliminated trachoma

    Source: APO – Report:

    .

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Senegal as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Senegal becomes the ninth country in WHO’s African Region to have achieved this feat.

    “I commend Senegal for freeing its population from this disease”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This milestone is yet another sign of the remarkable progress being made against neglected tropical diseases globally, and offers hope to other countries still working to eliminate trachoma.”

    Trachoma has been known in Senegal since the early 1900s and was confirmed as a major cause of blindness through surveys in the 1980s and 1990s. Senegal joined the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma in 1998, conducted its first national survey in 2000, and completed full disease mapping by 2017 with support from the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and Tropical Data. Trachoma control was consistently integrated into national eye health programmed, first under the National Program for Blindness Prevention (PNLC) and later through the National Program for the Promotion of Eye Health (PNPSO) – maintaining its commitment to trachoma elimination.

    “Today we celebrate our victory against trachoma, 21 years after the one against dracunculiasis” said Dr Ibrahima Sy, Senegal’s Minister of Health and Social Action. “This new milestone reminds us that our overarching goal remains a Senegal free from neglected tropical diseases. We are fully committed to this, and we are making good progress, notably against human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and onchocerciasis”.

    Senegal implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma with the support of partners, reaching 2.8 million people who needed them across 24 districts. These activities included provision of surgery to treat the late blinding stage of the disease, conducting antibiotic mass drug administration of azithromycin donated by Pfizer through the International Trachoma Initiative, carrying out public awareness campaigns to promote facial cleanliness, and improvement in access to water supply and sanitation.

    Trachoma is the second neglected tropical disease to be eliminated in Senegal. In 2004, the country was certified free of dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease) transmission. Globally, Senegal joins 24 other countries that have been validated by WHO for having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. These are Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Gambia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Ghana, India, Iraq, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Togo, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. These countries are part of a wider of group of 57 countries that have eliminated one or more neglected tropical diseases.

    WHO is supporting Senegal’s health authorities to closely monitor communities in which trachoma was previously endemic to ensure there is no resurgence of the disease.

    “Trachoma has cast a shadow over communities in Senegal for more than a century. This long-awaited validation is not only a milestone for public health but a powerful tribute to the tireless dedication of frontline health workers, communities, government leaders, and partners who never gave up,” said Dr Jean-Marie Vianny Yameogo, WHO Representative in Senegal. “Today, we close a chapter that began over a hundred years ago, united with pride, gratitude and resolve. WHO remains committed to supporting Senegal as the country continues to lead in sustaining this hard-earned achievement.”

    Disease prevalence

    Trachoma remains a public health problem in 32 countries, with an estimated 103 million people living in areas requiring interventions against the disease. Trachoma is found mainly in the poorest and most rural areas of Africa, Central and South America, Asia, the Western Pacific and the Middle East. WHO’s African Region is disproportionately affected by trachoma, with 93 million people living in at-risk areas in April 2024, representing 90% of the global trachoma burden.

    Significant progress has been made in the fight against trachoma over the past few years and the number of people requiring antibiotic treatment for trachoma in the African Region fell by 96 million from 189 million in 2014 to 93 million as of April 2024, representing a 51% reduction.

    There are currently 20 countries (Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in WHO’s African Region that are known to require intervention for trachoma elimination. A further 3 countries in the Region (Botswana, Guinea-Bissau and Namibia) claim to have achieved the prevalence targets for elimination.

    – on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO).

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Mauritius’ Economy Depends on Sustainable Public Finances

    Source: APO – Report:

    .

    The island of Mauritius was once the native habitat of the dodo—a striking, flightless bird that went extinct in the face of unsustainable hunting by sailors. Today, the dodo is a national symbol for the country, representing the importance of conservation and sustainability efforts.  

    Economies are also shaped by human action, including fiscal policy. Mauritius has a strong policy track record that has engendered a transition from an agricultural economy to a diversified upper-middle-income country. 

    However, Mauritius now faces challenges from high public debt, significant public investment needs, low productivity, and an ageing society. To address them, fiscal policy would need to be recalibrated to preserve today’s dodo: inclusive economic prosperity.

    Fiscal sustainability measures 

    The Mauritian authorities recently announced their 2025-26 budget, which prioritizes reforms to support sustainable fiscal policy. These reforms aim to increase tax revenue by over two percent of GDP in 2025-26, while reducing government spending by over one percent of GDP in the same period. Overall, the authorities expect to reduce government debt from 87 percent of GDP in 2024 to 75 percent in 2030.  

    Our recent annual economic health check of the island nation—our Article IV Staff Report and Selected Issues Papers—offers policy options to achieve sustainable fiscal policy in Mauritius, including (i) strengthening revenue mobilization, (ii) reforming the pension system, and (iii) increasing spending efficiency. The announced budget is in line with many of our proposed policy options. 

    Increasing fiscal revenue 

    Given that tax exemptions are high—they accounted for 4.6 percent of GDP in 2024-25—the new budget aims to discontinue selected exemptions from VAT and excise duties, such as those for construction, real estate, and electric vehicles. The budget also lowers tax payment thresholds and raises new taxes. The implementation and sequencing of these reforms would need to limit any potential adverse impact on economic growth, while also protecting the most vulnerable.  

    Reforming pensions 

    On the expenditure side, there is room to make pension spending more sustainable. Benefits paid to individuals through the Basic Retirement Pension program (BRP)—received by all Mauritians aged 60 and older—have more than doubled since 2019. On top of higher benefits, fiscal pressures are mounting from a relative increase in the number of pensioners. As society ages, Mauritius is expected to face a doubling in the old-age dependency ratio over the next thirty years, resulting in a fast-growing pension bill.  

    Maintaining the present system would imply significant intergenerational redistribution from younger to older generations, as the (relatively small) younger cohort would likely face higher taxes to finance pensions for the (larger) older one. An option to help contain the growing cost of the BRP is a gradual alignment of the eligibility age from 60 to the official retirement age of 65. Given demographic trends, the alignment in the BRP eligibility age would help make the pension system more sustainable, while containing intergenerational inequalities and protecting the most vulnerable. The announced budget is a step in this direction.

    Spending efficiently 

    There is also scope for streamlining broadly targeted and regressive fiscal transfers. Social subsidies in Mauritius, in many cases, reach relatively few poor individuals. For example, only 11 percent of beneficiaries of the social aid program are defined as poor. The announced budget proposes savings by gradually unwinding some broadly targeted subsidies. The resulting savings will help create fiscal space to finance targeted schemes for the most vulnerable, while making fiscal policy more sustainable.  

    Unlike the dodo, now extinct, Mauritius’ economy will continue to thrive so long as fiscal sustainability is secured.

    – on behalf of International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI: YieldMax® Introduces Option Income Strategy ETF on DraftKings, Inc. (DKNG)

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO and MILWAUKEE and NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — YieldMax® announced the launch today of the following ETF:

    YieldMax® DKNG Option Income Strategy ETF (NYSE Arca: DRAY)

    DRAY seeks to generate current income by pursuing options-based strategies on DraftKings, Inc. (“DKNG”). DRAY is managed by Tidal Financial Group. DRAY does not invest directly in DKNG.

    DRAY is the newest member of the YieldMax® ETF family and like all YieldMax® ETFs, aims to deliver current income to investors. With respect to distributions, DRAY will be a Group C ETF, and its first distribution is expected to be announced on August 20, 2025.

    Please see the table below for distribution information for all outstanding YieldMax® ETFs.

