NewzIntel.com

Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Initiative Marianne

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

    Presentation

    In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of the Marianne Initiative for human rights defenders, aimed at better supporting them in their fight, both abroad and in France.

    The Marianne Association for Human Rights Defenders was created to federate the actors involved in our country (State, organisations and associations for the promotion of human rights and reception, local authorities, qualified personalities, etc.) and to carry the initiative’s support pillar in France, for the benefit of about fifteen laureates per year (reception, personalised support, networking, etc.).

    “France is and will remain a land of welcome for human rights defenders

    Après la réception d’une première promotion exclusivement féminine en 2022, trois nouvelles promotions mixtes se sont suite ensuite succédées, en 2023, 2024 et plus récemment 2025.

    Some fifteen men and women from every continent have been welcomed to France for six months as part of the Initiative. The winners benefit from a training program designed to strengthen their skills and commitment in their home country or in France, whether in favor of civil and political rights, women’s rights, minority rights or environmental rights.

    A look back at past years

    “The protection of human rights is more than ever a topical battle, in a context where repression is multiplying in every corner of the world”.

    Emmanuel Macron – President of the Republic, at the launch of the second promotion

    “Fundamental human rights are under increasing threat around the world. On this international day, I wanted to launch the Marianne Initiative for Human Rights Defenders. To take these rights everywhere. To protect and support its defenders.”

    Emmanuel Macron – President of the Republic, on Human Rights Day 2021

    Read more

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Joint Statement: Enduring Partnership, Ambitious Agenda

    Source: Government of Canada – Prime Minister

    1. Today marks a historic milestone as we, the leaders of the European Union and Canada, met to renew our enduring commitment and take a pivotal step to further reinforce the strategic partnership between the European Union and Canada. Our strong partnership is deeply rooted in trust and common values and shaped by a shared history of human connection and robust economic ties. Most importantly, our partnership is grounded in the core values we share: democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and open, rules-based markets. In a rapidly changing world marked by geopolitical uncertainty, shifting economic dynamics, and the accelerating impacts of climate change, this partnership is more important than ever.
       
    2. We stand united in our objective to forge a new ambitious and comprehensive partnership that responds to the needs of today and will evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future. This marks the beginning of a long-term effort that will help us promote shared prosperity, democratic values, peace and security. To do this, we have decided to further build on existing ties and launch a process that will move Canada and the EU closer together and that lays out immediate and long-term actions outlined in an ambitious agenda at the end of this document. We also agreed today on an EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership.
       
    3. Our citizens are looking for responses to the unprecedented challenges we face. This is why it is more important than ever to work together to promote our shared values and the rules-based international order. We will also pursue our common interests, while continuing to promote and deepen our vibrant trade and investment relationship, and our strong people-to-people contacts. We will stand together even more firmly in support of peace, stability, and prosperity in the world, including in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific.
       
    4. We confirm our unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order with the United Nations and its charter at its core. The EU and Canada will continue to cooperate closely in promoting international peace and security. Our commitment to sustainable development remains a key pillar of our relationship. We will continue to be key partners in promoting democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms, gender equality and the rule of law globally. We will take further action to ensure respect for the rights of women and girls, and to end to all forms of discrimination, including against LGBTI persons. We will continue supporting the implementation of the UN Pact for the Future and the ambitious reforms sought under the UN80 Initiative. We reaffirm our steadfast support for the independent functioning of the international criminal justice system, particularly the International Criminal Court. We condemn threats to the independent functioning of the ICC, including measures against individual officials.
       
    5. We are determined to continue working together in responding to the growing challenges to the international economic and trade order. We reiterate our mutual commitment to sustainable, fair and open trade, grounded in the rule of law and in respect for internationally agreed trade rules, as embodied by the World Trade Organization. This is essential to maintain global economic stability and to safeguard our supply chain resilience.
       
    6. We reaffirm our resolute condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which constitutes a manifest violation of the UN Charter and international law. Our commitment to ensuring a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine that respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders is unshakeable. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to providing continued political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes and as intensely as needed, in full respect of the security and defence policy of certain EU Member States and taking into account the security and defence interests of all EU Member States. We support the conclusion of a just and lasting peace agreement, in full compliance with the principles of the UN Charter and international law, and join the call for a full, unconditional ceasefire of at least 30 days, which Ukraine has unilaterally committed to. We will continue to support the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children co-chaired by Ukraine and Canada, and we reiterate our urgent call on Russia and Belarus to immediately ensure the safe return of all unlawfully deported and transferred Ukrainian children. We will continue our close coordination of efforts to provide military equipment and training to the Ukrainian Armed Forces —including through the work of the EU Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM Ukraine) and Operation UNIFIER.
       
    7. We will increase pressure on Russia, including through further sanctions and taking measures to prevent their circumvention, and by ensuring that Russian sovereign assets remain immobilized until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused by this war. We are committed to ensuring full accountability for war crimes and other serious crimes committed in connection with Russia’s war of aggression, including by the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. We also remain committed to supporting Ukraine’s repair, recovery and reconstruction including through the Ukraine Donor Platform and in-country coordination mechanisms. We welcome Canada’s continued support, through the extension of an expert deployment to the Ukraine Donor Platform. The Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome in July 2025 will be particularly relevant in that context.[1]
       
    8. We also reaffirm our continued support for the Republic of Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, enhancing the country’s resilience in dealing with the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the hybrid activities by Russia to undermine Moldova, in particular in the run-up to the Parliamentary elections. 
       
    9. In relation to the situation and latest developments in the Middle East, we reaffirm our commitment to an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the resumption of unimpeded humanitarian aid at scale into Gaza in line with humanitarian principles, in order to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation on the ground. We reiterate our strong condemnation of the escalation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, following increased settler violence, the expansion of settlements, which are illegal under international law, and Israel’s military operation. We emphasize the importance of pursuing a lasting and sustainable peace based on the implementation of the two-state solution. We see no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza. 
       
    10. We express our deepest concern at the dangerous escalation following Israeli strikes on Iran, and Iran’s response. We reiterate our strong commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East, including the security of Israel, and call on all sides to show restraint and abide by international law. We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. A diplomatic solution remains the best way to address concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. The EU and Canada stand ready to contribute to a negotiated deal, which imposes verifiable constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, with the International Atomic Energy Agency in charge of monitoring and verification. We also remain committed to addressing Iran’s destabilizing behaviour, including its nuclear proliferation risks, military support for Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, backing of regional armed groups, transnational repression, and systematic human rights violations.
       
    11. Security in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions is increasingly interconnected. We reaffirm our shared interest in maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, including in the East and South China Seas and across the Taiwan Strait. We will continue working with regional partners, including ASEAN, to uphold a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific region based on international law. We continue to be deeply concerned by DPRK’s ongoing nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and condemn Russia-DPRK military cooperation, which violates UN Security Council resolutions and undermines international security.
       
    12. We will continue deepening our cooperation and dialogue, together with partners from around the world, to address key regional issues, in particular in relation to the broader Middle East – notably Lebanon and Syria. We will also continue engaging with each other on issues related to Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, including Haiti. We will stay engaged in fragile and conflict-affected countries, facing instability or in complex settings, to support populations, in particular the most vulnerable.
       
    13. The Arctic will remain an area of close collaboration to foster peace and security, stability, and sustainable economic development, in particular of the blue economy, in full respect of the interests, priorities and rights of Indigenous Peoples in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
       
    14. The EU and Canada will continue to be reliable and responsible partners. We reiterate our steadfast commitment to advancing global sustainable development, working with partners across the globe. We are determined to deliver on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, together with international partners and in multilateral fora. We look forward to the upcoming 4th International Conference on financing for Development (FfD4), which will take place in Seville from 30 June to 3 July 2025. We will continue to deepen our cooperation and dialogue on humanitarian aid, including on respect for International Humanitarian Law and response to humanitarian crises.
       
    15. We recognize the existential threat of the interdependent crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and pollution. The EU-Canada Green Alliance is our steadfast, joint commitment to ambitious environment and climate action on the global stage. Carbon pricing, carbon removal and industrial decarbonization are key to reaching net-zero and decarbonization goals, while a high integrity carbon market can contribute to enhancing the global ambition. The EU is a dedicated participant in Canada’s Global Carbon Pricing Challenge (GCPC). At COP30, the EU and Canada aim to further promote carbon pricing as a tool to combat climate change, foster innovation and to modernize our industries. COP30 will also be an opportunity to highlight the importance of decarbonizing the transport sector and to promote sustainable transportation solutions. We reiterate our commitment to the swift and full implementation of the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, including through the Nature Champions Network.
       
    16. We agree that the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) and the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) are at the core of the EU-Canada relationship. Through these agreements we are developing and deepening our partnership continuously in response to an evolving global context. We will continue to ensure their effective implementation and remain committed to achieving their full ratification. The SPA and CETA have allowed us to boost our cooperation over the past eight years.
       
    17. We are committed to further enhancing our EU-Canada trade and investment relationship, to advance and diversify our trade, promote our economic security and resilience, create investment opportunities and ensure our long-term security and prosperity. Our relationship is underpinned by CETA and its benefits are clear: bilateral trade has increased by over 65% compared to pre-CETA levels. We welcome the efforts being made to remove barriers to interprovincial trade in Canada and reduce barriers within the EU Single Market as they will further ease trading and doing business for our companies.
       
    18. Ensuring reliable and sustainable supply chains is a mutual priority and we have a shared interest in diversifying our supply chains and strategic investment. We will foster a closer cooperation on targeted industrial matters driving global competitiveness and strategic autonomy, such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, space, cyberspace, aeronautics, biotechnologies, new energies, minerals and critical metals, advanced manufacturing and cleantech. We intend to maintain a secure transatlantic supply chain on key technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), supercomputers and semiconductors. We welcome the recent announcement of a Canadian strategic nickel project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and will work to identify opportunities for co-investment in projects of mutual interest. We welcome the G7 Global Critical Minerals Action Plan agreed under Canada’s Presidency.
       
    19. We also remain committed to pursuing mutually beneficial collaboration on digital and tech policy issues and bolstering the bilateral digital trade relationship. Through the Canada-EU Digital Partnership, we are already working hand in hand on concrete projects in crucial areas for a robust digital economy, such as research in cutting-edge technologies, and we look forward to Canada hosting the first EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council later this year. We intend to enhance cooperation on AI innovation, including collaboration on AI Factories, to link our high-performance computing infrastructure and to deepen research cooperation in strategic technology areas such as AI and quantum. We also intend to align our frameworks and standards in the regulatory field, to make online platforms safer and more inclusive, to develop trustworthy AI systems and to establish interoperable digital identities and digital credentials to facilitate interactions between our citizens and our businesses.
       
    20. We have agreed today an EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership, which provides a coherent, high-level political framework for our joint efforts in this field and will strengthen and widen the scope of cooperation and dialogue between the EU and Canada. We remain committed to continuing our strong cooperation, notably through Canada’s contributions to EU missions and operations, and welcome possible further collaboration on crisis management in the future. Canada will strengthen its defence relationship with the EU by posting a defence representative to the EU. We underscore the value of Canada’s participation in the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects and look forward to pursuing additional initiatives within this framework. In line with our shared security interests, we attach particular importance to collaboration on defence. For Canada and those EU Member States who are NATO Allies, NATO remains the cornerstone of their collective defence. Our aim will be to help deliver on our capability targets, including through our defence industries, more quickly and economically and with enhanced interoperability in ways that deliver mutual benefit and reinforce the European contribution to NATO. All of the above is without prejudice to the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain EU Member States, and taking into account the security and defence interests of all Member States, in accordance with the EU Treaties. We appreciate Canada’s continued commitment to European security, which includes the largest deployment of Canadian Armed Forces overseas.
       
    21. Recognizing the importance of the Women, Peace and Security as well as the Youth, Peace and Security agendas, we will continue supporting the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and youth in conflict prevention, mediation, resolution, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction. We recognize that an enabling environment, is fundamental to ensuring the safe participation of women, and remain committed to fostering such environments. We will ensure that Women, Peace and Security is integrated in all aspects of cooperation on security and defence. Gender equality is a shared political and security priority, and we will collaborate to counter setbacks against gender equality and the rights of women and girls.
       
    22. To ensure comprehensive and sustainable progress, Canada and EU senior officials will meet at regular intervals to review progress and identify opportunities to deepen cooperation, in line with existing CETA and SPA consultation mechanisms, and in view of the next EU-Canada Summit. 

    Annex – The New EU-Canada Strategic Partnership of the Future 

    Together, we will: 

    Increase trade flows and promote economic security 

    • Support businesses to grow and diversify markets by fully and effectively implementing CETA.
    • Modernize our approach to trade by launching work towards a Digital Trade Agreement that would complement CETA.
    • Create tools for businesses to better support trade diversification, such as facilitating B2B matchmaking, cluster-to-cluster cooperation, and supporting the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
    • Advance our collaboration in the EU-Canada Economic Security Dialogue. Political and technical exchanges will allow us to identify trends and risks of mutual concern that could affect our economic security, and cooperation on possible policy responses.
    • Reduce barriers and strengthen agriculture and agrifood trade.
    • Prepare ourselves for the energy needs of the future, by cooperating more closely and exploring options to work together on more resilient, diversified, reliable energy supply chains, including clean tech value chains, LNG, renewables, safe and sustainable low-carbon hydrogen and other safe and sustainable low-carbon technologies, in view of increasing bilateral trade and strengthening energy security.
    • Continue the existing cooperation on nuclear technologies, including fuels and fuel cycle services, through the negotiation of a modernized and comprehensive Canada-Euratom Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.
    • Strengthen labour mobility by facilitating the movement of highly skilled workers, and explore shared interests in exchanging information about immigration partnerships. 

    Foster competitiveness and resilience through strengthened cooperation in strategic value chains 

    • Launch a new EU-Canada Industrial Policy Dialogue to boost industrial and supply chain cooperation in strategic sectors.
    • Promote projects and investments that reduce supply chain risks and foster resilience and the competitiveness of our industries and critical goods (e.g. semiconductors), including by promoting projects that abide by environmental, social and governance standards.
    • Work together closely to ensure security and diversity in the supply of minerals and metals critical to our mutual security and the green and digital transitions, including by exploring new opportunities to facilitate the two-way flow of investment, materials and expertise through the EU-Canada Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials.
    • Complete the negotiations for a renewed Canada-EU Competition Cooperation Agreement, providing a legal framework to coordinate enforcement activities and share information obtained through investigative powers in full respect of data privacy guarantees in both jurisdictions, as soon as possible. 

    Deepen regulatory alignment 

    • Identify opportunities for increased regulatory alignment between Canada and the EU, including through advancing work under CETA’s Protocol on the Mutual Acceptance of the Results of Conformity Assessment.
    • Bolster formal consultative mechanisms on EU and Canadian legislation and regulations, including CETA’s Regulatory Cooperation Forum. 

