NewzIntel.com

Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Leeds welcomes the announcement that more Civil Service roles will be moved to the city

    Source: City of Leeds

    Councillor James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council, said:

    “We welcome the Government’s continued recognition of Leeds as a key hub for Civil Service roles. With over 14,000 civil servants already based in Leeds, this announcement builds on our role as a major centre for government outside London.

    “Relocating more roles will bring decision-making closer to the communities it serves, support the creation of good jobs, and provide long-term whole career opportunities including for our talented apprentices, graduates and professionals.

    “The Leeds Health and Social Care Hub, which brings together the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS, local government, universities and other partners exemplifies how central government can work hand-in-hand with local delivery organisations to improve outcomes for patients and residents.

    “This move adds to the momentum we’re already seeing in Leeds as a leading financial centre, with major organisations like the Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the National Wealth Fund choosing to locate roles here – reinforcing the city’s growing national importance as a centre for public service and economic opportunity.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Final Government response to the Infected Blood Inquiry

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Final Government response to the Infected Blood Inquiry

    The government publishes its final response to the Infected Blood Inquiry’s May 2024 report.

    • Government’s final response to the Infected Blood Inquiry’s May 2024 report highlights progress delivering Inquiry’s twelve recommendations.

    • Progress includes nearly £100 million so far in compensation to victims and over £1.2 billion in interim payments, committing £500,000 to advocacy charities, and greater support for patients with liver damage.

    • Sir Robert Francis KC, Interim Chair of Infected Blood Compensation Authority, will also continue his role for another 18 months.

    Nearly £100 million in compensation has been paid to victims of the Infected Blood Scandal so far, alongside over £1.2 billion in interim payments, as the government publishes its final response to the Infected Blood Inquiry’s May 2024 report – highlighting progress delivering the Inquiry’s twelve recommendations.

    Recognising the unspeakable suffering of victims, the government accepts all twelve of the Inquiry’s recommendations, with some accepted in full, and others accepted in principle. There are no recommendations that the government has not accepted. 

    Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, said:

    Today is an important milestone, nearly one year on from the publication of the Inquiry’s report.  

    The victims of this scandal have suffered unspeakably. We remain fully committed to cooperating with the Inquiry, are acting on its twelve recommendations, and are grateful for its work to date.

    We have paid nearly £100 million in compensation so far, and have set aside £11.8 billion to deliver what is one of the most comprehensive compensation schemes in modern history.

    The government is delivering Recommendation 1, to set up a compensation scheme. Compensation is paid through the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), an independent organisation that was set up on the Inquiry’s recommendation in its Second Interim Report. IBCA has paid out £96.6 million in compensation so far to victims of the Infected Blood Scandal, building on over £1.2 billion already paid out by the government in interim payments.

    Government is delivering Recommendation 10, to empower the voices of infected blood patients, by paying £500,000 to patient advocacy charities. These funds will be paid to specific charities that have been recommended by the Inquiry, and meetings are underway to agree on awards. 

    Government is also delivering Recommendation 6, to monitor patients with liver damage, by ensuring that all patients with liver damage will have their care overseen by a medical consultant. Patients with a Hepatitis C diagnosis will receive greater follow-up and monitoring, and NHS England will also be proactively identifying patients with bleeding disorders to ensure they receive appropriate testing, treatment and ongoing monitoring.

    Today, the Government is also announcing that Sir Robert Francis KC, Interim Chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, will remain in his role for another 18 months. The decision to extend his term was taken to provide continuity for the organisation and the infected blood community, and ensure compensation continues to be delivered without delay.

    The Inquiry has set out its intention to publish a further report on compensation, and the Government remains committed to cooperating with the Inquiry.

    Commenting on his extension, Sir Robert Francis KC said:

    I am honoured to continue serving as ​Interim ​Chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority.

    My priority remains to ensure that we pay compensation to those impacted by the scandal as quickly as possible, while maintaining transparency and compassion throughout our work.​

    ENDS

    Updates to this page

    Published 14 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Expanding NHS orthopaedic services

    Source: Scottish Government

    Major increase in surgical procedures

    Health Secretary Neil Gray visited Gartnavel General Hospital today to see first-hand how Scottish Government investment is supporting increased capacity in orthopaedic services to deliver faster care for patients.

    The visit follows the Programme for Government announced by the First Minister last week,  which committed to the delivery of more than 150,000 additional NHS appointments and procedures, including in surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacements compared to last year.

    This investment is part of the government’s commitment to strengthening the NHS and ensuring timely access to essential treatments.

    During his visit, Mr. Gray toured Gartnavel’s state-of-the-art theatre complex, where he met with frontline staff involved in the expanded orthopaedic services. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be allocated funding to support the delivery of additional orthopaedic procedures through extra elective theatres at the hospital.

    Health Secretary Neil Gray said:

    “The Scottish Government is determined to increase capacity in our NHS – making sure people can get the quality care they need when they need it. 

    “Increasing orthopaedic capacity here means faster, more efficient care for those who need it most, allowing patients to regain mobility and quality of life without unnecessary delays.