    ETF Ticker1 ETF Name Distribution
    Frequency
    Distribution
    Rate
    2,4
    30-Day
    SEC Yield3
    ROC5
    CHPY YieldMax® Semiconductor Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly 33.04% 0.04% 100.0%
    GPTY YieldMax® AI & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly 32.65% 0.00% 100.0%
    LFGY YieldMax® Crypto Industry & Tech Portfolio Option Income ETF Weekly 62.17% 0.00% 100.0%
    QDTY YieldMax® Nasdaq 100 0DTE Covered Call Strategy ETF Weekly 22.37% 0.00% 100.0%
    RDTY YieldMax® R2000 0DTE Covered Call Strategy ETF Weekly 33.92% 1.65% 100.0%
    SDTY YieldMax® S&P 500 0DTE Covered Call Strategy ETF Weekly 16.11% 0.07% 100.0%
    ULTY YieldMax® Ultra Option Income Strategy ETF Weekly 79.49% 0.00% 100.0%
    YMAG YieldMax® Magnificent 7 Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly 42.80% 63.17% 90.5%
    YMAX YieldMax® Universe Fund of Option Income ETFs Weekly 50.44% 82.40% 95.4%
    BIGY YieldMax® Target 12® Big 50 Option Income ETF Monthly 11.35% 0.07% 99.28%
    RNTY YieldMax® Target 12® Real Estate Option Income ETF Monthly 12.07% 0.05% 53.01%
    SOXY YieldMax® Target 12® Semiconductor Option Income ETF Monthly 12.67% 2.16% 93.72%
    ABNY YieldMax® ABNB Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 35.21% 2.85% 92.90%
    AIYY YieldMax® AI Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 46.98% 3.46% 93.73%
    AMDY YieldMax® AMD Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 72.42% 2.82% 96.14%
    AMZY YieldMax® AMZN Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 47.42% 2.86% 94.61%
    APLY YieldMax® AAPL Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 27.20% 3.38% 87.98%
    BABO YieldMax® BABA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 38.87% 3.22% 91.85%
    BRKC YieldMax® BRK.B Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 35.53%
    CONY YieldMax® COIN Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 69.74% 2.93% 96.71%
    CRSH YieldMax® Short TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 62.69% 3.08% 91.57%
    CVNY YieldMax® CVNA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 50.69% 2.71% 96.68%
    DIPS YieldMax® Short NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 52.24% 3.59% 93.01%
    DISO YieldMax® DIS Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 38.51% 2.97% 93.52%
    FBY YieldMax® META Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 41.34% 2.87% 93.05%
    FEAT YieldMax® Dorsey Wright Featured 5 Income ETF Every 4 weeks 51.31% 52.99% 0.00%
    FIAT YieldMax® Short COIN Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 65.40% 4.73% 92.85%
    FIVY YieldMax® Dorsey Wright Hybrid 5 Income ETF Every 4 weeks 33.17% 35.26% 0.00%
    GDXY YieldMax® Gold Miners Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 73.19% 3.22% 95.87%
    GOOY YieldMax® GOOGL Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 33.00% 3.29% 0.00%
    HOOY YieldMax® HOOD Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 116.73% 1.43% 99.92%
    JPMO YieldMax® JPM Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 21.19% 2.70% 87.32%
    MARO YieldMax® MARA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 62.54% 3.09% 96.21%
    MRNY YieldMax® MRNA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 92.24% 3.07% 97.17%
    MSFO YieldMax® MSFT Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 35.03% 2.97% 92.03%
    MSTY YieldMax® MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 71.21% 1.80% 96.86%
    NFLY YieldMax® NFLX Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 30.60% 2.80% 90.80%
    NVDY YieldMax® NVDA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 50.52% 2.78% 95.30%
    OARK YieldMax® Innovation Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 50.31% 2.88% 95.16%
    PLTY YieldMax® PLTR Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 61.93% 2.99% 96.50%
    PYPY YieldMax® PYPL Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 34.10% 3.48% 92.95%
    SMCY YieldMax® SMCI Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 103.53% 3.09% 97.25%
    SNOY YieldMax® SNOW Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 37.92% 2.27% 62.42%
    TSLY YieldMax® TSLA Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 64.59% 2.76% 82.33%
    TSMY YieldMax® TSM Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 52.10% 2.87% 95.76%
    WNTR YieldMax® Short MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 79.34% 3.19% 96.58%
    XOMO YieldMax® XOM Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 37.52% 3.62% 92.57%
    XYZY YieldMax® XYZ Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 58.52% 2.57% 97.95%
    YBIT YieldMax® Bitcoin Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 45.25% 1.54% 87.99%
    YQQQ YieldMax® Short N100 Option Income Strategy ETF Every 4 weeks 21.80% 3.41% 84.56%


    Standardized Performance & Fund details can be obtained by clicking the ETF Ticker in the table above or by visiting us at
    www.yieldmaxetfs.com

    Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when sold or redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost and current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted above. Performance current to the most recent month-end can be obtained by calling (866) 864-3968.

    Note: DIPS, FIAT, CRSH, YQQQ and WNTR are hereinafter referred to as the “Short ETFs.”

    Distributions are not guaranteed. The Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield are not indicative of future distributions, if any, on the ETFs. In particular, future distributions on any ETF may differ significantly from its Distribution Rate or 30-Day SEC Yield. You are not guaranteed a distribution under the ETFs. Distributions for the ETFs (if any) are variable and may vary significantly from period to period and may be zero. Accordingly, the Distribution Rate and 30-Day SEC Yield will change over time, and such change may be significant.

    Investors in the Funds will not have rights to receive dividends or other distributions with respect to the underlying reference asset(s).

    1. All YieldMax®ETFs shown in the table above (except YMAX, YMAG, FEAT, FIVY and ULTY) have a gross expense ratio of 0.99%. YMAX and FEAT have a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.99% for a gross expense ratio of 1.28%. YMAG has a management fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.83% for a gross expense ratio of 1.12%. FIVY has a Management Fee of 0.29% and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses of 0.59% for a gross expense ratio of 0.88%. “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are indirect fees and expenses that the Fund incurs from investing in the shares of other investment companies, namely other YieldMax®ETFs. ULTY has a gross expense ratio of 1.40%, and a net expense ratio after the fee waiver of 1.30%. The Advisor has agreed to a fee waiver of 0.10% through at least February 28, 2026
    2. The Distribution Rate shown is as of close on July 14, 2025. The Distribution Rate is the annual distribution rate an investor would receive if the most recent distribution, which includes option income, remained the same going forward. The Distribution Rate is calculated by annualizing an ETF’s Distribution per Share and dividing such annualized amount by the ETF’s most recent NAV. The Distribution Rate represents a single distribution from the ETF and does not represent its total return. Distributions may also include a combination of ordinary dividends, capital gain, and return of investor capital, which may decrease an ETF’s NAV and trading price over time. As a result, an investor may suffer significant losses to their investment. These Distribution Rates may be caused by unusually favorable market conditions and may not be sustainable. Such conditions may not continue to exist and there should be no expectation that this performance may be repeated in the future.
    3. The 30-Day SEC Yield represents net investment income, which excludes option income, earned by such ETF over the 30-Day period ended June 30, 2025, expressed as an annual percentage rate based on such ETF’s share price at the end of the 30-Day period.
    4. Each ETF’s strategy (except those of the Short ETFs) will cap potential gains if its reference asset’s shares increase in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset’s shares decrease in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF. Each Short ETF’s strategy will cap potential gains if its reference asset decreases in value, yet subjects an investor to all potential losses if the reference asset increases in value. Such potential losses may not be offset by income received by the ETF.
    5. ROC refers to Return of Capital. The ROC percentage indicates how much the distribution reflects an investor’s initial investment. The figures shown for each Fund in the table above are estimates and may later be determined to be taxable net investment income, short-term gains, long-term gains (to the extent permitted by law), or return of capital. Actual amounts and sources for tax reporting will depend upon the Fund’s investment activities during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. Your broker will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year to tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

    Each Fund has a limited operating history and while each Fund’s objective is to provide current income, there is no guarantee the Fund will make a distribution. Distributions are likely to vary greatly in amount.

    Important Information

    This material must be preceded or accompanied by the prospectus. For all prospectuses, click here.