    Increase transatlantic security through a new era of EU-Canada security and defence cooperation, including the full implementation of the EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership 

    • Bolster our bilateral dialogue and operational cooperation in all areas of joint interest in support of peace, security and defence – such as maritime security, cyber issues and hybrid threats.
    • Advance cooperation on the climate-security nexus and expand joint efforts in maritime security by identifying opportunities for coordinated naval activities.
    • Expand cooperation on defence capabilities, in particular by creating opportunities for increased defence industrial cooperation.
    • Secure and protect our democratic institutions by preventing and countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) through increased cooperation through relevant EU, Canadian and multilateral initiatives, such as the Canada-hosted G7 Rapid Response Mechanism.
    • Consider Canada’s further participation in EU Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects, with an aim towards joint development of capabilities and greater interoperability.
    • Increase defence procurement cooperation through Canadian collaboration with ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030:
      • launch work towards a bilateral agreement related to the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument
      • explore the possibility of establishing an administrative arrangement between Canada and the European Defence Agency 

    Shape the digital transition and promote exchanges in education and on innovation for technologies of the future 

    • Deepen cooperation in the framework of the EU-Canada Digital Partnership, and hold the first EU-Canada Digital Partnership Council later this year to drive this process forward.
    • Advance cooperation on AI, cybersecurity, secure digital communication and advanced connectivity, secure and trusted communications infrastructure (including 5G and subsea cables), the transparency and resilience of global tech supply chains, digital identity, quantum science, data spaces, online platforms and fighting FIMI.
    • Advance regulatory cooperation under the Digital Partnership, notably in AI and cybersecurity, so as to work towards the mutual recognition of AI and cybersecurity product certification including under the CETA Protocol on Conformity Assessment.
    • Deepen collaboration by leveraging Canada’s association to Horizon Europe, including on high priority topics, and exploring its potential participation in EU’s 10th Framework Programme.
    • Expand cooperation for access to world-class high-performance computing infrastructure through Horizon Europe.
    • Support research and industrial collaboration in research security, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum sciences, cyber security, climate change, oceans, circular economy, polar research and researcher mobility and training, including through the Canada-EU Digital Partnership and under the EU-Canada Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement.
    • Promote and defend the freedom of academic and scientific research and the protection of scientists.
    • Increase people to people ties, improve mobility and recognition, including in higher education and research through Erasmus+, the European Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. 

    Fight climate change and environmental degradation and facilitate the transition to climate neutrality 

    • Support for carbon pricing and industrial decarbonization as priority cooperation areas to combat climate change.
    • Bolster competitiveness through cooperation on carbon pricing systems and carbon border measures.
    • Work with international partners to promote the full, swift and effective implementation of the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
    • Collaborate to achieve an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution covering the full lifecycle of plastics at INC 5.2.
    • Collaborate on the implementation of the Just Energy Transition Partnerships.
    • Jointly call for ambitious action to implement the Paris Agreement, in line with efforts to keep the 1.5°C warming goal within reach.
    • Continue working with other international partners to promote relevant international instruments to combatting climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
    • Welcome Canada joining the Global Energy Transition Forum launched by the European Commission to deliver on the goals of tripling the world’s renewable energy capacity and doubling the global annual rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030 in parallel to a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.
    • Work together as co-conveners of the Global Methane Pledge to deliver on the goal of reducing global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
    • Advance cooperation on the climate–security nexus by exploring a Climate-Security Dialogue. 

    Crisis management 

    • Advance public and private investments, notably in sustainable, inclusive, resilient and quality infrastructure, including through our shared G7 commitment under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment and the EU’s Global Gateway strategy. At the same time, we recognize that investments in human development are a key enabling factor for just and sustainable digital and green transitions.
    • Strengthen cooperation on international crisis response and enhance cooperation on emergency management with the signing of an Administrative Arrangement between the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada and the European External Action Service on international cooperation in emergency planning and crisis response.
    • Respond more effectively to humanitarian crises and explore the possibility of a humanitarian administrative arrangement to align priorities and facilitate coordination.
    • Build health security and resilience through enhanced partnerships, including an administrative arrangement on medical countermeasures.
    • Building on the sale of 22 Canadian-built DHC-515 water bombers to the EU and Member States, explore further opportunities to share mutually beneficial technology and expertise in combating disasters. 

    Justice and Home Affairs 

    • Explore cooperation between Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Canadian authorities in the field of criminal justice.
    • Advance the implementation, ratification and entry into force of the-EU-Canada Passenger Name Record Agreement.

    [1]We note the reservations of one Member State regarding the strategic direction of certain EU policies towards Ukraine.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Federal Reserve Board announces that reputational risk will no longer be a component of examination programs in its supervision of banks

    Source: US State of New York Federal Reserve

    Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

    Secure .gov websites use HTTPSA lock (
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    ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Shawano Man Indicted for Child Pornography Production

    Source: US FBI

    Richard Frohling, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on June 17, 2025, a federal indictment was returned alleging that Brandon M. Boogren (age: 29) of Shawano, Wisconsin, used a minor child to produce child pornography in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251(a).

    According to court documents, in May 2019 Boogren created several videos of himself and a then two-year-old child involved in sexually explicit conduct. Boogren then is alleged to have distributed the images to an individual in Houston, Texas, via the internet.

    If convicted of the charge alleged in the indictment, Boogren faces a mandatory 15 years’ imprisonment and up to 30 years’ imprisonment. He may also be fined up to $250,000 and would be required to register as a sexual offender under state and federal law.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006, by the U.S. Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Shawano County Sheriff’s Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel R. Humble.

    An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.     

    # # #

    For Additional Information Contact:

    Public Information Officer

    Kenneth.Gales@usdoj.gov

    414-297-1700

     

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    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Following Trump Attacks on TPS, Cortez Masto, Van Hollen Put Forward Bill to Protect TPS and DED Recipients

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) joined Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and 29 of her Senate colleagues in putting forward legislation to provide qualified Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients a path to legal permanent residency. The Senators’ introduction of the Safe Environment from Countries Under Repression and Emergency (SECURE) Act comes as the Trump Administration and the Supreme Court undermine TPS, a program that has for years provided refuge to those living in America who have fled natural disasters, violence, and political insecurity.

    “After escaping horrific violence and persecution in their home countries, TPS and DED recipients come to this country in search of a better life,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “These hardworking men and women have been living in and contributing to our communities for years, and it’s common sense to give them the certainty they need to fulfill the American Dream.” 

    The Trump Administration has revoked TPS for an estimated 563,000 recipients from five countries – Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Nepal – and while there have been legal challenges filed against this action, the Supreme Court has temporarily allowed the revocation to stand – putting hundreds of thousands at risk of deportation to their home countries where they would face serious danger.

    The SECURE Act will provide long-term stability for these individuals and their communities by giving them the ability to apply for legal permanent residency. Under the bill, all TPS recipients – current and past – and TPS and DED eligible individuals who have been continuously present in the United States for at least three years would be eligible to apply for legal permanent residency.

    Additionally, under the SECURE Act:

    • A spouse, domestic partner, child, or unmarried child of a qualifying non-citizen would be eligible to obtain permanent resident status (upon meeting certain requirements).
    • Individuals with a pending TPS application will receive work authorization and be eligible for travel authorization.
    • Non-citizens who have a pending application or is prima facie eligible for permanent status under the bill and intends to apply are shielded from deportation.
    • Information from an applicant’s application may not be shared or used for immigration enforcement purposes, with limited exceptions, such as for the identification of fraudulent claims.
    • DHS must report to Congress when terminating a country’s TPS designation with an explanation to justify the termination.

    The first and only Latina senator, Senator Cortez Masto has consistently supported immigrant communities in Nevada, calling on both administrations to protect TPS holders and other immigrants, as well as leading commonsense legislation to fix our broken immigration system. She has worked to pass meaningful immigration reform that balances critical border security measures with a path to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, and essential workers.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Sens. Markey, Wyden Demand Information on Government’s Use of AI and Other Technology to Label People as National Security Risks

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
    State/DHS Letter Text (PDF) | GAO Letter Text (PDF)
    Washington (June 20, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today led their colleagues in two letters about the government’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies to determine whether an individual poses a national security risk. 
    The lawmakers write to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision to expand its social media screening of visa applicants. Those policy changes appear intended to chill dissent, discriminate against particular viewpoints, and punish individuals for speech the Administration finds objectionable. In another letter, the lawmakers wrote to the Government Accountability Office, requesting that it investigate how the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are using AI technologies to label individuals as potential threats to the public, including automated analysis of content people post online. The letters were also signed by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
    In their letter to Secretaries Rubio and Noem, the lawmakers write, “Although the national security benefits of social media screening may be unproven, the costs are very real. The wide-scale collection of social media information violates the free expression rights of foreigners and American citizens, infringes on applicants’ personal privacy, creates unnecessary processing delays, and creates risks of abuse and discrimination…Even in an administration intending to conduct social media screening in a fair and unbiased manner, the risks of mistakes are high. In an administration with malign intentions, these social media screening tools guarantee abuse.”
    The lawmakers continued, “We are deeply concerned that State and DHS’s respective new policies around social media screening are a thinly veiled effort to discriminate against visa applicants and other noncitizens seeking to pursue their studies or obtain asylum or lawful residence in the United States.”
    The lawmakers request answers by July 9, 2025, to questions including:
    Please provide any studies, analyses, audits, or other examination of the social media collection, screening, and vetting programs at State or DHS conducted between December 15, 2015, and the date of this letter.
    Is the State Department or DHS using artificial intelligence (AI) or any other automated system to collect, process, analyze, or otherwise review information collected from social media accounts of visa applicants and applicants for an immigration benefit?
    How many visa applicants or individuals seeking an immigration benefit have had their application denied solely or primarily due to the social media screening and vetting process, including those denied for failing to provide a social media identifier? 
    Please provide any State Department and DHS memos, guidance documents, or other written policies intended to guide career staff in interpreting social media indicia for a visa applicant or applicant for an immigration benefit.
    Has the State Department, DHS, or any other agency or component conducted any legal analysis or First Amendment review of the March 25 State Department memo or the April 9 DHS announcement?
    What safeguards, if any, are in place to ensure that personal bias, political viewpoints, or cultural misunderstandings do not influence visa adjudications or immigration benefit decisions based on social media content?
    Did the State Department’s Office of Civil Rights or DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties or Privacy Office review the respective policies before their implementation?
    In their letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the lawmakers raise serious concerns about DHS and DOJ’s use of “technologies that make dubious automated inferences about individuals’ emotions, attitudes, and intentions,” including the administration’s deployment of “AI to scan the social media accounts of tens of thousands of student visa holders and flag some as supposedly supporting terrorist organizations.”
    The GAO letter is also cosigned by Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash).
    The lawmakers write: “It is particularly dangerous to use AI for inferring mental states in law enforcement contexts, where false positives can subject individuals to baseless investigation and detention. Furthermore, since many criminal statutes require proof of intent or other state of mind, using AI in this way could lead prosecutors to bring more severe charges against individuals on the basis of pseudoscientific evidence. This technology is also ripe for deliberate abuse, providing a pretext for government officials to target groups they disfavor.”
    The lawmakers request that GAO produce a report that addresses questions including the following:
    How many people have been the subject of an automated analysis conducted by DOJ or DHS personnel using AI technologies that infer people’s emotions, attitudes, or intentions?
    What kinds of law enforcement actions have been guided by DOJ and DHS personnel’s use of these technologies?
    What tests of these technologies did DOJ and DHS conduct before using them for law enforcement purposes?
    What DOJ and DHS policies govern the uses of these AI technologies to prevent violations of due process, freedom of expression, equal protection, and other constitutional rights?

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • Regional crisis deepens after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Tensions in the Middle East have reached a critical point following a direct strike by the United States on three of Iran’s major nuclear facilities. Explosions rocked Tehran, including a reported Israeli missile strike on the entrance to the capital’s notorious Evin Prison, in what officials are calling a coordinated Israeli campaign targeting both military and governmental sites across Iran.

    The attacks on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities, described by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as involving ground-penetrating munitions and cruise missiles, have escalated into a broader regional conflict. Iran retaliated with waves of missiles and drones, striking multiple cities in Israel. While the full extent of the damage remains unclear, the strikes mark a dramatic escalation of hostilities and a direct confrontation among Iran, Israel, and the United States.

    In a rare move that signals a widening of military objectives, the Israeli Defense Forces targeted Evin Prison, a high-security facility housing political prisoners, dual nationals, and government critics. The operation marks a shift in Israeli strategy, extending beyond purely military targets to the symbolic and institutional pillars of the Iranian regime.

    Amid the spiraling crisis, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf announced that the legislature is weighing legislation to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA. Qalibaf insisted that Iran has no intention of pursuing non-peaceful nuclear activity but accused the UN nuclear watchdog of failing to maintain its neutrality and professionalism, alleging it had become politicized.

    In Vienna, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi convened an emergency session of the agency’s Board of Governors. Grossi confirmed that key Iranian nuclear sites had been significantly damaged, though off-site radiation levels remained unchanged. He warned that the conflict presents a grave threat to the global non-proliferation regime and called for the immediate restoration of IAEA access to Iranian facilities, including those housing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. Grossi also revealed that inspectors remain in Iran and are ready to resume oversight operations.

    “The current trajectory is deeply concerning for international security,” Grossi told the assembled board members. “We must prioritize diplomacy and the technical role of the IAEA, not allow it to be undermined by geopolitical agendas.”

    The regional impact has already begun to ripple outward. Major energy companies, including Eni, BP, and Total Energies, began emergency evacuations of foreign staff from Iraqi oilfields. Iraq’s state-run Basra Oil Company confirmed the move amid fears of broader conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Qatar issued an urgent advisory instructing American citizens to remain indoors due to the volatile security situation.

    In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, expressing strong support for Tehran and condemning the strikes by the U.S. and Israel as an “unprovoked act of aggression.” Putin reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to its strategic alliance with Iran, while noting that he had held recent consultations with U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE President Mohammed Al Nahyan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

    Araghchi, in turn, thanked Russia for its support and denounced the attacks as illegal violations of international law. He emphasized Iran’s right to defend its sovereignty and stated that Tehran would continue to work closely with Moscow amid the growing crisis.

  • Regional crisis deepens after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Tensions in the Middle East have reached a critical point following a direct strike by the United States on three of Iran’s major nuclear facilities. Explosions rocked Tehran, including a reported Israeli missile strike on the entrance to the capital’s notorious Evin Prison, in what officials are calling a coordinated Israeli campaign targeting both military and governmental sites across Iran.

    The attacks on the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities, described by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as involving ground-penetrating munitions and cruise missiles, have escalated into a broader regional conflict. Iran retaliated with waves of missiles and drones, striking multiple cities in Israel. While the full extent of the damage remains unclear, the strikes mark a dramatic escalation of hostilities and a direct confrontation among Iran, Israel, and the United States.

    In a rare move that signals a widening of military objectives, the Israeli Defense Forces targeted Evin Prison, a high-security facility housing political prisoners, dual nationals, and government critics. The operation marks a shift in Israeli strategy, extending beyond purely military targets to the symbolic and institutional pillars of the Iranian regime.

