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Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI USA: Dr. Leslie Loew Named 2025 Biophysical Society Fellow

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    The Biophysical Society announced Leslie M. Loew, R.D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, is named a 2025 Biophysical Society Fellow for inventing fluorescent sensors of membrane potential and leadership in the development of computational cell biology.

    The Biophysical Society, founded in 1958, is a professional, scientific society established to lead an innovative global community working at the interface of the physical and life sciences, across all levels of complexity, and to foster the dissemination of that knowledge.

    The Society promotes growth in this expanding field through its Annual Meeting, publications, and outreach activities. Its 7,000 members are located throughout the world, where they teach and conduct research in colleges, universities, laboratories, government agencies, and industry.

    This award honors the Society’s distinguished members who have demonstrated excellence in science and contributed to the expansion of the field of biophysics. The Fellows will be honored at the Biophysical Society’s 69th Annual Meeting, being held in Los Angeles, California from February 15-19, 2025.

    “The Biophysical Society Annual Meeting is where I discuss science every year and its flagship publication, The Biophysical Journal, is where I send most of my scientific papers. So I am truly honored to receive this recognition by my peers in the BPS,” says Loew.

    Loew is Professor of Cell Biology, Boehringer-Ingelheim Chair in Cell Science and University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at the UConn School of Medicine. Throughout his career his work has focused on quantitative mechanistic investigation of cell and tissue biology. He is known for inventing biophysical methods to investigate these systems, including both microscope imaging technologies and fluorescent sensors. Loew pioneered the synthesis of fluorescent dyes to probe the electrical activity of cells and tissue. For the last 25 years he has been leading the UConn team that develops the “Virtual Cell”, comprehensive software to model and simulate cell biology with 26,000 registered users worldwide.

    During his 40 year career at UConn he has been awarded research grants amounting to approximately $70M. He established the Richard D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling (CCAM) in 1994 to consolidate research in new optical, photonic, image processing and computational techniques for the investigation of the behavior of living cells.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How to get Britain back to work

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Pete Robertson, Professor of Career Guidance, Edinburgh Napier University

    BasPhoto/Shutterstock

    Addressing his party conference as prime minister for the first time, Keir Starmer made it clear that moving people into work is a priority for his government. He said even the long-term sick should be looking for a job where possible.

    In the last fourteen years, progressively more demands have been made on UK benefit claimants to prove that they are looking for a job. This approach is not based on evidence but rather rooted in an ideology with international reach. (Similar approaches have been seen in places like Australia and Ireland).

    This involves a simplistic carrot-and-stick model of human motivation to work, and a “work-first” doctrine of getting people into the first available job irrespective of its appropriateness or sustainability.

    But as a new report makes clear, looking at people’s lives in a more holistic, long-term way, with a sensitivity to the barriers they face is more likely to get results. Rather than work-first, we need a career-first approach.

    Since the start of the COVID pandemic, levels of economic inactivity
    in the UK have grown significantly. Fewer workers are entering the labour market and more older people are leaving the workforce early. The number of people not working because of long-term illness has also risen substantially.

    This isn’t great news for the new Labour government that is counting on economic growth to get the country into better financial health. It is hard to grow the economy with improved efficiency because that requires investment. A much easier route is to increase the size of the workforce.

    Recognising the risks of economic inactivity, the Commission for the Future of Employment Support was launched in December 2022 by the thinktank the Institute for Employment Studies to review the public services that help people to find a job and employers to find staff.

    Its newly released report places employment support in the wider context of the challenges in the UK labour market and its effect on economic growth. With the UK government ruling out raising the three main taxes, it must prioritise economic growth. This is why economic inactivity in the workforce really matters.



    Read more:
    Three ways politicians always promise to raise money without increasing taxes – and why they rarely deliver

    The commission reserves its strongest criticism for the extent to which employment support has become entangled with welfare conditionality. That is, making behavioural demands on claimants, using surveillance to ensure they comply, and using sanctions – typically withholding benefit payments.

    Adults lead complicated lives, and they are unemployed for a reason (or more often, for multiple reasons). This may be to do with skills, confidence, health, local geography, the needs of dependants or many other factors. These issues will not go away if a service fails to address them. So effective career support must consider the whole person and pathways to sustainable work.

    A jobs and careers service

    The report’s recommendations are aligned with the Labour party promise to create a jobs and careers service, one of its manifesto pledges to kickstart economic growth. Labour has suggested bringing the Jobcentre Plus network together with the National Careers Service.

    The commission recommends three modes of delivery: local offices, an online service and outreach for those facing the most significant barriers. It also recommends entitlement-to-employment advice, and drawing a clearer distinction between employment support and welfare benefit administration.

    But will it work? It is hard to disagree with the recommendations – the rationale is sound and well argued. It is based on historical experience, international comparison, economic analysis and service evaluation. If a reimagined jobs and career service was provided along the lines described by the commission, then its success will probably depend on sticking closely to this vision.

    To make it happen, there are three inter-related problems to overcome. The first is financial pressures on the UK government, which limit its ability to invest.

    Second, if service users are seen as a reserve pool of labour that the government can activate in pursuit of economic growth, this may undermine reform.

    Third, career development is a professional service involving person-centred counselling and an educational approach. This requires staff trained to a professional level, with a code of ethics, who put the service user first. Previous experience of integrating career guidance in public employment services in Europe suggests that their professionalism can be undermined by the host agency.

    Now, the ball will be in the court of the Department for Work and Pensions, specifically work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall and minister Alison McGovern.

    The devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may also have a role, as these matters are at least partially in their remit. The report argues for a more complete and consistent devolution of powers for employment support to the UK nations.

    Local labour market partnerships in England are also part of this vision. This means bringing the jobs and career service together with local government, skills agencies, employers, trade unions, voluntary and community organisations and health services. Given the enormous geographical variation in labour markets, it makes sense for local areas to develop their own structures for cooperation between services.

    The main issue is that employment support policy has tended to see unemployed people as units that could and should be contributing to the economy. This needs to be flipped so that services become about helping people to get the economy to work for them, and to build a decent life with some dignity in the process. Unless this is deep in the DNA of the new service, it won’t be that new after all.

    Pete Robertson is the President of the Career Development Institute (CDI). This is the UK professional body for career development practitioners.

    – ref. How to get Britain back to work – https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-britain-back-to-work-239678

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why the changing representation of dwarfism in Disney’s live action Snow White remake is so important

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Erin Pritchard, Senior lecturer in Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University

    The upcoming release of Disney’s live action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, currently scheduled for March 2025, has been surrounded by controversy – so much so that the film’s trailer has received over 1 million dislikes on YouTube. In particular, many fans have taken umbrage with the fact that computer-generated imagery (CGI) will be used for the characters of the seven dwarfs, now renamed the “miners”, rather than having them played by dwarf actors.

    To my mind, unless changes are made, it would be better not to release a live action remake of Snow White in the first place. My doctoral research has shown that it’s common for people with dwarfism to experience mockery influenced by the representation of dwarfism in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But if the film is to go ahead, CGI is a better choice than to cast real people with dwarfism.

    Fans lamenting on social media the fact that they will no longer be able to see a film featuring “real dwarfs” ignore the parallels with the Victorian freak show. Frequently their disappointment is masked as supposed concern for the welfare of “actors” with dwarfism who will lose the “opportunity” to play these characters.

    But people with dwarfism who play these characters are rarely seen as serious actors. Alice Lambert, an actress with dwarfism, was interviewed for a chapter in my new book, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy (2024). In it, she recalls that during her time in pantomime, people “would come to the stage door after the show, but I realised that they just wanted to meet ‘a dwarf’ … you are not being represented as a performer, but rather your dwarfism is being paraded for the amusement of others”.

    The trailer for Disney’s live action remake of Snow White.

    My research has also found that many people still believe that people with dwarfism only work in the entertainment industry. It is not unusual for people to ask someone with dwarfism if they work in pantomime, particularly as one of the seven dwarfs. I have personally lost count of the amount of people who snigger and ask me if I am “Grumpy” or “Happy” (names of two of the dwarf characters) or if I know where Snow White is. If people cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, then fictional representations need to change to minimise abuse.

    Of those people with dwarfism who are actors, many have long refused to play roles that are considered derogatory, including the seven dwarfs. That is because people with dwarfism are capable of so much more.

    Worldwide, there are more than 250,000 people with dwarfism. People with dwarfism include geneticist and psychiatrist Judith Badner, lawyer Paul Steven Miller and astrophysicist William A Wheaten.

    Many of the fans expressing disappointment that the dwarfs will now be CGI fail to realise how the role impacts people with dwarfism in public. For example, in 2012 German lawyer Silke Schönfleisch-Backofen, who has dwarfism, successfully sued a man after he started laughing and singing Hi Ho, the song the dwarfs sing in the original Disney film, at her in court.

    If people cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, then fictional representations need to change to minimise abuse. Instead of reproducing outdated attitudes, films – and the tales that inspire them – can change with the times to produce stories that are inclusive of everyone.


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

    Erin Pritchard works for Liverpool Hope University and previously consulted for Disney.

    – ref. Why the changing representation of dwarfism in Disney’s live action Snow White remake is so important – https://theconversation.com/why-the-changing-representation-of-dwarfism-in-disneys-live-action-snow-white-remake-is-so-important-239275

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: UK election: Reform and Green members campaigned more online – but pounded the pavements less

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tim Bale, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of London

    It’s party conference season in Britain, a chance for members to meet and talk through their successes and failures from the election campaign – and start talking strategy for the next.

    Perhaps inevitably after it suffered such a crushing defeat and the resignation of its leader, the Conservative party conference in Birmingham risks taking on the air of a wake. Quite a contrast, then, with the Lib Dem bash down in Brighton, which, complete with jet skis and beach volleyball, was very much a celebratory affair.

    Admittedly, Labour’s get-together in Liverpool, plagued as it was by newspaper stories about supposedly dodgy donations and the row over winter fuel allowances, wasn’t quite as upbeat as one might expect from a party that has just won a sizeable majority.

    Whatever the outcome, many (though by no means all) members of all the parties worked hard to help deliver MPs to parliament. True, the evidence that campaigning by party members makes much of a difference to election results is hardly overwhelming.

    But it can obviously make a difference in the closest of constituency contests. Examples in 2024 would surely include Hendon, won by Labour by just 15 votes, Basildon and Billericay, won by the Tories by 20, South Basildon and East Thurrock, won by Reform by 98, and even Ely and East Cambridgeshire, won by the Lib Dems by 495.

    The party members project, run out of Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University, has been surveying party members about their activities after every election since 2015 and has just completed the 2024 exercise. And it appears that, following a decline in election campaigning in 2017 and 2019, there was a slight uptick overall this time round.

    A simple way of looking at this is to note the proportion of respondents who told us they’d spent no time at all campaigning for their party (see Table 1). This rose considerably in 2017 and even more so in 2019 but dropped noticeably this year, suggesting the grassroots are getting a little more active, even if they’re still spending way less time campaigning for their parties than they were a decade ago.

    Table 1: Percentage of party members saying they spent no time campaigning during the 2024 general election:

    Party members who didn’t campaign. NB: Figures in the Reform column cover Reform in 2024, UKIP in 2015 and 2017 and the Brexit Party in 2019.
    Party Members Project, CC BY-ND

    However, the uptick was due largely to the time put in by members of the smaller parties rather than by those belonging to the Conservatives or Labour – although it should be said that members almost certainly tend to overestimate the time they put in.

    Indeed, worryingly for Keir Starmer, Labour members actually appear to have been no more active (and in some respects perhaps somewhat less active) than they were five years ago. This is possibly owing to the departure of many of those fired up by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2017 and 2019.

    On the other hand, if we dig into the type of activities members got involved in, a slightly different picture emerges. Members of the smaller parties may be putting in the work, but they’re doing it from the comfort of their homes rather than pounding the pavements.

    If we exclude the admittedly large number of party members who told us they either did nothing for their party or just hit “don’t know”, a whopping 71% of Reform members and 67% of Green members who were active said they spent time campaigning on social media in 2024. Just 45% of Conservative members who had done at least something for their party during the campaign said the same.

    However, Reform and to some extent Green members too, were less likely than members of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties to do some of what, in the jargon, is known as high-intensity activity – the stuff that involves direct contact with voters (or at least their letterboxes).

    Table 2: What active party members got up to in the 2024 election campaign (percentages):

    What members got up to.
    Party Members Project, CC BY-ND

    Interestingly, the members of the “old” parties appear to have done less on social media than they did in 2019. Instead they put their efforts into activities that, research suggests, do sometimes make a difference, such as leafleting. The Lib Dems (as ever) emerged as the champions when it came to this activity, with 59% of members who did something for the party during the election stuffing campaign literature through British households’ letterboxes. Whether it got read on its journey from front door to recycling bin, of course, is another matter.

    But what also comes through strongly is that, worryingly for whoever takes over as leader from Rishi Sunak, Conservative members seem to be lagging further and further behind their main rivals – Labour and (especially) the Lib Dems – on campaign activities overall (see Table 3).

    Table 3: Average number of activities (out of a total of nine) done by all members of each party during the 2024 general election campaign:

    Lib Dems come out on top for average number of activities.
    Party Members Project, CC BY-ND

    Now, nobody would argue, of course, that this was the main reason the Conservatives lost the election so badly. Nor should anyone imagine that simply recruiting and enthusing more members – something each of the candidates vying to become Tory leader has vowed to do – will rapidly reverse the epic defeat the party suffered this summer. But it certainly wouldn’t do it any harm in the long term.

    After all, the Tories almost certainly have a very long and very hard road ahead of them in opposition. Persuading more people to join the party, and encouraging as many of those who do join to get out “on the doorstep” (or even just to go online if that’s all they feel up to), might not make that road much shorter. But it might make it feel just that little bit easier.

    The Party Membership Project received Talent and Stabilization funding from Research England, via QMUL, for this survey research.

    Paul Webb has previously received funding from the ESRC to conduct research on political parties.

    Stavroula Chrona 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 election: Reform and Green members campaigned more online – but pounded the pavements less – https://theconversation.com/uk-election-reform-and-green-members-campaigned-more-online-but-pounded-the-pavements-less-239570

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The biological marvels of the seabed are being mined to create commercial products – here are the risks

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Erik Zhivkoplias, Researcher in Marine Governance, Stockholm University

    Thousands of genes from deep-sea marine life are being used to create new commercial products ranging from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics. Genes are segments of DNA that provide instructions for making other molecules that are essential for the structure and function of living organisms.

    In a paper we recently published with other colleagues, we investigated how bioprospecting – the search and discovery of potential products from animals, plants and microbes – could serve as a less destructive alternative to deep-sea mining.

    Notably, all of the largest companies using marine genes have sourced them from deep-sea organisms in some capacity. Deep-sea animals possess unique genes that allow them to live in an environment unlike anything else on Earth, with its intense cold, crushing pressure and total darkness.

    What are these organisms? Most are microbes that have evolved over millions of years to thrive in extreme conditions. Among the most uniquely adapted are those found around hydrothermal vents, where mineral-rich seawater, superheated by magma, erupts from cracks in the ocean floor.

    Deep-sea enzymes, a type of molecule encoded by the genes of organisms that live in extreme environments, are stable in conditions that other enzymes often cannot function. Their ability to catalyse chemical reactions under high pressure and a wide range of temperatures makes them commercially valuable for making industrial and consumer products, including drugs, food, detergents and biofuels.

    Bioprospecting in the deep sea

    One remarkable example involves the bacteria that live in very salty habitats. This microbe was isolated from marine sediments collected at a depth of 1,050 meters near the Iheya ridge, 130 kilometers offshore from Iheya Island, Japan.

    Deep-sea shrimp in the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean.
    NOAA

    One of its enzymes has been shown to enhance the conversion of farm waste into glucose by helping break down cellulose into easily degradable pulp. This is a crucial step for converting biomass into ethanol, a renewable biofuel.

    Another enzyme extracted from a bacterium that exists under extremely high temperatures has been found to be highly efficient in completely removing lactose from milk.

    Some organisms contribute to multiple inventions, like a deep-sea worm collected at a depth of 2,625 meters from a hydrothermal vent on the East Pacific Rise, about 600 km off the Mexican coast. The worm hosted a bacterium that produces a molecule that was used to develop a skin cream, as it helps make skin less susceptible to damage from the sun and pollution. The unusual ability of this bacterium to live at temperatures above 100°C also made it a model organism for overcoming overheating in small satellites in Earth’s orbit.

    This is just a few examples among over 16,000 proteins derived from deep-sea species and used in technology, catalogued in this database.

    The potential for innovation from deep-sea species has not been fully explored. As of 2024, only a quarter of the seabed has been mapped and most deep-sea species remain undiscovered.

    The dangers of mining

    But the essential role of deep-sea life in the functioning of Earth’s systems may be far greater than previously understood.

    Researchers recently discovered an unusually high concentration of oxygen on the seafloor in the Pacific Ocean, referred to as “dark oxygen”. This oxygen may be being produced by electrolysis – when an electric current separates water into hydrogen and oxygen.

    Where might an electrical charge be generated at the bottom of the ocean? Perhaps on the surfaces of polymetallic nodules, rock-like formations composed of lots of different metals which can create differences in electrical potential when interacting with seawater. The formation of these metals is influenced by the activity of microbes living on them, which in turn affects the chemical properties of the surrounding environment. The production of dark oxygen could be vital for the respiration of other species living in the ocean where there is no sunlight.

    Unfortunately, deep-sea ecosystems are under threat from seabed mining for minerals. Polymetallic nodules are considered potential resources for manganese, nickel, and rare earth elements – materials used to make electronics and computers. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a Pacific region where dark oxygen was recently discovered, has already been divided into 16 mining claims.

    Nodules on the seabed.
    Abramax/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    Researchers and campaigners have warned that deep-sea mining could severely damage marine ecosystems and have highlighted the lack of scientific consensus on the long-term consequences of these operations. Once disturbed, the evolutionary history these ecosystems represent could be lost forever.

    The International Seabed Authority oversees the management of mining activities in international waters. Although it has not yet authorised any commercial mining, it has faced criticism for allegedly dismissing environmental concerns. The recent election of the new ISA secretary-general, Leticia Carvalho, offers an opportunity to safeguard vital areas of the world’s oceans, crucial for both nature and human wellbeing.

    We must rethink the true value of the deep sea and consider what losing it may mean for the rest of the world.


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

    Get our award-winning 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 35,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Erik Zhivkoplias receives funding from Formas research grant 2020-01048.

    Robert Blasiak receives funding from Formas research grant 2020-01048.

    – ref. The biological marvels of the seabed are being mined to create commercial products – here are the risks – https://theconversation.com/the-biological-marvels-of-the-seabed-are-being-mined-to-create-commercial-products-here-are-the-risks-237174

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Scottish Tory leadership election shows they will hold onto the title of nasty party

    Source: Scottish Greens

    27 Sep 2024

    Support for Liz Truss, attacks on Scottish democracy, and the undermining of climate action. The Scottish Conservative’s new leader plays all the old hits.

    The election of Russell Findlay as leader of the Scottish Conservatives shows their determination to hold onto the title of the nasty party, says Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie.

    After a contentious leadership contest where his supporters were accused of lying to members about other candidates, Russell Findlay was elected with 61.7% of the vote.

    Patrick Harvie MSP said:

    “I’d obviously congratulate Russell Findlay on his election, but it does seem to confirm that the Scottish Tories are determined to hold on to the title of the nasty party, and to lurch ever further to the right.

    “Like his colleagues, he was a cheerleader for Liz Truss, urging the Scottish Government to copy her disastrous plans. He backed the undermining of the Scottish Parliament through Section 35 and the new Internal Market Act. He’d rather cut taxes on the rich than fund public services. He’s an enthusiastic supporter of the Tory culture war agenda, punching down against marginalised people at every opportunity. And in the midst of the climate emergency he wants to hand multinational corporations more licences to drill for fossil fuel – something the world’s scientists are screaming at us to stop doing.

    “In short, he’s probably a good fit for all the worst instincts of the Conservative Party.

    “We’ve all seen the catastrophic consequences of Tory leadership over the last 14 years. Whether it’s Douglas Ross or Russell Findlay, I’m confident Scotland will continue its long and proud history of rejecting them at the ballot box.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/PAKISTAN – Militants of the “Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan” in action: analysts and social organizations ask the government for clarification

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – What role do the “civilian militias” or “vigilantes” of the Islamist party “Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan” (TLP) play, who roam the streets of Pakistani cities to punish people accused of blasphemy or contempt of Islam? This is the question analysts and representatives of politics and civil society are asking in view of a phenomenon that is shaking Pakistani society. In this context, members of non-governmental organizations, social organizations and religious communities of various faiths are asking the government for clarification in the face of the “extrajudicial” actions of groups that are terrorizing the population and threatening the security of citizens and their right to live freely.Three of the recent cases have sparked a heated debate in the Pakistani media. These are cases related to the accusation of “blasphemy on social media”, an area that TLP members seem to be paying a lot of attention to. One case concerns Shah Nawaz Kumbhar, a doctor from Sindh province, who is accused of sharing blasphemous content on Facebook.Another case concerns 50-year-old Abdul Ali, owner of a hotel in Quetta, in Balochistan province, who was also arrested for allegedly posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Muhammad on social media and killed while in police custody. The third case concerns 40-year-old Christian nurse Shagufta Kiran, mother of four children, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy on WhatsApp (see Fides, 20/9/2024). In these and other cases, the active involvement of TLP members was found, appearing publicly or through intimidation attempts.The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) is an Islamist party banned by the government in 2021. In the autumn of the same year, the TLP entered into an agreement with the Pakistani government, pledging to respect the constitution and not support violent protests. In November 2023, it was officially re-recognized by the Pakistani government as a “political party registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan.”The government entered into an agreement with the TLP “with a view to the overriding national interest and long-term perspective to ensure that violence does not recur in the future.” The agreement stipulated that Section 7 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 1997 (charges of terrorist acts) would be applicable to persons accused of blasphemy under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (defamation of the Prophet Muhammad). In addition, the parties involved agreed to set up a special department called the Counter Blasphemy Wing within the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The department was set up with the aim of improving the ability to monitor “desecration of religions,” but because Pakistan’s blasphemy law is designed this way, it actually applies specifically to Islam, especially to content spread online.The agreement also guarantees an impartial and speedy trial for defendants accused of blasphemy, which “should actually protect against extrajudicial actions and lynchings that are still carried out by militants,” notes Farzana Imran of the Christian organization LEAD Pakistan (Legal Evangelical Association Development), calling on the authorities to ensure the rule of law and not allow a para-state militia of “moral or religious police” to obstruct the work of the police or ordinary justice.Muhammad Amir Rana, a Muslim scholar and co-founder of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, who writes as a columnist for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, recalls that last July the TLP called for violence against the Supreme Court of Pakistan after the acquittal of a member of the Ahmadiyya community (considered “heretical” by Islam). And he asks: “Why does the state compromise and tolerate a group that is responsible for mass violence, vandalism, the killing of innocent citizens and damage to property, and that tarnishes the country’s international image by promoting extremism?” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 27/9/2024)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Harris leads Trump in the polls – here’s what they really tell us about her chances

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex

    Poll data shows that Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in the US presidential election campaign. She has an average vote intention score of 48.2%, compared with Trump’s 45.8%, according to FiveThirtyEight, a website that looks at a range of polls.