    Tidal Financial Group is the adviser for all YieldMax® ETFs.

    THE FUND, TRUST, AND ADVISER ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY UNDERLYING REFERENCE ASSET.

    Risk Disclosures

    YMAX, YMAG, FEAT and FIVY generally invest in other YieldMax® ETFs. As such, these funds are subject to the risks listed in this section, which apply to all the YieldMax® ETFs they may hold from time to time.

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Referenced Index Risk. The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Index (or the Index ETFs). This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of companies that comprised the Index or an ETF that tracks the Index, even though it does not.

    Indirect Investment Risk. The Index is not affiliated with the Trust, the Fund, the Adviser, or their respective affiliates and is not involved with this offering in any way. Investors in the Fund will not have the right to receive dividends or other distributions or any other rights with respect to the companies that comprise the Index but will be subject to declines in the performance of the Index.

    Russell 2000 Index Risks. The Index, which consists of small-cap U.S. companies, is particularly susceptible to economic changes, as these firms often have less financial resilience than larger companies. Market volatility can disproportionately affect these smaller businesses, leading to significant price swings. Additionally, these companies are often more exposed to specific industry risks and have less diverse revenue streams. They can also be more vulnerable to changes in domestic regulatory or policy environments.

    Call Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s call writing strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in the positive price returns of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold call options and over longer periods.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other Index (or ETFs that track the Index’s performance)holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary Index (or ETFs that track the Index’s performance) securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next. Additionally, monthly distributions, if any, may consist of returns of capital, which would decrease the Fund’s NAV and trading price over time.

    High Index (or Index ETF) Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings. A high Index (or Index ETF) turnover rate increases transaction costs, which may increase the Fund’s expenses.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of call option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in increases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Call Period.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, which focuses on an individual security (ARKK, TSLA, AAPL, NVDA, AMZN, META, GOOGL, NFLX, COIN, MSFT, DIS, XOM, JPM, AMD, PYPL, SQ, MRNA, AI, MSTR, Bitcoin ETP, GDX®, SNOW, ABNB, BABA, TSM, SMCI, PLTR, MARA, CVNA, HOOD, BRK.B, DKNG), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GPTY)

    Artificial Intelligence Risk. Issuers engaged in artificial intelligence typically have high research and capital expenditures and, as a result, their profitability can vary widely, if they are profitable at all. The space in which they are engaged is highly competitive and issuers’ products and services may become obsolete very quickly. These companies are heavily dependent on intellectual property rights and may be adversely affected by loss or impairment of those rights. The issuers are also subject to legal, regulatory and political changes that may have a large impact on their profitability. A failure in an issuer’s product or even questions about the safety of the product could be devastating to the issuer, especially if it is the marquee product of the issuer. It can be difficult to accurately capture what qualifies as an artificial intelligence company.

    Technology Sector Risk. The Fund will invest substantially in companies in the information technology sector, and therefore the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. Market or economic factors impacting technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technological advances could have a significant effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. The value of stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology is particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in technology product cycles, rapid product obsolescence, government regulation and competition, both domestically and internationally, including competition from foreign competitors with lower production costs. Stocks of information technology companies and companies that rely heavily on technology, especially those of smaller, less-seasoned companies, tend to be more volatile than the overall market. Information technology companies are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights, the loss or impairment of which may adversely affect profitability.

    Risk Disclosure (applicable only to MARO)

    Digital Assets Risk: The Fund does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. The Fund does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than the Fund. Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to BABO and TSMY)

    Currency Risk: Indirect exposure to foreign currencies subjects the Fund to the risk that currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Currency rates in foreign countries may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates and the imposition of currency controls or other political developments in the U.S. or abroad.

    Depositary Receipts Risk: The securities underlying BABO and TSMY are American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). Investment in ADRs may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market.

    Foreign Market and Trading Risk: The trading markets for many foreign securities are not as active as U.S. markets and may have less governmental regulation and oversight.

    Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers involve certain risks that may not be present with investments in securities of U.S. issuers, such as risk of loss due to foreign currency fluctuations or to political or economic instability, as well as varying regulatory requirements applicable to investments in non-U.S. issuers. There may be less information publicly available about a non-U.S. issuer than a U.S. issuer. Non-U.S. issuers may also be subject to different regulatory, accounting, auditing, financial reporting and investor protection standards than U.S. issuers.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to GDXY)

    Risk of Investing in Foreign Securities. The Fund is exposed indirectly to the securities of foreign issuers selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies. Investments in the securities of foreign issuers involve risks beyond those associated with investments in U.S. securities.

    Risk of Investing in Gold and Silver Mining Companies. The Fund is exposed indirectly to gold and silver mining companies selected by GDX®’s investment adviser, which subjects the Fund to the risks associated with such companies.

    The Fund invests in options contracts based on the value of the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX®), which subjects the Fund to some of the same risks as if it owned GDX®, as well as the risks associated with Canadian, Australian and Emerging Market Issuers, and Small-and Medium-Capitalization companies.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YBIT)

    YBIT does not invest directly in Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest directly in derivatives that track the performance of Bitcoin or any other digital assets. YBIT does not invest in or seek direct exposure to the current “spot” or cash price of Bitcoin. Investors seeking direct exposure to the price of Bitcoin should consider an investment other than YBIT.

    Bitcoin Investment Risk: The Fund’s indirect investment in Bitcoin, through holdings in one or more Underlying ETPs, exposes it to the unique risks of this emerging innovation. Bitcoin’s price is highly volatile, and its market is influenced by the changing Bitcoin network, fluctuating acceptance levels, and unpredictable usage trends.

    Digital Assets Risk: Digital assets like Bitcoin, designed as mediums of exchange, are still an emerging asset class. They operate independently of any central authority or government backing and are subject to regulatory changes and extreme price volatility. Potentially No 1940 Act Protections. As of the date of this Prospectus, there is only a single eligible Underlying ETP, and it is an investment company subject to the 1940 Act.

    Bitcoin ETP Risk: The Fund invests in options contracts that are based on the value of the Bitcoin ETP. This subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it owned shares of the Bitcoin ETP, even though it does not. Bitcoin ETPs are subject, but not limited, to significant risk and heightened volatility. An investor in a Bitcoin ETP may lose their entire investment. Bitcoin ETPs are not suitable for all investors. In addition, not all Bitcoin ETPs are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Those Bitcoin ETPs that are not registered under such statute are therefore not subject to the same regulations as exchange traded products that are so registered.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to the Short ETFs)

    Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

    Price Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the value of the underlying reference asset. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the underlying reference asset, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, the Fund is subject to the risk that the value of the underlying reference asset increases. If the value of the underlying reference asset increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses.

    Put Writing Strategy Risk. The path dependency (i.e., the continued use) of the Fund’s put writing (selling) strategy will impact the extent that the Fund participates in decreases in the value of the underlying reference asset and, in turn, the Fund’s returns, both during the term of the sold put options and over longer periods.

    Purchased OTM Call Options Risk. The Fund’s strategy is subject to potential losses if the underlying reference asset increases in value, which may not be offset by the purchase of out-of-the-money (OTM) call options. The Fund purchases OTM calls to seek to manage (cap) the Fund’s potential losses from the Fund’s short exposure to the underlying reference asset if it appreciates significantly in value. However, the OTM call options will cap the Fund’s losses only to the extent that the value of the underlying reference asset increases to a level that is at or above the strike level of the purchased OTM call options. Any increase in the value of the underlying reference asset to a level that is below the strike level of the purchased OTM call options will result in a corresponding loss for the Fund. For example, if the OTM call options have a strike level that is approximately 100% above the then-current value of the underlying reference asset at the time of the call option purchase, and the value of the underlying reference asset increases by at least 100% during the term of the purchased OTM call options, the Fund will lose all its value. Since the Fund bears the costs of purchasing the OTM calls, such costs will decrease the Fund’s value and/or any income otherwise generated by the Fund’s investment strategy.