    Amid the spiraling crisis, Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf announced that the legislature is weighing legislation to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA. Qalibaf insisted that Iran has no intention of pursuing non-peaceful nuclear activity but accused the UN nuclear watchdog of failing to maintain its neutrality and professionalism, alleging it had become politicized.

    In Vienna, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi convened an emergency session of the agency’s Board of Governors. Grossi confirmed that key Iranian nuclear sites had been significantly damaged, though off-site radiation levels remained unchanged. He warned that the conflict presents a grave threat to the global non-proliferation regime and called for the immediate restoration of IAEA access to Iranian facilities, including those housing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. Grossi also revealed that inspectors remain in Iran and are ready to resume oversight operations.

    “The current trajectory is deeply concerning for international security,” Grossi told the assembled board members. “We must prioritize diplomacy and the technical role of the IAEA, not allow it to be undermined by geopolitical agendas.”

    The regional impact has already begun to ripple outward. Major energy companies, including Eni, BP, and Total Energies, began emergency evacuations of foreign staff from Iraqi oilfields. Iraq’s state-run Basra Oil Company confirmed the move amid fears of broader conflict. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Qatar issued an urgent advisory instructing American citizens to remain indoors due to the volatile security situation.

    In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, expressing strong support for Tehran and condemning the strikes by the U.S. and Israel as an “unprovoked act of aggression.” Putin reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to its strategic alliance with Iran, while noting that he had held recent consultations with U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE President Mohammed Al Nahyan, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

    Araghchi, in turn, thanked Russia for its support and denounced the attacks as illegal violations of international law. He emphasized Iran’s right to defend its sovereignty and stated that Tehran would continue to work closely with Moscow amid the growing crisis.

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “China Yearbook” 2024 Released in Chinese and English

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhua) — The Chinese and English versions of the 2024 China Yearbook have been published by Xinhua Chubanshe and will be distributed in China and abroad.

    The 2.8 million-character Chinese-language yearbook chronicles key events in China’s reform, opening-up and modernization in 2023, accompanied by more than 100 photographs of historical value.

    The English version includes a section with general information about the country, as well as sections on the party system, government institutions and other key topics. The publication contains over 1 million words and more than 100 photographs.

    The Chinese Yearbook has been published since 1981, with a total of 44 issues. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: New York Man and Chinese National Charged with Running Scams That Took Thousands From Elderly Victims in Ohio

    Source: US FBI

    CLEVELAND – A federal grand jury has returned a 10-count indictment charging two men with defrauding elderly victims in Northeast Ohio out of thousands of dollars. The victims affected reside in Cleveland Heights, Willoughby, Canton, and Warren.

    According to a recently unsealed indictment, Jinrong Shi, 28, of New York, New York, and Jiyang Zhong, 27, a Chinese national residing in Little Neck, New York, were part of a criminal network that targeted senior citizens in Ohio, and elsewhere, with either a “grandparent” or “tech support” scam in May and June 2024.

    In tech support scams, victims are led to believe that their electronic devices, or online account, has been compromised. Unsuspecting victims are then persuaded to pay for assistance to resolve the fabricated issues. In grandparent scams, perpetrators impersonate law enforcement, or other authority figures, to convince elderly victims that their grandchildren are in trouble with the law. The victims are told that they must provide immediate financial assistance to help their grandchild out of the legal bind.

    The indictment further alleges that once the scam victims were persuaded to withdraw cash from their bank accounts, Shi and Zhong collaborated with a network of co-conspirators to collect it. The defendants used “fraud callers” to speak with victims and gather their addresses and other information. These details were then given to “fraud couriers,” who were tasked with meeting victims to pick up cash, or other items of value, at or near their homes. In an effort to further gain victims’ trust, the fraudulent callers would give them a password and told that a courier they would meet would provide this same password to confirm the validity of the transaction. In other instances, victims were instructed to mail cash to locations which the members of the conspiracy controlled. In total, more than $201,000 was taken from victims in Ohio.

    The ill-gotten proceeds from these fraudulent activities were allegedly laundered across state lines through various methods. In attempts to conceal the origins of the funds, conspirators also routed proceeds through cryptocurrency account holders based in China.

    Shi has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and concealment of money laundering and faces up to 20 years in prison.

    Zhong has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering conspiracy and faces up to 20 years in prison.

    If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to this case, including each defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, their roles in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation. In all cases, the sentences will not exceed the statutory maximum, and in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.

    An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it is the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

    The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the FBI Cleveland Division and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. McDonough for the Northern District of Ohio. The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Northern District of Ohio would like to acknowledge and thank the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Cleveland Heights Police Department for their cooperation with this matter.

    The investigation and prosecution of this case is in response to the Elder Justice Initiative Program originating from the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act of 2017 (EAPPA). The mission of the EAPPA and Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department of Justice’s enforcement efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, financial fraud, and scams that target the nation’s elderly population.

    To bring awareness to the financial abuse of senior citizens, the USAO recently issued an announcement warning of scams that target the elderly. Click here to read more about Elder Abuse Awareness Month.

    To submit a report of suspected elder financial abuse, visit tips.fbi.gov/home or justice.gov/elderjustice/financial-exploitation.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Millbourne Borough, Pennsylvania, Official and Former Official Sentenced to Prison for Election Fraud Offenses

    Source: US FBI

    PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that MD Nurul Hasan, 48, and MD Rafikul Islam, 52, both of Millbourne, Pennsylvania, were sentenced at separate hearings today by United States District Judge Harvey Bartle III for election fraud offenses.

    In February of this year, the defendants, along with co-conspirator MD Munsur Ali, 48, also of Millbourne, were charged in a 33-count indictment with conspiracy to commit voter fraud, giving false information in registering to vote, and fraudulent voter registration, arising from their scheme, ultimately unsuccessful, to steal Millbourne Borough’s 2021 mayoral election for Hasan.

    Hasan, the vice president of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 33 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 16 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 16 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $3,300 special assessment.

    Islam, a former member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all seven charges against him — one count of conspiracy, three counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and three counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, $1,000 fine, and a $700 special assessment.

    Ali, a member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 25 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 12 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 12 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26.

    As set forth in court filings, in 2021, Millbourne held elections for mayor, three seats on its borough council, and tax collector. Defendant Hasan entered the majority party’s primary election for mayor.

    The primary election was held on May 20, 2021, and Hasan was defeated in the primary by a vote count of approximately 138 to 120. In the same primary, Ali was one of three majority party candidates for borough council to advance to the general election, while Islam lost his bid for reelection to the council.

    After the primary, Hasan decided that he would run as a write-in candidate for mayor in the general election, which was scheduled for November 2, 2021. Ali and Islam agreed to support Hasan in his write-in campaign.

    As detailed in court documents and admitted by the defendants, in or about 2021, defendants Hasan, Ali, and Islam conspired and agreed with one another, and other persons known and unknown to the U.S. Attorney, to steal the 2021 general election for Mayor of Millbourne for defendant Hasan through a multi-step process, which included:

    (a) obtaining personal identification information of non-Millbourne residents, such as their names, addresses, and dates of birth;

    (b) using the personal identifying information to access the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s online voter registration (PAOVR) website and change the voter registration addresses for those non-Millbourne residents to locations within Millbourne;

    (c) using the PAOVR website to request that mail-in or absentee ballots for those non-Millbourne residents be sent to addresses accessible by one or more of the defendants;

    (d) retrieving the ballots from the Millbourne mailboxes;

    (e) impersonating the voters and fraudulently casting write-in votes for defendant Hasan to be mayor;

    (f) enclosing the fraudulently completed ballots in envelopes and forging the voters’ signatures on the envelopes; and

    (g) submitting the ballots in their envelopes to the Delaware County Board of Elections.

    The defendants admitted that, to further this conspiracy, they contacted friends and acquaintances whom Hasan and Ali knew did not live in Millbourne, told these non-Millbourne residents that Hasan was running for mayor in Millbourne, asked if they could register the non-Millbourne residents to vote in Millbourne, and then cast mail-in ballots for Hasan to be mayor.

    Hasan and Ali persuaded many of their non-Millbourne friends and acquaintances to provide them with personal identification information so that defendants Hasan and Ali could register them to vote in Millbourne. During many of these conversations, Hasan and Ali told their non-Millbourne friends and acquaintances that they would not get in trouble, as long as they did not vote in another election in November 2021.

    Hasan and Ali also conspired and agreed to use personal identifying information for other non-Millbourne residents, which the two defendants had obtained from other sources, such as Hasan’s business, to register those nonresidents as Millbourne voters without the knowledge of those non-residents.

    Hasan personally did almost all of the fraudulent voter registrations himself, using a computer at his place of business to access the PAOVR website and change the voting addresses for non-Millbourne residents to locations within Millbourne. Every time that Hasan accessed the PAOVR website to change a voter registration address, he provided an email address for the voter. Many times, Hasan provided one of four email addresses that he used and accessed.

    To divert suspicion from himself, however, Hasan sometimes provided email addresses belonging to other people, who knowingly and willfully permitted Hasan to use their email addresses to cover up Hasan’s actions. One of those people was Islam, who allowed Hasan to use two of Islam’s email addresses when Hasan fraudulently changed the voter registration addresses for six individuals. Islam also permitted Hasan to use two of Islam’s email addresses when requesting mail-in ballots for five non-Millbourne residents.

    In total, the defendants conspired to falsely register nearly three dozen non-Millbourne residents as Millbourne voters and cast ballots for those non-Millbourne residents in the 2021 general election for mayor of Millbourne Borough. Hasan went on to lose the election by a vote of approximately 165 to 138.

    “These defendants sabotaged the democratic will of their fellow citizens in deciding Millbourne’s next mayor,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “Public trust in the electoral process is critical, and my office is committed to ensuring that our elections remain free and fair. As this case shows, should we find instances of fraud, we won’t hesitate to prosecute those responsible.”

    “The electoral process is a pillar of our democracy, so when public officials undermine this system through fraud, they don’t only break the law — they compromise the trust built between this process and the American people,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia. “The FBI remains unwavering in our commitment to protecting the integrity of elections and ensuring those who break these laws are held accountable.”

    “Free and fair elections are the bedrock principle that defines American democracy. I appreciate the partnership between my office, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring these criminals to justice,” said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

    The case was investigated by the FBI and the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark B. Dubnoff.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Millbourne Borough, Pennsylvania, Official and Former Official Sentenced to Prison for Election Fraud Offenses

    Source: US FBI

    PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that MD Nurul Hasan, 48, and MD Rafikul Islam, 52, both of Millbourne, Pennsylvania, were sentenced at separate hearings today by United States District Judge Harvey Bartle III for election fraud offenses.

    In February of this year, the defendants, along with co-conspirator MD Munsur Ali, 48, also of Millbourne, were charged in a 33-count indictment with conspiracy to commit voter fraud, giving false information in registering to vote, and fraudulent voter registration, arising from their scheme, ultimately unsuccessful, to steal Millbourne Borough’s 2021 mayoral election for Hasan.

    Hasan, the vice president of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 33 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 16 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 16 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $3,300 special assessment.

    Islam, a former member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all seven charges against him — one count of conspiracy, three counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and three counts of fraudulent voter registration. He was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, $1,000 fine, and a $700 special assessment.

    Ali, a member of the Millbourne Borough Council, pleaded guilty in April to all 25 charges against him — one count of conspiracy, 12 counts of giving false information in registering to vote, and 12 counts of fraudulent voter registration. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26.

    As set forth in court filings, in 2021, Millbourne held elections for mayor, three seats on its borough council, and tax collector. Defendant Hasan entered the majority party’s primary election for mayor.

    The primary election was held on May 20, 2021, and Hasan was defeated in the primary by a vote count of approximately 138 to 120. In the same primary, Ali was one of three majority party candidates for borough council to advance to the general election, while Islam lost his bid for reelection to the council.

    After the primary, Hasan decided that he would run as a write-in candidate for mayor in the general election, which was scheduled for November 2, 2021. Ali and Islam agreed to support Hasan in his write-in campaign.

    As detailed in court documents and admitted by the defendants, in or about 2021, defendants Hasan, Ali, and Islam conspired and agreed with one another, and other persons known and unknown to the U.S. Attorney, to steal the 2021 general election for Mayor of Millbourne for defendant Hasan through a multi-step process, which included:

    (a) obtaining personal identification information of non-Millbourne residents, such as their names, addresses, and dates of birth;

    (b) using the personal identifying information to access the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s online voter registration (PAOVR) website and change the voter registration addresses for those non-Millbourne residents to locations within Millbourne;

    (c) using the PAOVR website to request that mail-in or absentee ballots for those non-Millbourne residents be sent to addresses accessible by one or more of the defendants;

    (d) retrieving the ballots from the Millbourne mailboxes;

    (e) impersonating the voters and fraudulently casting write-in votes for defendant Hasan to be mayor;

    (f) enclosing the fraudulently completed ballots in envelopes and forging the voters’ signatures on the envelopes; and

    (g) submitting the ballots in their envelopes to the Delaware County Board of Elections.

    The defendants admitted that, to further this conspiracy, they contacted friends and acquaintances whom Hasan and Ali knew did not live in Millbourne, told these non-Millbourne residents that Hasan was running for mayor in Millbourne, asked if they could register the non-Millbourne residents to vote in Millbourne, and then cast mail-in ballots for Hasan to be mayor.

    Hasan and Ali persuaded many of their non-Millbourne friends and acquaintances to provide them with personal identification information so that defendants Hasan and Ali could register them to vote in Millbourne. During many of these conversations, Hasan and Ali told their non-Millbourne friends and acquaintances that they would not get in trouble, as long as they did not vote in another election in November 2021.

    Hasan and Ali also conspired and agreed to use personal identifying information for other non-Millbourne residents, which the two defendants had obtained from other sources, such as Hasan’s business, to register those nonresidents as Millbourne voters without the knowledge of those non-residents.

    Hasan personally did almost all of the fraudulent voter registrations himself, using a computer at his place of business to access the PAOVR website and change the voting addresses for non-Millbourne residents to locations within Millbourne. Every time that Hasan accessed the PAOVR website to change a voter registration address, he provided an email address for the voter. Many times, Hasan provided one of four email addresses that he used and accessed.

    To divert suspicion from himself, however, Hasan sometimes provided email addresses belonging to other people, who knowingly and willfully permitted Hasan to use their email addresses to cover up Hasan’s actions. One of those people was Islam, who allowed Hasan to use two of Islam’s email addresses when Hasan fraudulently changed the voter registration addresses for six individuals. Islam also permitted Hasan to use two of Islam’s email addresses when requesting mail-in ballots for five non-Millbourne residents.

    In total, the defendants conspired to falsely register nearly three dozen non-Millbourne residents as Millbourne voters and cast ballots for those non-Millbourne residents in the 2021 general election for mayor of Millbourne Borough. Hasan went on to lose the election by a vote of approximately 165 to 138.