    She leads in the race, although the margins are still tight. A poll of polls like this one is likely to be more accurate than a single one, giving a much better indication of any trends.

    Many factors are at work when people decide how to vote, but four things really matter. These are voter evaluations of the candidates; their perceptions of the major issues; identifying with the Democratic or Republican parties, or being independents; and whether they think of themselves as liberals, conservatives or moderates.

    To look closely at these factors we can examine the details of an Economist/YouGov survey of the US electorate completed on September 17. The survey puts Harris on 49%, with Trump on 45% in voting intentions.

    There are significant variations in support among different groups and as the figure below shows, there is a large gender gap with women much more likely to vote for Harris than men. In addition, white people favour Trump, whereas Hispanic and black people lean heavily towards Harris. Harris is also strongly supported by those under the age of 45 with Trump leading Harris by a small margin in the 45-64 group – and by a large margin among the over 65s.

    Voting intentions for the upcoming US election:

    When it comes to judging candidates, voters use several criteria including perceptions that they are strong, competent, honest and in touch with people like themselves. But a good overall measure is the extent to which they like or dislike a candidate. In the Economist/YouGov poll 48% liked Harris and 47% disliked her. In Trump’s case 42% liked him and 55% disliked him. Clearly, Harris has the edge in leadership evaluations in the race.

    Existing ideological positions are a very important factor in influencing the vote as the chart below shows. When it comes to ideological preferences liberals overwhelmingly support Harris and conservatives do the same with Trump.

    However, 57% of moderates favour Harris compared, with only 30% who favour Trump. Trump’s problem is that his style of campaigning may energise his core supporters, but it tends to alienate many moderates.

    In the case of political partisanship, again Democrats overwhelmingly support Harris and Republicans Trump. In this case the independents are neck and neck, with Harris ahead of Trump by only 1%. But she does get more Republicans (5%) than Trump gets Democrats (1%).

    Voting intentions among independents and other groups

    Harris has the edge when it comes to three of the really important factors that explain voting behaviour. However, she is weak on some issues compared with Trump. When asked about their most important issue, respondents ranked inflation first, immigration second, and jobs, the economy and abortion tied in third place.

    The problem for Harris is illustrated by the most salient issue of inflation. Some 96% of respondents thought that this is important, but only 33% approved of the way that Joe Biden had handled the issue, compared with 59% who disapproved.

    Since Kamala Harris is the vice-president, she shares responsibility for this. That said, 56% think that Trump’s claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pet dogs is false, while 27% think it is true. So there is a question over his credibility when it comes to issues as well.

    More generally, 25% approved of the general direction the country was headed, while 58% thought that America was on the wrong track. When asked if they felt better off or worse off than a year ago, only 12% said better off, 42% said about the same and 40% said worse off. The US economy has been growing rapidly since Biden took office, but clearly many voters still don’t feel the benefits.

    Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee for president following his disastrous performance in the debate with Donald Trump. But the polling shows that discontent with the Biden administration was a lot more widespread than just concerns about his age and ability to communicate.

    In relation to the recent TV debate, 56% of respondents thought that Harris won, compared with only 27% who thought the winner was Trump. As a result, she has made a strong start to her campaign. When asked who they thought would win the election in November, 42% said Harris and 32% Trump with 26% unsure.

    With that kind of momentum, Harris can be optimistic, though not certain, about the outcome.

    Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC.

    – ref. Harris leads Trump in the polls – here’s what they really tell us about her chances – https://theconversation.com/harris-leads-trump-in-the-polls-heres-what-they-really-tell-us-about-her-chances-239887

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The contradictions of ‘Minnesota nice’

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Giang Nguyen-Dien, Postdoctoral Fellow in American Culture Studies, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis

    Members of St. Paul’s Hmong community protest in 1998 after a local radio host said on air that Hmong immigrants needed to ‘assimilate or hit the goddamn road.’ Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images

    After Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, much of the media coverage zeroed in on Walz’s Midwestern roots, with some pundits using the phrase “Minnesota nice” to describe his appeal.

    In the popular imagination, Minnesota nice describes a culture of neighborliness and amicability that’s commonly seen as characteristic of the state. In policy terms, that might mean bigger investments in education, better public health, access to affordable housing and stronger worker rights – an extension of Walz’s achievements as Minnesota governor. Many Americans would probably like to see these values have primacy in the rest of the nation.

    I think Minnesota nice, whether represented in policies or in being kind to neighbors, is a worthy ideal. But as someone who has studied the experiences of Vietnamese refugees in Minnesota, I’ve written about how the trope of Minnesota nice has a more complex history – especially when it comes to nonwhite people.

    Rural origins

    In her book “Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out,” historian Annette Atkins suggests that the trope of Minnesota nice may have its roots in the state’s Scandinavian immigrants and the influence of the Lutheran church.

    According to Atkins, Minnesota nice denotes “a polite friendliness, an aversion to confrontation, a tendency toward understatement … and emotional restraints.” These traits can be found in Scandinavian literature, film and art, as well as in 19th- and early 20th-century Lutheran values.

    By the turn of the 20th century, 72% of Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota and 62% of Swedish immigrants to the state resided in rural areas. And one core element of Minnesota nice is the notion that residents are welcoming to strangers from other lands.

    The arrival of Southeast Asian refugees

    After the Vietnam War ended in April 1975, more than 120,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the U.S. Another wave followed in 1978. Their arrival was not universally welcomed by the American public.

    To ease those concerns, government officials instituted a dispersal policy to spread out Southeast Asian refugees to ensure they wouldn’t be concentrated in any one region, town or city. They implemented this policy to reduce social and economic impacts on local communities – and also compel Southeast Asian refugees to assimilate into American culture.

    In Minnesota, while many newcomers were given a helping hand, many of them also experienced isolation and rejection.

    From 1979 to 1999, about 15,000 Vietnamese refugees arrived in Minnesota. My research shows that media outlets often ran articles highlighting the goodwill and generosity of locals, whether they were helping these refugees learn English, acquire job training, find work or secure housing.

    The Minneapolis Tribune reported in 1975 that the state was able to avoid any major public reactions against refugees because they posed “no major job threat,” since they were spread out across the state.

    Even as locals seemed largely supportive, the dispersal policy wasn’t ideal for many refugees. Many of them ended up in remote areas of Minnesota, far from a familiar ethnic community that could provide much-needed psychological and emotional support. Those in isolated areas often lacked access to social services and English language programs.

    For refugees, a more complicated view of Minnesota nice emerges, one that I think depends on being not too visible and not too much of a threat to the existing order. Many refugees were certainly grateful for the state and local support they received. But gratitude also became an “unspoken condition” for acceptance, as Iranian refugee Dina Nayeri reports in her book “The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You.”

    In Minnesota, locals could seem largely unsympathetic to the complicated struggles of refugees trying to settle in a strange, new land. Rather than complain, they ought to be happy for the “small blessings” they received, as one local St. Cloud resident wrote to the Minneapolis Tribune in 1975.

    A refugee’s drawing on display at a 2010 exhibit in Minneapolis depicts the bombing of Laos during the shadow war.
    Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images

    Minnesota too nice

    When there was a sudden influx of refugees into one area, some residents could become even less welcoming.

    That’s what happened with the state’s Hmong refugees.

    An ethnic group originally from China, the Hmong arrived in Southeast Asia during the mid-19th century. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. government recruited the Hmong to fight in the Secret War in Laos, where the U.S. had been covertly providing aid and military assistance to anti-communist forces. After the war, some Hmong fled, fearing persecution. Many of them ended up in Minnesota. In 1980, there were about 2,000 Hmong people in Minnesota. By the end of 1981, their numbers had grown to 8,000, raising some alarm.

    “Some cynics say our problem is that we are too nice and have provided too many services,” a local resettlement official was quoted saying in a 1980 State Department report. In that same report, an official with a local charity suggested that Minnesota would soon be known as “Hmong-nesota.”

    In 1985, the Minnesota Star Tribune published a special report, “Hmong in Minnesota: Lost in the Promised Land,” that explored how many Hmong refugees had become “targets of racial epithets, harassment and violence” in the Twin Cities. The article noted that the Hmong came to realize that most Americans had never heard of them or their roles in the secret war in Laos. Instead, they often found themselves “resented, misunderstood and victimized by their neighbors.”

    To me, the anxiety over “Hmong-nesota” recalled the history of “yellow peril” – the imagined threat of Asian invasion and cultural disruptions that first emerged in the 19th century and shaped many U.S. immigration policies.

    Benevolence and violence

    My own research explores how feel-good tropes that are prominent in the U.S., such as Minnesota nice, usually mask a more complicated story.

    The U.S. government has often used the language of goodwill as a cover for violence – a phenomenon I call “bene/violence.”

    For example, the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, which began in 1899, was sugarcoated in the rhetoric of benevolence. William McKinley, who was U.S. president at the time, insisted that “the strong arm of authority” would promote “the blessings of good and stable government upon the people of the Philippine Islands under the free flag of the United States.” The story of conquest became the story of “uplifting” those deemed less civilized and incapable of self-governance.

    Two U.S. Marines stand at attention during a port call in Qingdao, China, in 1986.
    Forrest Anderson/Getty Images

    The same sort of talk was also used to justify U.S. military intervention in Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s State of the Union address on Jan. 4, 1965, implored Americans to secure the “peace of Asia” and “the progress of humanity.” The government promoted the war in Vietnam as a just war, in part by claiming Americans were granting the Vietnamese the “gift of freedom,” as Asian American studies scholar Mimi Nguyen has written.

    Of course, this version of events ignores the carpet bombing that killed as many as 1 million civilians. It overlooks the fact that 30% of Laos is still blanketed with 80 million unexploded bombs and other ordnance. And it forgets to mention how the extensive use of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange continues to scar the Vietnamese landscape and the country’s people.

    The Minnesota paradox

    In the end, Minnesota nice signals that there’s something special about the state, just as “spreading democracy” and “protecting freedom” signal American exceptionalism on the international stage.

    But the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis illuminated what economist Samuel L. Myers calls the “Minnesota Paradox” – a history of inequality that is totally divorced from the way niceness operates in the cultural imagination of the state’s residents.

    “African Americans are worse off in Minnesota than they are in virtually every other state in the nation,” Myers writes.

    In a 2021 essay, sociologist Amy August also highlighted the state’s persistent racial disparities in housing, health care, income and education to argue that whatever progressive promises the state makes, Minnesota is not apart from America but rather a part of America.

    Ultimately, I think the concept of Minnesota nice can create the illusion of a utopian society largely devoid of the ills of racism and inequality. It reinforces American kindness as a core aspect of national identity and, in doing so, I believe glosses over parts of the country’s history – while hampering its ability to address the very real problems that plague the nation today.

    I don’t reject what Minnesota nice purports to offer. But it is not a simple and straightforward cultural value adopted by – and equally applied to – everyone.

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

    – ref. The contradictions of ‘Minnesota nice’ – https://theconversation.com/the-contradictions-of-minnesota-nice-236751

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Prepare your social media for the election − 3 tips to stay sane and connected without being overwhelmed

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Chelsea Butkowski, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication

    There’s a lot of information out there to sort through, so be prepared. Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images

    As the presidential election approaches, the race is ramping up – including on social media. Although Meta reported in 2022 that only about 3% of the content on Facebook is political, Americans have already begun bracing themselves for a deluge of political news stories, ads, AI deepfakes and arguments on their feeds over the next few weeks.

    Elections are stressful, and they tend to exacerbate Americans’ adverse mental health symptoms. For some people, social media can amplify political stressors.

    Despite the tensions building on users’ digital feeds, an impending election doesn’t mean that people need to avoid social media altogether. When used wisely, social media can still be an important source for political information and an outlet to express opinions. I’ve studied how people navigate social media during elections, and I want to share three strategies to help you prepare your accounts for this election season so you can stay connected to what’s important without drowning in partisan back-and-forth.

    1. Audit your feeds

    While elections can be stressful, they also offer a chance to take ownership of the content that you consume online – or, as digital culture scholar Jessa Lingel says, “be your own algorithm.” Take the time to audit your social media ecosystem before November by considering the accounts that you follow and the settings that you have in place.

    Social media platforms and their algorithms have inspired widespread concerns about their role in political polarization, because they enable people to isolate themselves in echo chambers that reinforce their own views. People with different political views can end up with substantially different material on their social media feeds.

    While research suggests that echo chamber experiences are generally limited to highly partisan people, it is worthwhile to take a critical look at your feeds. Consider diversifying the content you see on social media, including following people whose life experiences differ from your own.

    On the other side of the coin, take a breather before unfollowing people you disagree with during tense moments. While encountering political dissent online can be uncomfortable, studies demonstrate that deliberately blocking it out can contribute to polarization.

    Research has shown that people who see more political news on social media can be more likely to get involved in politics offline.

    Platforms are taking steps behind the scenes, however, to limit users’ exposure to political content. For example, Meta recently implemented features that limit the amount of political content that users see on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Since earlier this year, the setting has been turned on by default. Now is a great time to double-check that your accounts’ settings reflect the content and ad personalization preferences that work best for you. If you want, you can turn the political content back on using the “content preferences” settings available through Facebook and Instagram.

    2. Stay skeptical and practice stepping away

    Misinformation on social media remains a constant concern during elections. This year, AI-generated images pose a particular misinformation threat, especially when they’re shared by the presidential candidates themselves.

    The News Literacy Project has established a 2024 election misinformation dashboard that has already compiled over 600 examples of inaccurate viral content related to this election, which include items such as misleading memes, altered photos and videos, and out-of-context quotes.

    Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have also taken steps to ensure that AI-generated images are labeled on their sites. These methods, which identify AI by scanning image metadata and looking for hidden watermarks, are still new, and it’s unclear how well they work.

    It’s not enough to hope the platforms’ systems protect users. You should approach information about the election with a skeptical eye, especially when it sparks an emotional response from you.

    Research demonstrates that fake news tends to elicit more negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and disgust, than real news.

    Upsetting news makes people want to take action.

    One study found that people who had stronger emotional reactions to fake news headlines expressed greater intentions to comment, share or like items than those who were not emotionally moved to respond. Pay attention to your emotional reactions to the headlines and images you encounter on social media, and take time to step away, process and fact-check information using sources you know are reliable before sharing.

    This is what your desk could look like if you took a break from being online.
    Image by Marie LaFauci/Moment via Getty Images

    3. Build social media safe havens

    Especially during elections, ideals of “good citizenship” put pressure on people to stay informed about the latest political news. Social media can provide endless election updates, but just because the information is widely available doesn’t mean you need to engage with it all the time. It’s possible to stay informed while also staying in touch with the enjoyable aspects of social media, even when the election rises to the top of everyone’s minds.

    Different platforms can serve different political functions, which could include helping you to set boundaries around political information. Just as you might choose to take a break from intense circumstances by taking a walk or calling a friend, you can also designate some social media spaces primarily for decompressing, while still engaging with political information on others.

    This might mean joining a new platform or creating an alternative account on a platform that you already use. While people tend to turn to X, Reddit, TikTok and Facebook for politics, you can choose to curate some accounts with less focus on political content for times when you need an escape.

    Regardless of how you choose to prepare your social media feeds for the election, keep in mind that feelings of stress around election time are normal. Many aspects of elections can feel out of control, but taking control of your social media feeds allows you to manage your political information diet for the better.

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

    – ref. Prepare your social media for the election − 3 tips to stay sane and connected without being overwhelmed – https://theconversation.com/prepare-your-social-media-for-the-election-3-tips-to-stay-sane-and-connected-without-being-overwhelmed-238502

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Rising electricity demand could bring Three Mile Island and other prematurely shuttered nuclear plants back to life

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Todd Allen, Professor of Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

    Steam billows from two cooling towers serving Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in 2005. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

    Constellation, an energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to customers in 16 states and Washington, announced on Sept. 20, 2024, that it plans to restore and restart Unit 1 at Three Mile Island, a nuclear plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, that was shut down in 2019. Microsoft has signed a 20-year agreement to purchase electricity generated by the plant to offset power demand from its data centers in the mid-Atlantic region.

    Three Mile Island was the site in 1979 of a partial meltdown at the plant’s Unit 2 reactor. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission calls this event “the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history,” although only small amounts of radiation were released, and no health effects on plant workers or the public were detected. Unit 1 was not affected by the accident. University of Michigan nuclear engineering professor Todd Allen explains what restarting Unit 1 will involve, and why some other shuttered nuclear plants may also get new leases on life.

    What is the history of TMI-1?

    Three Mile Island Unit 1 is a large nuclear power station with the capacity to generate 837 megawatts of electricity – enough to power about 800,000 homes. It started commercial operations in 1974 and ran until September 2019.

    After the accident at Unit 2 in 1979, Unit 1 was shut down for six years, until the operator at the time, Metropolitan Edison, demonstrated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it could operate the reactor safely.

    Constellation closed Unit 1 down in 2019, even though the plant’s operating license had been extended through 2034 and it had no operational or safety problems. TMI-1 could not compete economically at that point with natural gas-fueled power plants because gas had become extremely cheap.

    Pennsylvania also had a policy preference for increasing electricity generation from solar and wind power. The state legislature chose not to reclassify the plant as a carbon-free electricity source, which would have qualified it for state support.

    The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island had broad, lasting effects on nuclear power regulation.

    What is the reactor’s current condition?

    Since the shutdown in 2019, the plant has sat idle. The NRC calls this status safe storage, or SAFSTOR. The plant is shut down, uranium fuel is removed from the reactor, and the facility is maintained in a safe, stable condition. Irradiated fuel is stored in large steel and concrete casks on a physically secured portion of the site, known as an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation.

    In addition to the fuel, other materials in the plant are radioactive, such as structural channels that direct the cooling water during operation and the large vessel in which the reactor is housed. Radioactive decay occurs during the SAFSTOR period, reducing the plant’s radioactivity and making it easier to dismantle the plant later.

    The United States does not have a licensed long-term disposal site for spent nuclear fuel, so it is stored in large dry casks on-site at operating and closed reactors.
    U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, CC BY

    What will Constellation need to do to prepare the reactor to restart?

    Constellation will need to ensure that it has enough fuel and sufficiently trained personnel. It also will have to ensure that the reactor’s components are still in a condition that allows for safe operation.

    This will require detailed inspections and mandatory maintenance actions to ensure that all components are running correctly. In some cases, the company may need to install new equipment.

    The exact work will depend on the results of inspections but could include upgrading or replacing the reactor’s major components, such as the turbine and associated electricity generator; large transformers that move the electricity from the reactor out to the grid; equipment used to cool the reactor during operation; and systems for controlling the plant during startup, shutdown and power generation.

    As an analogy, imagine that you move to a city and stop driving your car for five years. When you decide to resume driving, you’d need to ensure you have gas, that your driver’s license is still valid and that all of the car’s components still operate correctly. It would probably need new oil, air in the tires, new filters and other replacement parts to run well.

    A nuclear plant is much more complicated than a car, so the number of checks and verifications will take longer and cost more. Constellation expects to bring the restored plant online in 2028 at a projected cost of US$1.6 billion.

    What will the NRC consider as it decides whether to relicense the reactor?

    The agency needs to independently confirm Constellation has enough fuel and trained personnel, and that the plant can run safely. These checks must be approved by the commission before the plant can operate.

    In my view, Constellation will need to show that the plant is in a condition to operate at the same levels of safety that existed there in September 2019 when the company terminated operations.

    Do you expect other utilities to try this type of restoration at closed reactors?

    Constellation is not the only utility considering restarting a nuclear plant. Holtec International, an energy technology company, bought the closed Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan in 2022 with the intent to decommission it, but then the company decided to restore and reopen the plant.

    That work is underway now. Recently, in its first major inspection at the plant, the NRC found a number of components that it said required more testing and repair work.

    Wolverine Power Cooperative, a not-for-profit energy provider to rural communities across Michigan, plans to purchase electricity from the restored Palisades plant, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program. Holtec is receiving support for restoring Palisades from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Michigan.

    A third company, NextEra Energy, is considering restarting its Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Palo, Iowa. And others could follow. In the past decade, a dozen nuclear plants closed before the end of their licensed operating lives because they were having trouble competing economically. But with electricity demand rising, especially to power data centers and electric vehicles, some of those plants could also become candidates for reopening.

    Todd Allen is affiliated with Third Way as a Senior Visiting Fellow and the Nuclear Innovation Alliance as the Board Chair.

    – ref. Rising electricity demand could bring Three Mile Island and other prematurely shuttered nuclear plants back to life – https://theconversation.com/rising-electricity-demand-could-bring-three-mile-island-and-other-prematurely-shuttered-nuclear-plants-back-to-life-239577

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/CHINA – After the new episcopal appointments, pastoral life returns to normal in many Chinese dioceses

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Beijing – The proliferation of initiatives in which Chinese priests walk their spiritual journey together is an eloquent sign of a new normality in pastoral and spiritual life in many dioceses, following the ordination of bishops appointed according to the procedures of the Provisional Agreement in force between the Holy See and the Chinese government. The example of the dioceses of Henan Province is a clear example of this return to normality in the pastoral life of Chinese Catholic communities.According to information received by Fides, about fifty priests from the four dioceses of Henan Province took part in the spiritual retreat held for a week in September between the liturgical feast of the Nativity of Mary and the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Bishop Thaddeus Wang Yuesheng, appointed by Pope Francis on December 16, 2023 and consecrated on January 25, 2024, and Joseph Zhang Yinlin, Bishop of the Diocese of Anyang, consecrated with a papal mandate in 2015, accompanied the retreat under the direction of Fr. John Baptist Zhang, founder of the charitable institution and church information organization “Xinde” in Hebei Province.In an atmosphere of exchange and community, the priests prayed and meditated together on biblical and missionary themes and the teaching of the Church. In this context, the priests were also able to exchange their experiences as pastors of grassroots communities.After the resumption of church life in the late 1970s, the Diocese of Zhengzhou no longer had bishops, only diocesan administrators. The consecration and installation of a new bishop in communion with the Bishop of Rome, more than seventy years after the expulsion of his predecessor, was an objective sign of the restoration of normality to ecclesial life and diocesan community, and promoted a missionary flourishing.In recent months, Bishop Thaddeus Wang has visited the parishes of his diocese and reorganized the diocesan structure with various commissions according to pastoral needs. The bishop focuses great importance on communion and reconciliation, as well as the spiritual growth of priests and lay people.In September, similar spiritual retreats for priests and lay people dedicated to the priestly vocation and the personal encounter with Jesus were also held in the dioceses of Weinan, Hanzhou and the diocese of Beijing.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Government welcomes slight increases in employment

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Friday, September 27, 2024

    Government has welcomed the marginal employment growth and expansion of South Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year.