    “We have seen real progress in the last year, with more than 105,000 appointments and procedures delivered through an additional £30 million of targeted investment in 2024-25. Now we want to build on that momentum through the additional £200 million set out in this year’s Budget to reduce waiting lists and to help support reduction of delayed discharge.”

    Background

    The Programme for Government 2025-26 includes a wide range of measures to support the NHS and improve public health, including:

    • Over 150,000 additional NHS appointments and procedures, with a 50% increase in surgical procedures such as hip and knee replacement compared with last year.
    • 100,000 enhanced GP appointments by March 2026 for high-risk conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, obesity, and smoking.
    • Enhanced diagnostic pathways, including targeted cancer pathways, to help tackle backlogs and achieve the 62-day referral to treatment standard.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Assertio Therapeutics, Inc. to Pay $3.6 Million to Resolve Allegations That it Violated the False Claims Act in Connection with Marketing Its Fentanyl Product

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

    The Justice Department announced on May 5, 2025, that Assertio Therapeutics, Inc., formerly known as Depomed, Inc., a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, has agreed to pay $3.6 million to resolve claims that Assertio violated the False Claims Act by causing the submission of false claims for the transmucosal immediate-release fentanyl drug Lazanda for individuals who did not have breakthrough cancer pain.

    The settlement was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., Acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Deputy Inspector General Christian J. Schrank of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and FBIActing Assistant Director Darren Cox of the Criminal Investigative Division.

    Lazanda, a fentanyl nasal spray, is approved by the FDA solely for break-through cancer pain in patients who are already receiving and who are tolerant to opioid therapy for their underlying persistent cancer pain. The United States alleges that between 2013 and 2017, Assertio caused the submission of false claims to the Medicare and TRICARE programs by focusing its marketing on pain specialists who were prescribing high volumes of transmucosal immediate-release fentanyl, known as TIRF products, including those who were flagged for diversion or who were later indicted.

    The United States further alleges that Assertio placed high-volume TIRF prescribers on its speakers’ bureau and advisory boards and developed its “Signature Support Program” to ensure that Lazanda prescriptions would be approved by insurance companies, including Medicare Part D plans. The United States contends that, as a result of Assertio’s marketing, prescribers wrote Lazanda prescriptions for Medicare and TRICARE beneficiaries who did not have breakthrough cancer pain and that Assertio therefore caused false claims to be submitted to Medicare and TRICARE from high-volume thirteen prescribers.

    “This company took steps to boost its profits despite the risk of boosting the deadly opioid epidemic,” said U.S. Attorney Martin. “My office will continue to seek out violations like this that demonstrate a brazen disregard for the safety of the public.”

    “The Department is committed to pursuing companies that contributed to the tragic opioid epidemic,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Roth. “This resolution demonstrates that companies that recklessly marketed powerful opioids, like fentanyl, will be held accountable for their role in the opioid crisis, which continues to plague our country today.”

    “As today’s settlement demonstrates, the FBI and our law enforcement partners remain committed to investigating violations of the False Claims Act,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the Washington Field Office. “We will continue holding companies accountable for fraudulent marketing that puts patients at risk.”

    “Violations of the False Claims Act such as the illegal prescribing practices alleged in this settlement are especially egregious considering the opioid epidemic,” said Deputy Inspector General Schrank. “HHS-OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure health care providers and corporations involved in schemes that threaten patient safety are held accountable.”

    The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought in 2017 under the qui tam, or whistleblower, provisions of the FCA by Noelle Webb and Nicole Novellino, who previously worked at Depomed as sales representatives. The FCA authorizes private parties to sue on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in any recovery. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Webb et al. v. Assertio Therapeutics, Inc., f/k/a Depomed, Inc., No. 1:17-02309 (D.D.C.). The relators’ share of these proceeds has not yet been determined.

    The Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch – Fraud Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia handled this matter. The FBI, led by its Washington Field Office; the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations; and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General provided substantial assistance in the investigation and resolution.

    Today’s settlement illustrates the government’s emphasis on combating healthcare fraud. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the FCA. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services at 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477).

    The Justice Department is committed to holding responsible those who have fueled the opioid crisis by violating the law.

    This case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Darrell Valdez for the District of Columbia, Senior Trial Counsel Sarah Arni, Trial Attorney Matthew Arrow, and Assistant Director Natalie Waites of the Civil Division’s Fraud Section.

    The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Reaches Staff-Level Agreement on the Combined Third and Fourth Reviews of Bangladesh’s Extended Credit Facility, Extended Fund Facility, and Resilience and Sustainability Facility Arrangements

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    May 14, 2025

    End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF’s Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF’s Executive Board for discussion and decision.