    “These defendants sabotaged the democratic will of their fellow citizens in deciding Millbourne’s next mayor,” said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. “Public trust in the electoral process is critical, and my office is committed to ensuring that our elections remain free and fair. As this case shows, should we find instances of fraud, we won’t hesitate to prosecute those responsible.”

    “The electoral process is a pillar of our democracy, so when public officials undermine this system through fraud, they don’t only break the law — they compromise the trust built between this process and the American people,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Philadelphia. “The FBI remains unwavering in our commitment to protecting the integrity of elections and ensuring those who break these laws are held accountable.”

    “Free and fair elections are the bedrock principle that defines American democracy. I appreciate the partnership between my office, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring these criminals to justice,” said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

    The case was investigated by the FBI and the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark B. Dubnoff.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Detroit CPA Sentenced to Prison and Ordered to Pay $14.5 Million in Restitution for PPP Loan Fraud Scheme Involving Hundreds of Small Businesses

    Source: US FBI

    PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Detroit, Michigan, has been sentenced in federal court to 24 months in prison, to be followed by four years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $14.5 million to the U.S. Small Business Administration on his conviction of fraud conspiracy, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

    United States District Judge W. Scott Hardy imposed the sentence on Matthew Lloyd Parker, 37.

    According to information presented to the Court, between March 2020 and August 2021, Parker conspired with others to defraud lenders of more than $14.5 million through false Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications for COVID-19 pandemic relief in the largest known PPP fraud in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Parker, a licensed CPA, recruited hundreds of small businesses in Pittsburgh and Detroit and falsified PPP loan applications in their names. The Small Business Administration approved more than 200 of those applications, resulting in loans totaling approximately $14.5 million to the various businesses. The United States argued that Parker’s sophistication as a CPA aided him in falsifying the hundreds of PPP loan documents, which then generated substantial PPP loans to others along with approximately $1.5 million dollars in loan processing fees to Parker.

    Assistant United States Attorney Gregory C. Melucci prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

    Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Postal Inspection Service for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Parker.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Pittsburgh Resident Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking Crimes

    Source: US FBI

    PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to nine years in prison on his conviction of Conspiracy to Commit Sex Trafficking by Force, Threats of Force, Fraud, or Coercion, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

    United States District Judge Cathy B. Bissoon imposed the sentence on Philip Walker, 40, on June 11, 2025.

    According to information presented to the Court, Walker recruited and coerced multiple women to engage in commercial sex acts for his own profit. He took over the women’s finances, credit cards, and vehicles, and made the women financially and emotionally dependent on him. The conspiracy stretched from Pittsburgh, PA to Florida and Texas.

    Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Bissoon highlighted the impact Walker’s crime had on the victims.

    Assistant United States Attorney DeMarr Moulton prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

    Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the FBI for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Walker.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Clairton Resident Sentenced to 48 Months in Prison for Violating Federal Narcotics Laws

    Source: US FBI

    PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Clairton, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to a 48-month term of imprisonment to be followed by a 3-year term of supervised release on his conviction of violating federal narcotic laws, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

    United States District Judge William S. Stickman IV imposed the sentence on Mark Cook, 58.

    According to information presented to the Court, from July 2022 through June 2023, Cook provided codefendants with cocaine and crack cocaine for resale in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

    Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Stickman stated that the defendant’s actions were serious and that, through those actions, he victimized the families and citizens of the Hill District.

    Assistant United States Attorney Katherine C. Jordan prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

    Acting United States Attorney Rivetti commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Cook.

    This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: I’ve studied faiths and cultures around the world. Here’s how finance can be made more inclusive and sustainable

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Atul K. Shah, Professor, Accounting and Finance, City St George’s, University of London

    Krailath/Shutterstock

    Financial products are becoming increasingly sophisticated – as are the frauds associated with things like crypto, hacking and digital robbery. Many people are already overwhelmed by financial matters, and being unable to manage money can lead to mental health problems.

    But money is primarily a social and cultural construct. Humans created it to serve their everyday needs for food, clothing and shelter. You could argue, however, that this servant of society has now become the master. Money permeates every aspect of life, including health, wellbeing and love – even relationships can become transactional.

    Humans have done immense damage to the planet. We urgently need to re-examine our financial motives and institutions so that we nurture the Earth, rather than extract, plunder and destroy it.

    Meanwhile, in the last 50 years, the discipline of finance has grown in influence and reach. In fact, most other disciplines in business, such as marketing, organisational behaviour and management, have become subservient to finance. The priority has been to maximise profits to satisfy the demand for constant growth in revenues and shareholder wealth. This is known as financialisation.

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

    This, along with rising inequality, makes it a good moment to examine the knowledge system (epistemology) and beliefs (ontology) of finance. What are its core ethics, when did they go wrong, and how can they be reformed to help shape a sustainable society in future?

    Given the vast cultural and religious diversity on Earth, as well as the global challenges of inequality and sustainability, I have examined a variety of experiences, beliefs and perspectives on money in my new book, Organic Finance.

    This has resulted in a framework akin to organic farming, where the health of the soil, air and water is respected. Tradition, morality, culture and belief play a highly influential role in cultivating sustainable societies. Making money is placed into a wholesome cultural and planetary context. I have looked at attitudes towards money across culture and uncovered forgotten wisdom.

    Many religions have strong views on money, debt and their role in building peace and cohesion. Most have rejected the accumulation of wealth for its own sake, and warned about the limits of greed and materialism. But these principles are the antithesis of how modern abstract economics and finance are modelled and taught all over the world. This has endorsed environmental degradation through resource depletion and extraction.

    Countless cultures and traditions have emphasised the importance of kinship, charity, volunteering and service towards building communities and social relationships. Trust and mutuality have been central to many cultures and beliefs, yet severely undermined and ignored by the teachings of modern finance.

    In contrast, for many indigenous traditions, money has historically played only a small role in livelihoods. For example, the Jains have a record dating back several hundred years of philanthropy for people, animals and the environment.

    The first chapter of my book is titled “Evil Finance”, and outlines how some people have become defined by competition, exploitation and expropriation. Multinational corporations have amassed significant global power, and are very hard to govern and regulate. This is often accepted as a scientific reality, when in fact such behaviour is unsustainable.

    Nature and spirituality are important when it comes to framing a conscious and responsible future for finance. A ground-up view of finance that includes kindness towards living beings, including rural communities and animals, would help to keep the focus on soil health, water purity and unpolluted air. And it would ensure that humans are humble and nurturing.

    Trust before profits

    Across the world, there are millions of small businesses that simply want to provide a valuable service and feed their families. They have no aspirations of exponential growth and want to keep expansion within manageable proportions. And because they want to pass the business to future generations, sustainability is deeply woven into their business culture. Trust and relationships are valued more than profits or wealth.

    In the book, I also examine how profits and wealth maximisation have serious consequences, with side-effects including pollution and insecure jobs. Sadly, I’ve seen from decades of research and teaching experience that words like morality, trust, relationships and community have been disappearing from corporate finance and banking textbooks, encouraging selfishness and a calculating mindset.

    Unless we go back to the basics of the cultural and ethical nature and limits of money, reforms in finance such as ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment criteria or net zero goals are going to be sticking plasters on fundamentally short-termist, greedy and selfish market institutions.

    For people who work in finance, it’s about understanding the limits of materialism. Finance can once again become a servant of society and nature, helping to boost values of family and community. We can start by placing ethics and culture at the centre of accounting, economics and finance training.

    When we allow self-reflection and diverse cultures and traditions into the finance curriculum, we enable rich dialogues, strong moral frameworks and an ability to put money in its place. Such a rewriting of finance would be respectful of diverse cultures and traditions, allowing them to learn from one another, and work together to build an equal society and healthy planet.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Atul K. Shah 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. I’ve studied faiths and cultures around the world. Here’s how finance can be made more inclusive and sustainable – https://theconversation.com/ive-studied-faiths-and-cultures-around-the-world-heres-how-finance-can-be-made-more-inclusive-and-sustainable-258254

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: I’ve studied faiths and cultures around the world. Here’s how finance can be made more inclusive and sustainable

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Atul K. Shah, Professor, Accounting and Finance, City St George’s, University of London

    Krailath/Shutterstock

    Financial products are becoming increasingly sophisticated – as are the frauds associated with things like crypto, hacking and digital robbery. Many people are already overwhelmed by financial matters, and being unable to manage money can lead to mental health problems.

    But money is primarily a social and cultural construct. Humans created it to serve their everyday needs for food, clothing and shelter. You could argue, however, that this servant of society has now become the master. Money permeates every aspect of life, including health, wellbeing and love – even relationships can become transactional.

    Humans have done immense damage to the planet. We urgently need to re-examine our financial motives and institutions so that we nurture the Earth, rather than extract, plunder and destroy it.

    Meanwhile, in the last 50 years, the discipline of finance has grown in influence and reach. In fact, most other disciplines in business, such as marketing, organisational behaviour and management, have become subservient to finance. The priority has been to maximise profits to satisfy the demand for constant growth in revenues and shareholder wealth. This is known as financialisation.

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

    This, along with rising inequality, makes it a good moment to examine the knowledge system (epistemology) and beliefs (ontology) of finance. What are its core ethics, when did they go wrong, and how can they be reformed to help shape a sustainable society in future?

    Given the vast cultural and religious diversity on Earth, as well as the global challenges of inequality and sustainability, I have examined a variety of experiences, beliefs and perspectives on money in my new book, Organic Finance.

    This has resulted in a framework akin to organic farming, where the health of the soil, air and water is respected. Tradition, morality, culture and belief play a highly influential role in cultivating sustainable societies. Making money is placed into a wholesome cultural and planetary context. I have looked at attitudes towards money across culture and uncovered forgotten wisdom.

    Many religions have strong views on money, debt and their role in building peace and cohesion. Most have rejected the accumulation of wealth for its own sake, and warned about the limits of greed and materialism. But these principles are the antithesis of how modern abstract economics and finance are modelled and taught all over the world. This has endorsed environmental degradation through resource depletion and extraction.

    Countless cultures and traditions have emphasised the importance of kinship, charity, volunteering and service towards building communities and social relationships. Trust and mutuality have been central to many cultures and beliefs, yet severely undermined and ignored by the teachings of modern finance.

    In contrast, for many indigenous traditions, money has historically played only a small role in livelihoods. For example, the Jains have a record dating back several hundred years of philanthropy for people, animals and the environment.

    The first chapter of my book is titled “Evil Finance”, and outlines how some people have become defined by competition, exploitation and expropriation. Multinational corporations have amassed significant global power, and are very hard to govern and regulate. This is often accepted as a scientific reality, when in fact such behaviour is unsustainable.

    Nature and spirituality are important when it comes to framing a conscious and responsible future for finance. A ground-up view of finance that includes kindness towards living beings, including rural communities and animals, would help to keep the focus on soil health, water purity and unpolluted air. And it would ensure that humans are humble and nurturing.

    Trust before profits

    Across the world, there are millions of small businesses that simply want to provide a valuable service and feed their families. They have no aspirations of exponential growth and want to keep expansion within manageable proportions. And because they want to pass the business to future generations, sustainability is deeply woven into their business culture. Trust and relationships are valued more than profits or wealth.

    In the book, I also examine how profits and wealth maximisation have serious consequences, with side-effects including pollution and insecure jobs. Sadly, I’ve seen from decades of research and teaching experience that words like morality, trust, relationships and community have been disappearing from corporate finance and banking textbooks, encouraging selfishness and a calculating mindset.

    Unless we go back to the basics of the cultural and ethical nature and limits of money, reforms in finance such as ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment criteria or net zero goals are going to be sticking plasters on fundamentally short-termist, greedy and selfish market institutions.

    For people who work in finance, it’s about understanding the limits of materialism. Finance can once again become a servant of society and nature, helping to boost values of family and community. We can start by placing ethics and culture at the centre of accounting, economics and finance training.

    When we allow self-reflection and diverse cultures and traditions into the finance curriculum, we enable rich dialogues, strong moral frameworks and an ability to put money in its place. Such a rewriting of finance would be respectful of diverse cultures and traditions, allowing them to learn from one another, and work together to build an equal society and healthy planet.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Atul K. Shah 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. I’ve studied faiths and cultures around the world. Here’s how finance can be made more inclusive and sustainable – https://theconversation.com/ive-studied-faiths-and-cultures-around-the-world-heres-how-finance-can-be-made-more-inclusive-and-sustainable-258254

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How to protect your favourite urban trees from increasing danger

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucy Grace, PhD Candidate, Climate Change and Literature, Nottingham Trent University

    Whether your favourite tree is in a private garden, on wasteland, in a school playground or on the street, your emotional response may be admiration, relaxation, rejuvenation or awareness of the seasons passing. But so many special trees are experiencing a combination of threats.

    According to a new report from environmental charity the Tree Council and government-funded agency Forest Research, introduced pests and diseases, pollution, extreme weather and infrastructure development are all on the increase, which could be a disaster for the UK’s trees. These affect trees’ condition, resilience and capacity to mitigate the climate and nature crises.

    Not only do trees play ecological roles in nature, such as shelter for wildlife and protection from floods, many people have long-standing connections to trees. A report from the Tree Council highlights the role of trees as an important part of the “fabric of human cultures and societies”.

    This demonstrates a move away from appreciating only the ecological benefits provided by urban trees and towards the social and cultural importance they hold for local populations.

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

    The ecological and biodiversity values of trees are well-documented. Trees offer homes and food for birds, insects and wildlife. They prevent rainwater reaching the ground by as much as 45%. When combined with grass, surface water flooding is reduced by 99% compared with tarmac. Urban trees reduce air pollution, quieten noise and keep cities shaded and cool.

    Thousands of people cast votes for their favourite trees in the UK and Europe. In a recent study, over half of 1,800 adults surveyed said they had a favourite tree and 74% felt that urban development is the greatest threat to our trees.

    That’s not the only threat, though. Single species planting of street trees, for example, leaves the trees vulnerable to diseases (such as Dutch elm or ash dieback). Rising temperatures and water scarcity leaves trees competing for resources.

    But what does that mean for our urban trees? Approximately 30% of tree cover in England exists outside forest and woodland. Such trees form an essential habitat in urban areas where 83% of the UK’s population live, yet more than ever before our urban trees are facing threats from a deadly combination of environmental change and human development. In Wales, for example, 7,000 mature trees in towns and cities were lost between 2006 and 2013.

    To try to address this growing crisis, woodland charity Forest Research have released a new, national free to use “trees outside woodland” map. This refers to any trees found in settings such as parks, open countryside and farmland, gardens and estates, or beside roads and paths.

    These can be on a street corner, beside a railway track or in a market square and includes very old trees like those listed on the ancient tree inventory plus otherwise unremarkable trees growing in unusual settings, such as the vandalised 200-year-old Sycamore Gap tree.

    Why we love trees

    England is dawdling behind many other countries when it comes to protecting important trees. Forest Research found that trees outside woodland share many of the social and cultural values associated with trees in woodlands, however people make specific relationships with these urban trees and they are more likely to be considered unique and irreplaceable.