    Counterparty Risk. The Fund is subject to counterparty risk by virtue of its investments in options contracts. Transactions in some types of derivatives, including options, are required to be centrally cleared (“cleared derivatives”). In a transaction involving cleared derivatives, the Fund’s counterparty is a clearing house rather than a bank or broker. Since the Fund is not a member of clearing houses and only members of a clearing house (“clearing members”) can participate directly in the clearing house, the Fund will hold cleared derivatives through accounts at clearing members.

    Derivatives Risk. Derivatives are financial instruments that derive value from the underlying reference asset or assets, such as stocks, bonds, or funds (including ETFs), interest rates or indexes. The Fund’s investments in derivatives may pose risks in addition to, and greater than, those associated with directly investing in securities or other ordinary investments, including risk related to the market, imperfect correlation with underlying investments or the Fund’s other portfolio holdings, higher price volatility, lack of availability, counterparty risk, liquidity, valuation and legal restrictions.

    Options Contracts. The use of options contracts involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying reference asset, including the anticipated volatility, which are affected by fiscal and monetary policies and by national and international political, changes in the actual or implied volatility or the reference asset, the time remaining until the expiration of the option contract and economic events.

    Distribution Risk. As part of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund seeks to provide current income. There is no assurance that the Fund will make a distribution in any given period. If the Fund does make distributions, the amounts of such distributions will likely vary greatly from one distribution to the next.

    High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may actively and frequently trade all or a significant portion of the Fund’s holdings.

    Liquidity Risk. Some securities held by the Fund, including options contracts, may be difficult to sell or be illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil.

    Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is “non-diversified,” it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.

    New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized management investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors do not have a track record or history on which to base their investment decisions.

    Price Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will participate in decreases in value experienced by the underlying reference asset over the Put Period.

    Single Issuer Risk. Issuer-specific attributes may cause an investment in the Fund to be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment which diversifies risk or the market generally. The value of the Fund, for any Fund that focuses on an individual security (e.g., TSLA, COIN, NVDA, MSTR), may be more volatile than a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole and may perform differently from the value of a traditional pooled investment or the market as a whole.

    Inflation Risk. Inflation risk is the risk that the value of assets or income from investments will be less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation increases, the present value of the Fund’s assets and distributions, if any, may decline.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to CHPY)

    Semiconductor Industry Risk. Semiconductor companies may face intense competition, both domestically and internationally, and such competition may have an adverse effect on their profit margins. Semiconductor companies may have limited product lines, markets, financial resources or personnel. Semiconductor companies’ supply chain and operations are dependent on the availability of materials that meet exacting standards and the use of third parties to provide components and services.

    The products of semiconductor companies may face obsolescence due to rapid technological developments and frequent new product introduction, unpredictable changes in growth rates and competition for the services of qualified personnel. Capital equipment expenditures could be substantial, and equipment generally suffers from rapid obsolescence. Companies in the semiconductor industry are heavily dependent on patent and intellectual property rights. The loss or impairment of these rights would adversely affect the profitability of these companies.

    Risk Disclosures (applicable only to YQQQ)

    Index Overview. The Nasdaq 100 Index is a benchmark index that includes 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, based on market capitalization.

    Index Level Appreciation Risk. As part of the Fund’s synthetic covered put strategy, the Fund purchases and sells call and put option contracts that are based on the Index level. This strategy subjects the Fund to certain of the same risks as if it shorted the Index, even though it does not. By virtue of the Fund’s indirect inverse exposure to changes in the Index level, the Fund is subject to the risk that the Index level increases. If the Index level increases, the Fund will likely lose value and, as a result, the Fund may suffer significant losses. The Fund may also be subject to the following risks: innovation and technological advancement; strong market presence of Index constituent companies; adaptability to global market trends; and resilience and recovery potential.

    Index Level Participation Risk. The Fund employs an investment strategy that includes the sale of put option contracts, which limits the degree to which the Fund will benefit from decreases in the Index level experienced over the Put Period. This means that if the Index level experiences a decrease in value below the strike level of the sold put options during a Put Period, the Fund will likely not experience that increase to the same extent and any Fund gains may significantly differ from the level of the Index losses over the Put Period. Additionally, because the Fund is limited in the degree to which it will participate in decreases in value experienced by the Index level over each Put Period, but has significant negative exposure to any increases in value experienced by the Index level over the Put Period, the NAV of the Fund may decrease over any given period. The Fund’s NAV is dependent on the value of each options portfolio, which is based principally upon the inverse of the performance of the Index level. The Fund’s ability to benefit from the Index level decreases will depend on prevailing market conditions, especially market volatility, at the time the Fund enters into the sold put option contracts and will vary from Put Period to Put Period. The value of the options contracts is affected by changes in the value and dividend rates of component companies that comprise the Index, changes in interest rates, changes in the actual or perceived volatility of the Index and the remaining time to the options’ expiration, as well as trading conditions in the options market. As the Index level changes and time moves towards the expiration of each Put Period, the value of the options contracts, and therefore the Fund’s NAV, will change. However, it is not expected for the Fund’s NAV to directly inversely correlate on a day-to-day basis with the returns of the Index level. The amount of time remaining until the options contract’s expiration date affects the impact that the value of the options contracts has on the Fund’s NAV, which may not be in full effect until the expiration date of the Fund’s options contracts. Therefore, while changes in the Index level will result in changes to the Fund’s NAV, the Fund generally anticipates that the rate of change in the Fund’s NAV will be different than the inverse of the changes experienced by the Index level.

    YieldMax® ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Foreside is not affiliated with Tidal Financial Group, or YieldMax® ETFs.

    © 2025 YieldMax® ETFs

    The MIL Network

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Completed fish pass in Suffolk’s chalk stream help fish to thrive

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Completed fish pass in Suffolk’s chalk stream help fish to thrive

    A new £1.2 million fish pass on the River Lark in Mildenhall improves migration for trout, eels, and course fish.

    The new £1.2 million fish pass on the River Lark in Mildenhall that improves migration for trout, eels, and coarse fish.

    Thousands of fish will benefit from improved access to vital habitats following the installation of a new fish pass on a precious chalk stream.  

    The natural limestone fish passage at Turf Lock on the River Lark has replaced 2 weirs that were preventing wild brown trout, eels and coarse fish from migrating upstream.  

    Built as a rock ramp-style fish pass using natural materials, boulders were carefully placed to disrupt the flow. The new design allows fish to swim between boulders, as they move upstream, which provide shelter and creates better conditions for migration across varying water levels and flows.

    Lou Mayer, environment programme manager for the Environment Agency in Suffolk, said:

    It’s fantastic to see work completed on this important project and witness fish swimming up into Mildenhall for the first time in centuries. Chalk streams are a valuable natural resource that the Environment Agency and its partners are working hard to restore and protect. 

    Over time, there has been a gradual decline in both biodiversity and the overall health of the River Lark’s ecosystem. This project and other planned initiatives will help this river continue to recover and become more resilient to future challenges of climate change.

    Councillor Philip Faircloth-Mutton, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for environment, communities and equality, said:

    Protecting and enhancing Suffolk’s environment is one the county council’s core ambitions, and the fish pass project is a great example of what can be achieved. 

    The Brecks is such a nationally unique area, and thanks to the hard work and care of all the partners involved, it is wonderful to know that fish are now accessing parts of the river for the first time in generations.

    This initiative forms part of the government’s Plan for Change commitment to restore nature and improve water quality across the country.

    The project is being delivered through the Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership Scheme, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and hosted by Suffolk County Council in collaboration with local authorities, the Environment Agency, Anglian Water, Natural England and other partners.