    • IMF staff and the Bangladesh authorities have reached staff-level agreement on the policies needed to complete the combined third and fourth reviews of the authorities’ reform program supported by the IMF’s Extended Credit Facility, Extended Fund Facility, and Resilience and Sustainability Facility. The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board, contingent on the completion of prior actions.
    • The Bangladeshi economy remains under pressure from ongoing challenges and rising external financing requirements. As announced in December 2024, the authorities have requested an augmentation of IMF support of about US$760 million to help preserve macroeconomic stability and enhance the country’s resilience to external shocks.
    • The authorities reiterated their commitment to the objectives of the reform program including fiscal reforms to address the emerging external financing gap, calibrating monetary policy to bring down inflation, and fully implementing exchange rate reforms to enhance flexibility. They have also pledged to foster a sound and competitive financial sector and are advancing their climate agenda to support sustainable, inclusive, and green growth.

    Washington, D.C.:  Following constructive discussions with Bangladesh authorities in Dhaka, continued engagement during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., and subsequent virtual follow-up discussions, Mr. Papageorgiou, the IMF Mission Chief for Bangladesh, issued the following statement:

    “IMF staff and the Bangladesh authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the policies needed to complete the combined third and fourth reviews under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board and is contingent on the completion of prior actions related to tax revenue mobilization and full implementation of exchange rate reforms.

    “Amid significant macroeconomic challenges, the authorities requested an augmentation of SDR 567.2 million (approximately US$762 million) in IMF financial support to Bangladesh under the ECF and EFF arrangements. This increase would bring the total financial assistance under the ECF and EFF arrangements to SDR 3,035.65 million (about US$4.1 billion), alongside concurrent RSF arrangements of SDR 1 billion (about US$1.3 billion). Upon completion of the combined third and fourth reviews, SDR 983.8 million (about US$1.3 billion) will be made available, comprising SDR 650.5 million (about US$874 million) under the ECF and EFF and SDR 333.3 million (about US$448 million) under the RSF.

    “Impacted by disruptions from the popular uprising, real GDP growth slowed to 3.3 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first half of FY25; however, it is projected to rebound in the second half reaching 3.8 percent for the full fiscal year. Inflation, which has approached double digits, has begun to decline and is projected to be around 8 ½ percent (y-o-y) by end of FY25. Nonetheless, domestic factors such as stress in the banking sector and elevated global uncertainty tilt risks to the downside.

    “To address the emerging external financing gap and support a continued decline in inflation, near-term policy tightening is essential. Fiscal consolidation should focus on the prompt implementation of additional revenue measures—such as streamlining of tax exemptions—while containing non-essential expenditures. Alongside monetary tightening, enhanced exchange rate flexibility and reinforced foreign exchange reserve buffers will bolster the economy’s resilience to external shocks. In this regard, steadfast implementation of the new exchange rate regime will remain critical.

    “Bangladesh’s low tax-to-GDP ratio underscores the urgent need for tax reforms to build a fairer, more transparent, and simpler system while sustainably boosting revenues. Key priorities include streamlining exemptions, enhancing compliance, and delineating tax policy from administration. In parallel, a comprehensive approach is required to rein in subsidy expenditures in the electricity sector. Increased revenues will also provide more fiscal resources to support the most vulnerable. 

    “A carefully designed strategy for dealing with weak banks is essential to ensuring stability. Swift action is needed to operationalize new legal frameworks that facilitate orderly bank restructuring while safeguarding small depositors. Robust asset quality reviews for all large and systemic banks, bank restructuring aimed at forward-looking viability, strengthened risk-based supervision, and enhanced governance and transparency will be key to rebuilding trust and supporting the sector’s soundness. At the same time, institutional reforms to bolster the independence and governance of Bangladesh Bank will be essential for ensuring long-term macroeconomic and financial stability and for the effective implementation of broader financial sector reforms.

    “Strengthening governance and promoting greater transparency are essential to improving the business environment, attracting foreign direct investment, and broadening the export base beyond the ready-made garment sector.

    “Enhancing resilience to climate change is crucial for mitigating macroeconomic and fiscal risks. Investing in institutional capacity and improving the efficiency of public spending will support progress toward climate objectives. The government should prioritize climate-responsive fiscal reforms and channel investments into sustainable, climate-resilient infrastructure. In addition, effective management of climate-related risks will help safeguard financial sector stability.

    “The team thanks the authorities for the productive discussions and excellent collaboration.”

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Randa Elnagar

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/05/14/pr25145-bangladesh-imf-reaches-sla-on-combined-3rd-and-4th-reviews-ecf-eff-and-rsf-arrangements

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Peters Calls out Republican Cuts to Clean Energy and Fossil Fuel Favoritism in Tax Plan

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Scott Peters (52nd District of California)

    [embedded content]

    Washington, D.C. – Today, during the Energy and Commerce Committee’s consideration of the Republican tax plan, which will kick 13.7 million people off their healthcare, Representative Scott Peters (CA-50) called out provisions that will make it easier to build polluting coal power plants and cut back on investments in clean energy technologies.

    Watch Rep. Peters’ opening statement against the Republican tax plan here.

    Speaking on the Republican plan, Rep. Peters said, “Last Congress, my Republican colleagues were insistent that we should have an all-of-the-above energy strategy, one that leveraged our natural resources, unleashed American innovation, and cut through bureaucratic red tape. Which is why I am confused that we are considering a reconciliation bill that picks winners and losers, and elevates expensive, outdated, and inefficient sources like coal over cheap American-made energy like solar, wind, and storage.”