    Trees in urban areas have huge social benefits too.
    Karo Martu/Shutterstock

    They can be recognised for their grace and beauty or for their associations with customs, beliefs and rituals. They can be a place to rest and play and symbols of community belonging. They can give a sense of continuity, connecting people’s lifespans with reflections about the natural world and everything beyond.

    Many countries give clear titles to their important trees. In Poland, they are called natural monuments, in Germany they are living monuments. Spain, Belgium, Greece, Mexico and Finland use the term “monumental trees”. In New Zealand, special urban trees are referred to as national living landmarks. Currently England falls behind in designating trees for protection based on their historical or aesthetic importance.

    Trees for everyone

    A common feature across many countries is the opportunity for anyone, including members of the public, to recommend a tree for protection. Tree equity is the idea that everyone should have access to the benefits of trees. It includes prioritising and deploying resources in the areas where people have least access to them.

    Tree inequity exists in most UK towns and cities. On average, the most economically and socially deprived and most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods have half the tree canopy cover compared to the least deprived and least diverse.

    Canopy cover ranges from 1–2% in parts of north-east England to 36% in Hampstead, north London. Even within London there are wide variations.

    So ensure your favourite tree can be appreciated and celebrated by your community as a living monument, make sure it is on the Trees Outside Woodland map. And check if it needs a drink.

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

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

    Lucy Grace receives funding from AHRC for her PhD through the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.

    – ref. How to protect your favourite urban trees from increasing danger – https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-your-favourite-urban-trees-from-increasing-danger-258227

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How to protect your favourite urban trees from increasing danger

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucy Grace, PhD Candidate, Climate Change and Literature, Nottingham Trent University

    Whether your favourite tree is in a private garden, on wasteland, in a school playground or on the street, your emotional response may be admiration, relaxation, rejuvenation or awareness of the seasons passing. But so many special trees are experiencing a combination of threats.

    According to a new report from environmental charity the Tree Council and government-funded agency Forest Research, introduced pests and diseases, pollution, extreme weather and infrastructure development are all on the increase, which could be a disaster for the UK’s trees. These affect trees’ condition, resilience and capacity to mitigate the climate and nature crises.

    Not only do trees play ecological roles in nature, such as shelter for wildlife and protection from floods, many people have long-standing connections to trees. A report from the Tree Council highlights the role of trees as an important part of the “fabric of human cultures and societies”.

    This demonstrates a move away from appreciating only the ecological benefits provided by urban trees and towards the social and cultural importance they hold for local populations.

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

    The ecological and biodiversity values of trees are well-documented. Trees offer homes and food for birds, insects and wildlife. They prevent rainwater reaching the ground by as much as 45%. When combined with grass, surface water flooding is reduced by 99% compared with tarmac. Urban trees reduce air pollution, quieten noise and keep cities shaded and cool.

    Thousands of people cast votes for their favourite trees in the UK and Europe. In a recent study, over half of 1,800 adults surveyed said they had a favourite tree and 74% felt that urban development is the greatest threat to our trees.

    That’s not the only threat, though. Single species planting of street trees, for example, leaves the trees vulnerable to diseases (such as Dutch elm or ash dieback). Rising temperatures and water scarcity leaves trees competing for resources.

    But what does that mean for our urban trees? Approximately 30% of tree cover in England exists outside forest and woodland. Such trees form an essential habitat in urban areas where 83% of the UK’s population live, yet more than ever before our urban trees are facing threats from a deadly combination of environmental change and human development. In Wales, for example, 7,000 mature trees in towns and cities were lost between 2006 and 2013.

    To try to address this growing crisis, woodland charity Forest Research have released a new, national free to use “trees outside woodland” map. This refers to any trees found in settings such as parks, open countryside and farmland, gardens and estates, or beside roads and paths.

    These can be on a street corner, beside a railway track or in a market square and includes very old trees like those listed on the ancient tree inventory plus otherwise unremarkable trees growing in unusual settings, such as the vandalised 200-year-old Sycamore Gap tree.

    Why we love trees

    England is dawdling behind many other countries when it comes to protecting important trees. Forest Research found that trees outside woodland share many of the social and cultural values associated with trees in woodlands, however people make specific relationships with these urban trees and they are more likely to be considered unique and irreplaceable.

    Trees in urban areas have huge social benefits too.
    Karo Martu/Shutterstock

    They can be recognised for their grace and beauty or for their associations with customs, beliefs and rituals. They can be a place to rest and play and symbols of community belonging. They can give a sense of continuity, connecting people’s lifespans with reflections about the natural world and everything beyond.

    Many countries give clear titles to their important trees. In Poland, they are called natural monuments, in Germany they are living monuments. Spain, Belgium, Greece, Mexico and Finland use the term “monumental trees”. In New Zealand, special urban trees are referred to as national living landmarks. Currently England falls behind in designating trees for protection based on their historical or aesthetic importance.

    Trees for everyone

    A common feature across many countries is the opportunity for anyone, including members of the public, to recommend a tree for protection. Tree equity is the idea that everyone should have access to the benefits of trees. It includes prioritising and deploying resources in the areas where people have least access to them.

    Tree inequity exists in most UK towns and cities. On average, the most economically and socially deprived and most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods have half the tree canopy cover compared to the least deprived and least diverse.

    Canopy cover ranges from 1–2% in parts of north-east England to 36% in Hampstead, north London. Even within London there are wide variations.

    So ensure your favourite tree can be appreciated and celebrated by your community as a living monument, make sure it is on the Trees Outside Woodland map. And check if it needs a drink.

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

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

    Lucy Grace receives funding from AHRC for her PhD through the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership.

    – ref. How to protect your favourite urban trees from increasing danger – https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-your-favourite-urban-trees-from-increasing-danger-258227

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The spectacular frenzy of 28 Years Later offers a new breed of pandemic storytelling

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucyl Harrison, PhD Candidate, School of Humanities, University of Hull

    Twenty-three years on from director Danny Boyle’s unforgettable film 28 Days Later, and five years on from COVID, horror is having a spectacular renaissance. With 28 Years Later, the franchise has returned to cinema as a mouthpiece for the unique pressures Britain is facing post-pandemic and post-Brexit.

    In 2020, speculative architect and director Liam Young said: “I’m sure the scripts for a new genre of virus fictions or ‘Vi-Fi’ are already in the works and perhaps that is the real opportunity of this present moment, to imagine the potential fictions and futures, and to prototype the new worlds that we all want to be a part of when the viral cloud lifts.” Well, here that vision is.

    In this film, Europe has contained the “rage virus” to Britain. There are French boats on quarantine patrols, Swedish soldiers mocking remaining mainlanders and St George’s flags burning.

    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.

    28 Years Later is set on Holy Island, off the coast of the UK. There, an isolated community is protected by tides which conceal and reveal a causeway through which islanders can leave to get to the mainland to forage.

    One of the film’s most adrenaline-spiking scenes comes in the form of a terrifying chase back to the island. A young boy named Spike (Alfie Williams) is hurrying back after performing his rite of passage ceremony in which he is instructed to kill infected people on the mainland. It’s sound-tracked to the transcendental tones of Wagner’s Das Rheingold prelude.

    Twenty-eight years on from the events of the first film, the infected have evolved. Boyle has re-imagined them in even more monstrous forms. Gore-lovers will enjoy the menacing new brand of infected – seven-foot “alphas” – who rip heads from the living and dangle their severed spines.

    An ode to COVID

    Talking about how the pandemic inspired 28 Years Later, Boyle told Sky News:

    Suddenly everybody’s capital city, everywhere around the world was the same. And what was incredible about it was obviously just this idea which had previously only really belonged to films, like our film, where culture is suddenly just stopped dead.

    Danny Boyle speaks about 28 Years Later.

    The film’s stars, Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor Johnson, meanwhile have both said that they drew from their real-life experiences of pandemic isolation for their roles as Spike’s Geordie parents. As Taylor explained:

    My son was 13, the same age as Alfie was when we were making this movie. I know what it was like to protect your family but also to not understand what was happening around us. And I thought it was interesting whilst reading this that an audience is going to understand that journey […] I drew upon a lot of those scenarios.

    The film ushers in a new age of “Vi-Fi” without succumbing to pulpy pandemic storytelling. Boyle gives us an antidote to cultural amnesia around the pandemic through Dr Kelson, the mad doctor played by Ralph Fiennes.

    Dr Kelson pushes against cultural erasure through his construction of a temple of bones: totems of tibias and a spire of skulls that honour the virus victims.

    The trailer for 28 Years Later.

    He touchingly explains that we are to remember death and remember love: “Every skull is a set of thoughts, these sockets saw, and these jaws swallowed.” Fiennes is adept at rendering this “crazy” loner character who has a knack for turning up at the right time; the effortlessness of his humanity is a pleasure to watch.

    Boyle explained: “The COVID memorial wall opposite parliament is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen … it sort of inspired Ralph Fiennes’ character and what he’s building as a gesture towards remembering everyone as a way of actually looking forwards, not a way of looking back.”

    After the creative inertia brought on by the COVID lockdowns, I’ve detected tectonic shifts in pandemic storytelling in my interviews with COVID authors.

    Stories like 28 Years Later that “quietly” insert the pandemic and push COVID into the background are considered the easiest to digest. These stories are part of a new, radical literary avant-garde that has emerged in contemporary literature to chronicle the COVID era.

    Pandemic fiction has become an oft-maligned genre; conversations on my podcast, Pandemic Pages, with emergency planner Professor Lucy Easthope and horror author Kylie Lee Baker confirm that literary festivals and agents have expressed reluctance to read or publish COVID fiction. Professor Easthope explained that many people just don’t feel ready to read about the pandemic.

    For Baker, it’s that many people simply find the associations too traumatic. However, judging from the reactions of cinema-goers when I saw 28 Years Later, there is an audience hungry for another serving of Boyle’s insatiable trilogy.

    Lucyl Harrison 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. The spectacular frenzy of 28 Years Later offers a new breed of pandemic storytelling – https://theconversation.com/the-spectacular-frenzy-of-28-years-later-offers-a-new-breed-of-pandemic-storytelling-259579

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The spectacular frenzy of 28 Years Later offers a new breed of pandemic storytelling

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucyl Harrison, PhD Candidate, School of Humanities, University of Hull

    Twenty-three years on from director Danny Boyle’s unforgettable film 28 Days Later, and five years on from COVID, horror is having a spectacular renaissance. With 28 Years Later, the franchise has returned to cinema as a mouthpiece for the unique pressures Britain is facing post-pandemic and post-Brexit.

    In 2020, speculative architect and director Liam Young said: “I’m sure the scripts for a new genre of virus fictions or ‘Vi-Fi’ are already in the works and perhaps that is the real opportunity of this present moment, to imagine the potential fictions and futures, and to prototype the new worlds that we all want to be a part of when the viral cloud lifts.” Well, here that vision is.

    In this film, Europe has contained the “rage virus” to Britain. There are French boats on quarantine patrols, Swedish soldiers mocking remaining mainlanders and St George’s flags burning.

    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.

    28 Years Later is set on Holy Island, off the coast of the UK. There, an isolated community is protected by tides which conceal and reveal a causeway through which islanders can leave to get to the mainland to forage.

    One of the film’s most adrenaline-spiking scenes comes in the form of a terrifying chase back to the island. A young boy named Spike (Alfie Williams) is hurrying back after performing his rite of passage ceremony in which he is instructed to kill infected people on the mainland. It’s sound-tracked to the transcendental tones of Wagner’s Das Rheingold prelude.

    Twenty-eight years on from the events of the first film, the infected have evolved. Boyle has re-imagined them in even more monstrous forms. Gore-lovers will enjoy the menacing new brand of infected – seven-foot “alphas” – who rip heads from the living and dangle their severed spines.

    An ode to COVID

    Talking about how the pandemic inspired 28 Years Later, Boyle told Sky News:

    Suddenly everybody’s capital city, everywhere around the world was the same. And what was incredible about it was obviously just this idea which had previously only really belonged to films, like our film, where culture is suddenly just stopped dead.

    Danny Boyle speaks about 28 Years Later.

    The film’s stars, Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor Johnson, meanwhile have both said that they drew from their real-life experiences of pandemic isolation for their roles as Spike’s Geordie parents. As Taylor explained:

    My son was 13, the same age as Alfie was when we were making this movie. I know what it was like to protect your family but also to not understand what was happening around us. And I thought it was interesting whilst reading this that an audience is going to understand that journey […] I drew upon a lot of those scenarios.

    The film ushers in a new age of “Vi-Fi” without succumbing to pulpy pandemic storytelling. Boyle gives us an antidote to cultural amnesia around the pandemic through Dr Kelson, the mad doctor played by Ralph Fiennes.

    Dr Kelson pushes against cultural erasure through his construction of a temple of bones: totems of tibias and a spire of skulls that honour the virus victims.

    The trailer for 28 Years Later.

    He touchingly explains that we are to remember death and remember love: “Every skull is a set of thoughts, these sockets saw, and these jaws swallowed.” Fiennes is adept at rendering this “crazy” loner character who has a knack for turning up at the right time; the effortlessness of his humanity is a pleasure to watch.

    Boyle explained: “The COVID memorial wall opposite parliament is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen … it sort of inspired Ralph Fiennes’ character and what he’s building as a gesture towards remembering everyone as a way of actually looking forwards, not a way of looking back.”

    After the creative inertia brought on by the COVID lockdowns, I’ve detected tectonic shifts in pandemic storytelling in my interviews with COVID authors.

    Stories like 28 Years Later that “quietly” insert the pandemic and push COVID into the background are considered the easiest to digest. These stories are part of a new, radical literary avant-garde that has emerged in contemporary literature to chronicle the COVID era.

    Pandemic fiction has become an oft-maligned genre; conversations on my podcast, Pandemic Pages, with emergency planner Professor Lucy Easthope and horror author Kylie Lee Baker confirm that literary festivals and agents have expressed reluctance to read or publish COVID fiction. Professor Easthope explained that many people just don’t feel ready to read about the pandemic.

    For Baker, it’s that many people simply find the associations too traumatic. However, judging from the reactions of cinema-goers when I saw 28 Years Later, there is an audience hungry for another serving of Boyle’s insatiable trilogy.

    Lucyl Harrison 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. The spectacular frenzy of 28 Years Later offers a new breed of pandemic storytelling – https://theconversation.com/the-spectacular-frenzy-of-28-years-later-offers-a-new-breed-of-pandemic-storytelling-259579

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Why it can be harder to sleep during the summer – and what you can do about it

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University

    The amount of daylight we get in the summer can seriously mess with our body clock. Lysenko Andrii/ Shutterstock

    As the days stretch long and the sun lingers late into the evening, most of us welcome summer with open arms. Yet for a surprising number of people, this season brings an unwelcome guest: insomnia.

    For these people, summer is a time of tossing and turning, early waking – or simply not feeling sleepy when they should. Far from just being a nuisance, this seasonal insomnia may chip away at mood, concentration and metabolic health.

    But why does insomnia spike in summer — and more importantly, what can be done about it? The answer lies in the light.