    The Environment Agency invites residents to come and learn about the fish pass and the wider effort to restore the health of the River Lark. Friday July 18, 5pm – 7pm at the Mildenhall Cricket Club, Mildenhall IP28 7JU. No need to book.

    Background: 

    The Environment Agency is funding this project from the Water Environment Improvement Fund, which has been used to unlock £3million of National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Brecks Fen Edge and Rivers Landscape Partnership scheme, delivering heritage conservation projects on the Breck’s fenland fringe, key freshwater habitats and primary river corridors.   

    The River Lark’s catchment partnership objective is to make improvements to habitat and ecological status of the river. Find out more here:  The River Lark Catchment Partnership 

    The River Lark has been identified as a flagship river for The Chalk Stream Restoration Project nominated as a Flagship catchment by Anglian Water and supported by the River Lark Catchment Partnership.  

    Gov.uk blog about eel migration: Ancient mystery of European eel migration unravelled to help combat decline of critically-endangered species – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk

    Anyone aged 13 or over needs a licence to fish for salmon, trout, eels or freshwater species, with the price as little as £6.60 for a day. Through buying a licence, anglers help protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries: https://www.gov.uk/fishing-licences/buy-a-fishing-licence.

    Contact us:

    Journalists only – 0800 141 2743 or communications_se@environment-agency.gov.uk.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New Incoming CEO of the National Wealth Fund

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    New Incoming CEO of the National Wealth Fund

    The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today announced the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Wealth Fund.

    The Chancellor of the Exchequer has today announced the appointment of Oliver Holbourn as the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Wealth Fund, to lead it through its next chapter.

    Oliver brings more than 25 years of experience across banking, strategy, and public financial investments including CEO roles at RBS International and, formerly, UK Financial Investments.

    The National Wealth Fund is the government’s principal investor and policy bank. It is at the forefront of investing public money and mobilising private capital to help deliver on the government’s growth and clean energy missions.

    Since its launch in October 2024, the National Wealth Fund has committed £2.5 billion, supporting 10,700 jobs. It also has expanded firepower, with £5.8 billion of additional capital to deploy. The NWF’s economic capital limit has been increased allowing it to take on greater risk, providing greater flexibility over its investments to support more projects to access private finance.

    The Chancellor recently set this government’s Strategic Priorities for the National Wealth Fund over this Parliament. Under Oliver Holbourn’s leadership, the National Wealth Fund will enter a new phase of delivering these priorities: significantly increasing the amount of capital it deploys; expanding into new sectors; and trialling Strategic Partnerships with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to develop richer pipelines for regional investment.

    This appointment followed a fair and open recruitment process, and he is expected to take up his post on 1 November.

    Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves said:

    I would like to congratulate Oliver on his appointment as CEO of the National Wealth Fund.

    Oliver brings a wealth of private sector expertise and public service experience to this critical role. His expertise will be instrumental in delivering the government’s growth and clean energy missions.

    I would like to thank John Flint for his leadership in successfully transforming the UK Infrastructure Bank into the National Wealth Fund and for laying a strong foundation for its future growth.

    Incoming CEO of the National Wealth Fund, Oliver Holbourn said:

    The National Wealth Fund has an important role to play in the economic success of the UK; so I am deeply honoured to be taking the reins as Chief Executive at such a pivotal time.

    I am excited to get to work – using the NWF’s expertise and resources to partner with businesses, investors, mayoral combined and local authorities, and ministers and stakeholders to mobilise private investment alongside public sector finance. This will help drive sustainable economic growth across the UK and support the clean energy transition.

    Chair of the National Wealth Fund, Chris Grigg said:

    Oliver is the ideal person to lead the Fund into our next phase. He is passionately committed to our mission, brings a rare combination of senior leadership across both the public and private sectors, and has a background in banking, which is at the heart of what we do. 

    I look forward to working with Oliver to realise the full potential of our expanded mandate, delivering the Government’s ambitions for growth and clean energy, underpinned by the new Industrial Strategy.

    Biography

    Oliver Holbourn was until very recently the CEO of RBS International Holdings, a subsidiary of the NatWest Group, where he was on the Group Executive Committee for over four years.

    With over 25 years of experience across investment banking, government investments, and strategic leadership. Oliver brings deep expertise in managing capital to deliver public value having previously served as Chief Executive Officer of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), where he was responsible for managing the government’s shareholdings in RBS, Lloyds and UK Asset Resolution, overseeing complex, high-value shareholdings on behalf of the UK taxpayer.

    Earlier in his career, Oliver spent over a decade at Bank of America, latterly as Managing Director of Equity Capital Markets for the UK, Ireland, and South Africa. His career has been defined by a strong track record in financial leadership, capital markets, and public sector engagement.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: £31 million set to be pumped into biggest affordable housing project in city’s history

    Source: City of Stoke-on-Trent

    Published: Tuesday, 15th July 2025

    Extra money is being earmarked for a brand-new multi-million-pound housing estate, made up of almost 120 homes, on a former Stoke-on-Trent school site.

    More than £31 million is now set to be spent on a developing and transforming the former Brookhouse Green Primary School in Wellfield Road, Bentilee, into 117 affordable homes.  

    It marks the biggest single investment in an affordable housing project in the city’s history. The brownfield development will consist of a series of different types of homes, from single-occupier bungalows to three-bedroom family houses.

    Plans to develop the homes on the brownfield site were approved in April as part of the city council’s mission to ensure everyone has access to a decent home.

    The authority has entered into a pre-construction services agreement with developer John Graham Construction Ltd (GRAHAM) – and work is expected to start on site by 2026.

    The national company will work in partnership with the council to ensure that homes are of high quality and energy efficient.

    The council’s cabinet is now set to approve a budget of just over £31 million for the project when it meets later this month. Funding will come from a number of spending pots and grants, as well as the authority’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

    The redevelopment of the Wellfield Road site, which was deemed surplus to requirements in 2020, is also being supported by a £1.8 million government grant from the Brownfield Land Release Fund.

    The scheme forms part of the council’s new housing pipeline strategy, which – if approved by cabinet later this month – will see nearly 5,000 homes built across the city in the next few years.

    Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and regeneration at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “This is a history-making housing project, which will deliver the types of affordable homes that many people are crying out for in the city.

    “It is also one of many schemes we will be looking to deliver over the next few years as we make housing – ranging from single occupier bungalows up to larger family homes – a real focus. We will also be making it a priority to transform brownfield and current derelict sites as we regenerate our city.

    “By working together, we’re making great strides to bring much-needed new homes to the city to ensure families can live their best lives now and into the future.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Change of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Armenia: Alexandra Cole

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Press release

    Change of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Armenia: Alexandra Cole

    Ms Alexandra Cole has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia in succession to Mr John Gallagher.

    Ms Alexandra Cole has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia in succession to Mr John Gallagher who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment.  Ms Cole will take up her appointment during September 2025.

    Curriculum vitae

    Full name: Alexandra Pamela Cole

    Year Role
    2024 to present Pre-posting training
    2023 to 2024 FCDO, Head of Contingency Planning, MENA
    2020 to 2023 Doha, Deputy Head of Mission
    2018 to 2020 Tbilisi, Deputy Head of Mission
    2013 to 2018 UK Mission to the UN in Geneva, Counsellor Specialised Agencies
    2011 to 2013 FCO, Policy Unit
    2008 to 2010 Cairo, Consular Regional Director
    2006 to 2008 FCO, Engaging with Islamic World Group
    2004 to 2006 Islamabad, Second Secretary Human Rights
    2002 to 2004 Sarajevo, Second Secretary Political
    2001 to 2002 Pre-posting training (including Bosnian language training)
    1999 to 2001 FCO, Personnel Management Unit
    1996 to 1999 Tehran, Entry Clearance Officer
    1994 to 1995 FCO, Trade Union Side
    1996 to 1999 Tehran, Entry Clearance Officer
    1992 to 1994 FCO, Finance Department
    1990 to 1992 FCO, Migration and Visa Department
    1990 Joined FCO

    Media enquiries

    Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

    Telephone 020 7008 3100

    Email the FCDO Newsdesk (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

    Updates to this page

    Published 15 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom

  • India’s trade deficit narrows to $18.78 billion in June

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    India’s trade deficit narrowed to $18.78 billion in June, down from $21.88 billion in May, according to data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Tuesday.