    “The growth bears testament to the government’s commitment made during the State of the Nation Address in February to ensure positive economic growth that will encourage business development and provide more employment opportunities,” Acting Director-General of Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Nomonde Mnukwa ,said on Friday. 

    According to the Quarterly Employment Statistics survey released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) this week, the total employment in the formal non-agricultural sector increased by 42 000 in the second quarter of 2024, bringing the level of employment to 10.7 million. 

    While the survey shows that 144 000 jobs were lost between June 2023 and June 2024, the total number of employees grew by 42 000 (0.4%), with employment rising from 10.67 million in March 2024 to 10.72 million by June 2024.

    “The positive developments mean that government’s structural reforms are unlocking the bottlenecks and removing red tape to drive inclusive growth and job creation. South Africa’s business-friendly approach paves a positive sentiment, signalling that South Africa is becoming more and more of an investment destination,” Mnukwa said. 

    The GCIS said this growth shows commitment by government to work with social partners to stabilise the economy. 

    “The prudent economic path pursued to turn around our economy is starting to show improvement,” GCIS said. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/NIGERIA – Further protests against the government’s economic policies announced

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Abuja (Agenzia Fides) – Various civil society groups in Nigeria have declared a “National Day for Survival” for October 1. The date has a high symbolic value as it coincides with the 64th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence.The initiative was presented to the press on September 26 at the “International Press Center” in Ogba, in Lagos, by Hassan Taiwo Soweto, coordinator of the “Education Rights Campaign (ERC)”, one of the organizations opposing the economic policies initiated by President Bola Tinubu, which were already the subject of a ten-day protest in August organized through social media under the hashtag #EndBadGovernance (see Fides, 1/8/2024).The organizers of the day of action are calling on the government to “say no to the neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), restore fuel prices and electricity tariffs to pre-29 May 2023 levels, operate state-owned refineries to ensure affordable petroleum products, reduce food prices and support farmers to ensure sustainable food production.”The organizers are also calling for the unconditional release of protesters and journalists arrested during the August protests, tackling insecurity, including by providing adequate support to soldiers and police officers, introducing a minimum wage and cutting the high salaries of senior officials.“We call on the Nigerian people, progressive organizations, groups, unions, student associations and youth movements to take to the streets on October 1 and protest and demonstrate peacefully,” said Hassan Taiwo Soweto. The October 1st action is an urgent warning and a call to the Tinubu government to “meet our demands immediately. If our demands are not met, further protests will follow on National Survival Day.” He added: “We need a different way of governing our country, one that ensures that national wealth benefits the needs of all and not the greed of a few.”The demands of the organizers of the “National Survival Day” are also to be seen in the context of widespread corruption in the country, which is one of the richest countries in Africa thanks to oil production. A wealth that seeps into countless channels, which in turn has fueled the country’s foreign debt. In the face of the demands of international creditors, President Tinubu has initiated an economic policy focused on higher taxes and cutting state subsidies, which has severely worsened the living conditions of the majority of Nigerians.In his speech to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, President Bola Tinubu called on world leaders to consider “comprehensive debt relief” for Nigeria and other developing countries to enable them to progress economically.”We must ensure that any reform of the international financial system includes comprehensive debt relief to enable sustainable development financing. Countries in the global South cannot make meaningful economic progress without special concessions and a review of their current debt burden,” warned Tinubu. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 27/9/2024)
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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: VA awards $4.3M in cooperative agreements to states, territories to help understand and prevent Veteran suicide

    Source: US Department of Veterans Affairs

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    WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it will award more than $4.3 million in cooperative agreements to states and territories to help fund and provide technical assistance to suicide mortality review committees, which aim to identify and characterize local suicide deaths to better inform Veteran suicide prevention strategies.

    This fiscal year’s cooperative agreements will support 10 states and two territories in establishing local understanding of Veteran suicide, identifying populations or locations of special concern, and informing data-informed suicide prevention strategies for Veterans. These awards advance VA’s National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide, the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to reduce military and Veteran suicide, and the newly published National Strategy for Suicide Prevention Federal Action Plan.

    “It is our responsibility to be at the forefront of researching the drivers of Veteran suicide, all with the goal of ensuring no Veteran is lost to suicide,” said Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal, M.D. “We are working with our intergovernmental partners to establish suicide mortality review committees, which will tailor our efforts to the unique and diverse needs of all Veterans.”

    These agreements help advance President Biden’s Unity Agenda for the nation and are part of VA’s broader efforts to prevent Veteran suicide, and contribute to the objectives of the Governor’s and Mayor’s Challenges to Prevent Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families — an effort between VA and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to create enhanced suicide prevention action plans across 50 states and five U.S. territories. This month, VA awarded another $52.5 million in grants to community organizations implementing tailored suicide prevention programs and services for Veterans and their families. VA has also launched a new webpage with resources for suicide loss survivors. VA intends to award up to an additional $10 million through the Suicide Mortality Review Cooperative Agreements program in FY 2025. Learn more about the program and the Governor’s Challenge.

    If you’re a Veteran in crisis or concerned about one, contact the Veterans Crisis Line to receive 24/7 confidential support. You don’t have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect. To reach responders, Dial 988 then Press 1, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat, or text 838255.

    Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov

    Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.

    Contact us online through Ask VA

    Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.

    Learn about our chatbot and ask a question

    Subscribe today to receive these news releases in your inbox.

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  • MIL-OSI Europe: Minister for Foreign Affairs takes part in strategic dialogue between Canada and Nordic countries

    Source: Government of Sweden

    Minister for Foreign Affairs takes part in strategic dialogue between Canada and Nordic countries – Government.se

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    Press release from Ministry for Foreign Affairs

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    On 27–29 September, Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard is taking part in a Canada-Nordic strategic dialogue.

    Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly will host a strategic dialogue between Canada and the Nordic countries (the Canada-Nordic Strategic Dialogue). The aim is to strengthen the dialogue between Canada and the five Nordic countries on issues of mutual interest in the new international situation.

    “Relations between Sweden and Canada have become increasingly significant. Canada is an important strategic partner to Sweden with regard to NATO and Ukraine, security in our neighbourhood, and bilateral investment in green transition, new technologies, AI and innovation,” says Ms Malmer Stenergard.

    Transatlantic security is one of the main items on the agenda as the meeting begins in New York on 27 September. The ministers will then undertake a joint visit to the city of Iqaluit on Baffin Island. Iqaluit is the capital of the Nunavut Territory, the easternmost part of the Canadian Arctic.

    Sweden and Canada have long enjoyed excellent relations, which are now being further enhanced with Sweden as a NATO member. Canada is an important country for Sweden, the Nordic region and the EU, and one with which we share values with regard to democracy, human rights, gender equality, sustainability and the rules-based international order.  

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    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Northern Cape’s Astro Tourism a first

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    The Northern Cape has something new to offer tourists and it is a first for the African continent, says Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille.

    “Beyond all the history, culture and beauty the Northern Cape has to offer, we are here today to launch something new the Northern Cape has to offer — Astronomy or Astro Tourism. We at the Department of Tourism, along with the Department of Science and Innovation, are launching the National Astro-Tourism Strategy, the first country on the African continent to do so,” said the Minister.

    She was speaking at the launch of the National Astro-Tourism Strategy on National World Tourism Day on Friday in Carnarvon, in the Northern Cape.

    “The Astro Tourism Strategy also aims to enhance the synergy between humans and conservation and a creative link between our origins of life on earth and the origins of the universe,” said the Minister.

    The Astro Tourism Strategy, she said, is expected to position South Africa as a world-class astro-tourism destination, focusing on infrastructure development, the optimal functioning of astronomy-tourism streams and community transformation.

    The Gazetting Notice was published today. 

    “We invite the public, including the tourism and astronomy stakeholders to participate and contribute towards to strengthening this very important work by submitting their comments. 

    “Collaboration and partnership are critically important to take this work forward and we are thankful for national, provincial and local government working together as well as the private sector to ensure sustainable growth and local community development,” said the Minister.

    She said the Square Kilometre Array telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, was a remarkable leap towards the future, and all on African soil. 

    She said it was exciting that the province was leading South Africa’s proactive stance in leveraging the significant advances made in the development of the world’s largest space telescope array, with a comprehensive astro-tourism strategy. 

    “Today, we are here to cast the spotlight on these experiences and more and to invite South Africans, and indeed visitors from the rest of the world, to come explore this province and to engage with living cultures and traditions that continue to thrive here in the Northern Cape. 

    “We want to use the SKA and the Astro Tourism as a catalyst to develop the Karoo and provide opportunities for rural tourism as well as agri-tourism to develop rural areas further. The Northern Cape is the prime location to launch this strategy as 50% of the world’s population cannot see the beauty of the night sky but the African sky still remains at an advantage, by having the clearest and darkest night sky.” 

    The vision of the Astro Tourism strategy aims to develop and position an inclusive Astro-Tourism sector that will yield sustainable benefit-sharing opportunities by maximising on marketing efforts and enhancing visitor experience in South Africa. 

    The National Astro-Tourism strategic pillars were developed through a multi-discipline consultancy process involving both the tourism and astronomy stakeholders in South Africa. 

    The Implementation Plan’s goal is to grow astro-tourism in South Africa will be implemented, monitored and evaluated according to the three strategic pillars: 

    · Pillar One: Indigenous Celestial Narratives and Human Capacity Development 

    · Pillar Two: Infrastructure Development 

    · Pillar Three: Inclusive Tourism Growth and Partnerships

    “There is so much untapped potential in our tourism market and we must work together on all levels of government, with the private to promote our hidden gems and give more business to SMEs and community tourism,” added the Minister. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI: Color Star Technology Announces Pricing of Initial $7.0 Million Tranche of up to $33.0 Million Registered Senior Secured Convertible Notes

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ADD) (“Color Star” or the “Company”), an entertainment technology company with a global network that focuses on the application of technology and artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, today announced it has entered into securities purchase agreements with certain institutional investors (the “Investors”) to purchase senior secured convertible notes in the aggregate principal amount of $7.6 million (the “First Closing”), having an original issue discount of 8% and a maturity of twelve months from issuance, resulting in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $7,000,000 (the “Convertible Notes”). The Convertible Notes will bear an interest rate of 6.0% per annum and will be convertible 45 days after the date of the First Closing, subject to certain conditions, into Class A Ordinary Shares of the Company (the “Ordinary Shares”) at an initial conversion price equal to the lower of $1.60, or the Alternative Conversion Price, as set forth in the Convertible Notes. This First Closing is expected to occur on or about September 30, 2024, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

    Under the terms of the securities purchase agreements, the Convertible Notes will be issued to the Investors, together with registered warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of approximately 2.9 million Ordinary Shares. The warrants to be issued at the First Closing will be exercisable 45 days after issuance, subject to certain conditions (the “Initial Exercise Date”), will expire on the five-year anniversary of the Initial Exercise Date, and will have an exercise price of $1.60 per share and contain certain anti-dilution provisions.
      
    Maxim Group LLC is acting as the sole placement agent in connection with the offering.

    Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, the Company and the Investors may mutually agree to the purchase and sale of additional Convertible Notes and accompanying warrants for up to an additional aggregate amount of  $26.0 million. Any additional Convertible Notes and warrants sold will have substantially similar terms to those issued in the First Closing.

    The securities described above are being offered pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form F-3 (File No. 333-281668), which was declared effective by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on August 28, 2024. A prospectus supplement relating to the securities will be filed by the Company with the SEC. Copies of the prospectus supplement relating to the offering, together with the accompanying prospectus, can be obtained at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or from Maxim Group LLC, 300 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022, Attention: Syndicate Department, or via email at syndicate@maximgrp.com or telephone at (212) 895-3500.

    This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sales of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

    About Color Star Technology Co., Ltd.

    Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ADD) is an entertainment and education company that provides online entertainment performances and online music education services. Its business operations are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Color Metaverse Pte. Ltd. and CACM Group NY, Inc. The Company’s online education is provided through its Color World music and entertainment education platform. More information about the Company can be found at www.colorstarinternational.com and www.colorstar.investorroom.com. 

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development, including the development of the metaverse project; product and service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic conditions; the growth of the educational and training services market internationally where ADD conducts its business; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; the ability of Color Star to meet NASDAQ listing standards in connection with the consummation of the transaction contemplated therein; and other risks and uncertainties described herein, as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed from time to time in other reports and other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Color Star. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward–looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof unless required by applicable laws, regulations or rules.

    Contact

    Color Star Investor Relations
    Office Number No. 1003, 9th Floor,
    7 World Trade Center, Suite 4621
    New York NY 10007
    Office: (212) 410-5186
    Email ir@colorstarinternational.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Funding for First Nations Guardians now managed by world’s first Indigenous-led national stewardship network

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    September 27, 2024 – Thunder Bay, Ontario

    Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. Across the country, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis are on the ground managing land, water, and helping communities thrive while safeguarding the natural spaces we all depend on for current and future generations.

    Today, Jaimee Gaunce, Executive Director of the First Nations National Guardians Network (NGN), joined the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change; the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario; and Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, to announce the investment of up to $27.6 million to support 80 First Nations Guardians initiatives.

    This investment will support 18 new and 62 existing initiatives to safeguard the land, water, and wildlife within First Nation territories while also creating meaningful employment opportunities in remote areas.

    Executive Director Gaunce, Minister Guilbeault, Minister Hajdu, and Member of Parliament Powlowski were also joined by Valérie Courtois, Executive Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative; Bertha Sutherland of Constance Lake First Nation; and Dr. Robert Stewart of BZA-Rocky Bay First Nation. This announcement marks a significant milestone, as it is the first time First Nations Guardians’ funding has been independently managed by the National Guardians Network, the world’s first Indigenous-led national stewardship network.

    Longstanding initiatives, such as the Matawa First Nations’ Four Rivers Regional Guardians Network are concrete examples of Guardians’ initiatives in action—acting as the “eyes and ears” on the ground by monitoring ecological health and working to preserve and pass on Indigenous knowledge and nature-based learning to inspire future Guardians.

    For over a decade, Four Rivers Regional Guardians Network has led environmental stewardship and capacity-building for nine Matawa member First Nations in Northern Ontario. With this new investment, Four Rivers will strengthen its support for land, water, and wildlife stewardship within these communities; acquire vital monitoring equipment and other resources; deliver support and training; and standardize monitoring approaches, methods, and data collection and organization.

    The Indigenous Guardians initiative is an important pathway for Indigenous peoples to continue to exercise their rights and responsibilities in stewardship of their traditional lands, and a key component of Canada’s commitment to and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

    Quotes

    “Indigenous-led stewardship offers profound and transformative benefits for communities and the environment and Guardians are a cornerstone of these efforts. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the First Nations National Guardians Network for their dedication and success in administering this year’s program. This achievement will ensure that future generations benefit from healthy land and water and stands as a powerful testament to self determination in action.”
    – The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

    “The Guardians are on the frontlines of conservation efforts, and by placing this responsibility in their hands, we affirm their knowledge, capacity, and connection to the land. Supporting the leadership and expertise of Indigenous peoples creates a more holistic and sustainable approach to conservation by considering ecosystem health, community well-being, and economic sustainability. Today’s investment not only strengthens environmental protection but also supports meaningful job creation in Indigenous and northern communities.”
    – The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario

    “Today marks a major milestone. This is the first round of Guardians’ funding fully administered by the First Nations National Guardians Network. We are proud to fulfill this responsibility. And we welcome the federal commitment to the National Guardians Network as a recognition that First Nations have the expertise, capacity, and knowledge to take the lead in the responsible management of stewardship investments.”
    – Jaimee Gaunce, Executive Director, First Nations National Guardians Network

    “We congratulate the First Nations National Guardians Network on ensuring more Guardians are caring for lands and waters across the country. And we welcome the example the relationship between the Government of Canada and the Network is setting. As countries prepare to attend COP16, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in October, this approach in partnership with First Nations offers a successful model of how respecting Indigenous leadership and Nationhood creates on-the-ground benefits for lands and waters and communities.”
    – Valérie Courtois, Executive Director, Indigenous Leadership Initiative

    “With today’s announcement, we recognize the essential role of Indigenous leadership in protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainability. I am happy to see the incredible impact this investment will have on local communities and future generations.”
    – Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River

    Quick facts

    • In December 2022, Minister Guilbeault jointly announced the launch of a new First Nations National Guardians Network with Valérie Courtois, the Founding Director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

    • Environment and Climate Change Canada has invested more than $91.6 million in over 240 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Guardians initiatives since 2018.

    • Combined, these investments have helped support the creation of almost 1,500 traditionally and culturally meaningful employment opportunities, while protecting nature and wildlife.

    • The federal government expanded its support for Indigenous Guardians in 2021, committing up to $100 million to support new and existing Indigenous Guardians initiatives and the establishment of Indigenous Guardians networks.

    • Funding and decision-making are implemented jointly with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis using a distinctions-based approach that respects and recognizes the unique perspectives, rights, responsibilities, and needs of Indigenous peoples.

    • These types of Indigenous-led stewardship initiatives integrate ecosystem health, community well-being, and economic sustainability, creating a more holistic and sustainable approach to conservation.

    • Canada has committed to conserving 30 percent of its land and water by 2030.

    Related products

    Associated links

    Contacts

    Oliver Anderson
    Director of Communications
    Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
    819-962-0686
    Oliver.Anderson@ec.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Environment and Climate Change Canada
    819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free)
    media@ec.gc.ca

    Environment and Climate Change Canada’s X (Twitter) page

    Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Facebook page

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Indigenous Guardians projects 2024–2025

    Source: Government of Canada News

    Today, Jaimee Gaunce, Executive Director of the First Nations National Guardians Network (NGN), joined the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change; the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario; and Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, to announce the investment of up to $27.6 million to support 80 First Nations Guardians initiatives.

    Alberta

    Project title: Mikisew Cree First Nation Guardian Program
    Recipient: Mikisew Cree First Nation – Government and Industry Relations
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year, ongoing initiative will study how oil sands development, particularly bitumen mining and hydroelectric projects, are affecting the health of the Peace-Athabasca Delta, the heart of Mikisew’s traditional territory. Guardians work year-round to monitor water quality, collect data, track flood events, and monitor the fish population.

    Project title: Ni Ho Ghe Di – ACFN Guardian Program Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation
    Recipient: Dene Lands and Resource Management
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will monitor and report on activities that may cause harm to the ecology, traditional lands, or traditional resources of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), such as poaching and illegally hunting on the traditional territory, especially to protect Ronald Lake Buffalos. The initiative will also support youth to strengthen their cultural pride and connection to the land and develop on-the-land skills.

    Project title: Guardians of the Territory – Dene Tha’ First Nation
    Recipient: Dene Tha’ First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will engage in diverse activities, such as ecological restoration, supporting resource management plans, and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations. Guardians will protect and recover species at risk, manage land use in the proposed Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area at M’behcholia (Bistcho Lake, Alberta), and conduct environmental and wildlife monitoring.

    Project title: Alexis Nakota Sioux Nations Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation
    Funding amount: $346,400
    Project description: This two-year initiative will involve conducting and analyzing aerial surveys, creating a geographic information system (GIS) data management and visualization system using R-Studio and ArcPY, and continue to develop the Stoney Land and Water Course.

    British Columbia

    Project title: Kitasoo Xai’xais Guardian Watchmen Program Enhancement
    Recipient: Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation
    Funding amount: $604,925
    Project description: This two-year initiative focuses on marine and terrestrial surveying, along with compliance and enforcement practices involving education, observation, and reporting. The Guardians also actively participate in the Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary and undertake training for emergency response in search and rescue and oil spills.

    Project title: Coastal Stewardship Network
    Recipient: Great Bear Initiative Society
    Funding amount: $499,785
    Project description: This two-year initiative provides programming to the Coastal First Nations – Great Bear Initiative’s eight member nations, who work directly with communities to support Guardians along the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii to track resource use and ecosystem health, provide training and professional development, raise awareness, and help establish a stewardship presence on the coast.

    Project title: Songhees Nation Guardians Program
    Recipient: Songhees Nation
    Funding amount: $50,000
    Project description: This one-year initiative continues work with community members, Band Council, and outside organizations to provide monitoring services, promote stewardship in the community, and restore habitat areas. This initiative helps establish stronger Indigenous presence on the water during fishing seasons, as it is critical in establishing more authority over fisheries and coastal resources on the land.

    Project title: Lower Nicola Indian Band – Indigenous Guardians Program – Tier 1
    Recipient: Lower Nicola Indian Band
    Funding amount: $49,450
    Project description: This one-year initiative aims to build capacity, skills, and knowledge for a new Guardians program in the community. This will involve mapping and indexing areas in the territory, engaging with Elders and knowledge keepers, engaging with the community, drafting a plan, and working with chief and council to ensure the vision aligns with the strategic plan.

    Project title: Mamalilikulla First Nation Guardian Program
    Recipient: Mamalilikulla First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative involves ongoing activities where Guardians spend time on the land to collect data, monitor cultural sites, manage Grizzly Bear populations, plant crab apple trees to provide food for the bears, and improve fisheries. This work helps the Chief and Council make informed decisions.

    Project title: Wet’suwet’en First Nation Guardian Initiative: A Holistic Approach
    Recipient: Wet’suwet’en First Nation
    Funding amount: $75,745
    Project description: This one-year initiative will monitor and collect data on moose population and mortality rates, assess wildlife habitats, setup wildlife cameras, and conduct riparian assessments. It will also explore starting a water-monitoring program in identified priority areas. These efforts will help the community observe and document activities or cumulative effects that impact their ability to practice traditional ways of life.