    Every tissue in the body owns a molecular “clock”. However, these clocks take their cue from a central timekeeper – the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus. This cluster of about 20,000 neurons synchronises the myriad cellular clocks to a near 24-hour cycle.

    It uses the external light detected by the eyes as a cue, driving the release of two different hormones: melatonin, which makes us sleepy and a pre-dawn surge cortisol to help us wake.

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

    In winter, this light cue is short and sharp. But in June and July, daylight can stretch on for 16 or 17 hours in the mid‑latitudes. That extra dose matters because evening light is the most potent signal for pushing the central timekeeper later. In summer melatonin shifts by roughly 30 minutes to an hour later, while dawn light floods bedrooms early and kills the hormone off sooner.

    This can have a big effect on the amount of sleep we get. One study monitored the sleep of 188 participants in the lab on three nights at different times of the year. The researchers found that total sleep was about an hour shorter in summer than winter.

    Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — the sleep stage most strongly linked to emotional regulation and the consolidation of emotionally charged memories — accounted for roughly half the sleep loss in summer.

    The same team later tracked 377 patients over two consecutive years and showed that sleep length and REM sleep began a five‑month decline soon after the last freezing night of spring. Sleep length shrank by an average of 62 minutes, while REM decreased by about 24 minutes. Slow-wave sleep – the phase most critical for tissue repair, immune regulation and the consolidation of factual memories – reached its annual low around the autumn equinox.

    Both studies took place in a city bathed in artificial light – suggesting that even in modern environments our sleep remains seasonally affected.

    Big population surveys echo these findings. Among more than 30,000 middle‑aged Canadians, volunteers interviewed in midsummer said they slept eight minutes less than those interviewed in midwinter. The summer interviewees also reported greater insomnia symptoms in the fortnight after the autumn clock change – suggesting the abrupt time shift exacerbates underlying seasonal misalignment.

    One study also compared the effect of summer sleep in people living at very different latitudes – such as near the equator, where there’s little change in day length in the summer, and near the Arctic circle, where the differences are extreme. The study found that for people living in Tromsø, Norway, their self-reported insomnia and daytime fatigue rose markedly in summer. But for people living in Accra, Ghana (near the equator), these measures barely budged.

    This show just how strongly daylight – and the amount of daylight hours we experience – can affect our sleep quality. But it isn’t the only culprit of poor summertime sleep.

    The warm temperatures can also interrupt our sleep.
    antoniodiaz/ Shutterstock

    Temperature is another factor that can spoil sleep during the summer months.

    Just before we fall asleep, our core body temperature begins a steep descent of roughly 1°C to help us fall asleep. It reaches its lowest point during the first half of the night.

    On muggy summer nights this can make falling asleep difficult. Laboratory experiments show that even a rise from 26°C to about 32°C increases wakefulness and reduces both slow-wave and REM sleep.

    Different people are also more vulnerable to summer insomnia than others. This has to do with your unique “chronotype” – your natural preference to rise early or sleep late.

    Evening chronotypes – “night owls” – already lean towards later bedtimes. They may stay up even later when it stays bright past ten o’clock. Morning chronotypes, on the other hand, may find themselves waking up even earlier than they normally do because of when the sun rises in the summer.

    Mood can amplify the effect. Research found people who suffered with mental health issues were more likely to experience difficulty sleeping in summer.

    Chronic anxiety, alcohol use and certain prescription drugs — notably beta blockers, which suppress melatonin — can all make sleep more elusive in summer.

    Reclaiming summer sleep

    Happily, there are many ways of fixing the issue.

    • Get some morning sunshine. Try to step outside within an hour of waking up – even if it’s just for 15 minutes. This tells the clock that the day has begun and nudges it to finish earlier that evening.

    • Create an artificial dusk. Around two hours before bed, close the curtains, turn off the lights and reduce the intensity of your phone screen’s blue light to help your melatonin rise on time.

    • Don’t let the dawn light in. Being exposed to the dawn light too early will wake you up. Blackout curtains or a contoured eye-mask can ensure you don’t wake before you’re rested.

    • Keep things cool. Fans, breathable cotton or linen sheets or a lukewarm shower before bed all help the body to achieve that crucial one-degree drop in core temperature needed to get a good night’s sleep.

    The deeper lesson here from chronobiology is that humans remain, biologically speaking, seasonal animals. While our industrialised lives flatten the calendar, our cells still measure day length and temperature just as plants and migratory birds do.

    By adapting and aligning our habits with those light signals, we might just be able to recapture some sleep – even during the warmer months.

    Timothy Hearn 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. Why it can be harder to sleep during the summer – and what you can do about it – https://theconversation.com/why-it-can-be-harder-to-sleep-during-the-summer-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-259292

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Why it can be harder to sleep during the summer – and what you can do about it

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Timothy Hearn, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, Anglia Ruskin University

    The amount of daylight we get in the summer can seriously mess with our body clock. Lysenko Andrii/ Shutterstock

    As the days stretch long and the sun lingers late into the evening, most of us welcome summer with open arms. Yet for a surprising number of people, this season brings an unwelcome guest: insomnia.

    For these people, summer is a time of tossing and turning, early waking – or simply not feeling sleepy when they should. Far from just being a nuisance, this seasonal insomnia may chip away at mood, concentration and metabolic health.

    But why does insomnia spike in summer — and more importantly, what can be done about it? The answer lies in the light.

    Every tissue in the body owns a molecular “clock”. However, these clocks take their cue from a central timekeeper – the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus. This cluster of about 20,000 neurons synchronises the myriad cellular clocks to a near 24-hour cycle.

    It uses the external light detected by the eyes as a cue, driving the release of two different hormones: melatonin, which makes us sleepy and a pre-dawn surge cortisol to help us wake.

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

    In winter, this light cue is short and sharp. But in June and July, daylight can stretch on for 16 or 17 hours in the mid‑latitudes. That extra dose matters because evening light is the most potent signal for pushing the central timekeeper later. In summer melatonin shifts by roughly 30 minutes to an hour later, while dawn light floods bedrooms early and kills the hormone off sooner.

    This can have a big effect on the amount of sleep we get. One study monitored the sleep of 188 participants in the lab on three nights at different times of the year. The researchers found that total sleep was about an hour shorter in summer than winter.

    Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — the sleep stage most strongly linked to emotional regulation and the consolidation of emotionally charged memories — accounted for roughly half the sleep loss in summer.

    The same team later tracked 377 patients over two consecutive years and showed that sleep length and REM sleep began a five‑month decline soon after the last freezing night of spring. Sleep length shrank by an average of 62 minutes, while REM decreased by about 24 minutes. Slow-wave sleep – the phase most critical for tissue repair, immune regulation and the consolidation of factual memories – reached its annual low around the autumn equinox.

    Both studies took place in a city bathed in artificial light – suggesting that even in modern environments our sleep remains seasonally affected.

    Big population surveys echo these findings. Among more than 30,000 middle‑aged Canadians, volunteers interviewed in midsummer said they slept eight minutes less than those interviewed in midwinter. The summer interviewees also reported greater insomnia symptoms in the fortnight after the autumn clock change – suggesting the abrupt time shift exacerbates underlying seasonal misalignment.

    One study also compared the effect of summer sleep in people living at very different latitudes – such as near the equator, where there’s little change in day length in the summer, and near the Arctic circle, where the differences are extreme. The study found that for people living in Tromsø, Norway, their self-reported insomnia and daytime fatigue rose markedly in summer. But for people living in Accra, Ghana (near the equator), these measures barely budged.

    This show just how strongly daylight – and the amount of daylight hours we experience – can affect our sleep quality. But it isn’t the only culprit of poor summertime sleep.

    The warm temperatures can also interrupt our sleep.
    antoniodiaz/ Shutterstock

    Temperature is another factor that can spoil sleep during the summer months.

    Just before we fall asleep, our core body temperature begins a steep descent of roughly 1°C to help us fall asleep. It reaches its lowest point during the first half of the night.

    On muggy summer nights this can make falling asleep difficult. Laboratory experiments show that even a rise from 26°C to about 32°C increases wakefulness and reduces both slow-wave and REM sleep.

    Different people are also more vulnerable to summer insomnia than others. This has to do with your unique “chronotype” – your natural preference to rise early or sleep late.

    Evening chronotypes – “night owls” – already lean towards later bedtimes. They may stay up even later when it stays bright past ten o’clock. Morning chronotypes, on the other hand, may find themselves waking up even earlier than they normally do because of when the sun rises in the summer.

    Mood can amplify the effect. Research found people who suffered with mental health issues were more likely to experience difficulty sleeping in summer.

    Chronic anxiety, alcohol use and certain prescription drugs — notably beta blockers, which suppress melatonin — can all make sleep more elusive in summer.

    Reclaiming summer sleep

    Happily, there are many ways of fixing the issue.

    • Get some morning sunshine. Try to step outside within an hour of waking up – even if it’s just for 15 minutes. This tells the clock that the day has begun and nudges it to finish earlier that evening.

    • Create an artificial dusk. Around two hours before bed, close the curtains, turn off the lights and reduce the intensity of your phone screen’s blue light to help your melatonin rise on time.

    • Don’t let the dawn light in. Being exposed to the dawn light too early will wake you up. Blackout curtains or a contoured eye-mask can ensure you don’t wake before you’re rested.

    • Keep things cool. Fans, breathable cotton or linen sheets or a lukewarm shower before bed all help the body to achieve that crucial one-degree drop in core temperature needed to get a good night’s sleep.

    The deeper lesson here from chronobiology is that humans remain, biologically speaking, seasonal animals. While our industrialised lives flatten the calendar, our cells still measure day length and temperature just as plants and migratory birds do.

    By adapting and aligning our habits with those light signals, we might just be able to recapture some sleep – even during the warmer months.

    Timothy Hearn 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. Why it can be harder to sleep during the summer – and what you can do about it – https://theconversation.com/why-it-can-be-harder-to-sleep-during-the-summer-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-259292

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Assisted dying: what happens now the House of Lords has the bill?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel Gover, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, Queen Mary University of London

    The House of Lords will now scrutinise the bill. Flickr/House of Lords , CC BY-NC-ND

    MPs have voted to introduce assisted dying, almost seven months after this bill was first debated in the House of Commons. The proposal – a backbench private member’s bill promoted by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater – would allow terminally ill people in England and Wales to receive assistance to end their lives.

    That the bill has completed its House of Commons passage is an important milestone. Its success is perhaps also surprising given that private members’ bills face a precarious route through that chamber. Even a small number of determined opponents is often enough to derail them.

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    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    But that has not materialised in this case. MPs on all sides of the debate deserve credit for enabling the bill to be decided on its merits rather than by procedural subterfuge and political game-playing.

    Even so, the bill’s passage into law is not yet assured. It must now go through an equivalent series of legislative stages in the House of Lords. If the Lords makes any changes, these must in turn be agreed to by MPs – potentially setting off a process of compromise known as “ping-pong” – before the bill can enter the statute book.

    This has led to speculation around whether the Lords could block the legislation.

    Unlikely to block the bill outright

    Stereotypes of the Lords as a holdout of social conservatism are now largely out of date. Indeed it is the Lords that has, to a large extent, kept the issue of assisted dying on the political agenda. Prior to Leadbeater’s bill, peers proposed a series of private members’ bills on this topic – including in 2014, 2020, 2021 and 2024. None, however, made it through the chamber.

    Despite this recent history, it is difficult to predict exactly how the Lords will respond to this assisted dying bill. As an unelected and largely appointed chamber, the Lords contains many members with expertise directly relevant to the bill, including medical, legal and disability rights. For many peers, the Lords’ central constitutional purpose is to subject proposals to in-depth scrutiny – and they will surely want to do so here.

    In principle, it would be possible for the Lords to reject the assisted dying bill outright. The often-cited Salisbury convention, which states that peers should not block any proposal in the governing party’s election manifesto, would clearly not apply to this backbench measure.

    Yet such an outcome would appear unlikely. In practice, it is exceptionally rare for any bill to be rejected outright by peers. This is in large part because the chamber recognises that it should be for the elected House of Commons to set the direction of policy, with the Lords playing a supporting scrutiny role.

    Whatever the chamber’s balance of opinion on assisted dying – and some peers may well be individually willing to vote it down – the chamber as a whole seems likely to conclude that they would be playing with constitutional fire to reject such a high-profile bill that has been passed on a free vote by MPs.

    In-depth scrutiny

    What is more difficult to call is whether the bill could run out of time before it has completed its passage. The last time an assisted dying bill made significant progress in the Lords, a decade ago, it became mired in hundreds of amendments and never made it out of committee stage.

    Given the gravity of this bill, and the degree of Lords expertise, there is likely to be significant demand to conduct in-depth scrutiny and to make amendments to the legislative text. Unlike in the House of Commons – where only a small number of amendments are selected by the speaker for a decision – in the Lords, every proposed amendment can be moved and spoken to. All of this will require parliamentary time.

    It is also theoretically possible that a small number of opponents could deliberately propose large numbers of amendments purely to gum up proceedings. Most of the time, peers act with restraint – and they would probably do so here too, given the high risk of generating backlash against the chamber. But the combination of strong feelings with a “free-vote” conscience issue makes this harder to definitively rule out.

    Adding to the unpredictability is that the timetables available remain uncertain. If the Lords makes any changes to the bill these would need to return to MPs for approval before the bill can pass into law. As things stand, the last available Commons sitting Friday – by default there are only 13 each session, when private members’ bills are considered – is July 11. There is now next to no chance of this deadline being met.

    A tight timetable

    It is possible in principle for the Lords to expedite scrutiny of the bill. But House of Lords procedures recommend observing minimum periods between bill stages. This ensures there is time, for example, to consider the issues raised at one stage before deciding whether to pursue them further at the next.

    Departing from these conventions would be politically unthinkable on a bill criticised by many – largely unfairly – for inadequate parliamentary scrutiny.

    Yet it is straightforward for ministers to grant additional time in the Commons. Indeed, it would arguably break with recent practice for time to not be provided. In both cases since 2010 where a regular private member’s bill required additional Commons time for Lords amendments – in 2019 and 2023 – this was provided by the then Conservative governments.

    This means that the second key deadline is the end of the current parliamentary session, at which point most outstanding legislation automatically falls. Sessions typically last around one year, and some had expected this one to end sometime in the autumn.

    But the length of sessions is elastic – within the control of ministers – and it is not unusual for those immediately after a general election to last significantly longer.

    Nor does the Lords operate the same system of private members’ bill Fridays as the Commons, though it would be unusual to schedule substantive debates on them earlier in the week. Either way, there would surely be pressure for sufficient parliamentary time to be found.

    Ultimately, one of the stories of this bill’s passage to date has been that the constraints of an often-inadequate parliamentary process have not been allowed to prevent MPs from expressing their will. Many in the Lords will recognise the risks of any situation in which they are now seen to stand in its way.