    Merchandise exports remained nearly flat at $35.14 billion in June compared to $35.16 billion in the same month last year. Imports, however, declined by 3.71 per cent to $53.92 billion from $56 billion a year ago.

    In the services sector, India recorded an estimated surplus of $15.62 billion for June, with services exports at $32.84 billion and imports at $17.58 billion.

    Combined exports of merchandise and services stood at $67.98 billion in June, while combined imports were $71.50 billion, resulting in a net trade deficit of $3.51 billion for the month.

    Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal recently said that global conflicts and economic uncertainties are impacting Indian exports. The government, he added, is working closely with exporters to address issues related to shipping and insurance.

    The trade numbers come as India continues negotiations with the US and other partners to secure favourable market access. The US has been pushing for wider access for its agricultural and dairy products — a sensitive issue for India due to its impact on the livelihoods of small farmers.

    India is also seeking an exemption from former US President Donald Trump’s 26 per cent tariffs by aiming to conclude an interim trade deal. Simultaneously, India is pushing for tariff concessions on its labour-intensive exports, including textiles, leather and footwear.

    Trump has announced that his administration will begin notifying trading partners about tariff rates as early as Friday, even as last-stage talks continue with countries including India to avoid higher US duties.

    Meanwhile, India’s trade performance in Q3 FY25 (October–December 2024) reflected cautious resilience amid global geopolitical tensions, according to a quarterly report by NITI Aayog released on Monday. Merchandise exports in that quarter rose 3 per cent year-on-year to $108.7 billion.

    The report also highlighted a sharp rise in exports of aircraft, spacecraft and parts, which entered the top ten export categories with over 200 per cent annual growth driven by demand from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Czech Republic.

    India’s high-tech merchandise exports, led by electrical machinery and arms and ammunition, have maintained steady momentum since 2014, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6 per cent.

    — IANS

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: UK air quality is improving but pollution targets are still being breached – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Weber, Lecturer in Atmospheric Radiation, Composition and Climate, University of Reading

    Tony Skerl/Shutterstock

    An estimated 4.2 million deaths can be attributed to poor air quality each year. Poor air quality is the largest fixable environmental public health risk in the world.

    Our new study presents analysis of the UK-wide trends for three major pollutants – nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone (O₃) and tiny particulate matter known as PM₂.₅ – between 2015 and 2024 to calculate how often air quality targets were breached.

    Both nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ showed robust decreases over the period 2015-2024, declining on average by 35% and 30% respectively. In 2015-2016, the average Defra monitoring site exceeded the nitrogen dioxide target on 136 days per year. By 2023-2024, this had dropped to 40 days per year.

    For PM₂.₅, the number of days the average Defra site breached the target went from 40 to 22 days per year. While this is an improvement, the World Health Organization advises that these targets should not be breached on more than four days per year.


    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.


    To examine the sources of pollution, we studied how pollutants were influenced by factors including time of day, day of week, wind direction and origin, location of monitoring station and even interactions between pollutant. Nitrogen dioxide concentrations are highest at monitoring sites located next to busy urban roads, lower at urban background sites (which are located at sites further from traffic such as parks) and much lower in rural sites.

    Profiles over 24-hour periods show strong nitrogen dioxide peaks coinciding with the morning and evening rush hours and clear decreases at weekends. This all points to local traffic emissions being the major source. While PM₂.₅ is also higher in urban than rural locations, it exhibits more muted rush hour peaks and is more consistent between the week and weekend, suggesting traffic plays a smaller role.

    We explored how wind direction and origin influenced nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ by running a weather forecast model backwards for three UK locations: Reading, Sheffield and Glasgow. While nitrogen dioxide showed only a weak correlation with wind origin, PM₂.₅ was much more dependent.

    For example, the probability of PM₂.₅ breaching air quality targets on a given day exceeded 15% only when the air had come from continental Europe and, for Sheffield and Glasgow, passed over much of the UK too.

    NO₂ and PM₂.₅ pollution reduced over the last decade but remains too high while O₃ pollution has worsened.
    James Weber, CC BY

    While nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ showed clear improvements, ozone exhibited a less positive picture. Ozone increased in 115 of the 121 sites considered, growing by 17% on average. A similar trend was observed across much of northern Europe. The average number of days ozone exceeded the World Health Organization target doubled from seven to 14 per year.

    This may seem modest at present, but several factors are conspiring to drive ozone higher. In much of the UK, the relatively high levels of nitrogen dioxide effectively suppress ozone: as a result, ozone is higher in rural rather than urban areas and, as nitrogen dioxide decreases, ozone will increase further.

    Unless, that is, we also target nitrogen dioxide’s partner in crime, volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are critical to the production of ozone and are emitted from human sources such as traffic and industry, plus certain types of vegetation like oak trees. While emissions of nitrogen dioxide fell by 20% between 2015-2024, human-driven VOC emissions declined by only 1%.

    Ozone also increases in periods of hot weather due to elevated VOC emissions from vegetation and greater mixing of air from higher up in the atmosphere into the layer closest to the surface. Incidents of hot weather are only going to become more frequent in the UK, making it even more critical to crack down on human-driven VOC emissions to limit ozone pollution.

    Up in the air

    In the UK, considerable efforts have been made to improve air quality. Its importance has been enshrined in law for nearly 70 years. An extensive network of air quality monitoring sites is maintained by the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plus devolved and local authorities.

    Local authorities are required to monitor air quality and develop air quality management areas in places where targets are unlikely to be met. Clean air or low emission zones have been introduced as a result.

    However, air quality policy must be designed to reflect the complex nature of each pollutants’ drivers. Nitrogen dioxide is dominated by local sources, PM₂.₅ by transport from further afield and ozone by a combination of both.

    An air quality monitoring station.
    Chemival/Shutterstock

    Local and national policies that cut traffic emissions by incentivising the replacement of older cars with newer, cleaner vehicles, retrofitting buses and restricting entry of the most polluting vehicles into towns and cities will probably reduce nitrogen dioxide further.

    But, if nitrogen dioxide decreases are not accompanied by reductions to VOC emissions, locally and internationally, ozone will continue to rise, especially with more frequent hot weather.

    By contrast, most PM₂.₅ comes from sources further afield, including industry and agriculture from other parts of the UK and beyond, so reductions hinge on stronger national and global policies that target emissions at source rather than just local efforts.

    Air pollution doesn’t respect borders and while the technologies to facilitate continued improvements exist, they must be deployed in joined-up, international efforts.


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

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


    James Weber 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. UK air quality is improving but pollution targets are still being breached – new study – https://theconversation.com/uk-air-quality-is-improving-but-pollution-targets-are-still-being-breached-new-study-260961

    MIL OSI

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: UK air quality is improving but pollution targets are still being breached – new study

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Weber, Lecturer in Atmospheric Radiation, Composition and Climate, University of Reading

    Tony Skerl/Shutterstock

    An estimated 4.2 million deaths can be attributed to poor air quality each year. Poor air quality is the largest fixable environmental public health risk in the world.

    Our new study presents analysis of the UK-wide trends for three major pollutants – nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone (O₃) and tiny particulate matter known as PM₂.₅ – between 2015 and 2024 to calculate how often air quality targets were breached.

    Both nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ showed robust decreases over the period 2015-2024, declining on average by 35% and 30% respectively. In 2015-2016, the average Defra monitoring site exceeded the nitrogen dioxide target on 136 days per year. By 2023-2024, this had dropped to 40 days per year.