    Project title: Saulteau First Nations Indigenous Guardian Proposal
    Recipient: Saulteau First Nations
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will help the community take leadership in monitoring, protecting, and restoring the lands and waters, which is essential for the health and well-being of the community. Activities include supporting safe food harvesting and cultural activities, protecting Klinse-za Park, monitoring climate changes, and understanding how events like forest fires affect the community, fluctuations in weather patterns, and alterations in animal movements and water availability.

    Project title: Saik’uz Guardian Program
    Recipient: Saik’uz First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will build upon long-term monitoring efforts through a self-sustaining, community-based Saik’uz Guardians Initiative. The Guardians will be guided by the wisdom of both Indigenous Knowledge and western science, for the purposes of empowerment and self-determination of the Nation’s future connected to the water and land of the Territory.

    Project title: P’egp’ig’lha Guardians
    Recipient: P’egp’ig’lha Council / T’it’q’et First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will conduct patrols of the land to ensure territorial health and study wildlife and fisheries. Guardians play an essential role in protecting and restoring the Stein-Nahatlatch Grizzly Bear population, assisting with wildfire recovery, and strengthening collaboration with other nearby Guardian programs.

    Project title: Pauquachin First Nation Marine Department – Stewardship Initiative
    Recipient: Pauquachin First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative monitors one of the most heavily travelled and utilized waterways within British Columbia. Guardians review culturally sensitive archaeological sites, harvesting areas, recreational and commercial fisheries use, environmental threats (pollution sources, dumping, illegal activities, and poaching), and conduct restoration in specified areas of importance. This initiative represents the community’s interests, concerns, and objectives to ensure waterways, food, historical sites, and cultural practices continue for generations to come.

    Project title: Takla Nation’s Tier 2 Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Takla Nation
    Funding amount: $499,959
    Project description: This ongoing initiative monitors more than 30 established sites across Takla’s lands and waters. This work is essential for Takla to implement environmental and cultural protections, including ensuring archaeological impact assessments are carried out by various proponents and government agencies align with Takla’s Archaeology Policy. Additionally, it builds capacity to monitor the caribou and moose populations and sustains the Guardians program by fostering engagement with youth in the community.

    Project title: Tsilhqot’in Guardian Network
    Recipient: Tsilhqot’in National Government
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative, led by the Tsilhqot’in National Government in collaboration with six Tsilhqot’in communities—Xeni Gwet’in, Tlesqox, Tletinqox, Tsi Del Del, ?Esdilagh, and Yunesit’in—aims to integrate and strengthen Tsilhqot’in values in the management of the region’s lands and waters. Working in partnership with provincial and federal land and water management agencies, the initiative will see Guardians will conducting patrols for hunting, fishing, and fire prevention, as well as wildlife- and water-monitoring research to ensure the sustainable stewardship of Tsilhqot’in territories.

    Project title: Quatsino Axsilaxa Ahwheatnagwusn Guardians Program
    Recipient: Quatsino First Nation
    Funding amount: $342,765
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to support the implementation of the Quatsino Land Use Plan and the Marine Use Plan. This will be done through field-based work, such as data collection and monitoring. These efforts will be central to ecosystem restoration and establishing food security through the local harvesting of traditional foods.

    Project title: nłeʔképmx Guardians
    Recipient: Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will continue to establish presence on the land and provide public education and awareness about the nłeʔképmx territory, protocols, and cultural practices. Guardians will monitor and record activities on the land with a focus on priority areas determined by the Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly. These priority areas include critical hunting, fishing, gathering, and other culturally important areas. nłeʔképmx Guardians will record, monitor, and manage for invasive species and will contribute to research regarding species at risk in the territory.

    Project title: Supporting and Maintaining a Strong and Efficient Heiltsuk Guardian Watchmen Program
    Recipient: Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council
    Funding amount: $349,499
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on capacity-building, monitoring local aquatics ecosystems and community fisheries for safe harvesting and to support and reestablish this life-sustaining relationship between the people and territory.

    Project title: Haa Aaní Tulatín – Taku River Tlingit First Nation Land Guardian Program
    Recipient: Taku River Tlingit First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,600
    Project description: This two-year initiative will respond to threats to the territory and monitor salmon populations. The Guardians will work to strengthen salmon stewardship by organizing multi-day camps that focus on traditional fishing, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and on-the-land monitoring.

    Project title: Spuzzum Nation Land Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Spuzzum Indian Band
    Funding amount: $50,020
    Project description: This one-year initiative will focus on protecting important ecosystems by monitoring key territorial and cultural sites, collecting ecological data, and safeguarding species like the endangered Northern Spotted Owl. The Guardians will also help to develop a framework for stewardship policies.

    Project title: Kwadacha Nation Tier 2 Guardian Proposal
    Recipient: Kwadacha Nation
    Funding amount: $348,734
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to provide long-term ecological and cultural monitoring to track changes on key wildlife habitats, traditional food sources, and water sources. This will aid in discussing how potential changes may impact the roles and responsibilities of being Dena on the land.

    Project title: Doig River First Nation Guardian Program
    Recipient: Doig River First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,188
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on improving monitoring of the lands and waters by combining cultural methods and western science. Doig River First Nation Guardians will continue to monitor the health of the land, guided by members, and will work collaboratively with the government to address any impacts.

    Project title: Nahnéhé Gegenı́hı / Kakinawetakwow Uski / FNFN Land Guardian Initiative
    Recipient: Fort Nelson First Nation
    Funding amount: $375,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative supports the Fort Nelson First Nation (FNFN) stewardship, land management, and on-the-land cultural activities. The Guardian is guided by western science monitoring and research while grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and understanding the health and condition of the lands and waters.

    Project title: Scianew Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Beecher Bay First Nation
    Funding amount: $348,614
    Project description: This two-year initiative will work toward environmental conservation, monitoring, training for Guardians, impact assessments, land sovereignty, and marine safety. This will be done through partnerships with neighbouring nations, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) and Kotug Canada.

    Project title: USIB Land Guardian Program
    Recipient: Upper Similkameen Indian Band
    Funding amount: $391,894
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to address critical environmental challenges while deeply integrating Indigenous Knowledge, community engagement, and sustainable practices. The Guardians initiative emphasizes land conservation, sustainable resource management, and fostering ecosystem resilience.

    Project title: Establishing Boothroyd Guardians Program
    Recipient: Boothroyd Indian Band
    Funding amount: $50,000
    Project description: This one-year initiative will monitor environmental indicators within the territory, support restoration work in areas damaged by wildfire, and the subsequent erosion. Boothroyd Guardians will engage with land-user groups to increase understanding and respect for the environment.

    Project title: TTQ Guardians Program Initiation Project
    Recipient: TTQ Economic Development Corporation
    Funding amount: $62,533
    Project description: This one-year initiative aims to collect and organize Xa’xtsa’s previously recorded cultural knowledge data, map priority areas, and develop a monitoring plan. The goal is to observe changes in the supply of traditional herbs and plants, the frequency and impacts of foraging on the land, vitality of salmon spawning, changes in unauthorized camping, and invasive plants and animals.

    Project title: Wildfire Recovery Monitoring
    Recipient: Okanagan Indian Band
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will assess the conditions of the White Rock Lake watershed before and after wildfires for the Okanagan Indian Band. The Guardians will conduct site assessments, inventory culturally significant resources, monitor wildlife, and assess the severity of burn damage to guide restoration efforts.

    Project title: Nanwakolas – Stewarding Through Indigenous Scientific Knowledge
    Recipient: Nanwakolas Council Society
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will apply Kwakwaka’wakw values and Indigenous scientific knowledge on a variety of projects, including loxiwe (clam garden) restoration, canoe carving, hosting Guardian seasonal gathering events, as well as data collection on water, wildlife monitoring, climate change studies, and emergency response planning.

    Project title: Continuing to Build the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Guardians Programs Initiative
    Recipient: Squamish Nation – Squamish Indian Band 555
    Funding amount: $349,505
    Project description: This two-year initiative will conduct stewardship activities, respond to climate events and emergencies, and increase public safety. The Guardians will continue to be on the land engaging and learning from Elders, knowledge keepers, and youth, as well as collaborating with other Nations to share information and build capacity across the National Guardians Network.

    Project title: St’át’imc Land Guardians
    Recipient: St’at’imc Government Services
    Funding amount: $425,180
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on the implementation of the St’át’imc Water Accord. This includes collecting baseline data of three intact watersheds and three impacted watersheds to assess water quality. Other activities include capacity-building and reviewing stories and legends through workshops/collaborative research with the Indigenous Law Research Unit.

    Project title: Nak’azdli Whut’en Yinka Huwunline (Looking After/Taking Care) Guardians Program
    Recipient: Nak’azdli Whut’en
    Funding amount: $349,942
    Project description: This two-year initiative will build geospatial mapping technology for Guardians to use in monitoring. It will create open portals for communication while protecting internal data and cultural information. The project will use remote sensing technology to create “living maps” that track seasonal phenology, quantify impacts, and present informed engagements on stewardship with industry, government, consultants, and academics.

    Project title: Lake Babine Nation Yintah Guardians
    Recipient: Lake Babine Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will lead the collaborative stewardship of yintah Lake Babine Nation (LBN) territory and the resources of two cultural keystone species, talok (Sockeye Salmon) and khida (moose), to restore moose populations to culturally meaningful levels, and to support fish monitoring, habitat restoration, and collaborative management.

    Manitoba

    Project title: Seal River Watershed Alliance Land Guardians Network
    Recipient: Seal River Watershed Alliance
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will employ 14 youth and senior staff in Land Guardian positions across the four Nations of the Alliance. This initiative builds technical capacity and administers species and habitat identification, monitoring, and protection, and stewards the watershed.

    Project title: Askiy Okanawaynichikaywuk (Keepers of the Land)
    Recipient: York Factory First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,860
    Project description: This two-year initiative will maintain trails, monitor cultural and historic sites, observe changes in the land, and support respectful land use. Guardians will have a visible presence, doing community outreach, participating in land-based events, and helping to inform Council’s decisions about land use, stewardship, and protection.

    Project title: Pimachiowin Aki First Nations Guardians Network
    Recipient: Pimachiowin Aki Corporation
    Funding amount: $499,615
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on seasonal fishing monitoring of Pickerel (Walleye), all-season road alignment, wildfire management, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Guardians provide professional capacity and presence in Pimachiowin Aki, expressing Anishinaabe nationhood, as well as filling gaps in the Information Management System and provincial patrols and monitoring activities throughout the year.

    Project title: SCO First Nations Guardians Regional Network
    Recipient: Southern Chiefs’ Organization Inc.
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on strengthening Indigenous jurisdiction over their traditional lands, capacity-building, training and skills development in environmental monitoring and management, and encouraging cooperation and collaboration between communities on stewardship and natural resource management issues.

    Project title: SLFN Land-Water-Nature Indigenous Guardianship Stewardship Initiative
    Recipient: Swan Lake First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,285
    Project description: This two-year initiative, together with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, will continue to evaluate the revegetation terraces and re-seed as necessary, monitor water quality from the tile drainage structure, and monitor wildlife and pollinator populations. The data collected will assist in understanding the success rate of this project in reducing nutrient pollution and enhancing ecosystems.

    New Brunswick

    Project title: Amlamgog Earth Keepers
    Recipient: Fort Folly First Nation
    Funding amount: $321,411
    Project description: This two-year initiative will expand and enhance an existing salmon recovery initiative. This initiative will focus on flora and fauna monitoring, following the traditional guiding principle of Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing).

    Project title: Wotstak First Nation Guardians Initiative – Tier 1
    Recipient: Woodstock First Nation
    Funding amount: $50,000
    Project description: This one-year initiative will collect data and conduct ecosystem monitoring guided by Woodstock’s Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge for conservation, with the goal of developing a land use plan.

    Project title: Elugweieg Toqwe’gig ugjit Ugs’tqamu aq ugjit Sapo’nug (We Work Together for Earth and for Tomorrow)
    Recipient: Esgenoôpetitj Watershed Association
    Funding amount: $349,923
    Project description: This two-year initiative will expand Esgenoôpetitj aquatic monitoring and governance, led by Esgenoôpetitj First Nation (EFN) Fishery Guardians in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada enforcement personnel in the management, conservation, and protection of the fisheries in the areas most utilized by the community.

    Newfoundland and Labrador

    Project title: Innu Nation Guardian Program
    Recipient: Innu Nation – Environment and Parks Offices
    Funding amount: $700,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will integrate the Sheshatshiu and Mushuau Innu (Natuashish) communities through environmental stewardship and cultural preservation. The initiative will focus on five objectives: creating additional Guardian positions, providing technical and safety training, hosting youth workshops for knowledge transfer, purchasing necessary equipment, and developing cultural initiatives to uphold and promote Innu traditions and ecological knowledge.

    Nova Scotia

    Project title: Re-Connecting Our People with the Land
    Recipient: Eskasoni Fish & Wildlife Commission Inc.
    Funding amount: $375,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will help protect the Eskasoni Watershed and the bio-cultural diversity within the Nation for future generations, as well as reconnecting the people with the land by supporting community-led research and conducting surveys to monitor the changes in the fisheries and ecosystems. The Guardians will be responsible for monitoring activities within the watershed that could impact fish habitat, fish passage, and other species at risk or culturally significant species. This initiative will also support designation of an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.

    Project title: Nova Scotia Earth Keepers / Nuji kelo’toqatijik Network
    Recipient: Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources Society
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative includes gathering and sharing of Indigenous Knowledge, promoting Netukulimk hunting practices, and monitoring and data collection, including identifying areas suitable for cultural activities, harvesting of medical plants, monitoring species at risk, and education and outreach about culturally important species.

    Northwest Territories

    Project title: Ni hat’ni Dene (Watchers of the Land)
    Recipient: Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,600
    Project description: This two-year initiative maintains a long-term mandate to promote stewardship of Thaidene Nene, working full-time as caretakers of the land, water, and animals, ambassadors of the Dene way of life, and hosting visitors. Initiatives include protecting the Bathurst Caribou, passing on cultural knowledge to youth, and ensuring food security.

    Project title: DKFN Guardians
    Recipient: Deninu Kue First Nation
    Funding amount: $333,055
    Project description: This two-year initiative will monitor the lands and water. Guardians will patrol the land to ensure it is kept clean and will conduct water-quality sampling and clean fish monitoring.

    Project title: LKFN Guardians and Climate Change Monitoring Project
    Recipient: Łı́ı́dlı̨́ı̨́ Kų́ę́ First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,961
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to monitor the environmental impacts of climate change in the Dehcho Region of Northwest Territories. The initiative will include monitoring of various indicators, such as permafrost melt, riverbank slumping/erosion, and shifting species populations. Guardians will be equipped with specialized training to monitor erosion, permafrost conditions, observe melt patterns, and assess the depth of thaw. This crucial data collection is important to assess the changing landscape.

    Project title: Sahtu K’aowe Guardians Project in Support of the Tsá Tué Biosphere Reserve
    Recipient: Délįnę Got’įnę Government
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative supports monitoring of the Great Bear Lake and its watershed using two-eyed seeing methods (bridging western science and Indigenous Knowledge) for the conservation of biodiversity, ecological integrity, climate change adaptation, sustenance of local wildlife, and food security, as well as for cultural continuity and revitalization.

    Ontario

    Project title: Environmental Stewardship on Air Quality Issues for Aamjiwnaang First Nation
    Recipient: Aamjiwnaang First Nation
    Funding amount: $48,732
    Project description: This one-year initiative will monitor the air, water, and land surrounding Aamjiwnaang First Nation (AFN) that has been impacted by industry development. Guardians will identify environmental monitoring gaps (for example, soil, water, air, fish, plants, and species at risk), develop plans for data collection, improve emergency notification, as well as community responses to petroleum refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities in proximity to AFN.

    Project title: Temagami First Nation Guardians
    Recipient: Temagami First Nation
    Funding amount: $451,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative prioritizes water quality, species, and habitat protection; preservation of Indigenous wisdom; and data collection and monitoring. Guardians will be engaged in monitoring, recording, and reporting activities related to land use and environmental protection. Specific attention will be given to Lake Temagami, including monitoring ice huts, houseboats, shores, and more.

    Project title: Atikameksheng Anishnawbek – Phase 2 – Monitoring of Atikameksheng Traditional Land
    Recipient: Atikameksheng Anishnawbek
    Funding amount: $347,263
    Project description: This two-year initiative will help with the collection of maple sap during Sugar Moon and other food harvestings, which is provided to Elders and the Nations’ food bank. Guardians will monitor the lands, conduct field site inspections for proposed forestry cuts to ensure grandmother trees are protected, and complete daily field work sheets and site inspections that will provide important environmental information on spills, violations, and forestry cuts.

    Project title: Anishinabek Traditional Ecological Guardians of Georgian Bay
    Recipient: Magnetawan First Nation
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative supports land-based learning, knowledge transfer, and technical skills training on species at risk, species monitoring, data collections, and other land-management activities using the two-eyed seeing approach. The initiative will also help to strengthen capacity and sustainable management for other First Nation groups.

    Project title: Charting the Path Ahead – Anishinaabe Aki Shkabewisag (Niiwin Wendaanimok Anishinaabe Guardians Network)
    Recipient: Niiwin Wendaanimok Limited Partnership
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will support four Anishinaabe Nations to mitigate and monitor compliance on development in the territory; increase capacity to care for lands, water, plants, and animals; and work collaboratively to identify individual needs and create personalized coaching and mentorship programs. The Anishinaabe Guardians will identify and protect areas of significance by interviewing Elders and knowledge keepers.

    Project title: Ketegaunseebee Aki Guardians
    Recipient: Garden River First Nation
    Funding amount: $301,400
    Project description: This two-year initiative will assist Garden River First Nation in monitoring and protecting the St. Marys River and the lands to uphold a treaty made with neighbouring Indigenous Nations. The initiative will focus on capacity-building, community engagement, and fieldwork including patrolling, monitoring species at risk and invasive species, and forestry.

    Project title: Four Rivers Regional Guardians Network
    Recipient: Matawa First Nations Management
    Funding amount: $389,771
    Project description: This two-year initiative focuses on environmental stewardship and capacity-building in nine Matawa First Nations. The Four Rivers Regional Guardian Network will engage in virtual and in-person networking to expand its knowledge and capacity, including cultural exchanges within the network.

    Project title: Biinjitawaabik Zaaging Anishnaabek Community Guardians
    Recipient: Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishnaabek Rocky Bay First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will implement sturgeon and mining site protocols, conduct environmental monitoring analysis, map the Lake Nipigon basin, and integrate the data into a geographic information system database.

    Project title: The Height of Land Wakohtowin Guardian Program – Treaty No.9
    Recipient: Wahkohtowin Development General Partnership Inc.
    Funding amount: $499,300
    Project description: This two-year initiative is designed to enhance traditional knowledge, practices, and way of life within the communities. Guardians will have first-hand experience in how ecosystem services and the conservation economy work.

    Project title: The Neya Waban Guardian Program – Caretakers of the Land
    Recipient: Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,650
    Project description: This two-year initiative will gather crucial information that will support decision-making, identify quality habitat areas for wildlife, and develop management plans and protocols. The Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation will continue to conduct Algonquin knowledge-based data collection to further protect the lands, water, animals, and air for the eleven communities across Ontario and Quebec.

    Project title: Mnisinoog (Warriors for the Bay): Shawanaga First Nation’s Guardians Program
    Recipient: Shawanaga First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative focuses on improving aquatic life by using river monitors to sustain and protect the health of the river ecosystem. Aquatic stewardship takes precedence with creel surveys, wide-scale monitoring of waterbodies, and a detailed study on fish consumption.

    Project title: Caldwell First Nation Land Guardian Program
    Recipient: Caldwell First Nation
    Funding amount: $345,840
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on education, training, on-the-land learning with technical experts and knowledge holders, and listening sessions with the community. The Guardians will review class environmental assessments on behalf of Caldwell First Nation, monitor and participate in environmental projects in the Territory, and build multi-year capacity initiatives with emphasis on supporting the creation, development, and management of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas within traditional territory.

    Prince Edward Island

    Project title: Lennox Island First Nation Guardians Program
    Recipient: Lennox Island First Nation
    Funding amount: $346,800
    Project description: This two-year initiative will help better manage, protect, and utilize the marine resources the community relies on. It will allow the Lennox Island watershed conservation group to participate in coastal erosion studies, take part in fisheries workshops (lobster-handling practices), a Black Ash reforestation project, and the development of a modernized solid-waste management plan.

    Project title: Abegweit Guardians
    Recipient: Abegweit First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative embodies a cultural and traditional approach to natural resource management. The initiative also includes data collection and monitoring, and focusing on the use of lands, waters, and resources on traditional territories, including cultural sites.

    Quebec

    Project title: Gardiens du Ndakina
    Recipient: W8banaki
    Funding amount: $500,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will support the sustainability of traditional practices of members of the Nation, protect their rights to access ancestral territory, and preserve cultural heritage. This initiative will create conservation spaces, share and transfer Indigenous Knowledge, mentor youth, engage with the community, and promote food sovereignty, as well as many other activities.

    Project title: Pushing Forth: Taking the Pessamit Land Guardians to the Next Level
    Recipient: Conseil des Innus de Pessamit
    Funding amount: $349,550
    Project description: This two-year initiative includes a team of six territorial agents, specializing in data collection, surveillance of the lands, and comprehensive inventories of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. The initiative will focus on monitoring and assessments, conducting an inventory of cultural sites, developing expertise in sampling, and community engagement and visibility.

    Project title: Gardiens de territoire Abitibiwinnik
    Recipient: Première Nation Abitibiwinni
    Funding amount: $195,931
    Project description: This two-year initiative will continue to train community members to conduct land surveillance and acquire new skills and knowledge from field work, utilizing both Indigenous Knowledge and western science. The initiative aims to document information acquired from Guardians’ activities, community members, and Elders.

    Project title: Cumulative Effects Assessment of Chisasibi’s Intertidal Zones: Integrating Science, Tradition, and Stewardship
    Recipient: Cree Nation of Chisasibi
    Funding amount: $348,468
    Project description: This two-year initiative will focus on integrating western science, Indigenous Knowledge, and stewardship to address key challenges in the Chisasibi community. The initiative will study the impact of development by reviewing existing research, mapping the community, analyzing vegetation, and collecting environmental samples. Additionally, it will build capacity through workshops and a mentorship initiative involving Kinwhapmaakins (Trapline Managers/Guardians). All data will be collected and combined into a detailed report on cumulative effects.

    Project title: Gardiens Atikamekw de Manawan
    Recipient: Conseil des Atikamekw de Manawan
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative will enhance the role of the Guardians in working with non-Indigenous land users and partners within the heart of the Nation and the community. This next phase focuses on being active on the land, collecting data, establishing an official community-recognized mandate, and increasing capacity and training, as well as strengthening the role of the Guardians within the community.