    Daniel Gover 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. Assisted dying: what happens now the House of Lords has the bill? – https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-what-happens-now-the-house-of-lords-has-the-bill-259572

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Global: At June’s Nato summit, just keeping Donald Trump in the room will be seen as a victory

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

    Gints Ivuskans/Shutterstock

    When Nato leaders meet for their annual summit in The Hague on Wednesday June 25, all eyes will be on Donald Trump. Not only is the 47th president of the United States less committed to the alliance than any of his predecessors in Nato’s 76-year history. But he has also just joined Israel’s war with Iran and seems to have given up his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

    Leaders of Nato’s 32 member states should therefore have had a packed agenda. Although there are several meetings and a dinner planned for June 24, the actual summit – which has tended usually to stretch out over several days – has been reduced to a single session and a single agenda item. All of this has been done to accommodate the US president.

    A single session reduces the risk of Trump walking away from the summit early, as he did at the G7 leaders meeting in Kananaskis, Canada, on June 16.

    The single item remaining on the agenda is Nato members’ new commitment to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. This is meant to placate Trump who demanded such an increase even before his inauguration in January 2025.

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    Trump has frequently complained, and not without justification, that European members of the alliance invested too little in their defence and were over-reliant on the US. A draft summit declaration confirming the new spending target has now been approved after Spain secured an opt-out.

    Even accounting for Trump’s notorious unpredictability, this should ensure that Nato will survive the Hague summit intact. What is less clear is whether Nato’s members can rise to the unprecedented challenges that the alliance is facing.

    These challenges look different from each of the member states’ 32 capitals. But, for 31 of them, the continued survival of the alliance as an effective security provider is an existential question. Put simply, they need the US, while the US doesn’t necessarily need to be part of the alliance.

    The capability deficit that Canada and European member states have compared to the US was thrown into stark relief by Washington’s airstrikes against Iran over the weekend. This is not simply a question of increasing manpower and to equip troops to fight. European states also lack most of the so-called critical enablers, the military hardware and technology required to prevail in a potential war with Russia.

    This includes, among other things, intelligence capabilities, heavy-lift aircraft to quickly move troops and equipment and command and control structures that have traditionally been provided by US forces. These will take significant time and resources to replace.

    For now, Russia is tied down in Ukraine, which will buy time. And the 5%-commitment – even if not all member states will get there quickly or at all – is likely to go some way towards to mobilise the necessary resources for beefing up Europe’s defences. But time and resources are not limitless. And is not yet clear what the American commitment to Europe will be in the future and when and how it will be reduced.

    A new type of war

    Nor is it completely obvious what kind of war Europe should prepare for. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is both a very traditional war of attrition and a very modern technological showdown.

    A future confrontation with the Kremlin is initially likely to take the form of a “grey-zone” conflict, a state of affairs between war and peace in which acts of aggression happen but are difficult to attribute unambiguously and to respond to proportionately.

    This has arguably already started with Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. And as the example of Ukraine illustrates, grey-zone conflicts have the potential to escalate to conventional war.

    In February 2022, Russia saw an opportunity to pull Ukraine back into its zone of influence by brute force after and launched a full-scale invasion, hoping to capture Kyiv in a matter of a few days. This turned out to be a gross misjudgement on the Kremlin’s part. And three years on from that, if frequent Russian threats are to be believed, the possibility of a nuclear escalation can no longer be ruled out either.

    Key members of the alliance are unequivocal in their assessment of Russia as an existential threat to Europe. This much has been made clear in both the UK’s strategic defence review and the recent strategy paper for the German armed forces.

    Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, the former prime minister of The Netherlands, gives a press conference before the Nato summit.

    Yet, this is not a view unanimously shared. Trump’s pro-Putin leanings date back to their now infamous meeting in Helsinki when he sided with the Russian president against his own intelligence services.

    In Europe, long-term Putin supporters Victor OrbanOrbán and Robert Fico, the prime ministers of EU and Nato members Hungary and Slovakia, have just announced that they will not support additional EU sanctions against Russia.

    Hungary and Slovakia are hardly defence heavyweights, but they wield outsized institutional power. Their ability to veto decisions can disrupt nascent European efforts both within the EU and Nato to rise to dual challenge of an increasingly existential threat to Europe from Russia and American retrenchment from its 80-year commitment to securing Europe against just that threat.

    What will, and more importantly what will not, happen at the Nato summit in The Hague will probably be looked back on as another chapter in the remaking of the international order and the European security architecture. A Nato agreement on increased defence spending should be enough to give the organisation another lease of life. But the implicit inability to agree on what is the main threat the alliance needs to defend itself against is likely to put a short expiration date on that.



    Read more:
    US joins Israel in attack on Iran and ushers in a new era of impunity

    Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

    – ref. At June’s Nato summit, just keeping Donald Trump in the room will be seen as a victory – https://theconversation.com/at-junes-nato-summit-just-keeping-donald-trump-in-the-room-will-be-seen-as-a-victory-259585

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Mounjaro becomes available on the NHS: what to know and what to do if you’re not eligible

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

    bigshot01/Shutterstock

    Obesity remains one of the most pressing, and preventable, health challenges of our time. The UK is one of a number of countries undoubtedly struggling with it.

    It affects nearly every organ system in the body, contributing to cardiovascular conditions like coronary heart disease; musculoskeletal issues such as osteoarthritis and gout; and even the development of certain cancers, including of the breast, uterus and colon. Its impact on mental health is also significant.

    A few years ago, injectable weight-loss drugs entered clinical use and quickly captured public attention for their ability to promote rapid fat loss. Ozempic is available on the NHS, but only for managing type 2 diabetes. Wegovy is authorised for weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction and is also available on the NHS, though access is currently limited to specialist weight management services.

    Now, a new option has emerged: Mounjaro, which is approved for both type 2 diabetes and weight loss. This dual-purpose drug is now available on the NHS, offering another potential tool in the fight against obesity.

    Demand is expected to be high. However, access will be limited at first, with strict eligibility criteria for NHS prescriptions.

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

    What is Mounjaro?

    Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a once weekly injectable medication designed to help control blood-sugar levels. It works by boosting the secretion and effects of insulin, improving glycaemic control in people with Type 2 diabetes. It also slows gastric emptying — the process by which food leaves the stomach — and enhances feelings of fullness by acting on the brain. This combined effect reduces appetite and helps support weight loss.

    Compared to similar medications like Ozempic and Wegovy (both brand names for semaglutide), clinical trials found Mounjaro more effective, with some participants losing up to 20% of their body weight over a 72-week period.



    Read more:
    The best exercises to do while taking weight loss drugs

    Who is eligible for Mounjaro on the NHS?

    The NHS has introduced specific criteria to prioritise patients most in need.

    First, patients need a BMI of 40 or more (classified as morbid obesity). People from certain ethnic backgrounds, such as South Asian communities, may be eligible at a lower BMI due to higher clinical risk of health conditions.

    Second, at least four obesity-related health conditions must be diagnosed, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), dyslipidaemia (abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels), cardiovascular disease and obstructive sleep apnoea. (Some of these conditions often occur together; for example, high blood pressure and cholesterol.)

    Patients are encouraged to check their BMI and confirm their diagnoses before contacting a GP. This helps ensure appointments are used effectively and discussions remain focused.

    While the current criteria are strict, there is optimism that eligibility will broaden in the coming years to include people with lower BMIs and fewer co-morbidities.

    Not eligible? Don’t despair

    The NHS continues to offer a comprehensive weight-loss programme, tiered according to BMI and previous attempts at weight loss. Don’t underestimate the value of group-based programmes or community referrals – when a healthcare professional refers a patient to a community-based health service for further care or support – many of which can be accessed via your GP.

    These services, such as the NHS digital weight management programme, support both individuals and families and can be highly effective for sustainable fat loss.

    GPs may also refer patients to online courses and structured exercise programmes. Lifestyle interventions, including increased physical activity and healthier eating, remain cornerstones of obesity treatment and are critical for long-term success, even when medications are used.



    Read more:
    From diet to drugs: what really works for long-term weight loss

    Higher tier interventions may be considered if lifestyle changes fail or if the patient has significant co-morbidities. This is where medications like Mounjaro, or private prescriptions, may become relevant – albeit that the cost of the latter may be a limiting factor for some.

    Other treatments include Orlistat, a medication that reduces fat absorption in the gut. This can be effective for some but often causes unpleasant side effects, such as oily stools and gastrointestinal upset

    Gastric banding or surgery may also result in significant, sustained weight loss, but they come with risks, can lead to surgical complications, and recovery can be demanding

    It’s also important to recognise that drugs like Mounjaro aren’t suitable for everyone. They can cause side effects significant enough for people to stop using them, and in some cases, they may not work at all.

    In this new era of faster, medication-assisted weight loss, we must remember that long-term change is about more than quick fixes. Sustainable success comes from consistent effort, willingness to change and methods that are both practical and lasting.

    Medications can help, sometimes dramatically, but they’re not the only answer. A return to basics, with tailored support and realistic goals, remains as relevant as ever.

    So whether you qualify for Mounjaro, are trying lifestyle changes, or are exploring other options, remember this: the journey to better health is personal, gradual and worth it.

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

    – ref. Mounjaro becomes available on the NHS: what to know and what to do if you’re not eligible – https://theconversation.com/mounjaro-becomes-available-on-the-nhs-what-to-know-and-what-to-do-if-youre-not-eligible-259582

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Assisted dying: 56 MPs switched their vote between rounds – here’s how religion affected their choices

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Jeffery, Senior Lecturer in British Politics, University of Liverpool

    MPs voted to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales on June 20 after the third reading of the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill. The bill has been heavily contentious, both in terms of ethics and the technical aspects of the parliamentary process, with many feeling the legislation was rushed.

    This was the final vote in the House of Commons on the bill, which now moves to the House of Lords before becoming legislation.

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    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    The bill passed with 314 votes to 291 – a majority of 23. This was a smaller margin of victory than the previous occasion MPs voted on the legislation in October 2024, when a majority of 55 supported its passage. The question, therefore, is: “who switched?”

    Excluding the speaker, the SNP MPs, who typically do not vote on issues specific to England and Wales, Sinn Fein MPs, who cannot vote because they do not take their seats, and the new Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, Sarah Pochin, who replaced former Labour MP Mike Amesbury between the second and third reading of this bill, we are left with 632 MPs to study.

    Characteristic Overall (N = 632) Yes (N = 313) No (N = 292) Abstain (N = 27)
    Female 260 (100%) 136 (52%) 110 (42%) 14 (5.4%)
    Ethnic MP 90 (100%) 26 (29%) 59 (66%) 5 (5.6%)
    LGBT 70 (100%) 50 (71%) 19 (27%) 1 (1.4%)
    Elected As
    Labour 410 (100%) 229 (56%) 165 (40%) 16 (3.9%)
    Conservative 121 (100%) 20 (17%) 94 (78%) 7 (5.8%)
    Liberal Democrat 72 (100%) 55 (76%) 14 (19%) 3 (4.2%)
    Independent 6 (100%) 0 (0%) 6 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Democratic Unionist Party 5 (100%) 0 (0%) 5 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Reform UK 5 (100%) 1 (20%) 4 (80%) 0 (0%)
    Green Party 4 (100%) 4 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
    Plaid Cymru 4 (100%) 3 (75%) 1 (25%) 0 (0%)
    Social Democratic & Labour Party 2 (100%) 1 (50%) 0 (0%) 1 (50%)
    Alliance 1 (100%) 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Traditional Unionist Voice 1 (100%) 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Ulster Unionist Party 1 (100%) 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    MP Religious
    Not Religious 228 (100%) 173 (76%) 48 (21%) 7 (3.1%)
    Religious 404 (100%) 140 (35%) 244 (60%) 20 (5.0%)
    MP Religion
    None 228 (100%) 173 (76%) 48 (21%) 7 (3.1%)
    Christian 313 (100%) 117 (37%) 181 (58%) 15 (4.8%)
    Catholic 34 (100%) 7 (21%) 27 (79%) 0 (0%)
    Muslim 25 (100%) 2 (8.0%) 22 (88%) 1 (4.0%)
    Jewish 13 (100%) 7 (54%) 4 (31%) 2 (15%)
    Sikh 12 (100%) 6 (50%) 4 (33%) 2 (17%)
    Hindu 6 (100%) 1 (17%) 5 (83%) 0 (0%)
    Buddhist 1 (100%) 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)

    In total, 56 MPs changed position between the second and third reading. The no vote was stickier than the yes vote. Of those who voted no for the second reading, 97% did so in the third reading, and just one MP went from the no to the yes camp (Jack Abbott, the Labour MP for Ipswich).

    On the other hand, 14 MPs went from yes to no, and a further 15 went from yes to abstaining. Of the MPs who abstained for the second reading, ten later voted yes and ten voted no. This was not, however, enough for the bill to be blocked.

    How religion affected the vote

    It was [already clear](https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-bill-religious-mps-were-more-likely-to-oppose-law-change-in-first-round-of-voting-256503](https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-bill-religious-mps-were-more-likely-to-oppose-law-change-in-first-round-of-voting-256503) that support and opposition to the bill was linked to not only political party but religious outlook. And there is some evidence that religion played a role in motivating switchers.

    Apart from Labour, which broke 56% to 40% in favour of assisted dying, most other parties leant heavily in one direction or the other. This mirrors the divide along religion, where non-religious MPs were more likely to back the bill (76% to 21%) compared to religious MPs, who were half as likely to support it (35% to 60%).

    Religious Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs were more likely to support assisted suicide than religious MPs as a whole, whereas non-religious Conservatives were less likely to support it than non-religious MPs a whole.

    If we compare religious MPs to non-religious MPs, the former were more likely to switch to no (45% of religious MPs who switched did so to no, compared to 38% of non-religious MPs) than yes (18% against 25%). In both groups, 38% abstained in the third round.

    This pattern continues across parties too – all the Conservative MPs who changed position were religious (although more than 90% of the Conservative Party are religious, so we shouldn’t read too much into this).

    Among Labour MPs, who obviously make up the bulk of any parliamentary vote, there was a striking similarity in switching between religious and non-religious MPs. Of the switchers, 29% of Labour’s religious and non-religious MPs switched to yes, whilst 38% of religious and 36% of non-religious MPs switched to no.

    The effects of religion also play out within parties. Of the 11 MPs who switched to yes, seven were Labour Christian MPs, and the other four were non-religious Labour MPs.

    Two MPs elected under Reform’s banner – Lee Anderson and the now-independent Rupert Lowe – switched from yes to no, the former being non-religious and the latter a Christian. No Liberal Democrat MP switched to a yes vote, but the four who switched to no were religious – the one non-religious switcher abstained.

    Overall, it is clear that while religion is still important in structuring how MPs voted on assisted suicide, the role of party cannot be ignored – even in a free vote like on assisted dying.

    David Jeffery 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. Assisted dying: 56 MPs switched their vote between rounds – here’s how religion affected their choices – https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-56-mps-switched-their-vote-between-rounds-heres-how-religion-affected-their-choices-259589

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How might the US-Iran conflict escalate? Expert Q&A

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin

    On Sunday June 22, Donald Trump announced that several of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities had been “completely obliterated” and that the country’s nuclear weapons programme had been crippled. Iran denied this and vowed to retaliate. The Iranian parliament has already given approval to closing the strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil transits en route to customers all over the world.