    For PM₂.₅, the number of days the average Defra site breached the target went from 40 to 22 days per year. While this is an improvement, the World Health Organization advises that these targets should not be breached on more than four days per year.


    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.


    To examine the sources of pollution, we studied how pollutants were influenced by factors including time of day, day of week, wind direction and origin, location of monitoring station and even interactions between pollutant. Nitrogen dioxide concentrations are highest at monitoring sites located next to busy urban roads, lower at urban background sites (which are located at sites further from traffic such as parks) and much lower in rural sites.

    Profiles over 24-hour periods show strong nitrogen dioxide peaks coinciding with the morning and evening rush hours and clear decreases at weekends. This all points to local traffic emissions being the major source. While PM₂.₅ is also higher in urban than rural locations, it exhibits more muted rush hour peaks and is more consistent between the week and weekend, suggesting traffic plays a smaller role.

    We explored how wind direction and origin influenced nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ by running a weather forecast model backwards for three UK locations: Reading, Sheffield and Glasgow. While nitrogen dioxide showed only a weak correlation with wind origin, PM₂.₅ was much more dependent.

    For example, the probability of PM₂.₅ breaching air quality targets on a given day exceeded 15% only when the air had come from continental Europe and, for Sheffield and Glasgow, passed over much of the UK too.

    NO₂ and PM₂.₅ pollution reduced over the last decade but remains too high while O₃ pollution has worsened.
    James Weber, CC BY

    While nitrogen dioxide and PM₂.₅ showed clear improvements, ozone exhibited a less positive picture. Ozone increased in 115 of the 121 sites considered, growing by 17% on average. A similar trend was observed across much of northern Europe. The average number of days ozone exceeded the World Health Organization target doubled from seven to 14 per year.

    This may seem modest at present, but several factors are conspiring to drive ozone higher. In much of the UK, the relatively high levels of nitrogen dioxide effectively suppress ozone: as a result, ozone is higher in rural rather than urban areas and, as nitrogen dioxide decreases, ozone will increase further.

    Unless, that is, we also target nitrogen dioxide’s partner in crime, volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are critical to the production of ozone and are emitted from human sources such as traffic and industry, plus certain types of vegetation like oak trees. While emissions of nitrogen dioxide fell by 20% between 2015-2024, human-driven VOC emissions declined by only 1%.

    Ozone also increases in periods of hot weather due to elevated VOC emissions from vegetation and greater mixing of air from higher up in the atmosphere into the layer closest to the surface. Incidents of hot weather are only going to become more frequent in the UK, making it even more critical to crack down on human-driven VOC emissions to limit ozone pollution.

    Up in the air

    In the UK, considerable efforts have been made to improve air quality. Its importance has been enshrined in law for nearly 70 years. An extensive network of air quality monitoring sites is maintained by the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) plus devolved and local authorities.

    Local authorities are required to monitor air quality and develop air quality management areas in places where targets are unlikely to be met. Clean air or low emission zones have been introduced as a result.

    However, air quality policy must be designed to reflect the complex nature of each pollutants’ drivers. Nitrogen dioxide is dominated by local sources, PM₂.₅ by transport from further afield and ozone by a combination of both.

    An air quality monitoring station.
    Chemival/Shutterstock

    Local and national policies that cut traffic emissions by incentivising the replacement of older cars with newer, cleaner vehicles, retrofitting buses and restricting entry of the most polluting vehicles into towns and cities will probably reduce nitrogen dioxide further.

    But, if nitrogen dioxide decreases are not accompanied by reductions to VOC emissions, locally and internationally, ozone will continue to rise, especially with more frequent hot weather.

    By contrast, most PM₂.₅ comes from sources further afield, including industry and agriculture from other parts of the UK and beyond, so reductions hinge on stronger national and global policies that target emissions at source rather than just local efforts.

    Air pollution doesn’t respect borders and while the technologies to facilitate continued improvements exist, they must be deployed in joined-up, international efforts.


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

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


    James Weber 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. UK air quality is improving but pollution targets are still being breached – new study – https://theconversation.com/uk-air-quality-is-improving-but-pollution-targets-are-still-being-breached-new-study-260961

    MIL OSI Analysis

  • India cuts zero-dose children by 43% as South Asia hits record-high immunization in 2024

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    India has reduced the number of children who missed all vaccinations — also called zero-dose children — by 43% in just one year, according to new data released on Tuesday by WHO and UNICEF.

    As per the 2024 data, India brought down its number of zero-dose children from 1.6 million in 2023 to 0.9 million in 2024 — a drop of nearly 700,000.

    “This is a proud moment for South Asia. More children are protected today than ever before,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia, while also stressing the need to reach the remaining children in remote areas.

    South Asia, as a region, achieved its highest-ever immunization coverage. In 2024, 92% of infants received the third dose of the DTP vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. This marks a 2% increase from 2023 and even surpasses pre-COVID levels.

    Nepal also saw major improvement, cutting its number of zero-dose children by more than half. Pakistan reached its highest-ever DTP3 coverage at 87%. However, Afghanistan remains a concern, with the lowest coverage in the region and a slight decline compared to last year.

    Measles coverage improved as well: around 93% of infants received the first dose and 88% received the second. Reported measles cases fell sharply by 39% in 2024.

    Vaccination against HPV (Human Papillomavirus), which prevents cervical cancer, also made progress. Bangladesh vaccinated over 7.1 million girls since launching its programme last year, while Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka also reported increases. India and Pakistan are expected to begin their HPV vaccination campaigns later this year.

    The WHO and UNICEF report praised strong leadership from governments, the tireless work of frontline health workers, and the better use of data and technology for achieving these gains.

    “It is heartening to see the WHO South-East Asia Region reach its highest-ever immunization rates, surpassing the pre-pandemic uptrend. We must build on this momentum and step up efforts to reach every child with these lifesaving vaccines. Together we can, and we must,” said Dr Thaksaphon Thamarangsi, Director of Programme Management, WHO South-East Asia Region.

    Still, experts warned that over 2.9 million children in South Asia remain un- or under-vaccinated and must be reached to ensure full protection against deadly diseases.

    (ANI)

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Ethiopia moves toward smarter health and nutrition supply chain management

    Source: APO


    .

    A national dissemination workshop held on May 27, 2025, in Addis Ababa brought together government officials, health experts, and development partners to review the findings of a comprehensive assessment of Ethiopia’s electronic Logistics Management Information System (eLMIS), known as Dagu. The system is designed to enhance visibility and improve efficiency throughout the country’s health supply chain.

    Opening the event, the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethiopia Dr Patrick Okumu Abok,  Team Lead, Health Emergencies Programme, commended the collaborative efforts that led to the successful completion of the nationwide assessment, which covered 251 public health facilities. The study evaluated the functionality, maturity, utilization, and impact of the Dagu system on health and nutrition commodity availability, inventory management, and decision-making processes.

    The event and the nationwide assessment were funded by the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), reaffirming the EU’s longstanding commitment to supporting Ethiopia’s health system strengthening and digital transformation.

     “This event marks a significant milestone in our collective effort to build a more resilient, data-driven supply chain for Ethiopia,” said Dr Patrick. “Dagu is helping health facilities deliver essential medicines, nutrition commodities and health supplies more reliably—and the data proves it.”

    According to the assessment findings, 63.7% of health facilities currently operate functional Dagu systems. These facilities demonstrated improved pharmaceutical availability—with an average availability rate of 88.3% for tracer medicines—highlighting Dagu’s positive contribution to medicine access across the health system.

    Despite the progress, the assessment also highlighted several challenges, including infrastructure limitations, intermittent internet access, limited management engagement, and human resource constraints, particularly in areas such as training and staff retention. The study identified that facilities with trained pharmacy heads and reliable internet access were significantly more likely to operate functional Dagu systems.