     

    He continued, “Why does this bill provide government-backed insurance to coal plants, as the President of the United States single-handedly kills hundreds if not thousands of clean energy jobs across the country by illegally targeting projects and weaponizing the permitting process?”

    And he concluded, “We need to face reality; we can’t build anything in America anymore. North America has built about 7 gigawatts of interregional transmission since 2014, with less than half of that in the U.S. In that same time frame, South America has built 22 gigawatts, Europe has built 44 gigawatts, and China has built 260. There is a growing bipartisan coalition for permitting reform. Whether it’s forest management, electric transmission, or building housing, I have reached across the aisle and found success in moving solutions forward. Many of us have voiced our desire to work in a bipartisan way to make America more energy dominant. Now is the time to put our money where our mouth is, and focus on durable, common-sense, and all-of-the-above policies that provide certainty for industry and consumers.”

    CA-50 Medicaid Facts:

    • 156,100 people in the district rely on Medicaid for health coverage—that’s 20 percent of all district residents.
      • 34,700 children in the district are covered by Medicaid.
      • 17,700 seniors in the district are covered by Medicaid.
      • 64,900 adults in the district have Medicaid coverage through Medicaid expansion—that includes pregnant women who are able to access prenatal care sooner because of Medicaid expansion, parents, caretakers, veterans, people with substance use disorder and mental health treatment needs, and people with chronic conditions and disabilities.
    • At least five hospitals in the district had negative operating margins in 2022. These hospitals would be especially hard-hit by cuts to Medicaid. For example:
      • Scripps Mercy Hospital had a negative 25.3 percent operating margin—and nearly 22 percent of its revenue came from Medicaid.
      • Sharp Coronado Hospital had a negative 3.5 percent operating margin—and over 36 percent of its revenue came from Medicaid.
      • University of California San Diego Medical Center had a negative 2.4 percent operating margin—and nearly 19 percent of its revenue came from Medicaid.
    • There are 54 health center delivery sites in the district that serve 529,944 patients.
    • Those health centers and patients rely on Medicaid—statewide, 69 percent of health center patients rely on Medicaid for coverage.
    • Health centers will not be able to stay open and provide the same care that they do today, with more uninsured and underinsured patients. They are already operating on thin margins—in 2023, nationally, nearly half of health centers had negative operating margins.
    • Medicaid cuts put health centers at risk, including:
      • Family Health Centers of San Diego
      • Neighborhood Healthcare
      • North County Health Project
      • San Diego American Indian Health Centers
      • St. Vincent De Paul Village

    Read Rep. Peters full remarks below:

    Last Congress, my Republican colleagues were insistent that we should have an all-of-the-above energy strategy, one that leveraged our natural resources, unleashed American innovation, and cut through bureaucratic red tape.

    Which is why I am confused that we are considering a reconciliation bill that picks winners and losers, and elevates expensive, outdated, and inefficient sources like coal over cheap American-made energy like solar, wind, and storage.

    Why does this bill expedite permitting for natural gas pipelines – an undeniably important component of our energy system – while completely ignoring transmission lines, without which we would not be able to meet a single kilowatt of energy demand?

    Why does this bill provide government-backed insurance to coal plants, as the President of the United States single-handedly kills hundreds, if not thousands, of clean energy jobs across the country by illegally targeting projects and weaponizing the permitting process?

    This entire Congress, my Republican colleagues have focused almost exclusively on our need to build baseload power to meet energy demand from data centers, manufacturing, and AI. 

    However, when they have an opportunity to ensure this baseload power can move from where it’s generated to where it will be used, my Republican colleagues have not only chosen to completely ignore the problem, but are rescinding funds to make it easier to build out the energy infrastructure we need to reduce costs and keep the lights on.

    We need to face reality; we can’t build anything in America anymore. North America has built about 7 gigawatts of interregional transmission since 2014, with less than half of that in the U.S. In that same time frame, South America has built 22 gigawatts, Europe has built 44 gigawatts, and China has built 260.

    There is a growing bipartisan coalition for permitting reform. Whether it’s forest management, electric transmission, or building housing, I have reached across the aisle and found success in moving solutions forward.

    Many of us have voiced our desire to work in a bipartisan way to make America more energy dominant. Now is the time to put our money where our mouth is, and focus on durable, common-sense, and all-of-the-above policies that provide certainty for industry and consumers. 

    This bill, however, doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting the moment. It isn’t real permitting reform, it doesn’t make us energy dominant, and it only makes things more uncertain for industry, for Americans, and for our future.

    Instead of making it easier to build everything, once again we are cutting off our feet in the race to energy resilience. This is the definition of picking winners and losers. And this not the way we will achieve a resilient, energy-abundant future.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Study Demonstrates Health Disparities in U.S. Territories

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    A new study found that people living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands reported worse overall physical health than those living in the states.