    Initially the US government insisted that the objective was simply to halt Iran’s nuclear programme. But the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said several times that he wanted to topple Iran’s theocratic regime. And the day after the US bombing raids, Donald Trump also began to talk of regime change in Iran.

    We asked Middle East expert Scott Lucas how the situation might develop.

    How might this now escalate?

    Iran’s leadership has no good military options, just as it has had limited capabilities in the nine days since Israel launched its missile strikes and targeted assassinations across the country. In theory, it could target US forces, with up to 40,000 in the region within range of missiles and drones. Iran-backed militias in Iraq could also attack US personnel on bases in the country.

    But the Biden administration showed that it would hit these back hard. When the militias in Iraq and the Assad regime’s Syria killed troops and a contractor, Washington pummelled the groups with airstrikes. Iran’s Quds Force, responsible for operations outside the Islamic Republic, told the militias to stop.

    Iran could target the US fleet in the Persian Gulf. It has also threatened to close the vital strait of Hormuz. But given that 20% of the world’s oil goes through the waterway, those operations would incur the wrath not only of Washington but of other countries. The Gulf states, whose support Tehran desperately wants and needs, would be angered.

    Iran’s allies in Yemen, the Houthi rebels, could renew their attacks on Red Sea shipping. They could fire drones and missiles, reprising their assault on Saudi oil facilities between 2019 and 2022. But the political and military cost of that retaliation would be high.

    Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

    Iranian hybrid attacks, through cyber-warfare and assassination plots, are also a possibility. But the US and other states have clamped down on those activities in recent years with toughened surveillance, enforcement and sanctions on Iran, making their achievement of results more difficult.

    So while Iran continues to launch a dwindling stock of missiles at Israel, I think that its strategy beyond that is political. Play the victim and try to encourage other states, including the Gulf countries and the Europeans, to distance themselves from the Trump administration.

    What does this tell us about the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu?

    Benjamin Netanyahu has played Trump to ensure the success of Israel’s war. It’s as simple as that. As recently as February 4, Trump came close to humiliating the Israeli prime minister when he visited Washington to ask for the administration’s support for strikes on Iran. As Netanyahu sat uncomfortably in the White House press briefing, Trump declared that the US was going to open negotiations with Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

    Netanyahu told the Trump administration in mid-May that it was intending to go ahead with strikes on Iran, even without US approval. There was some manoeuvring over the next three weeks, as the US and Iran went through five sets of talks. But on June 8, Trump met his national security advisors at Camp David in Maryland, where the CIA director John Ratcliffe and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Dan Caine, briefed him on the threat from Iran.

    The next day Netanyahu told Trump over the phone that Israel was going ahead with its attacks, which it launched four days later. The US duly cancelled the sixth set of peace talks in Oman. Now Trump, with the Orwellian cry of “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”, has blown up those negotiations for the foreseeable future.



    Read more:
    Why are the US and Israel not on the same page over how to deal with Iran? Expert Q&A

    Where are Russia and China in all this?

    Both countries are watching closely and calculating their response. On May 22, Beijing condemned “a reckless escalation and a flagrant violation of international law”. But its response will largely be rhetorical, avoiding any military or even political entanglement. If the US deepens its involvement in Iran’s war, including with any further strikes, China will step up the rhetoric while seeking advantage from the instability. It will play the responsible power, pursuing peace and progress, in contrast to a destructive and unreliable Trump administration. That would be a certain diplomatic win for Beijing.

    Russia is in a trickier position because of its 40-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has no end in sight. Iran has been an essential part of the military campaign, providing thousands of drones for Moscow’s daily attacks on military and civilian sites. As recently as April, the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, pledging closer cooperation in trade, defence, energy, and regional infrastructure projects. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi has flown to Moscow for “serious consultations” with Russian “friends”, including Vladimir Putin.

    But Russia’s scope for intervention could be limited. Just before the US attacks the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said he might mediate between Israel and Iran. Trump immediately slapped him down. And the Kremlin will not want to commit military resources to what might be a prolonged conflict, since it is already stretched – maybe overstretched – in Ukraine both on the battlefield and on the economic front.

    What will the Arab world be thinking?

    Perhaps the most important reaction to the strikes is coming from the Gulf states, in particularly Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Only a few weeks ago Trump was in the Gulf signing deals on trade and arms. But Gulf leaders are rattled by what might be an expanding, destructive conflict with the prospect of a power vacuum in Tehran.

    For months, they have manoeuvred against that instability in discussions with the Islamic Republic as well as with Washington. With its open-ended war in Gaza, Israel has already shattered the economic and political prospects of “normalisation” (establishing diplomatic relations and trade partnerships). Now the Gulf states are worried how far Israel and Iran will carry out their confrontation across the Middle East.

    There had been hints that they might come off the fence between flattering Trump and pushing back against Washington, and this now appears to have happened – to an extent anyway. Without naming the US, Saudi Arabia “condemned and denounced” the violation of Iran’s sovereignty. Qatar said the US strikes would have “catastrophic repercussions”. The UAE warned all parties to avoid those “serious” repercussions, and Oman went farther by criticising the breaking of international law.

    Trump ignored his own intelligence. So who is helping him game out this situation?

    That’s a great question with no clear answer. It is clear that it’s not the director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, reportedly out of favour because she dared to publicise the assessment of US intelligence agencies that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon. But with other cabinet members all proclaiming that this was Donald Trump’s “brilliant” plan, it is hard to see who led in pushing him away from negotiations and into the strikes.

    The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is little more than a hyperactive cheerleader. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is balancing between promoting the strikes and urging Iran to return to negotiations. The US vice-president, J.D. Vance, was central last week in efforts to persuade Republican legislators to back the strikes, amid the split in the Trumpist bloc over attacks.

    In the end, much of the impetus for this comes from Israel. Netanyahu has been careful to lavish praise on the US president for his “bold decision”, which he said would “change history”. With encouragement from a roll call of his Republican party admirers, Trump appears to have eagerly taken this up as his “victory”, claiming to have achieved “peace through strength”.

    Scott Lucas 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. How might the US-Iran conflict escalate? Expert Q&A – https://theconversation.com/how-might-the-us-iran-conflict-escalate-expert-qanda-259514

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Here’s why the public needs to challenge the ‘good AI’ myth pushed by tech companies

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies, Director of Centre for AI Futures, SOAS, University of London

    While there’s been much negative discussion about AI, including on the possibility that it will take over the world, the public is also being bombarded with positive messages about the technology, and what it can do.

    This “good AI” myth is a key tool used by tech companies to promote their products. Yet there’s evidence that consumers are wary of the presence of AI in some products. This means that positive promotion of AI may be putting unwanted pressure on people to accept the use of AI in their lives.

    AI is becoming so ubiquitous that people may be losing their ability to say no to using it. It’s in smartphones, smart TVs, smart speakers like Alexa and virtual assistants like Siri. We’re constantly told that our privacy will be protected. But with the personal nature of the data that AI has access to in these devices, can we afford to trust such assurances?

    Some politicians also propagate the “good AI” promise with immense conviction, mirroring the messages coming from tech companies.

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

    My current research is partly explained in a new book called the The Myth of Good AI. This research shows that the data feeding our AI systems is biased, as it often over-represents privileged sections of the population and mainstream attitudes.

    This means that any AI products that don’t include data from marginalised people, or minorities, might discriminate against them. This explains why AI systems continue to be riddled with racism, ageism and various forms of gender discrimination, for instance.

    The speed with which this technology is impinging on our everyday life, makes it very hard to properly assess the consequences. And an approach to AI that is more critical of how it works does not make for good marketing for the tech companies.

    Power structures

    Positive ideas about AI and its abilities are currently dominating all aspects of AI innovation. This is partly determined by state interests and by the profit margins of the tech companies.

    These are tied into the power structures held up by tech multi-billionaires, and, in some places, their influence on governments. The relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, despite its recent souring, is a vivid manifestation of this.

    And so, the public is at the receiving end of a distinctly hierarchical top-down system, from the big tech companies and their governmental enablers to users. In this way, we are made to consume, with little to no influence over how the technology is used. This positive AI ideology is therefore primarily about money and power.

    As it stands, there is no global movement with a unifying manifesto that would bring together societies to leverage AI for the benefit of communities of people, or to safeguard our right to privacy. This “right to be left alone”, codified in the US constitution and international human rights law, is a central pillar of my argument. It is also something that is almost entirely absent from the assurances about AI made by the big tech companies.

    Yet, some of the risks of the technology are already evident. A database compiling cases in which lawyers around the world used AI, identified 157 cases in which false AI-generated information – so called hallucinations – skewed legal rulings.

    Some forms of AI can also be manipulated to blackmail and extort, or create blueprints for murder and terrorism.

    Tech companies need to programme the algorithms with data that represents everyone, not just the privileged, in order to reduce discrimination. In this way, the public are not forced to give into the consensus that AI will solve many of our problems, without proper supervision by society. This distinction between the ability to think creatively, ethically and intuitively may be the most fundamental faultline between human and machine.

    It’s up to ordinary people to question the good AI myth. A critical approach to AI should contribute to the creation of more socially relevant and responsible technology, a technology that is already trialled in torture scenarios, as the book discusses, too.

    The point at which AI systems would outdo us in every task is expected to be a decade or so away. In the meantime there needs to be resistance to this attack on our right to privacy, and more awareness of just how AI works.

    Arshin Adib-Moghaddam 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. Here’s why the public needs to challenge the ‘good AI’ myth pushed by tech companies – https://theconversation.com/heres-why-the-public-needs-to-challenge-the-good-ai-myth-pushed-by-tech-companies-259200

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Highland Valley Copper extension gets provincial permits

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    The Province has fully permitted the Highland Valley Copper Mine Life Extension (HVC MLE) project west of Logan Lake.

    The extension was identified by Premier David Eby as a priority project to expedite as part of British Columbia’s efforts to diversify exports and strengthen the economy.

    The permits issued under the Mines Act, the Environmental Management Act, and the Water Sustainability Act follow the June 17, 2025, issuance of the Environmental Assessment Certificate by the ministers of mining and critical minerals, and environment and parks, and clears the way for the project to proceed.

    “British Columbia will be the economic engine to drive our whole country forward in a rapidly changing global economy. Part of our advantage is abundant resources like copper, resources in demand, everywhere,” Premier Eby said. “By accelerating approvals for Highland Valley Copper’s extension as a provincial priority, we are growing the provincial economy and creating good jobs, while doing our part to help Canada stand strong.”

    The permits build on the 17 conditions attached to the Environmental Assessment Certificate, balancing the economic benefits provided by the mine with strong protections for the environment and measures to mitigate impacts to First Nations and local communities.

    “Our government is committed to making B.C. the economic engine of Canada, and the review and approval of the HVC Mine Life Extension project shows we are making decisions and enabling economic development,” said Jagrup Brar, Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals. “Whether it’s major mine expansions like this or exploration drilling, we are taking action to develop the critical minerals the world needs while creating good family-supporting jobs here in B.C.”

    HVC is an open-pit copper mine owned by Teck Resources Ltd. approximately 17 kilometres west of Logan Lake.

    The HVC MLE will extend the life of the mine into the mid-2040s, producing an additional 900 million tonnes of ore. The expansion will also add an additional 200 jobs, bringing the workforce to more than 1,500 people.

    “Receiving regulatory approvals from the Government of B.C. is a further step forward in extending the life of Canada’s largest copper mine, supporting jobs and generating economic activity,” said Jonathan Price, president and CEO, Teck Resources. “I want to thank Indigenous governments and organizations for their meaningful participation, deep contributions and individual assessments as part of this comprehensive process, and we look forward to continuing to work in partnership with them. These positive permitting decisions position the project for a final construction sanction decision in the near term that will allow for the continuation of the social and economic benefits of HVC, including approximately 1,500 direct jobs and $500 million in annual GDP.”

    The Province carried out a combined environmental assessment and permitting process for the HVC MLE project that included a technical review table for all parties involved. Through this co-operative approach, Teck was able to submit one application that met the information requirements of all provincial regulators, providing a streamlined review. As a result, permit decisions were made almost immediately following the certificate decision, demonstrating the Province supports robust reviews that uphold environmental values, and health and safety, while providing an efficient process.

    “This decision is good news for our members at Highland Valley Copper and for workers across the region who rely on stable, family-supporting jobs,” said Scott Lunny, director, District 3, United Steelworkers union (USW). “Extending the life of this mine means increased economic certainty for hundreds of union families and their communities. We welcome the Province’s commitment to getting critical mineral projects like this across the line while maintaining Indigenous engagement and strong environmental and community standards. Our union will continue working to ensure that workers’ voices are heard as this project moves forward.”

    The project is now approved to start construction, pending a final construction decision by Teck’s board of directors.

    Quotes:

    Christine Walkem, chair of Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly, and Chief of Cook’s Ferry Indian Band – 

    “The Citxw Nlaka’pamux Assembly remains committed to ensuring that the voices, values and laws of the nłeʔképmx people continue to guide the implementation of the Highland Valley Copper Mine life extension project. As the project moves into the construction phase, and through the many years that remain in its extended life and into closure, we expect continued accountability, respect and collaboration from all parties. Our work through the nłeʔképmx impact assessment set a new precedent for Indigenous leadership in environmental governance, shaping the future of major developments in nłeʔképmx territory. It lays the foundation for new decision-making frameworks grounded in Indigenous laws and principles, and it creates a pathway for future generations to carry this leadership forward.”

    Kyle Wolff, president, USW local 7619 – 

    “Our members have been proud to power B.C.’s economy through their hard work at Highland Valley Copper for decades and the HVC extension project brings long-term stability and reassurance to workers, their families and the surrounding communities. We’re ready to keep doing what we do best by delivering the critical minerals that B.C. and the world depend on, and we’ll continue to make sure our members’ rights, safety and livelihoods remain a top priority as the project moves forward.”

    Michael Goehring, president and CEO, Mining Association of B.C. –

    “We are very pleased Teck Resources has received permits and authorizations required for the Highland Valley Copper Mine Life Extension project to proceed. As Canada’s largest copper mine, HVC will continue to sustain workers, suppliers and contractors in the southern Interior and across the province over the next couple of decades. This is great news in these challenging economic times.”

    Quick Facts:

    • HVC produces copper and molybdenum, both critical minerals as identified by the Government of Canada.
    • The estimated cost of the project is at least $1.5 billion.
    • Teck is now approved to modify the existing mine to continue operations until the mid-2040s, from previous production limits that would have been reached in 2028.
    • HVC MLE is expected to create approximately 2,900 jobs during the construction phase of the project.
    • The project will involve an extension of the existing open pit, as well as upgrades and modifications to some mine site infrastructure and processing facilities to support the increased production capacity, resulting in 1,526 hectares of new land disturbance.

    MIL OSI Canada News –