    The Ministry of Health emphasised the government’s continued commitment to scaling up digital health innovations, such as Dagu, to achieve better health outcomes.

     “This assessment reinforces what we’ve known—Dagu has the potential to transform our supply chain. But it also reminds us that sustainability requires more than just systems; it requires leadership, accountability, and integration,” said Teshome Deres, senior advisor for the state minister of the Ministry of Health. “We are committed to working with our partners to ensure Dagu reaches its full potential across all health programs.”

    The workshop emphasized the importance of transforming these insights into action. Recommendations put forth include:

    • Strengthening infrastructure and digital connectivity at health facilities
    • Institutionalizing routine performance monitoring
    • Enhancing interoperability with other national health systems like DHIS2 and ERP
    • Introducing legal frameworks to support mandatory system use
    • Expanding Dagu’s coverage to all health programs, including those currently underrepresented such as EPI and nutrition

    The event was supported in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Service (EPSS), and the Dagu Task Force, with the support from Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), ECHO, Results for Development (R4D), and WHO.

    With a strong political commitment and coordinated implementation, Ethiopia’s journey toward a more efficient and equitable health supply chain continues—powered by innovation, data, and partnerships.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO) – Ethiopia.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Africa: World Bank Report Highlights Gender Dynamics and Opportunities in Botswana

    Source: APO


    .

    The World Bank has released a comprehensive report, Trends and Opportunities to Advance Gender Equality in Botswana”, analyzing gender dynamics across life-cycle stages to guide policymakers, the civil society, and development partners on key challenges and opportunities for advancing gender equality. It reveals how structural barriers in education access, financial inclusion, and labor market participation disproportionately affect women and young Batswana and provides recommendations to address these barriers.

    “This report offers important insights to accelerate our ongoing efforts to create a more equitable Botswana. By addressing systemic barriers such as limited access to finance, skills gaps, and societal norms, we can unlock the full potential of youth, women, and men as drivers of economic growth. We are committed to fostering inclusivity while emphasizing various roles in advancing gender equality. The Government remains steadfast in promoting equal opportunities for all Batswana,” said Honourable Lesego Chombo, Minister of Youth and Gender Affairs, at the report’s launch in Gaborone.

    The report outlines five strategic priorities to address critical challenges:

    (i)       Increase women’s participation in decision-making at local and national levels and strengthen gender equality under the law.

    (ii)      Strengthen capacity for all-of-government gender mainstreaming.

    (iii)     Reduce high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) and improve access to justice and to integrated GBV survivor support services.

    (iv)     Support girls and boys to reach their full potential of human capital; and

    (v)      Close wage and productivity gender gaps in entrepreneurship and employment.

    “Women now account for 57% of university graduates, and Botswana has significantly expanded access to maternal health services, with most births taking place in health facilities. However, persistent gaps in women’s economic participation limit the country’s growth potential,” says World Bank Country Director for Botswana, Satu Kahkonen. The World Bank will continue to support Botswana’s efforts to achieve gender equality and youth empowerment.  Ww have committed to do so globally in our Gender Strategy 2024–2030.”

    The assessment identifies gender disparities in three key areas: human capital (health, education, social protection), economic inclusion, voice and agency. Boys face higher rates of childhood stunting and lower early childhood education access, while 1 in 10 girls becomes pregnant before the age of 20, making it the leading cause of school dropout for young women. Maternal mortality, though improved, remains high at 131 deaths per 100,000 live births, and HIV continues to disproportionately affects women, with a 26% prevalence – nearly twice that of men.

    Despite educational gains, women in Botswana have lower labor force participation (63% vs 73% for men), earn less, and are concentrated in informal, vulnerable jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened these disparities, with women accounting for over half of all job losses. Rural and informal women workers are especially vulnerable to climate and economic shocks, underlining the need for inclusive, resilient economic systems. Despite advancements in the legal framework for gender equality, social norms and informal barriers still limit women’s full economic inclusion. Women-are more likely to run informal businesses, have less access to finance and remain underrepresented in political leadership and traditional leadership. High rates of gender-based violence, especially among marginalized groups, are worsened by weak institutional coordination and fragmented support systems.

    The assessment was conducted in consultation with the Government of Botswana, development partners, and civil society organizations, and benefits from prior research and reports.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The World Bank Group.

    MIL OSI Africa

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Cameroon’s Economic Update: Harnessing Forests and Natural Wealth for Sustainable Growth

    Source: APO


    .

    The World Bank Group today launched the 2025 Cameroon Economic Update, titled ‘’Cameroon’s Green Gold: Unlocking the Value of Forests and Natural Capital’’. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the nation’s recent economic developments, medium-term outlook, and the critical role of wealth accounting in assessing the country’s economic performance. The report places a special emphasis on the importance of sustainable forests and natural resources management as drivers of inclusive and resilient development.

    According to the report, Cameroon’s GDP grew by 3.5% in 2024, up from 3.2% in 2023, driven by rising cocoa prices, enhanced cotton yields, and improved power supply. Average inflation declined sharply from 7.4% to 4.5% between 2023 and 2024, thanks to tighter monetary policy, price controls, and reduced import inflation. The current account deficit narrowed from 4.1% to 3.4% of GDP%, mainly due to the cocoa price surge. However, the overall fiscal deficit widened to 1.5% of GDP, compared to 0.7% of GDP in 2023, due to a slippage in current expenditures and weaker-than-expected revenues. Public debt rose slightly from 46.1% to 46.8% of GDP, with most of this increase in the form of external debt.

    The medium-term outlook is moderately positive, with an anticipated average real GDP growth of 3.9% from 2025 to 2028, supported by improved power generation and increased public investment – particularly in the construction sector. Average inflation is expected to decline further, reaching the 3% CEMAC convergence criteria by 2027. However, the current account deficit is expected to increase at around 4.0% of GDP over the medium term, due to declining oil production and prices, mixed results from government industrial policies, and increased inputs as a result of higher public and private investment. While Cameroon’s external and overall public debt are expected to remain sustainable, the country faces a high risk of debt distress due to liquidity issues.

    Cameroon’s economy has demonstrated resilience amidst external shocks, yet multiple structural weaknesses – particularly infrastructure gaps – impede its potential,” said Robert Utz, World Bank Lead Country Economist and one of the report’s authors. ‘’A bold fiscal reform agenda is imperative to bridge those gaps and boost economy-wide productivity.”

    The report also introduces national wealth accounting as a critical tool for policy makers to better understand Cameroon’s economic capacity to generate future income and sustain development. Although total national wealth grew from $311 billion in 1995 to $553 billion in 2020, national wealth per capita declined by 11% over the same period. Adjusted net savings (ANS) – a broader picture of a nation’s economic sustainability – was moderately negative between 2010 and 2020, suggesting that Cameroon is depleting its wealth slightly faster than it is accumulating new assets. Forest depletion accelerated dramatically after 2010, with the conversion of lowland forests for agricultural use between 2010 and 2020, five times the rate of the previous decade. At the same time, the ecological condition of Cameroon’s forests has deteriorated significantly, with satellite data showing declines in tree height, canopy cover, forest connectivity, and landscape naturalness

    To minimize the environmental impact of growth and preserve natural wealth, Cameroon could prioritize its high-value, vulnerable ecosystems and transition to a forest-based service economy, leveraging ecotourism, medicinal services with its unique flora, and forest-based knowledge,” said Cheick F. Kanté, World Bank Division Director for Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

    The report underscores that to achieve its goal of becoming an emerging economy by 2035, Cameroon must diversify beyond primary commodities. With one of Africa’s most unique ecosystems, a competitive tourism sector could become a key driver of growth and employment—leveraging natural capital that few other countries can match.

    Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The World Bank Group.

    MIL OSI Africa