    Project title: Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Nagadjitòdjig Guardian Initiative
    Recipient: Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation
    Funding amount: $594,020
    Project description: This two-year initiative will monitor and inventory cultural keystone species, wild foods, and trees. The Guardians will provide water quality studies, identify culturally significant sites, and record videos to document traditional practices and activities.

    Project title: Protection et participation à la mise en valeur de l’héritage Pekuakamiulnuatsh sur Nitassinan
    Recipient: Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan
    Funding amount: $49,995
    Project description: This one-year initiative aims to ensure the protection and preservation of the territory while maintaining the well-being of the Nation’s community members as they conduct their Nation’s traditional activities. The Guardians play a crucial role in supporting the Nation’s community, in land surveillance, and accompanying community members onto the Nation’s land.

    Project title: Essipiu Assinu Nakatuenitamu (celui qui prend soin du territoire d’Essipit)
    Recipient: Conseil de la Première Nation des Innus Essipit
    Funding amount: $246,308
    Project description: This two-year initiative supports responsible governance and occupation of the Nation’s territory, land surveillance, and participation in community events, as well as collaboration on a variety of projects that encourage learning and skill development for Guardians and community members.

    Project title: Nutshimiunnuat d’ITUM (gardiens du Nitassinan d’ITUM)
    Recipient: Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-Utenam
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative consists of monitoring, protecting, and carrying out stewardship activities in the traditional territory of the Nation. Its objective is to ensure surveillance on the land and protection of the Nation, as well as contribute to studies and inventories on the impacts of climate change and industrial development within the territory.

    Project title: Iakwatonhontsanónhnha (We All Mind Her, the Earth)
    Recipient: Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke
    Funding amount: $256,416
    Project description: This two-year initiative will develop an Environmental Charter for the community, helping to define roles and responsibilities of Conservation Officers. It will also consult on a Rights of Nature approach to protect the St. Lawrence River.

    Saskatchewan

    Project title: File Hills Qu’Appelle Guardian Initiative
    Recipient: File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council
    Funding amount: $354,180
    Project description: This two-year initiative will monitor and document the health of waterways, including water quality, medicines, and the condition of riverbanks, focusing specifically on the Lower Qu’Appelle River and Chain of Lakes. It will also work to revitalize language and land stewardship practices.

    Project title: Monitoring and Protection of Athabasca Denesųłiné Nuhenéné in Saskatchewan
    Recipient: Ya’thi Néné Land and Resource Office
    Funding amount: $498,916
    Project description: This two-year initiative will monitor lands and waters in Nuhenéné including Indigenous Protected Areas, caribou harvest areas, mineral exploration, and extraction activities. Guided by Elders, a focus of the Ya’thi Néné Lands and Resources’ Guardians is to connect youth back to the land and build future leaders in sustainable management practices.

    Project title: The Birch Narrows Dene Nation Nuh Nene Strategic Plan
    Recipient: Birch Narrows Dene Nation
    Funding amount: $49,917
    Project description: This one-year initiative will monitor the land, combining ancestral wisdom with modern ecological approaches. Strategic partnerships with neighbouring First Nations and partners, such as Tamarack Environmental Associates, NexGen Energy Ltd., and Fission Uranium Corp. will amplify the impact of conservation efforts. Through training, mentorship, and community engagement, the initiative will help the Nuh Nene Department in its goal of safeguarding cultural identity and the natural environment.

    Project title: Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation Community-Based Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to enhance capacity-building by training and employing youth to collect and analyze data about climate change and industrial impacts in the territory. Data will be used to draft a Land Use Management Plan to inform the Chief and Council’s decision-making on stewardship initiatives and habitat management to ensure sustainable sources of traditional food for the community.

    Project title: Muskowekwan First Nation Community-Based Guardians Initiative
    Recipient: Muskowekwan First Nation
    Funding amount: $350,000
    Project description: This two-year initiative aims to enhance capacity-building for community members to monitor and understand the impacts of climate change. This will provide youth with an opportunity to be trained in Indigenous Knowledge, western science, and climate and environmental monitoring practices, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, participatory mapping, and knowledge gathering.

    Yukon

    Project title: Teechik Land Guardians: Nanh gwiinzii vik’ite’tri’giikhii (We Read the Land Well)
    Recipient: Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation
    Funding amount: $349,333
    Project description: This two-year initiative will operate a network of camera traps to monitor predator–prey interactions on the Old Crow winter road and conduct baseline fish and water sampling at the headwaters of the Porcupine River. The Guardian Coordinator will be tasked with organizing patrols, analyzing monitoring data, and preparing communication material for community members and leaders. This capacity-building will strengthen monitoring efforts by enabling the initiative to process more samples, improve use of camera data, and allow Guardians to establish an annual trapping camp to expand into furbearer monitoring.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI: Qifu Technology Responds to Short Seller Report

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Qifu Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: QFIN; HKEx: 3660) (“Qifu Technology” or the “Company”), a leading Credit-Tech platform in China, today issues the following preliminary responses to the key claims made in a report (the “Report”) by Grizzly Research, a short seller, on September 26, 2024.

    The Company believes that the Report is without merit and contains inaccurate information, flawed analyses, misleading conclusions and interpretations regarding information relating to the Company. Specifically:

    The SAMR (SAIC) Financial Data Used in the Report is Completely Wrong.

    The Report makes material mistakes in referring to incorrect financial data (i.e. the combined revenues and net profits) from the filings with the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”), formerly known as the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (“SAIC”) submitted by the operating entities of the Company. In fact, as the Company’s SAMR filing records demonstrate, the Company’ s major operating entities in China collectively reported total revenues of RMB 17.0 billion in 2022 and RMB 16.0 billion in 2023, with corresponding net profits of RMB 5.2 billion and RMB 4.7 billion, respectively. These revenues and net profits were recorded under PRC GAAP.

    According to the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), for the years 2022 and 2023, under U.S. GAAP and on a consolidated basis, the Company recorded total revenues of RMB16.6 billion and RMB16.3 billion, respectively, and net profits of RMB4.0 billion and RMB4.3 billion, respectively. The differences in total revenues and net profits between the filings with the SAMR and those with the SEC are primarily attributable to differences in accounting treatments under PRC GAAP and U.S. GAAP, as well as the fact that the Company’s major operating entities in China reflected in the SAMR filings do not represent all of the Company’s subsidiaries and consolidated affiliated entities in China.

    The Company has consistently generated robust operating cash flow in recent years and delivered significant returns to shareholders through dividends and stock repurchases. As of the date of this press release, in 2024, the Company has spent more than US$300 million to repurchase its America Depositary Shares (ADSs) on the open market and distributed approximately US$180 million cash dividends to shareholders. The Company’s strong commitment to, and proven track record of, shareholder returns further underscore the baseless nature of the claims made in the Report.

    Rebuttal of Unsubstantiated Media Reports about the Company’s Regional Headquarters

    The Report cites certain media reports about the Company’s regional headquarters in Shanghai that are false and unsubstantiated. In fact, as disclosed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, in October 2020, the Company established a joint venture in Shanghai, together with one of 360 Group entities and an independent third party, to build its regional headquarters and an affiliated industrial park to support the future operations of the Company and 360 Group. The Company and the 360 Group entity held 40% and 30% of the equity interest in the joint venture, respectively. In December 2021, considering the Company’s significant business expansion in Shanghai, the Company acquired the entire 30% equity interest held by the 360 Group entity in the joint venture. Consequently, these facilities will enable the Company to consolidate all its Shanghai-based departments and employees, who are currently dispersed across different locations, into a single office space. The Company believes this will further reduce administrative costs and improve operational efficiency.

    Both the co-investment with the 360 Group in October 2020 and the acquisition of the equity interest in the joint venture from the 360 Group in December 2021 were negotiated and conducted at arm’s length and were approved by the board of directors and the audit committee of the Company.

    The Report also makes a false claim that the Company has acquired another piece of land in the Huangpu District of Shanghai. In fact, the Company did not acquire any land in the Huangpu District of Shanghai.

    Rebuttal of Unsubstantiated Financial Manipulation Claim and Relationship between Shanghai Qibutianxia and the Company

    The claim made in the Report that the Company uses Shanghai Qibutianxia Information Technology Co., Ltd.  (“Shanghai Qibutianxia,” formerly known as Beijing Qibutianxia Technology Co., Ltd.) to manipulate its financial statements is false and unsubstantiated.

    In fact, Shanghai Qibutianxia was the holding company for the Company’s operating entities in China prior to the Company’s reorganization in 2018 for financing and offshore listing on Nasdaq. In July 2016, as a spin-off from 360 Group, Shanghai Qibutianxia incorporated Shanghai Qiyu Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Qiyu”), and thereafter, the Company started operating independently under Shanghai Qiyu.

    In April 2018, to facilitate the Company’s financing and offshore listing on Nasdaq, a holding company under the Company’s former name, 360 Finance, Inc. was incorporated in the Cayman Islands. As part of the reorganization, the Cayman holding company incorporated an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary in China, namely Shanghai Qiyue Information & Technology Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Qiyue”). Shanghai Qiyue entered into a series of “VIE” contractual arrangements with the Company’s three major operating entities in China and their shareholder Shanghai Qibutianxia. As a result, these major operating entities in China became the Company’s VIEs, and Shanghai Qibutianxia remained the nominal shareholder of these VIEs. The contractual arrangements enable the Company to exercise effective control over the Company’s VIEs; receive substantially all of the economic benefits and powers to exercise voting rights of the Company’s VIEs from Shanghai Qibutianxia, and have an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of them when and to the extent permitted by PRC law.

    In addition, the Report erroneously claims that the Company utilized the back-to-back guarantee arrangement with Shanghai Qibutianxia to manipulate its financial statements. In fact, prior to 2023, certain financial institutions required the nominal shareholder of our operating entities (i.e., Shanghai Qibutianxia) to supplementally provide back-to-back guarantees for certain loans facilitated and guaranteed by the Company’s operating entities. Specifically, Shanghai Qibutianxia committed to cover any shortfall if the Company’s operating entities fail to meet its guaranteed repayment obligations to the banks on time. This back-to-back guarantee arrangement did not increase the Company’s risk exposures, nor did it transfer any interest to Shanghai Qibutianxia. As of the date of this press release, there is no outstanding balance under this arrangement.

    The Report erroneously states that Mr. Hongyi Zhou is the controlling shareholder of the Company. In fact, The Company does not have a controlling shareholder. According to the Company’s annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on April 26, 2024, Mr. Hongyi Zhou beneficially owned approximately 13.8% of total ordinary shares of the Company as of February 29, 2024. Mr. Hongyi Zhou was the chairman of the board directors of the Company, but has not been involved day-to-day operations of the company. As announced by the Company on August 13, 2024, Mr. Hongyi Zhou has resigned as a director and the chairman of the board of directors of the Company.

    Rebuttal of Unsubstantiated Claim about Delinquency Rates and Provisions

    The claim made in the Report in relation to the Company’s delinquency rates and provision booking exhibits a fundamental misunderstanding of the Company’s financial practices and the relevant accounting standards. Specifically:

    • The Report inaccurately calculated the Company’s provision ratios by using the total reported provisions to calculate the provision ratio for each period.
    • The Report erroneously included provisions for contingent liabilities in the analysis of receivables provisioning.
    • The Report’s focus on a backward-looking 90 day+ delinquency rate is misplaced.
    • The Report’s claim that the Company’s reported profits are fabricated to account for the missing cash is completely false and unsubstantiated.

    Provision Ratios

    The Report inaccurately calculated the Company’s provision ratios by using the total reported provisions to calculate the provision ratio for each period, which is fundamentally incorrect. According to the accounting standards under U.S. GAAP, each reported provision item reflects the net result of new provisions booked for current period loans and the revision of provisions for existing loans. The Company maintains clear and distinct categories for provisions related to the Company’s loan products: (i) provision for loan receivable, relating solely to the Company’s on-balance sheet loans; (ii) provision for financial assets receivable, relating to the guarantee service fees; (iii) provision for accounts receivable and contract assets, relating to, relating to the loan facilitation service fees;; and (iv) provision for contingent liabilities, relating to the off-balance sheet loans for which the Company provides guarantee services.

    The following chart delineates the components of the Company’s reported provisions for 2022, 2023, and the first half of 2023 and 2024, demonstrating compliance with accounting standards:

    (RMB in millions) 2022   2023   First Half
    of 2023    		   First Half
    of 2024    		  
    New Provisions for Current Period New Loans 7,355   7,647   3,573   2,694  
    Revision of Previous Provisions (write-back) (771 ) (1,880 ) (936 ) (489 )
    Net Provisions 6,584   5,767   2,636   2,205  
    Provision for Loans Receivable 1,580   2,151   1,002   1,697  
    Provision for Financial Assets Receivable 398   386   151   169  
    Provision for Accounts Receivable and Contract Assets 238   176   45   235  
    Provision for Contingent Liabilities 4,368   3,054   1,438   103  
    New Provisions Booking Ratio                
    Provision Ratio for Loan Receivable1 2.9 % 2.9 % 2.8 % 3.4 %
    Provision Ratio for Contingent Liabilities2 4.1 % 4.0 % 3.7 % 4.1 %
                     

    __________________
    Notes:
    1. “Provision Ratio for Loan Receivable” refers to the total amount of new provisions for loan receivable for a specific period divided by the loan facilitation volume of on-balance sheet loans for that period.
    2. “Provision Ratio for Contingent Liabilities” refers to the total amount of new provisions for contingent liabilities for a specific period divided by capital-heavy loan facilitation volume for that period.

    Provisions for Contingent Liabilities

    In addition, the Report erroneously included provisions for contingent liabilities in the analysis of receivables provisioning. In fact, provisions for contingent liabilities pertain only to off-balance sheet loans that the Company guarantees. These provisions are entirely separate from receivables on the balance sheet and should not be conflated. In fact, the Company has consistently applied a prudent approach to managing business risks and financial provisions. The historical data listed above also showcases the Company’s commitment to maintaining appropriate provision ratios against the Company’s risk-bearing loans.

    Delinquency Rate

    The Report’s focus on a backward-looking 90 day+ delinquency rate1 is misplaced. The Company prioritizes leading risk indicators that provide a proactive view of credit risk, such as: (i) Day-1 delinquency rate2, which measures delinquency based on the day before the reporting period, offering a real-time risk assessment; and (ii) 30 day collection rate3, which tracks the efficiency of collections within a short timeframe, enabling timely interventions. These forward-looking metrics provide a more accurate and actionable assessment of credit risk compared to traditional delinquency rates. In fact, the Company’s D-1 delinquency rate and 30 day collection rate in the past two quarters both indicate the improving quality of the Company’s loan portfolios.

    Decreases in Cash

    The Report’s claim that the Company’s reported profits are fabricated to account for the missing cash is completely false and unsubstantiated. The Company’s cash and cash equivalent decreased from RMB10.5 billion as of December 31, 2022 to RMB 8.4 billion as of June 30, 2024 primarily because the growth in the Company’s on-balance sheet loans, cash dividends distributed to shareholders, and stock repurchase program. Specifically, the Company’s on-balance sheet loan balances increased from RMB19.5 billion as of December 31, 2022 to RMB32.1 billion as of June 30, 2024. In addition, from December 31, 2022 to June 30, 2024, the Company has distributed approximately RMB3.6 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, resulting in a reduction in cash and cash equivalent.

    Non-Risk-Bearing Loans are Irrelevant to Leverage Ratio

    The claim made in the Report that the Company’s is secretly overleveraged lacks factual basis and misunderstands the Company’s financial structure and risk management strategies. Specifically, the Report erroneously uses the total outstanding loan balances facilitated by the Company for calculating its leverage ratio. By definition, the leverage ratio is relevant only to risk-bearing assets, which include both on-balance sheet loans and capital-heavy loan facilitation. As disclosed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, the outstanding balances of the Company’s risk-bearing loans accounted for only 34.2% of the total outstanding loan balances facilitated by the Company as of June 30, 2024. As of the same date, the Company’s leverage ratio was 2.4, reaching a historical low. The company employs robust risk management frameworks to monitor and control leverage, ensuring sustainability and financial stability.

    Rebuttal of Unsubstantiated Claim About Loan Annual Interest Rates

    The claim made in the Report that the Company issues loans at rates that exceed legal limits is categorically false and misleading. For example, the Report falsely claimed that regulatory guidance in China stipulates that the interest rate for the Company’s businesses should not exceed four times the one-year Loan Prime Rate at the time of the establishment of an agreement (the “Quadruple LPR Limit”). In fact, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court issued a guidance in December 2020, stipulating that the Quadruple LPR Limit does not apply to disputes arising from engagement in relevant financial businesses of certain financial institutions, including micro-lending companies and financing guarantee companies, such as the Company’s operating entities. The Company operates in strict compliance with all regulatory requirements that governs loan annual interest rate limits.

    The Company emphasizes its continued and unwavering commitment to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and internal control, as well as transparent and timely disclosure in compliance with applicable rules and regulations. To protect the interests of the Company and its shareholders, the Company will vigorously defend itself against false and baseless claims made by short seller reports.

    The Company’s board of directors (the “Board”), including the audit committee, is reviewing the allegations and considering the appropriate course of action to protect the interests of all shareholders. The Company will make additional disclosures in due course consistent with the requirements of applicable rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, The Nasdaq Stock Market, and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

    About Qifu Technology

    Qifu Technology is a leading Credit-Tech platform in China that provides a comprehensive suite of technology services to assist financial institutions and consumers and SMEs in the loan lifecycle, ranging from borrower acquisition, preliminary credit assessment, fund matching and post-facilitation services. The Company is dedicated to making credit services more accessible and personalized to consumers and SMEs through Credit-Tech services to financial institutions.

    For more information, please visit: https://ir.qifu.tech.

    Safe Harbor Statement

    Any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as the Company’s strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Qifu Technology may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in announcements made on the website of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Hong Kong Stock Exchange”), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including the Company’s business outlook, beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, which factors include but not limited to the following: the Company’s growth strategies, the Company’s cooperation with 360 Group, changes in laws, rules and regulatory environments, the recognition of the Company’s brand, market acceptance of the Company’s products and services, trends and developments in the credit-tech industry, governmental policies relating to the credit-tech industry, general economic conditions in China and around the globe, and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in Qifu Technology’s filings with the SEC and announcements on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Qifu Technology does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

    For more information, please contact:

    Qifu Technology

    E-mail: ir@360shuke.com

    _____________________________________
    1 “90 day+ delinquency rate” refers to the outstanding principal balance of on- and off-balance sheet loans that were 91 to 180 calendar days past due as a percentage of the total outstanding principal balance of on- and off-balance sheet loans across our platform as of a specific date. Loans that are charged-off and loans under “ICE” and other technology solutions are not included in the delinquency rate calculation.
    2“Day-1 delinquency rate” is defined as (i) the total amount of principal that became overdue as of a specified date, divided by (ii) the total amount of principal that was due for repayment as of such specified date.
    3 “30 day collection rate” is defined as (i) the amount of principal that was repaid in one month among the total amount of principal that became overdue as of a specified date, divided by (ii) the total amount of principal that became overdue as of such specified date.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Autoworkers, Boeing machinists, cannabis drivers: Labor unions are mobilizing in new and old industries alike

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Robert Forrant, Professor of U.S. History and Labor Studies, UMass Lowell

    Members and supporters of an International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union district local convene in Seattle on July 17, 2024. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

    What do violinists, grocery store clerks, college dorm counselors, nurses, teachers, hotel housekeepers, dockworkers, TV writers, autoworkers, Amazon warehouse workers and Boeing workers have in common?

    In the past year or so, they’ve all gone on strike, tried to get co-workers to join a union, or threatened to walk off the job over an array of issues that include retirement plans, technology replacing workers and lagging wages as inflation increased.

    The array of Americans who are organizing unions extends to the tech, digital media and cannabis industries. Even climbing gym employees have formed a union.

    This is happening as U.S. workers in general are finding themselves in an increasingly precarious position. As a labor historian, I believe mobilization is the result of economic disruption caused by the relocation of jobs, the impact of new technologies on work and the erosion of income stability. It’s become very unlikely that today’s workers will have the same employer for decades, as my father and many men and women of his generation did.

    Greatest generation of jobs

    My father, a butcher, worked for the same company for 40 years and raised a family of seven on his union-secured wages and benefits. While back in the 1950s and 1960s many working-class Americans took that kind of job security for granted, it’s no longer the case. Some career coaches consider keeping a job for many years as a character flaw.

    The upsurge in labor organizing is in part a way for workers to gain some sort of say about what happens to their jobs. It’s also helping employees plan for the future.

    Union members are increasingly using strikes to demand higher wages, better benefits and increased job security. Why should it be, some low-income earners are asking, that in my family we must hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet, while CEO pay goes through the stratosphere?

    There were 33 major strikes involving nearly a half-million workers in 2023, the most since 2000. Many labor scholars attribute much of this uptick in organizing to several long-term trends. They include stagnating wages, high out-of-pocket health spending costs – even for those with insurance coverage – and growing concerns over job insecurity caused by the expanded use of labor-saving technology.

    Hundreds of Los Angeles County workers rally on Sept. 24, 2024, to show support for their union, SEIU, to hold a strike. Many held signs regarding alleged unfair labor practices, abbreviated to ULP.
    Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    Precarious work

    In many industries, large numbers of the reliable jobs that paid enough for workers to be in the middle class have dwindled. That’s largely due to technological advances that replaced labor with automation and manufacturers moving to lower-income places, including Mexico, China and other foreign countries, as well as southern states such as Alabama and Tennessee. These trends have left behind a Rust Belt strewn with decaying buildings that once housed bustling factories and increasing numbers of what are sometimes called “precarious” jobs, which are poorly paid and lack sick leave, vacation time and other basic protections.

    This isn’t new.

    I’ve researched how New England’s textile industry fled cities such as Lowell, Massachusetts, as early as the 1920s for nonunion locations in South Carolina, while precision metalworking plants in Springfield, Massachusetts, sent work to Mississippi and South Carolina starting in the 1950s.

    But faced with mounting economic uncertainty, public support for unions is increasing. A 2024 Gallup Poll found that 70% of Americans approve of them – close to the 71% level seen in 2022, which was the highest approval rating that unions had gotten in half a century.

    Support is even rising among Americans who identify as Republicans, a political party that has historically frowned on organized labor: Gallup found it stood at 49% in 2024, down from 56% two years earlier but up from a low point of 26% in 2011.