    This research, led by Anna-Michelle McSorley, assistant professor of allied health sciences at UConn Waterbury, was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    McSorley and her co-author were able to conduct this study because, unlike many federal data collection systems, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) includes data from three U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

    “That is something that is pretty unique,” McSorley says. “That was the motivation for this paper. I found a data system in which [these populations are] represented, and I have the opportunity to tell a story about some key health-related quality of life indicators for those particular regions of the United States.”

    In a previous paper, McSorley and co-authors found that territories are often not included in federal data systems for several reasons. In some instances, a state or territory must apply to the federal government for funding to conduct the work at the local level. The work must align with the methodological standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, territories are not always eligible for these grants, and even when they are, it is not always clear if they can apply.

    McSorley identified significant disparities in the percentage of people living in the territories who reported having fair/poor general health compared to the states. In the states, this percentage is 16.1%, compared to 17.7% in Guam, 18.6% in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 27.8% in Puerto Rico.

    “From the data that I saw, it was pretty remarkable to note that Puerto Rico had the most disparities when compared to the 50 states,” McSorley says.

    In the case of mental health, however, both the territories and the states had similar levels of people reporting poor outcomes.

    In Puerto Rico this was 12.8%, 12.4% in Guam, 11.7% in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 14.9% in the states.

    “There actually wasn’t this stark disparity,” McSorley says. “There were quite poor mental health outcomes when looking at all three territories as compared to the United States, which was also pretty alarming, and it indicates that there’s a need to really increase attention to mental health at a population level for the United States overall.”

    Given these findings, McSorley says she plans to expand upon the work she has been a part of surrounding the 988 mental health crisis hotline in the states to the territories.

    “Finding that the pattern of poor mental health is high for each of the jurisdictions that I looked at, it provides further evidence for the need to dig into that area.”

    McSorley has been working on issues of data equity as they relate to U.S. territories for years. Her work, including this paper, aims to increase the inclusion of the territories in federal data collection systems.

    “This is a baseline-level attempt to insert these data into the literature because they’re often missing,” McSorley says. “If the data are not there, we don’t have the ability to tell the story about what the population health characteristics look like at baseline.”

    McSorley, a member of the Data Capacity Subgroup for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, will disseminate these findings to territorial health officials and intends to continue contributing to reports that promote territorial data equity. She says that this kind of work is even more important now as federal databases are being taken down under the current administration. BRFSS has not been removed at this point to the best of her knowledge.

    “It’s really important to be able to add this to the literature at this time to describe some of the findings that are present within systems that traditionally have been publicly available, and we’re not certain for how much longer they might be,” McSorley says.

    This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision areas focused on Enhancing Health and Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice. This research was conducted at UConn Waterbury, where there is a growing emphasis on health research.

    Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Foreign Secretary speech in Lviv on the Special Tribunal

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    Foreign Secretary speech in Lviv on the Special Tribunal

    David Lammy outlines UK support for the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine during a visit to Lviv, Ukraine.

    It is a fitting time and place for this discussion.   

    It is remarkable that eighty years ago, Allied governments were dealing with detained Nazis, and thinking about accountability for the atrocities.  

    Some considered simple revenge.   But others favoured a different approach.   

    Holding those criminals accountable under international law.   

    Drawing in part on work by two great sons of this great city, Rafael Lemkin Sir Hersch Lauterpacht. 

    The resulting Nuremberg trials were a milestone in building a global order rooted in the rule of law and human rights.   

    Today, the pursuit of such a global order again seems a tall order.  

    Russia is waging a war of aggression, with mounting evidence that Russian soldiers are committing atrocities we would have hoped to consign to history – attacks which rain down on civilians, the deportation of children, torture and sexual abuse of civilians and prisoners of war.   

    Russian leaders show not the slightest concern for the lives of individuals or the laws of war.   

    But we need to remember figures like Lemkin were not naïve idealists.  Indeed, Sir Hersch wrote about anchoring his philosophy of international law in the ‘realities of international life’.  

    Precisely our task today.   

    We have it in our hands to hold those responsible for the invasion of Ukraine to account.  The UK is proud to have supported the idea of a Special Tribunal since the outset. 

    A Tribunal is an essential part of the armoury of justice, alongside the efforts of Ukrainian authorities to bring prosecutions inside Ukraine, and the work of the ICC.   

    As the country where Sir Hersch made his home, we are proud to support the Lviv Joint Statement and endorse the legal foundations for this Tribunal.  

    It will take time for a Tribunal to become operational. We support using the framework of the Council of Europe. But also believe we must expand the Core Group to more partners from beyond Europe.   

    The whole world is outraged at Russian crimes. The whole world should now come together to hold Russia to account. We must rally all countries in support of justice.  

    Our friends in Ukraine are staying true to the legacy of VE Day.  

    The legacy of Lemkin and Sir Hersch. 

    Thank you.

    Updates to this page

    Published 14 May 2025

    Invasion of Ukraine

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Change needed at sheltered plus schemes say councillors

    Source: City of Canterbury

    Home  »  Latest News   »   Change needed at sheltered plus schemes say councillors

    Change is desperately needed at Canterbury City Council’s Sheltered Plus housing schemes to save it and its tenants money and boost the quality of people’s homes. 

    That the is the conclusion of councillors from all political parties who took part in the Older Persons’ Accommodation Working Group after carefully examining the evidence. 

    Its report will be discussed by the Overview Committee at its meeting on 22 May. 

    The working group’s report says: “Sheltered Plus was put in place in 2018 with a large financial subsidy from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and a guarantee that it would remain unaltered for two years. 

    “The council has honoured that commitment and more. Six years have passed and the environment in which the council’s housing operates has changed dramatically and the status quo is not financially sustainable.” 

    The HRA is the dedicated account the council uses to pay for council housing and which tenants pay their rent into. 

    The report goes on: “The buildings are ageing and require significant capital investment for repairs, maintenance and modernisation. 

    “Many are dated with limited space [for tenants], no Wi-Fi or electric vehicle charging points.  

    “Society has changed dramatically since the schemes were designed and they no longer meet the needs or aspirations of many of today’s over-60s, which is reflected in limited demand.   

    “However, housing need in general is increasing and the council must make the best use of its scarce supply of affordable homes for the benefit of local households of all ages that desperately need a home. 

    “This review has conducted extensive research and the findings are clear.   

    “The full cost of the Sheltered Plus service is unaffordable to many because key elements of the service, such as night reassurance cover and the laundry service do not qualify for Housing Benefit, as they are personal care and not related to the provision of accommodation.   

    “The unfunded costs have been met by the HRA, which is not what it is intended for and, with the other financial pressures on the HRA, the situation is unsustainable. 

    “If the council is to survive as a social landlord, this hole in the finances must be addressed and services must adapt to changes in society to ensure they remain relevant for current and future generations.” 

    The working group recommendations include: 

    • standardising the service in sheltered housing and Sheltered Plus to provide a consistent service across the whole sheltered housing portfolio including removing the laundry service and stopping the provision of night reassurance cover 
    • reducing the number of Independent Living Managers 
    • improving the support provided by the Lifeline service 
    • expanding provision, including telecare and telehealth 
    • installing modern CCTV equipment, monitored by the council’s Central Control room 

    In its report, the working group recognises the current Sheltered Plus arrangements give tenants and their families peace of mind and make them feel secure. 

    It wants to listen closely to their views and concerns so we can take these fully into account before a decision is taken. 

    The same applies to those council staff members that would be affected. 

    The working group is recommending a comprehensive 12-week consultation.  

    This will include personal one-to-one meetings with tenants and their families as well as gathering the views of the Resident Engagement Panel and Independent Living Forum which represent tenants and meetings with key stakeholders. 

    The working group says each tenant would need a personalised support plan if the transition were to go ahead so residents are able to be carefully helped into the new arrangements. 

    The current Sheltered Plus service is unique and not found anywhere else in Kent.  

    It is provided at 127 properties across four schemes: 

    • Lang Court in Whitstable  
    • Cranmer House in Canterbury  
    • Collard House in Canterbury  
    • Whitgift Court in Canterbury  

    The service was designed through consultation with tenants and their families after Kent County Council withdrew its Supporting People Grant in March 2018. 

    They voted to keep and pay for services beyond standard sheltered housing including: 

    • an on-site, non-residential Independent Living Manager during weekday office hours 
    • a supported laundry service during weekdays because the kitchens of individual flats are too small to install a domestic washing machine, and tenants sometimes find the controls of the commercial-style machines in the communal laundry too heavy to operate 
    • on-call night reassurance service, seven nights a week, in case of emergency 
    • signposting to taking up activities, training, work or engaging with the community   
    • advice about accessing health care and social care.   

    At Whitgift Court and Lang Court there is a dedicated member of staff, whereas Collard House and Cranmer House share a member of staff and pay commensurately less.  

    The night reassurance service does not provide a hands-on response in an emergency but contacts the relevant service or family member.  

    The full cost of the Sheltered Plus service is too expensive for most tenants and a commitment was given by the council to subsidise the service for two years before it was reviewed, with the deficit underwritten by the HRA. 

    Both sheltered housing and Sheltered Plus are supported by the council’s Lifeline service which enables tenants to raise an alarm in an emergency. 

    The Overview Committee will meet at the Guildhall, St Peter’s Place, at 7pm on Thursday 22 May. 

    You can view the agenda and the working group’s full report here. 

    Published: 14 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2025 Discussions on Common Policies of Member Countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    May 6, 2025

    • Economic growth continues to be strong in the WAEMU. Inflation has fallen back to its target range, and recent improvements in regional external imbalances are supporting a strong recovery in reserves.
    • The Council of Ministers has agreed to submit for approval by Heads of State a proposal by the WAEMU Commission for a revised Convergence Pact maintaining the previous fiscal deficit and public debt ceilings of 3 and 70 percent of GDP, respectively.
    • Rapid adoption of this pact would signal a stronger commitment to debt sustainability and help guide sound fiscal policies. The WAEMU’s institutions should also continue to promote regional integration.