    Hotel workers strike

    On Labor Day weekend in 2024, more than 10,000 hotel workers represented by the UNITE HERE union and employed by 24 hotels from Boston to the West Coast to Hawaii went on strike. Their labor actions disrupted travel plans during a busy time.

    Most hotel work stoppages lasted for three days and intended to pressure the companies that own hotels as part of a larger labor contract negotiation strategy. Later in September, workers kept walking off the job at other hotels to pressure management to improve pay, expand health insurance coverage, boost retirement benefits and agree to resolve important job security issues.

    Although the hotel industry has been booming since 2023, UNITE HERE contends that employment has decreased by nearly 40%, while wages have stagnated. On the picket line, workers have described living paycheck to paycheck and working one or two additional jobs to cover recent rent hikes.

    Hotel workers have more bargaining power today because, according to an industry study, 79% of the 450 hotels surveyed looking to hire people said they could not fill open jobs.

    That strike shows no sign of ending. Thousands more hotel workers were joining in by late September.

    Striking hotel workers make way for an airline crew while picketing outside of the Hilton Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Mass., on Sept. 2, 2024.
    Sophie Park/The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Boeing strike

    Unlike the hotel workers’ brief rolling work stoppages, the Boeing strike hasn’t let up since it began on Sept. 13, 2024. About 32,000 workers, mainly in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, have walked off the job.

    Boeing workers declared the strike even though the International Association of Machinists District 751 leadership in Seattle wanted to accept a deal from Boeing’s management. But on Sept. 12, 94.6% of all rank-and-file workers rejected the tentative contract their leadership recommended the union accept.

    The Boeing strike started the next day; it could last a long time. On Sept. 25, the workers rejected what the company had called its “best and final offer” to settle the strike.

    This is the eighth time these workers have gone on strike since their union formed in the 1930s. Its two most recent strikes, in 2008 and 2005, lasted 57 days and 28 days, respectively. Boeing’s management, already reeling from the company’s numerous operational and safety problems, has announced several cost-cutting measures, including furloughs for some nonunion employees.

    Boeing’s nonunion backup plan

    Boeing has assured its shareholders and the public that the strike would not hinder production of the 787 Dreamliner jets at the company’s nonunion factory in South Carolina.

    International Association of Machinists union members have never forgiven Boeing for deciding to build that assembly plant. Operational since 2011, it now employs roughly 6,000 workers. Most of them would have been union members had Boeing built that plant or expanded production in Washington or Oregon, because the existing labor agreement would have covered the new workers.

    However, the agreement did not extend to South Carolina.

    At the time of the decision, a Boeing spokesperson said, its contract with the machinists’ union “acknowledges our right to locate work elsewhere, and that’s what we chose to do in this case because we just couldn’t get the terms from them that we needed.”

    Dockworkers could be next

    The timing of the hotel and Boeing strikes makes them perhaps more visible than they might have been because union members’ votes are coveted by both major parties in the 2024 presidential election.

    Meanwhile, 25,000 dockworkers who belong to the International Longshoremen’s Association are planning a possible shutdown of ports from Boston to Houston on Oct. 1, over the union’s concern for job loss due to automation.

    How job security issues are addressed following this wave of strikes could set the tone for what other hospitality, manufacturing and transportation unions seek when their contracts are up for negotiation again.

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

    – ref. Autoworkers, Boeing machinists, cannabis drivers: Labor unions are mobilizing in new and old industries alike – https://theconversation.com/autoworkers-boeing-machinists-cannabis-drivers-labor-unions-are-mobilizing-in-new-and-old-industries-alike-239371

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Recruiting the right employees vital for the success of any business – Morolong

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    Deputy Minister in the Presidency Kenny Morolong says recruiting the right employees is vital for the success of any business, and this is no exception to government and to the  responsible for Government Communications (GCIS) in particular.

    “Finding the right talent, with the right skills, is a top priority for us as government and we cannot afford to misstep,” Morolong said.

    Addressing the Public Service Day event at GCIS in Pretoria earlier today, Morolong said suitably qualified employees can contribute to a positive organisational culture.

    “These employees will demonstrate the core values of the department and uphold its mission, which can lead to a stronger sense of unity and purpose among team members,” he said.

    Morolong said in the not-so-distant past, government introduced a National Framework towards the Professionalisation of the Public Sector.

    “Through this effort, of professionalising the public service, government also hopes to restructure its recruitment processes with the aim of ensuring appoint suitably qualified employees in order to improve on our service delivery programmes,” Morolong said.

    He said to attract top talent, the GCIS should improve its brand and perception as an employer particularly among new workers entering the workforce.

    “This brand repositioning or improvement must of necessity align with the new organisational structure that has been adopted,” the Deputy Minister said.

    The advent of digital technologies and the attendant adoption thereof, has resulted in a fast-paced communications environment. 

    “It therefore follows, that as a centre of government communications, collaboration becomes even more pronounced. As GCIS, you are the centre charged with coordinating the system of Government communication. 

    “If the centre itself is not coherently coordinated in a collaborative manner, the system will crumble. It is therefore important to understand that failure to properly coordinate will result in GCIS failing and the system of communication weakened,” Morolong said.

    He said Integrated Public Service Month (IPSM) is a well-established strategic programme of government that serves as a national platform for inter-departmental and governmental policy learning and development, as well as a public participation and engagement platform.

    Every year in September, South Africa celebrates Integrated Public Service Month, honouring the values and virtues of public servants dedicated to serving their communities, as envisioned in the Batho Pele principles.

    On 13 August 2019, the Joint Cabinet Committee directed that all government programs taking place during the month of September must be integrated into a single Integrated Public Service Month (IPSM).

    IPSM is regarded as an integrated service delivery improvement mechanism and an essential part of government’s strategy to revitalize the Batho Pele Policy of 1997 with a specific focus on honouring those public servants who serve the nation across the three spheres of government.

    It is a ‘Service Delivery Improvement Mechanism’ that seeks to reflect on the work of the Public Service in line with the values and principles for public administration as enshrined in Section 195 of the Constitution (1996) and the aspirations of the National Development Plan 2030. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: South Africans must know the names of struggle heroes and heroines

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    President Cyril Ramaphosa has stressed the importance of South Africans recognising and honouring the former liberation heroes and heroines who have returned to their home country, acknowledging their vital role in securing the nation’s freedom.

    The President was speaking during the repatriation and restitution homecoming ceremony of 42 South African freedom fighters who lost their lives in Zambia and Zimbabwe during the apartheid era.

    The ceremony was held at the Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Tshwane, Pretoria on Friday with families of the freedom fighters present. 

    The occasion was also graced by former President Thabo Mbeki, Minister of Defence Angie Motshekga, and the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton Mckenzie.

    “South Africans need to know the names and appreciate the contributions of these returned freedom fighters. I ask that we read out the names of these patriots for all our people to know them.

    “Their names will forever be inscribed here at the Wall of Names in Freedom Park so that we may never forget. Any nation that values its freedom holds its liberation heroes and heroines in high regard,” the President said.

    The repatriation of the freedom fighters’ remains from Zambia and Zimbabwe forms part of the Resistance and Liberation Heritage Route Project (RLHR). The RLHR is a national memory project aimed at commemorating, celebrating, educating, promoting, preserving, conserving and providing a durable testament of South African’s road to freedom.

    The repatriation initiative is part of a broader effort to bring the remains of freedom fighters who died in exile to their final resting places.

    As the country celebrates the return of the struggle heroes and heroines, the President said through the act of repatriation, their citizenship has been reinstated.

    “We return them to the land of their birth. We restore them to their families and their people. Decades ago, these freedom fighters left a country that was at war with itself.

    “They left a country in which the fundamental rights of its people were brutally and cruelly suppressed by apartheid, which was declared a crime against humanity. Today, their remains return to a free and democratic South Africa,” he said. 

    The President said it will forever remain a source of regret that they were never to see the dawn of the freedom to which they dedicated their lives. 

    He emphasised that it was fitting that the country gathers at Freedom Park to honour them. 

    “It is here at Freedom Park that we remember our struggle for liberation and the many men and women who fought so that we may be free. It is here that we celebrate the achievement of our democracy.

    “And it is here that we pledge to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the fundamental freedoms of every person are realised,” the President said. 

    Through the reparation of the remains of these freedom fighters, President Ramaphosa said the country is giving further effect to the Preamble of its Constitution.

    He added that while these freedom fighters belonged to different political traditions, they were united by a common vision of a free South Africa. 

    “And though they departed this life many years ago, their ideals and their values continue to guide the South Africa we are building. Their activism and their sacrifices continue to inspire our efforts to build a better life for all,” he said. 

    The President extended his gratitude to the countries that offered these freedom fighters shelter, support and, in the end, a fitting resting place.

    “We are grateful in this instance to the governments and peoples of Zambia and Zimbabwe for having taken great care of our compatriots and for enabling their remains to be repatriated,” the President said.

    Preserving the nation’s liberation heritage

    President Ramaphosa said government is making every effort to preserve the nation’s liberation heritage. 

    “To do so, we must honour all those who authored this history by taking part in the struggle to free our country. This we must continue to do because our freedom can never be taken for granted. 

    “We must continue to honour those men and women whose love for their country and its people motivated them to sacrifice their lives for freedom,” he said. 

    The President spoke in detail about a few of the struggle horoes and heroines who were well known. 

    One of the prominent names was that of Duma Nokwe who was the Secretary-General of the African National Congress at a crucial moment in the nation’s struggle for liberation. 

    “In exile, he was a prominent voice on the continent and around the world in support of the cause of the South African people.

    “It is perhaps a sign of his esteemed place in the history of the liberation movement that his remains were exhumed still wearing the ANC scarf in which he was buried in Lusaka in 1978,” the President said. 

    Another prominent name is that of John Nyathi Pokela who was Chairman of the Pan Africanist Congress who spent more than a decade on Robben Island for his activities as a member of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, then known as Poqo. 

    He is remembered for the vital role he played in forging unity within the PAC. He passed away in Harare in 1985.

    Another prominent leader of the Pan Africanist Congress was Edwin Letsholo Makoti. 

    He was a founding member of the PAC and was Secretary for Publicity and Information in the PAC Central Committee at the time of his passing in Harare in 1989.

    The President spoke of the well-known Florence Mophosho, a stalwart of the struggle who is remembered for her commitment, sacrifice and fiery spirit.

    “She was a great leader of our movement and a pioneer in the struggle for women’s rights. She helped us understand that no society can be free until its women are free,” he said. 

    The name of Basil February is also written large in the history of the nation’s struggle. As a member of the Luthuli Detachment of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was killed in action in the then-Rhodesia during the Wankie Campaign.

    “There are other freedom fighters we honour here today whose names are not as familiar. And yet their sacrifice and their contribution to our freedom is no less profound and is no less valued,” the President said. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI Translation: Indigenous Guardian Projects 2024-2025

    MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –

    Source: Government of Canada – in French 2

    Today, Jaimee Gaunce, Executive Director of the First Nations National Guardians Network (FNGN), joined the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, and Marcus Powlowski, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay–Rainy River, to announce an investment of up to $27.6 million to support 80 First Nations Guardians initiatives.

    Alberta

    Project Title: Mikisew Cree First Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Mikisew Cree First Nation – Government and Industry RelationsFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This ongoing, two-year initiative will study how oil sands development, specifically bitumen extraction and hydroelectric projects, is affecting the health of the Peace-Athabasca Delta, the heart of the Mikisew’s traditional territory. Guardians work throughout the year to monitor water quality, collect data, detect flooding and monitor fish populations.

    Project Title: Ni Ho Ghe Di – Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Dene Land and Resource ManagementFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor and report activities that may harm the ecology, traditional lands or traditional resources of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, such as poaching and illegal hunting on traditional territory, particularly to protect the Ronald Lake bison. The initiative will also help youth build cultural pride and connection to the land, as well as develop on-the-land skills.

    Project Title: Guardians of the Land – Dene Tha’ First NationRecipient: Dene Tha’ First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will include activities such as ecological restoration, support for resource management plans, and compliance with laws and regulations. Guardians will contribute to the protection and recovery of species at risk, manage land use in the proposed M’behcholia Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (Bistcho Lake, Alberta), and provide environmental and wildlife monitoring.

    Project Title: Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Alexis Nakota Sioux NationFunding Amount: $346,400Project Description: This two-year initiative will include conducting and analyzing aerial surveys, creating a Geographic Information System (GIS) data management and visualization system using RStudio and ArcPY, and continuing to develop the Stoney Lands and Waters course.

    British Columbia

    Project Title: Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation Guardian Program EnhancementRecipient: Kitasoo Xai’xais NationFunding Amount: $604,925Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on marine and terrestrial surveys, as well as compliance and enforcement practices that include education, observation and reporting. In addition, guardians participate in Coastal First Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary activities and receive training on emergency response to search and rescue and oil spills.

    Project Title: Coastal Stewardship NetworkRecipient: Great Bear Initiative SocietyFunding Amount: $499,785Project Description: This two-year initiative provides programming to the eight member nations of the Great Bear Initiative of Coastal First Nations, who work directly with communities to support Guardians along the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii to monitor resource use and ecosystem health, provide training and professional development opportunities, raise awareness, and foster coastal stewardship.

    Project Title: Songhees Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Songhees NationFunding Amount: $50,000Project Description: This one-year initiative continues work already begun with community members, band council and outside organizations to provide monitoring services, promote community stewardship and restore habitat areas. This initiative helps strengthen Indigenous presence on the water during fishing seasons as it is essential to establishing greater authority over fisheries and coastal resources on the land.

    Project Title: Lower Nicola Indian Band – Indigenous Guardians Program – Tier 1Recipient: Lower Nicola Indian BandFunding Amount: $49,450Project Description: This one-year initiative aims to build capacity, skills and knowledge to implement a new Guardians Program in the community. This program will include mapping and indexing areas of the territory, consulting with Elders and Knowledge Keepers, community engagement, developing a plan and working with Chief and Council to ensure alignment of the vision and strategic plan.

    Project Title: Mamalilikulla First Nation Guardian ProgramRecipient: Mamalilikulla First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative includes ongoing activities where guardians will spend time in the field collecting data, monitoring cultural sites, managing grizzly bear populations, planting crabapple trees to feed the bears, and improving fisheries. This work will help Chief and Council make informed decisions.

    Project Title: Wet’suwet’en First Nation Guardians Initiative: A Holistic ApproachRecipient: Wet’suwet’en First NationFunding Amount: $75,745Project Description: This one-year initiative will monitor and collect data on moose populations and mortality rates, assess wildlife habitat, install camera traps, and assess riparian areas. It will also explore the possibility of launching a water monitoring program in identified priority areas. These efforts will help the community observe and document activities or cumulative effects that impact their ability to practice their traditional way of life.

    Project Title: Indigenous Guardians Proposal for Saulteau First NationsRecipient: Saulteau First NationsFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will support the community in taking the lead in monitoring, protecting and restoring lands and waters, which is essential to the health and well-being of the community. Activities include supporting healthy food harvesting, cultural activities, protecting Klinse-za Park, monitoring climate change and understanding how events such as wildfires affect the community, changes in weather patterns, and changes in animal movements and water availability.

    Project Title: Saik’uz Guardians ProgramRecipient: Saik’uz First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will build on the long-term monitoring efforts of the Saik’uz Guardians community-based initiative. Guardians will be guided by the wisdom of Indigenous knowledge and Western science, with the goal of empowering the Nation with respect to the water and land of the territory.

    Project Title: P’egp’ig’lha GuardiansRecipient: P’egp’ig’lha Council/T’it’q’et First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will conduct land patrols to monitor the health of the land and study wildlife and fisheries. Guardians play a vital role in protecting and restoring the Stein-Nahatlatch grizzly bear population, supporting wildfire recovery efforts, and strengthening collaboration with other guardian programs in the area.

    Project Title: Pauquachin First Nation Marine Department – Stewardship InitiativeRecipient: Pauquachin First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor one of British Columbia’s busiest and most heavily used waterways. Guardians monitor culturally sensitive archaeological sites, harvest areas, recreational and commercial fisheries use, environmental threats (pollution sources, marine waste disposal, illegal activities and poaching), and conduct restoration work in designated areas of significance. This initiative represents the interests, concerns and goals of the community to ensure that waterways, foods, historic sites and cultural practices are sustained for generations to come.

    Project Title: Takla Nation Guardians Initiative – Tier 2Recipient: Takla NationFunding Amount: $499,959Project Description: This ongoing initiative is monitoring over 30 sites on Takla lands and waters. This work is critical to the Takla’s ability to implement environmental and cultural protections, including ensuring that archaeological impact assessments conducted by various developers and government agencies are consistent with the Takla Archaeology Policy. It also builds capacity to monitor caribou and moose populations and supports the Guardians program by encouraging youth engagement in the community.

    Project Title: Tsilhqot’in Guardians NetworkRecipient: Tsilhqot’in National GovernmentFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative, led by the Tsilhqot’in National Government in collaboration with six Tsilhqot’in communities – Xeni Gwet’in, Tlesqox, Tletinqox, Tsi Del Del, ?Esdilagh and Yunesit’in – aims to integrate and strengthen Tsilhqot’in values into the management of lands and waters in the region. In partnership with provincial and federal land and water management agencies, the Guardians will conduct hunting, fishing and fire prevention patrols, as well as wildlife and water monitoring research to ensure sustainable management of Tsilhqot’in territories.

    Project Title: Quatsino Axsilaxa Ahwheatnagwusn Guardians ProgramRecipient: Quatsino First NationFunding Amount: $342,765Project Description: This two-year initiative will support the implementation of the Quatsino Land Use and Marine Resource Use Plan. This will be done through field work such as data collection and monitoring. These efforts will be critical to ecosystem restoration and food security through local harvesting of traditional foods.

    Project Title: Nłeʔképmx GuardiansRecipient: Citxw Nlaka’pamux AssemblyFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will continue to build on-the-ground presence and awareness of Nłeʔképmx territory, protocols and cultural practices. Guardians will monitor and record activities on the land, focusing on priority areas identified by the Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly. These priority areas include hunting, fishing, gathering and other culturally significant areas. Nłeʔképmx Guardians will record, monitor and manage invasive species and contribute to research on species at risk on the territory.

    Project Title: Supporting and Maintaining a Strong and Effective Heiltsuk Guardian ProgramRecipient: Heiltsuk Integrated Resource Management Department of the Heiltsuk Tribal CouncilFunding Amount: $349,499Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on building capacity, monitoring local aquatic ecosystems and community fisheries for safe operations, and supporting and restoring the vital relationship between people and the land.

    Project Title: Haa Aaní Tulatín – Taku River Tlingit First Nation Land Guardians ProgramRecipient: Taku River Tlingit First NationFunding Amount: $349,600Project Description: This two-year initiative will address threats to the land and monitor salmon populations. The guardians will work to strengthen salmon stewardship by hosting multi-day camps that focus on traditional fishing, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and land monitoring.

    Project Title: Spuzzum First Nation Land Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Spuzzum Indian BandFunding Amount: $50,020Project Description: This one-year initiative will focus on protecting important ecosystems by monitoring key territorial and cultural sites, collecting ecological data, and saving endangered species such as the Northern Spotted Owl. The guardians will also contribute to the development of a stewardship policy framework.

    Project Title: Kwadacha First Nation Guardians Project – Level 2Recipient: Kwadacha First NationFunding Amount: $348,734Project Description: This two-year initiative will provide long-term ecological and cultural monitoring to track changes in key wildlife habitats, traditional food sources and water sources. This will provide an opportunity to discuss how potential changes may impact Dene roles and responsibilities on the land.

    Project Title: Doig River First Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Doig River First NationFunding Amount: $349,188Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on improving land and water monitoring by combining cultural methods and western science. Doig River First Nation Guardians will continue to monitor the health of the land, guided by their members, and will work collaboratively with government to address any impacts.

    Project Title: Nahnéhé Gegenı́hı/Kakinawetakwow Uski/Fort Nelson First Nation Land Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Fort Nelson First NationFunding Amount: $375,000Project Description: This two-year initiative supports stewardship, land management and cultural activities on Fort Nelson First Nation territory. The initiative is informed by Western scientific monitoring and research, while drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing and understanding the health and condition of lands and waters.

    Project Title: Scianew Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Beecher Bay First NationFunding Amount: $348,614Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on environmental conservation and monitoring, guardian training, impact assessments, territorial sovereignty and maritime safety. This will be accomplished through partnerships with neighbouring nations, the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) and Kotug Canada.

    Project Title: Upper Similkameen Indian Band Land Guardians ProgramRecipient: Upper Similkameen Indian BandFunding Amount: $391,894Project Description: This two-year initiative aims to address critical environmental challenges while deeply integrating Indigenous knowledge, community engagement and sustainable practices. The Guardians initiative focuses on land conservation, sustainable resource management and building ecosystem resilience.

    Project Title: Boothroyd Guardians Program ImplementationRecipient: Boothroyd Indian BandFunding Amount: $50,000Project Description: This one-year initiative will monitor environmental indicators on the land and support restoration work in areas damaged by wildfires and subsequent erosion. Boothroyd Guardians will work with land user groups to improve understanding and respect for the environment.

    Project Title: TTQ Guardian Program Initiation ProjectRecipient: TTQ Economic Development CorporationFunding Amount: $62,533Project Description: This one-year initiative will collect and interpret previously recorded Xa’xtsa cultural knowledge data, map priority areas, and develop a monitoring plan. The goal is to observe changes in the supply of traditional herbs and plants, the frequency and impact of foraging on the territory, the vitality of salmon spawning, changes in unauthorized camping, and invasive plant and animal species.

    Project Title: Wildfire Recovery MonitoringRecipient: Okanagan Indian BandFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will assess the condition of the White Rock Lake watershed before and after the wildfires on behalf of the Okanagan Indian Band. Guardians will conduct site assessments, inventory significant cultural resources, monitor wildlife, and assess the severity of fire damage to guide restoration efforts.

    Project Title: Nanwakolas – Stewardship through Indigenous Scientific KnowledgeRecipient: Nanwakolas Council CorporationFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will apply Kwakwaka’wakw values and Indigenous scientific knowledge to a variety of projects including loxiwe (clam garden) restoration, canoe carving, seasonal Guardian Gathering events, and data collection on water, wildlife monitoring, climate change studies, and emergency response planning.

    Project Title: Continuing Implementation of the Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Guardian Program InitiativeRecipient: Squamish Nation – Squamish Indian Band 555Funding Amount: $349,505Project Description: This two-year initiative will provide stewardship activities, respond to climate events and emergencies, and enhance public safety. Guardians will continue to be present on the land and learn from Elders, Knowledge Keepers and youth; and collaborate with other Nations to share information and build capacity across the national Guardian network.