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the annual discussions on common policies of member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)[1]. The authorities have consented to the publication of the Staff Report prepared for this consultation.[2]

    Economic growth continues to be strong in the WAEMU, with heterogeneity across countries, while inflation has fallen. Economic growth rose above 6 percent in 2024, near the average of the past decade, although gaps in per capita income among member countries have continued to widen due to significant variations in economic growth. After rising above target for much 2024, inflation has also fallen back within its target range since November 2024, due to easing regional food price inflation and an appropriately tight monetary policy. The banking system remains resilient, although it maintains large exposures to regional sovereigns.

    Recent progress in reducing the WAEMU’s external imbalances, albeit with notable divergence among members, is supporting a strong recovery in reserves. After widening in 2021-2023, the WAEMU’s current account deficit narrowed significantly in 2024. The Central Bank of West African States’ (BCEAO) response to external reserves pressures has also been broadly appropriate, by tightening monetary policy via raising rates and containing the quantities of liquidity injected into the regional banking system. Reserves rebounded in late 2024 and early 2025, and are back above minimum adequate levels due mainly to windfall revenues from the annual cocoa harvest, high commodity prices, several IMF disbursements, and exports of new hydrocarbon resources in Niger and Senegal. The WAEMU’s external position is assessed to have been moderately weaker than fundamentals and desirable policy settings in 2024.

    Public debt ratios have increased significantly and heterogeneously in recent years due to large fiscal deficits and stock-flow adjustments. Ongoing progress in union-wide fiscal consolidation is welcome, although it is proceeding at a slower pace than anticipated mainly because of large data revisions in Senegal. Public debt continued to increase in 2024 beyond the level projected during the previous discussions on common policies, with considerable variation across the WAEMU (and particularly high debt in Senegal). Higher debt issuances are leading to heavier reliance on financing on the regional market, which has limited absorptive capacity and relatively high costs, and could pose a risk to external reserves.

     

    Executive Board Assessment[3]

    Executive Directors agreed with the thrust of the staff appraisal. They welcomed that the WAEMU is benefitting from strong growth, inflation within the target range, and progress in reducing fiscal and external imbalances, while also noting the significant divergence within the region. Highlighting that the region remains vulnerable to a wide range of shocks, Directors stressed the importance of prudent policies to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability and structural reforms to foster inclusive growth. They looked forward to the Fund’s continued support through tailored policy advice and financial and capacity development assistance.

    Directors stressed the importance of a commitment to debt sustainability, grounded in progress towards fiscal consolidation, measures to contain debt‑creating stock‑flow adjustments, and close monitoring of regional financing capacity. In that context, they commended the proposed reintroduction of the WAEMU Convergence Pact with the previous fiscal deficit and debt ceilings and called for its rapid adoption with a well‑designed escape clause, a correction mechanism, and credible enforcement. Fiscal adjustment should be driven by revenue mobilization to protect priority spending. Directors also stressed the importance of transparent and accurate reporting of fiscal data and enhanced debt transparency.

    Directors welcomed BCEAO’s tight monetary stance which helped bring inflation back to the target range and support reserves. Directors agreed that monetary policy should continue to be closely calibrated to external buffers and inflation developments, and that a cautious stance remains appropriate until there is a sustained recovery in reserve adequacy.

    Directors welcomed the resilience of the financial system but noted that the sovereign‑bank nexus continues to pose risks to financial stability. They encouraged the introduction of macroprudential regulatory measures to help restrain sovereign exposures, and capital surcharges to manage concentration risk. Directors stressed the importance of closely monitoring bank soundness indicators, addressing the remaining FSAP recommendations to strengthen financial stability and deepening, and taking the necessary additional steps to facilitate the removal of WAEMU members currently on the FATF grey list.

    Directors agreed that prosperity in the WAEMU will depend on progress on political cohesion, economic integration, and strengthening the regional institutional framework and infrastructure. A planned stabilization fund to support members impacted by idiosyncratic shocks could demonstrate regional solidarity, but contingent liability risks through leveraging should be avoided. Directors welcomed progress on the new fast payment system, which would promote efficiency, inclusion, and regional integration. Policies to diversify the economy and strengthen resilience would also be important.

    The views expressed by Executive Directors today will form part of the Article IV consultations with individual member‑countries that take place until the next Board discussion of WAEMU common policies. It is expected that the next regional discussions with the WAEMU authorities will be held on the standard 12‑month cycle.

    Table 1. WAEMU: Selected Economic and Social Indicators, 2021–29

    		    
                               

    Social Indicators

    		  
     
                               

    GDP

    		      

    Poverty (2021, latest available)

    		            

    Nominal GDP (2024, millions of US Dollars)

    219,784

    		    

    Headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP, percent of population)

    23.1

    		    

    GDP per capita (2024, US Dollars)

    1,447

    		    

    Undernourishment (percent of population)

    		    

    12.5

    		    
                               

    Population characteristics

    		      

    Inequality (2021, latest available)

    		            

    Total (2023, millions)

    145.3

    		    

    Income share held by highest 10 percent of population

    		  

    28.4

    		    

    Urban population (2023, percent of total)

    40.6

    		    

    Income share held by lowest 20 percent of population

    		  

    7.7

    		    

    Life expectancy at birth (2022, years)

    61.1

    		  

    Gini index

    		          

    35.4

    		    
                               
                               

    Economic Indicators

    		      
               
                       
     

    2021

    2022

    		  

    2023

    2024

    2025

    2026

    2027

    2028

    2029

    		    

     

     

     

    Act.