    Project Title: Guardians of the St’át’imc LandRecipient: St’at’imc Government ServicesFunding Amount: $425,180Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on implementing the St’át’imc Water Agreement. It includes collecting baseline data on three intact watersheds and three impacted watersheds to assess water quality. Other activities include capacity building and examining stories and legends through workshops and research in collaboration with the Indigenous Law Research Unit.

    Project Title: Nak’azdli Whut’en Yinka Huwunline (Caring) Guardian ProgramRecipient: Nak’azdli Whut’enFunding Amount: $349,942Project Description: This two-year initiative will develop geospatial mapping technology for Guardians to use in their monitoring activities. This will create open portals for communication while protecting internal data and cultural information. The project will use remote sensing technology to create “living maps” that will track seasonal phenology, quantify impacts, and provide informed stewardship engagements with industry, government, consultants, and academia.

    Project Title: Yintah Guardians of Lake Babine NationRecipient: Lake Babine NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will lead the collaborative management of the Yintahs of Lake Babine Nation territory and resources of two key cultural species, talok (sockeye) and khida (moose), to restore moose populations to culturally significant levels, and support fish monitoring, habitat restoration and cooperative management.

    Manitoba

    Project Title: Seal River Watershed Alliance Land Guardian NetworkRecipient: Seal River Watershed AllianceFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will hire 14 youth and Elders as Land Guardians across the four Alliance Nations. This initiative builds technical capacity and manages species and habitat identification, monitoring, protection, and watershed stewardship.

    Project Title: Askiy Okanawaynichikaywuk – Guardians of the LandRecipient: York Factory First Nation Funding Amount: $349,860Project Description: This two-year initiative will maintain trails, monitor cultural and historical sites, observe changes in the land, and support respectful land use. Guardians will provide a visible presence, conduct community outreach, participate in on-the-ground activities, and help guide Council decisions on land use, stewardship, and protection.

    Project Title: Pimachiowin Aki First Nations Guardians NetworkRecipient: Pimachiowin Aki CorporationFunding Amount: $499,615Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on monitoring the seasonal walleye fishery, all-season road design, wildfire management, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Guardians provide a professional presence and expertise in Pimachiowin Aki, expressing their belonging to the Anishinaabe Nation, filling gaps in the provincial information management system and patrols, and conducting year-round monitoring activities.

    Project Title: SCOB Regional First Nations Guardians NetworkRecipient: Southern Chiefs’ Organization Inc.Funding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on strengthening Indigenous jurisdiction over their traditional lands, developing capacity, training and skills in environmental monitoring and management, and promoting cooperation and collaboration among communities on natural resource stewardship and management issues.

    Project Title: Swan Lake First Nation Indigenous Guardians Land, Water and Nature Stewardship InitiativeRecipient: Swan Lake First NationFunding Amount: $349,285Project Description: This two-year initiative, in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, will continue to assess and reseed revegetation terraces if necessary, monitor water quality from the tile drainage structure, and monitor animal and pollinator populations. The data collected will help understand the success of this project in reducing nutrient pollution and improving ecosystems.

    New Brunswick

    Project Title: Amlamgog Earth GuardiansRecipient: Fort Folly First NationFunding Amount: $321,411Project Description: This two-year initiative will expand and enhance an existing salmon recovery initiative. This initiative will focus on monitoring flora and fauna, in accordance with the traditional guiding principle of “Etuaptmumk” (two-eyed vision).

    Project Title: Wotstak First Nation Guardians Initiative – Tier 1Recipient: Woodstock First NationFunding Amount: $50,000Project Description: This one-year initiative will collect data and monitor the ecosystem, drawing on the knowledge of Woodstock First Nation’s Indigenous traditions of conservation, with the goal of developing a land use plan.

    Project Title: Elugweieg Toqwe’gig ugjit Ugs’tqamu aq ugjit Sapo’nug (We work together for the land and for tomorrow)Recipient: Esgenoôpetitj Watershed AssociationFunding Amount: $349,923Project Description: This two-year initiative will expand monitoring and governance of the Esgenoôpetitj aquatic environment, led by Esgenoôpetitj First Nation Fishery Guardians, in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada enforcement staff, as part of the management, conservation and protection of fisheries in areas most frequented by the community.

    Newfoundland and Labrador

    Project Title: Innu Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Innu Nation – Environment and Parks OfficesFunding Amount: $700,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will integrate the Innu (Natuashish) communities of Sheshatshiu and Mushuau Innu through environmental stewardship and cultural preservation. The initiative will focus on five objectives: the creation of additional guardian positions, technical and safety training, the organization of youth workshops on knowledge transfer, the purchase of necessary equipment, and the development of cultural initiatives to maintain and promote Innu traditions and ecological knowledge.

    Nova Scotia

    Project Title: Reconnecting Our People with the LandBeneficiary: Eskasoni Fish

    Project Title: Nova Scotia Land Guardians Network/Nuji kelo’toqatijikRecipient: Unama’ki Institute of the Natural Resources SocietyFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative involves collecting and sharing Indigenous knowledge, promoting Netukulimk hunting practices, monitoring and data collection including designating areas suitable for cultural activities, harvesting medicinal plants, monitoring species at risk, and education and awareness of culturally significant species.

    Northwest Territories

    Project Title: Ni hat’ni Dene (“Keepers of the Land”)Recipient: Lutsel K’e Dene First NationFunding Amount: $349,600Project Description: This two-year initiative is part of a long-term mandate to promote Thaidene Nene stewardship, working full-time as guardians of the land, water and animals, and as ambassadors of the Dene way of life, and welcoming visitors. Initiatives include protecting Bathurst caribou, sharing cultural knowledge with youth, and protecting food security.

    Project Title: Deninu Kue First Nation GuardiansRecipient: Deninu Kue First NationFunding Amount: $333,055Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor the land and waters. Guardians will patrol the territory to ensure it remains clean and will conduct water quality sampling and fish cleanliness monitoring.

    Project Title: Łı́ı́dlı̨́ı̨́ Kų́ę́ First Nation Guardians and Climate Change Monitoring ProjectRecipient: Łı́ı́dlı̨́ı̨́ Kų́ę́ First NationFunding Amount: $349,961Project Description: This two-year initiative aims to monitor the impacts of climate change on the environment in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories. The initiative will include monitoring a variety of indicators such as permafrost thaw, streambank subsidence/erosion, and species population shifts. Guardians will receive specialized training in monitoring erosion and permafrost conditions, observing thaw patterns, and assessing thaw depth. This data collection is essential to assess the evolution of the landscape.

    Project Title: Sahtu K’aowe Guardians Project for Tsá Tué Biosphere ReserveRecipient: Délįnę Got’įnę GovernmentFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative supports monitoring of Great Bear Lake and its watershed using the “Two-Eyed Seeing Approach” (uniting Western science and Indigenous knowledge) to ensure biodiversity conservation, ecological integrity, climate change adaptation, local wildlife subsistence, food security, and the continuity and revitalization of cultural practices.

    Ontario

    Project Title: Environmental Stewardship of Air Quality Issues for Aamjiwnaang First NationRecipient: Aamjiwnaang First NationFunding Amount: $48,732Project Description: This one-year initiative will monitor the air, water and lands surrounding Aamjiwnaang First Nation that have been impacted by industrial development. Guardians will identify environmental monitoring gaps (soil, water, air, fish, plants and endangered species), develop data collection plans, and improve emergency notifications and community responses to oil refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities located near Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

    Project Title: Temagami First Nation GuardiansRecipient: Temagami First NationFunding Amount: $451,000Project Description: This two-year initiative focuses on water quality, species and habitat protection, preserving Indigenous wisdom, data collection and monitoring. Guardians will participate in tracking, recording and reporting activities related to land use and environmental protection. Special attention will be paid to Lake Temagami, including monitoring ice fishing huts, houseboats, shorelines and more.

    Project Title: Atikameksheng Anishnawbek – Phase 2 – Monitoring the Atikameksheng Traditional TerritoryRecipient: Atikameksheng AnishnawbekFunding Amount: $347,263Project Description: This two-year initiative will collect maple sap during the sugar moon and harvest other food items, which will be distributed to Elders and the Nations Food Bank. Guardians will monitor the land, conduct field inspections for proposed logging operations to ensure that Grandmother Trees are protected, and complete daily field worksheets and site inspections that will provide important environmental information on spills, violations, and logging operations.

    Project Title: Anishinabek Traditional Ecological Guardians of Georgian BayRecipient: Magnetawan First NationFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative supports on-the-ground learning, knowledge transfer and technical skills training on species at risk, species monitoring, data collection and other land management activities using the “Two-Eyed Seeing Approach”. The initiative will also help build sustainable management capacity in other First Nations groups.

    Project Title: Charting the Path Ahead – Anishinaabe Aki Shkabewisag (Niiwin Wendaanimok Anishinaabe Guardians Network)Recipient: Niiwin Wendaanimok Limited PartnershipFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will support four Anishinaabe Nations to mitigate and monitor development compliance on the land, increase their capacity to care for land, water, plants and animals, and collaborate to identify individual needs and create customized support and mentorship programs. Anishinaabe Guardians will identify and protect important areas through consultation with Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

    Project Title: Ketegaunseebee Aki GuardiansRecipient: Garden River First NationFunding Amount: $301,400Project Description: This two-year initiative will help Garden River First Nation monitor and protect the St. Mary’s River and lands in fulfillment of a treaty with neighbouring Indigenous nations. The initiative will focus on capacity building, community engagement and on-the-ground work, including species at risk, invasive species and logging monitoring patrols.

    Project Title: Four Rivers Regional Guardians NetworkRecipient: Matawa First Nations ManagementFunding Amount: $389,771Project Description: This two-year initiative focuses on environmental stewardship and capacity building in nine Matawa First Nations. The Four Rivers Regional Guardians Network will participate in virtual and in-person networking events to expand their knowledge and capacity, including cultural exchanges within the network.

    Project Title: Biinjitawaabik Zaaging Anishnaabek Community GuardiansRecipient: Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishnaabek First Nation of Rocky BayFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will implement sturgeon and mine site protocols, conduct environmental monitoring analyses, map the Lake Nipigon basin and compile the data into a geographic information system database.

    Project Title: The Height Of Land Wakohtowin Guardians Program – Treaty 9Recipient: Wahkohtowin Development General Partnership INC.Funding Amount: $499,300Project Description: This two-year initiative aims to strengthen traditional knowledge, practices and lifestyles within communities. Guardians will have first-hand experience in the functioning of ecosystem services and the economics of conservation.

    Project Title: Neya Waban Guardians Program – Guardians of the LandRecipient: Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First NationFunding Amount: $349,650Project Description: This two-year initiative will gather critical information for decision-making, identify areas of quality wildlife habitat, and develop management plans and protocols. The Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation will continue to collect data based on Algonquin knowledge to better protect the land, water, animals and air of the eleven communities in Ontario and Quebec.

    Project Title: Mnisinoog (Warriors for the Bay): Shawanaga First Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Shawanaga First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative focuses on enhancing aquatic life, using river monitors to maintain and protect the health of the river ecosystem. Aquatic stewardship is a priority, through catch surveys, large-scale monitoring of water bodies, and a detailed study of fish consumption.

    Project Title: Caldwell First Nation Land Guardians ProgramRecipient: Caldwell First NationFunding Amount: $345,840Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on education, training, on-the-ground learning with technical experts and knowledge holders, and listening sessions with the community. The Guardians will review classroom environmental assessments on behalf of Caldwell First Nation, monitor and participate in environmental projects on the land, and implement multi-year capacity building initiatives, with a focus on supporting the creation, development and management of Indigenous protected and conserved areas on their traditional territory.

    Prince Edward Island

    Project Title: Lennox Island First Nation Guardians ProgramRecipient: Lennox Island First NationFunding Amount: $346,800Project Description: This two-year initiative will help better manage, protect and utilize the marine resources that the community relies on. It will allow the Lennox Island Watershed Conservation Group to participate in coastal erosion studies, fisheries workshops (lobster handling practices), a black ash reforestation project and the development of a modernized solid waste management plan.

    Project Title: Guardians of AbegweitRecipient: Abegweit First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative embodies a cultural and traditional approach to natural resource management. The initiative also includes data collection and monitoring, with a focus on land, water and resource use on traditional territories, including cultural sites.

    Quebec

    Project Title: Guardians of the NdakinaRecipient: W8banakiFunding Amount: $500,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will support the sustainability of traditional practices of members of the Nation, protect their rights of access to ancestral territories and preserve cultural heritage. This initiative will create conservation spaces, share and transmit Indigenous knowledge, mentor youth, consult the community, promote food sovereignty and many other activities.

    Project Title: Moving Forward: Taking Pessamit’s Land Guardians to the Next LevelRecipient: Conseil des Innus de PessamitFunding Amount: $349,550Project Description: This two-year initiative involves a team of six territorial agents specializing in data collection, land monitoring, and comprehensive inventories of biodiversity and ecosystem processes. The initiative will focus on monitoring and assessments, conducting an inventory of cultural sites, developing sampling expertise, and community engagement and visibility.

    Project Title: Abitibiwinnik Land GuardiansRecipient: Abitibiwinni First NationFunding Amount: $195,931Project Description: This two-year initiative will continue to train community members in land monitoring and develop new skills and knowledge through fieldwork that uses both Indigenous knowledge and Western science. The initiative aims to document information gathered through the activities of guardians, community members and elders.

    Project Title: Chisasibi Intertidal Cumulative Impact Assessment: Integrating Science, Tradition and StewardshipRecipient: Chisasibi Cree NationFunding Amount: $348,468Project Description: This two-year initiative will focus on integrating western science, Indigenous knowledge and stewardship to address key challenges in the Chisasibi community. The initiative will study the impact of land use planning by reviewing existing research, mapping the community, analyzing vegetation and collecting environmental samples. In addition, it will build capacity through workshops and a mentoring initiative involving the Kinwhapmaakins (trapkeepers/managers). All data will be collected and combined into a detailed cumulative effects report.

    Project Title: Atikamekw Guardians of ManawanRecipient: Atikamekw Council of ManawanFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative will strengthen the role of Guardians in working with non-Indigenous land users and partners within the Nation and community. The next phase will focus on field activity, data collection, establishing a formal mandate recognized by the community, capacity building and training, and strengthening the role of Guardians within the community.

    Project Title: Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Nagadjitòdjig Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First NationFunding Amount: $594,020Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor and inventory key cultural species, wild foods and trees. Guardians will conduct water quality studies, identify sites of cultural significance and record videos to document traditional practices and activities.

    Project Title: Protection and Participation in the Development of Pekuakamiulnuatsh Heritage on NitassinanRecipient: Pekuakamiulnuatsh TakuhikanFunding Amount: $49,995Project Description: This one-year initiative aims to ensure the protection and preservation of the territory, while maintaining the well-being of the members of the Nation community, as they carry out the traditional activities of their Nation. Guardians play a crucial role in supporting the Nation community, monitoring the lands and accompanying community members on Nation lands.

    Project Title: Essipiu Assinu Nakatuenitamu (He who takes care of the territory of Essipit)Recipient: Council of the Innu Essipit First NationFunding Amount: $246,308Project Description: This two-year initiative supports responsible governance and occupation of the Nation’s territory, land monitoring, participation in community events, and collaboration on various projects that encourage learning and skills development for guardians and community members.

    Project Title: Nutshimiunnuat d’ITUM (Guardians of the Nitassinan d’ITUM)Beneficiary: Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-UtenamFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative involves monitoring, protection and stewardship activities on the Nation’s traditional territory. Its objective is to ensure monitoring of the territory and protection of the Nation, as well as to contribute to studies and inventories on the impacts of climate change and industrial development on the territory.

    Project Title: Iakwatonhontsanónhnha – We all mind her, the EarthRecipient: Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:keFunding Amount: $256,416Project Description: This two-year initiative will develop a community environmental charter that will help define the roles and responsibilities of conservation officers. It will also provide an opportunity to consult on a “Rights of Nature” approach to protecting the St. Lawrence River.

    Saskatchewan

    Project Title: File Hills Qu’Appelle Guardians InitiativeRecipient: File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal CouncilFunding Amount: $354,180Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor and document stream health, including water quality, medicinal plants, and bank conditions, particularly on the lower Qu’Appelle River and its chain of lakes. It will also revitalize language and land stewardship practices.

    Project Title: Monitoring and Protection of Athabasca Denesųłiné Nuhenéné in SaskatchewanRecipient: Ya’thi Néné Lands and Resources OfficeFunding Amount: $498,916Project Description: This two-year initiative will monitor the lands and waters of Nuhenéné, including Indigenous protected areas, caribou hunting areas, and mining and prospecting activities. Guided by Elders, Ya’thi Néné Land and Resource Guardians are working to reconnect youth to the land and train future leaders in sustainable management practices.

    Project Title: Birch Narrows Dene Nation Nuh Nene Strategic PlanRecipient: Birch Narrows Dene NationFunding Amount: $49,917Project Description: This one-year initiative will monitor the land, combining ancestral wisdom and modern ecological approaches. Strategic partnerships with neighbouring First Nations and partners such as Tamarack Environmental Associates, Nexgen Energy Ltd. and Fission Uranium Corp. will amplify the impact of conservation efforts. Through training, mentoring and community engagement, the initiative will help the Nuh Nene Department achieve its goal of safeguarding cultural identity and the natural environment.

    Project Title: Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation Community Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Pheasant Rump Nakota First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative aims to build capacity by training and employing youth to collect and analyze data on climate change and industry impacts on the land. The data will be used to develop a land use plan to inform Chief and Council decision-making on stewardship and habitat management initiatives to ensure sustainable sources of traditional foods for the community.

    Project Title: Muskowekwan First Nation Community Guardians InitiativeRecipient: Muskowekwan First NationFunding Amount: $350,000Project Description: This two-year initiative aims to build the capacity of community members to monitor and understand the impacts of climate change. Youth will have the opportunity to receive training in Indigenous knowledge, Western science, climate and environmental monitoring practices including geographic information systems and remote sensing, participatory mapping and knowledge gathering.

    Yukon

    Project Title: Teechik Land Guardians: Nanh gwiinzii vik’ite’tri’giikhii/We read the land wellRecipient: Vuntut Gwitchin First NationFunding Amount: $349,333Project Description: This two-year initiative will operate a camera trap network to monitor predator-prey interactions on the Old Crow Winter Road and conduct baseline fish and water sampling at the headwaters of the Porcupine River. The Guardian Coordinator will be responsible for organizing patrols, analyzing monitoring data, and preparing communications materials for community members and leaders. This capacity building will strengthen monitoring efforts by enabling the initiative to process more samples, improve the use of camera data, and enable keepers to establish an annual trapping camp to extend monitoring to furbearers.

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Digest

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

    Last week, a representative delegation of the rector’s office of the State University of Management made a working trip to the southern regions of Russia, visiting Rostov-on-Don and the Donetsk People’s Republic. Meanwhile, our experts turned their attention to the increase in pensions, fines for dangerous driving and car prices after October 1. Also, the curious reader is invited to read about emotional intelligence, cash flow gap, principles of the Scrum management methodology, methods of counteracting high inflation and find out in which countries of the world it is the lowest.

    — Director of the Institute of Economics and Finance of the State University of Management Galina Sorokina recalled the increase in pensions for Russians over 80 years old from October 1. “This form of social support for long-livers is important, since with age, more funds are needed for medicines and help with the household, especially since people over 80 in Russia make up about 3.6% of the total population,” the expert noted. — Also, from October 1, military pensions will be indexed, which Galina Sorokina also reminds about. She listed the categories of citizens who are considered military pensioners: former military personnel, persons who served in the Internal Affairs Directorate, the State Fire Service, the National Guard and other categories, including family members of deceased military personnel. — Galina Sorokina also told what the minimum wage will be in 2025. “The amount of the subsistence minimum depends on the region and the population group – the working-age population, children and pensioners. Regions can also set their own minimum wage, which, however, should not be lower than the Russian average,” explains the economist.

    — Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements of the Institute of Economics and Finance of the State University of Management Maxim Chirkov appreciated the initiative to pay Russian pensioners the 13th pension. “From my point of view, such an initiative is quite realistic. Although inflation remains quite high, it has begun to decline. Therefore, increasing the incomes of pensioners becomes a top priority, since they are often the most vulnerable part of Russian society,” the economist said. 
    — Maxim Chirkov also explained why in Russia they want to limit online installment payments. “If these restrictions are not in place, it turns out that the established institutions that are supposed to limit citizens’ risks, including credit risks, may turn out to be useless and the risks will increase,” the expert explained. 
    — Maxim Chirkov also outlined the relationship between inflation and public sector salaries. “The Russian economy is growing sharply in the areas of IT, finance, manufacturing, including manufacturing, and others. Under these conditions, civil servants may leave their jobs to take high-paying jobs. Therefore, it is necessary to raise salaries for public sector employees and compare them not with inflation, but with the growth of the average salary in the country,” explained Maxim Chirkov. 
    — In addition, Maxim Chirkov commented on Putin’s statement about working on the creation of a BRICS payment circuit. “The creation of such a system is a logical continuation of the move away from the dollar, financial systems and organizations that have centers in Western countries. Of course, an analogue of SWIFT will be created, that is, a system of interbank transfers, payment systems for individuals using plastic cards,” Chirkov said. 

    — Head of the Department of World Economy and International Economic Relations at the State University of Management Evgeny Smirnov made assumptions about the purposes of the proposed visit of IMF representatives to Russia. “Considering that the IMF is considered a “pro-Western” organization, the visit may also be connected with an attempt to obtain data on the net income Russia receives from participation in international trade by publishing statistics on the external sector,” the expert suspects.

    — Director of the Russian Center for Socio-Economic and Political Research of China at the State University of Management Fanis Sharipov commented on the Moscow BRICS Forum and Symposium on Public Administration. The expert noted that the BRICS association is committed to supporting sustainable development and mutually beneficial cooperation. “The West does not agree to give up its positions. But the world is entering a new era of global economic relations, where the role of the East and the South is growing,” said Fanis Sharipov.

    — Associate Professor of the Department of Institutional Economics of the State University of Management Svetlana Sazanova named the countries with the lowest inflation over the past year. These are China (-0.1%), Switzerland (1.6%), Saudi Arabia (2%), Spain (2.6%), and the Netherlands (3%). “Creeping inflation, within 10%, even has a stimulating effect on the economy, because producers, as a rule, perceive such price increases as increased demand for their products and, in response, increase their production,” the economist notes. — Svetlana Sazanova also explained the reasons for the growth of the Russian economy. In general, economic growth in Russia in 2024 cannot be considered to be caused only by defense orders and an increase in the money supply in the hands of the population. It is also caused by its structural restructuring: an increase in the share of the manufacturing industry and related industries,” the expert is convinced. — Svetlana Sazanova and Associate Professor of the Department of Institutional Economics of the State University of Management Konstantin Andrianov discussed what awaits the United States as a result of the growth of the national debt. “The issue of solving the national debt problem will be postponed until the next president. At the moment, the US debt is about 120% of GDP, which significantly limits the possibilities for stimulating the economy with the help of budget and tax policy,” noted Svetlana Sazanova. “Countries have begun to withdraw their foreign exchange reserves and gold from American depositories, which could lead to a collapse of the dollar exchange rate. The scale of this fall is difficult to predict, but it could be multiple,” said Konstantin Andrianov.

    — Associate Professor of the Department of Institutional Economics of the State University of Management and expert of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation Konstantin Andrianov discussed possible changes in exchange rates after the lifting of sanctions. “At the moment, it is impossible to predict the exact value of the dollar after the sanctions are lifted. We don’t even know when these sanctions will be lifted. Sanctions are in the hands of countries guided by anti-Russian policies, and their political elites are gripped by Russophobia,” the expert said. 
    — Konstantin Andrianov also named the reasons and methods of countering high inflation in Russia. “Since mid-summer, the exchange rate of our national currency has fallen by 7% against the dollar and euro, and by 8% against the yuan, although nothing negative has happened in the economy. This significantly affects the level of inflation; for stable prices we need a stable ruble,” the economist said. 
    — In addition, Konstantin Andrianov assessed the extension of sanctions against the Moscow Exchange. “If the ruble has successfully withstood the sanctions against the Moscow Exchange adopted in June of this year, then it is unlikely that anything else from the outside can become more or less a serious threat for it,” the expert is sure. 
    — Konstantin Andrianov and Deputy Director of the IFE GUM Valeria Ivanova also predicted changes in the euro exchange rate in the event of some countries leaving the EU. “A sharp collapse in the exchange rate is possible due to the loss of investor confidence in the euro as a stable currency. Also, a sharp collapse is possible, especially if the exit of these countries becomes a signal for others, which will lead to a chain reaction,” noted Valeria Ivanova. Konstantin Andrianov notes that the situation in the eurozone remains extremely unstable. Against the background of the refusal of Germany and other EU countries from Russian energy resources, macroeconomic problems began to intensify in many European countries, including France and Italy. 

    — Associate Professor of the Department of Transport Complex Management at the State University of Management Artem Merenkov warned about the increase in prices for cars from October 1. “There is a stock of cars at old prices. That is, this will definitely not be a momentary adjustment. Nevertheless, we can say that a price increase of 5-10% is possible before the end of the year,” the expert believes. — Artem Merenkov also assessed the State Duma’s decision to increase the fine for dangerous driving to 5,000 rubles from October 1. “Whether it will help or not is a matter of time and a combination of actions. Such measures work in a complex. If we look at the data from the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, we will see that the number of accidents on the roads is decreasing, that is, systematic work definitely yields results,” the specialist said.

    — Professor of the Department of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation of the State University of Management Olga Ageeva told how to determine the profit and loss of a business. “The amount of net profit for the period indicates the same growth in the company’s net assets. In turn, net loss is associated with their decrease by the same amount. And as is known, net assets are what will remain to the owners in the event of liquidation of the enterprise,” the expert noted.

    — Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements of the State University of Management Natalia Kazantseva reported on the crisis in the area of family mortgages. “The funds allocated from the state budget to support family mortgages have almost been exhausted. Many banks have already stopped accepting orders for their registration, the remaining limits are not enough for its rapid development. This means that the real estate market will have to survive in the current market conditions, where the price of housing is determined by its laws,” the expert noted. — Natalia Kazantseva also spoke about what a cash gap is and how to avoid it. “Daily monitoring of cash balances at the beginning of the day, receipts and expenses will help to avoid a cash gap, this advice is especially relevant for small and medium-sized enterprises. It is important to use electronic document management and negotiate with suppliers, apply installment and deferment tools,” the economist advises.

    — Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor of the State University of Management Svetlana Grishaeva commented on the State Duma initiative to ban childfree propaganda. “Childfree propaganda forms attitudes towards childlessness, the less such propaganda and such movements there are, the more likely it is that attitudes towards childlessness will decrease. Children and teenagers are easily influenced by something new, so movements like childfree have imitators and followers,” the psychologist said. — Svetlana Grishaeva also explained in detail what emotional intelligence is. “It is the ability to understand the emotions of other people and the ability to control your feelings. But to control is not the same as not to experience, so you should not think that a low-emotional person has a high level of EI, because emotions are our helpers in many situations,” the expert noted.

    — Senior lecturer of the HR department of the State University of Management Ekaterina Illarionova spoke about the principles of the Scrum management methodology. “The peculiarity of Scrum is that the team works on only one product. This is more expensive than the typical assignment of one specialist to several projects, but this is a story from the series about the stingy who pays twice,” the expert says.

    — Vladimir Popov, Associate Professor of the Department of Private Law at the State University of Management, commented on the new fine from the Ministry of Transport for carrying foreign objects while driving. The Associate Professor believes that this could create problems for drivers. “After all, if a driver eats or drinks while driving, he is also distracted, which increases the likelihood of an accident, but I do not propose banning such behavior yet,” the expert noted.

    — Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor of the State University of Management Viktor Titov discusses the possibilities of reconciliation between Iran and Israel. “Firstly, a very strong argument “for” a partial easing of the Iranian-Israeli confrontation is the fatigue of Israeli society: both from the war that began in October 2023 and from the long-term, virtually permanent confrontation with the Islamic world,” the expert believes.

    These are the topics covered by the experts of the State University of Management this week. Conclusions later, and now let’s run to the anniversary final of the State University of Management KVN League!

    Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 09/27/2024

    Ростов-на-Дону и Донецкую Народную Республику….” data-yashareImage=”https://guu.ru/wp-content/uploads/photo_2023-03-04_01-46-02.jpg” data-yashareLink=”https://guu.ru/%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%b9%d0%b4%d0%b6%d0%b5%d1%81%d1%82-%d0%b3%d1%83%d1%83%d0%b3%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%be%d1%80%d0%b8%d1%82-%d0%b2-%d0%be%d0%b6%d0%b8%d0%b4%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b8%d0%b8-1-%d0%be%d0%ba%d1%82%d1%8f%d0%b1/”>

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    Digest

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: A fiery end to ESA’s Cluster satellite Salsa

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Earlier this month ESA’s satellite ‘Salsa’ landed in the South Pacific. Learn more about how NSpOC tracks re-entries from space using Salsa as a case study.

    An artist’s impression of a Cluster spacecraft breaking apart during reentry. Credit: ESA/David Ducross

    As space becomes increasingly crowded with operational satellites and space debris, monitoring satellite re-entries is crucial for helping to ensure the safety of people and property on Earth.

    The National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC) plays a key role in this effort through our re-entry tracking and early warning capability, which monitors re-entry incidents and where relevant provides warnings to response agencies to minimise any associated risk to the UK or the UK Overseas Territories.

    On 8 September 2024, The European Space Agency (ESA) undertook the safe de-orbit of their Cluster 2 satellite named ‘Salsa’. The spacecraft re-entered at 6.47pm GMT into a designated region in the South Pacific as planned. NSpOC analysts monitored the event, as it does with every re-entry globally, to ensure potential risks to the UK were assessed and addressed. In this article, we’ll explain how our re-entry tracking and early warning capability works, using ESA’s Salsa as a case study, and highlight the key contributions of the satellite to both government operations and academic research.

    NSpOC’s Re-entry Tracking and Warning Capability: Monitoring Re-entries Like Salsa

    NSpOC’s re-entry tracking and warning capability operates 365 days a year and is dedicated to monitoring the re-entry of satellites and other space objects that could pose a risk to the UK and UK Overseas Territories, as well as the re-entry of objects for which the UK holds liability. On average, NSpOC monitors around 40 uncontrolled re-entry incidents per month, warning UK response agencies when there is a risk to the UK or our Overseas Territories.

    How does the capability work?

    As part of our space hazards warning and protection services, NSpOC continuously monitors space objects in orbit, providing early warnings when satellites begin their descent. In the case of uncontrolled re-entries, and semi-controlled re-entries such as ESA’s Salsa, orbital analysts assess the object’s trajectory and predict when and where it will re-enter the atmosphere. This data is shared with response agencies and government departments to ensure preparedness.

    Real-Time Monitoring and Modelling

    36 hours before a re-entry event, NSpOC’s team of orbital analysts start to monitor the object in more detail, using a global network of sensors and data streams which provide information on its path. In uncontrolled re-entry events, data on the last known position of the object as well as its predicted Centre of Impact Window (COIW) is provided by the US   in the form of Tracking and Impact Predictions (TIPs). This TIP is a single point which can come with high levels of uncertainty. To better understand the probability of where, within that window, the event may occur, UK Space Agency analysts run an extra re-entry assessment model using Monte Carlo simulations (see below for an explanation).

    Monte Carlo simulations incorporate additional data sets, for example forecasted atmospheric density over the re-entry period, to allow for more accurate predictions of where surviving objects might land. The model runs 30,000 times with slight adjustments to values for each variable.

    Rather than a single point of re-entry, this results in a probabilistic output of potential re-entry locations; shown visually on a map by red dots, with each red dot representing a potential re-entry location. The denser the collection of red-dots, the greater the likelihood of the object re-entering in that location.

    In the case of ESA’s Salsa satellite, ephemeris (positional data) was provided rather than TIPs and our analysts converted this to a Two-Line Element (TLE) to extract the orbit, and ran the Monte Carlo simulation to produce a visual prediction of re-entry.  

    For Salsa, our analysts closely monitored the descent, predicting that the majority of the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere, with any surviving fragments expected to land in a remote region of the South Pacific – the likely re-entry path is shown via the red dots in the images below, starting 36 hours in advance on Friday 6 September.

    Re-entry map generated by NSpOC analysts on Friday 6 September

    As the time to the re-entry gets closer, more observations on the object are received by global networks. This results in new data which can be input into the Monte Carlo simulation, producing a more accurate assessment of re-entry locations.

    Re-entry map generated by NSpOC analysts on Saturday 7 September

    Final re-entry map generated by NSpOC analysts on Sunday 8 September before the event

    Post-Re-entry Assessment

    After the satellite re-enters, NSpOC conducts a post-event analysis to confirm the re-entry location and assess any potential impact. It is not always possible to receive tracking data confirming the location of a re-entry, but in the case of Salsa, ESA were tracking the re-entry event closely, even with sensors on an aeroplane, to confirm that it re-entered in the South Pacific. 

    The re-entry location is shared with relevant stakeholders to ensure transparency and public safety. In the case of Salsa, the risk to human life and infrastructure on Earth was extremely low because of the semi-controlled nature of the re-entry bringing it down in an unpopulated location.

    Why Monitoring Re-entries is Important

    Whilst risk from re-entering satellites is very low, with the majority of satellites burning up upon re-entry, large objects or those with dense components will survive the re-entry process, posing a risk to wherever the object makes landfall. Since most re-entries are uncontrolled, there is a risk to populated areas and so warning authorities when there is a risk is important for both safety and to ensure we take responsibility for any space debris for which the UK is liable. Each re-entry incident provides valuable data that helps improve our ability to track and monitor future re-entering objects.

    By responsibly managing satellite re-entries, such as ESA’s Salsa, operators can reduce the amount of debris left in orbit, making space safer for future operations. Later this year, NSpOC will launch a new digital service on our Monitor Space Hazards platform, called ‘Track Re-entry Events’, which will provide government users with real-time updates and enhanced analytics for monitoring satellite re-entries. You can find out more about upcoming features on our website.

    Angus Stewart, Joint Head of NSpOC said: “By managing satellite re-entries responsibly, as is the case with this event, operators reduce space debris and make space safer for future missions. Tracking re-entering space objects is a critical mission for the UK National Space Operations Centre”

    The ESA Cluster Salsa Mission: why was it significant?

    Launched as part of the ESA Cluster mission in July 2000, the Salsa satellite provided critical data that advanced our understanding of Earth’s magnetic environment and space weather over its 24-year operational life.

    Salsa’s contributions to space weather research were invaluable. The satellite’s data helped improve predictive models that assist in safeguarding critical infrastructure such as electrical power grids, pipelines, and satellite communications systems. By studying how solar winds and geomagnetic storms interact with Earth’s magnetic field, Salsa provided insights that helped operational teams understand and mitigate the impacts of space weather on essential services.

    Salsa was part of a constellation of four satellites which was crucial because it allowed scientists to gather data from multiple points in space simultaneously, giving researchers a 3D view of Earth’s magnetic environment.

    Met Office Space Weather Manager Simon Machin said: “Cluster has been a key contributor to advancing space weather science in recent decades. By advancing what we know about the near-Earth environment at multiple scales, this mission pushed forward research understanding, which underpins global space weather operations. Cluster’s observations are a unique resource and will continue to provide considerable value in the years to come.”

    Conclusion

    The ESA Cluster 2 Salsa re-entry provides a clear example of how NSpOC monitors re-entries, ensuring the safety of the UK and its Overseas Territories. As satellites continue to play an increasingly important role in both government operations and academic research, NSpOC’s re-entry capability will remain vital to ensuring the safe and responsible use of space for future missions.

    Updates to this page

    Published 27 September 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Statement from Minister Ferrada on World Tourism Day

    Source: Government of Canada News

    The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, shared the following message with Canadians:

    September 27, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario 

    The Honourable Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, shared the following message with Canadians:

    “Canada is a tourism superpower. Whether it’s our majestic mountains or our dynamic downtowns, we have what the world wants. Nearly every single Canadian community is implicated in tourism in some way, and it’s no surprise that the sector supports nearly two million jobs and contributes over $43 billion to Canada’s GDP.

    “Tourism is also about pride—the pride of sharing our home with the world. It brings people together to find common ground. In a world of division, tourism is about connection.

    “As a government, we’re here for Canadian tourism. Guided by our Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, we’re seizing opportunities, investing in Indigenous tourism and overcoming challenges.

    “Together, let’s help Canadian tourism reach its full potential. We’re aiming to increase its contribution to Canada’s GDP by 40% by 2030. This means 85,000 more jobs. That’s why we’re supporting the sector through the $108 million Tourism Growth Program. Yet it’s about more than statistics; it’s about Canada taking its place as a world leader in tourism.

    “We’re investing in Indigenous tourism, which has the power to advance reconciliation. Through the Indigenous Tourism Fund and beyond, we’re working with communities and leaders and supporting nearly 200 projects across the country, with more on the way.

    “Together, let’s tackle tourism’s challenges. We need to help the industry attract and retain more staff. We must improve transportation and housing. And we must continue fighting climate change. From warm winters to wildfires, it is an existential threat to Canadian tourism—the recent fires in Jasper being just one example.

    “As we mark World Tourism Day, let’s celebrate the power of travel to broaden perspectives and bring people together. Canada welcomes the world, ready to share our scenery and our stories. Through tourism, we’re building a future where differences are celebrated and unexpected connections flourish—one traveller at a time. Happy World Tourism Day!”

    Marie-Justine Torres
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Minister of Tourism and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec
    613-327-5918
    Marie-Justine.TorresAmes@ised-isde.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
    media@ised-isde.gc.ca

    For easy access to government programs for businesses, download the Canada Business app

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Africa Finance Corporation partners with Itana for the creation of Africa’s first digital economic zone

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    NEW YORK, United States of America, September 27, 2024/APO Group/ —

    Itana (http://apo-opa.co/4dnuip1), Nigeria’s first licensed digital economic zone management company, and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) (www.AfricaFC.org), the continent’s leading infrastructure solutions provider, have agreed to jointly develop the first digital economic zone in Africa designed for global and Pan-African technology, finance and service-based businesses to operate and scale with ease across Africa, unlocking the continent’s digital economy. The formalisation of this partnership took place yesterday in front of global government and business leaders, at the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI), on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

    The Itana Digital Economic Zone in Lagos, Nigeria is intended as an online jurisdiction and to serve as a gateway to build a global business in Nigeria. Through Itana, companies can remotely incorporate and operate their businesses in the Itana zone, with laws, business incentives (tax, immigration & banking), and services optimized for the digital economy. This will be coupled with eco-friendly live-work districts and a live-in accelerator program, showcasing the future of African cities and providing the ideal infrastructure and support for businesses in Africa to scale and compete globally.

    AFC will support Itana with project development funding and intends to lead in the financing of phase 1 of the Itana project which is budgeted at around $100m. This will include an eco-friendly tech campus in Lagos, Nigeria, and funding of startups in Accelerate Africa, the accelerator program of Itana in partnership with Future Africa. AFC will also support the roll-out of the Itana Digital Economic Zone for global and Pan-African tech, finance, and service-based businesses seeking to operate across Africa.

    Itana and AFC are already collaborating alongside Future Africa, PwC Nigeria, and Charter Cities Institute as technical advisers to the Initiative for the Promotion of Digital Free Zones in Nigeria (DiFZIN) (http://apo-opa.co/3BuB4Mm), a non-profit advocacy and policy research organization representing the private sector in the recently announced Nigerian Federal Government steering committee for the establishment of Digital Economic Zones in Nigeria. The committee is chaired by President Bola Tinubu and includes relevant Government Ministers and Agency Heads.

    Itana (http://apo-opa.co/47FY7jz) will be a conducive environment tailored to the 21st-century digital trade and technological age. The organization recently launched the Itana Application (http://apo-opa.co/4dnSUOB) where individuals can join the community and have access to events and services such as business visa facilitation, local bank accounts, and a curated marketplace of trusted vendors and consultants for doing business in Africa. Businesses that meet the criteria can register as a Free Zone Enterprise (FZE) with ease and will receive a Business Operating license that enables them to do business in Nigeria like numerous digital companies including Reliance Info and Future Africa.

    Post business incorporation, businesses can operate in the zone with tax and capital repatriation incentives, get access to the Itana business community, apply for business banking in the Digital Economic Zone, and special work and residency permits without limitations imposed by expatriate quotas.

    “Itana intends to be to Nigeria and Africa what Delaware & Silicon Valley is to the U.S., the DIFC is to Dubai, and e-Estonia is to the European Union,” said Luqman Edu, CEO of Itana. “Itana is poised as the gateway to doing business in Africa. Local and International businesses looking to expand their operations across Africa will naturally look to Itana as their point of entry”.

    “Africa’s digital economy is poised for significant expansion and innovation following the rapid adoption of mobile technology, a burgeoning youth population, and the growing importance of digital commerce and services,” said Samaila Zubairu, President & CEO, Africa Finance Corporation. “In support of this, AFC is proud to be a pioneer alongside Itana, in building Africa’s first digital economic zone. This unprecedented initiative marks a pivotal step towards creating a thriving hub for the African digital economy, cementing the Corporation’s commitment to driving innovation, job creation, and sustainable economic development across the continent,” he added.

    Last year, Itana announced (http://apo-opa.co/4eIELg1) a funding round backed by leading technology venture capitals and highly influential tech industry leaders including LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital (backed by Peter Thiel), Balaji, and Future Africa (led by Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave).

    As the first Digital Economic Zone, Itana remains committed to making Nigeria a powerhouse in the global digital economy. It will be hosted in Alaro City, an integrated, mixed-use city planned on over 2,000 hectares in the Lekki Free Zone.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Growing Coffee in the Greater United States

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    National Coffee Day falls on September 29, and International Coffee Day a couple of days later on October 1. A staple of American mornings, coffee, a caffeinated beverage cultivated from coffee beans, is brewed from a plant with early cultivation in Africa and the Middle East. Legends of early brews come from as early as 850 AD in Ethiopia. Today, the worldwide trade of coffee is regulated by multiple international treaties. The first International Coffee Agreement (ICA) was adopted by Congress in 1980 (Public Law 96-599) and codified at 19 U.S.C. §§ 1356k. On June 9, 2022, the latest International Coffee Agreement was renewed.

    Arbre du café dessiné en Arabie sur le naturel. 1716. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b36921.

    Federal Law

    Before the International Coffee Agreement, how was the sale of coffee regulated in the United States? The Tariff Act of 1930, also known as the Hawley-Smoot Tariff, (46 Stat. 590) contains a mention of coffee. As of today, California, Hawai’i, and Puerto Rico are the only places in the greater United States where coffee may be commercially cultivated (though California does not have explicit regulations on the trade).

    In the Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR Subpart O is exclusively dedicated to coffee as the “raw or unroasted seeds or beans of coffee intended for processing.”

    Hawai’i

    The 2002 Hawaiian Grown Coffee Law (§ 486-120.6) amended chapter 486 (now repealed) of the Hawai’i Revised Statutes to update the language on labels of Hawaiian coffee products. Specifications include the listing of coffees in a blend by weight and region of origin.

    In May 2024, the Hawaiian legislature passed a law (H.B. 2298) that will require all types of coffee beverages containing Hawaiian-grown and processed coffee to contain “no less than fifty-one per cent coffee by weight from the Hawai’i geographic origin.” The law will enter into force July 1, 2027.

    [Trademark registration by G. W. Earhart for Coffea Arabica brand Coffee, Either Green or Roasted]. Apr. 7, 1885. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/trmk.1t12096.

    Puerto Rico

    “the bush belonging to the Rubiaceae family, Coffea genus, with perennial, coriaceous, single leaves and [opposing] white, aromatic axillary flowers whose fruit is a berry, red, white and yellow in color, that generally contains two seeds from which the beverage known by the same name…” Puerto Rican official definition of coffee. (P.R. Laws tit. 5, § 320.)

    In 1966, a “coffee zone” was developed as an agricultural and industrial project in Puerto Rico (P.R. Laws tit. 5, § 318). In 2019, the Coffee Office of Puerto Rico (la Oficina de Cafés de Puerto Rico) was established as a part of the Department of Agriculture by law (Ley Núm. 78 de 27 de julio de 2019.)

    Section 319 of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff outlines the responsibility of the Puerto Rican legislature to administer tariffs and collect duties on any foreign coffee imported into the territory, and 19 USC § 1319 guarantees duties for any coffee products imported into the territory.

    [Coffee drying, Puerto Rico]. Between 1890 and 1923. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c01300.

    This International Coffee Day, take a moment to consider where in the world your cup of coffee came from. Was it from a domestic farm, or perhaps from the coffee farms of Kenya, another international coffee producer? Either way, enjoy a sip and savor the unique flavor – as we can see from the regulations, different blends are regionally exclusive!

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News –