    SM/24/90. 1

    Est.

    Projected

     

     

     

    		    
                               
     

    (Annual Percentage Change)

    		      

    National income and prices

    		                          

      GDP at constant prices 2

    6.2

    5.9

    		  

    5.3

    6.8

    6.3

    6.4

    5.8

    5.9

    6.0

    5.9

    		    

      GDP per capita at constant prices

    3.2

    2.9

    		  

    2.4

    3.8

    3.3

    3.4

    2.8

    2.9

    3.0

    2.9

    		    

      Consumer prices (average)

    3.6

    7.6

    3.7

    3.2

    3.5

    2.9

    2.3

    2.0

    2.0

    2.0

    		  

      Terms of trade

    -6.3

    -12.3

    7.9

    4.2

    12.4

    9.3

    3.6

    -1.3

    -1.0

    -0.7

    		  

      Nominal effective exchange rate

    1.2

    -2.3

    		  

    6.3

    3.5

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    		    

      Real effective exchange rate

    1.5

    -3.6

    		  

    3.9

    3.0

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    		    
                               
     

    (Percent of GDP)

    		      

    National accounts

    		                          

      Gross national savings

    20.4

    18.8

    		  

    18.8

    22.4

    20.8

    21.7

    23.1

    23.2

    23.4

    23.8

    		    

      Gross domestic investment

    26.5

    28.8

    		  

    28.7

    27.5

    26.9

    26.2

    26.3

    26.7

    27.3

    27.7

    		    

          Of which: public investment

    6.8

    7.8

    		  

    7.7

    8.8

    6.8

    6.7

    7.2

    7.5

    7.8

    8.2

    		    
                               
     

    (Annual changes in percent of beginning-of-period broad money)

    Money and credit

    		                      

       Net foreign assets

    1.7

    -7.9

    		  

    -7.2

    0.5

    6.1

    2.7

    2.1

    3.2

    3.2

    2.2

       Net domestic assets

    16.9

    20.7

    		  

    10.0

    12.6

    3.4

    9.9

    10.3

    9.9

    9.7

    10.2

       Broad money

    18.0

    11.4

    		  

    3.5

    12.4

    8.9

    11.4

    12.4

    12.8

    12.6

    12.1

    Credit to the economy

    8.1

    9.0

    		  

    6.8

    6.7

    2.7

    7.2

    7.0

    6.6

    6.5

    6.3
                           
     

    (Percent of GDP, unless otherwise indicated)

    Government financial operations

    		                      

      Government total revenue, excl. grants

    16.1

    15.8

    		  

    16.5

    17.3

    16.6

    17.3

    17.7

    18.2

    18.5

    18.8

      Government expenditure

    23.9

    24.7

    		  

    23.8

    22.6

    22.4

    22.0

    21.8

    21.9

    22.2

    22.5

      Overall fiscal balance, excl. grants

    -7.8

    -9.0

    		  

    -7.3

    -5.3

    -5.8

    -4.6

    -4.1

    -3.7

    -3.7

    -3.7

      Overall fiscal balance, incl. grants

    -6.3

    -7.8

    		  

    -6.3

    -4.2

    -5.2

    -3.8

    -3.3

    -3.0

    -3.0

    -3.0
                           

    External sector

    		  

      Exports of goods and services 3

    20.0

    19.6

    		  

    17.7

    21.4

    18.8

    21.3

    21.8

    21.4

    20.9

    20.7

      Imports of goods and services 3

    25.9

    29.7

    		  

    27.5

    26.5

    24.6

    24.4

    23.8

    23.4

    23.3

    23.2

      Current account, excl. grants

    -6.6

    -10.7

    		  

    -10.2

    -5.4

    -6.5

    -4.9

    -3.5

    -3.7

    -4.1

    -4.1

      Current account, incl. grants

    -5.9

    -9.8

    		  

    -9.5

    -4.8

    -6.1

    -4.5

    -3.3

    -3.5

    -3.9

    -3.8

      External public debt

    36.3

    37.0

    		  

    38.9

    36.1

    39.9

    37.8

    36.6

    35.5

    33.8

    32.6

      Total public debt

    58.5

    61.5

    		  

    64.0

    59.6

    65.0

    63.4

    61.9

    60.4

    58.8

    57.5
                           

    Broad money

    40.7

    40.8

    		  

    39.1

    40.6

    38.8

    39.4

    41.0

    42.8

    44.6

    46.3
                           
                             

     

    Memorandum items:

    		                        

       Nominal GDP (billions of CFA francs)

        100,963

    112,343

    		  

    121,414

    131,429

    133,227

    145,965

    157,833

    170,313

    183,993

    198,973

    		  

       Nominal GDP per capita (US dollars)

    1,308

    1,259

    		  

    1,356

    1,436

    1,446

    1,508

    1,588

    1,663

    1,744

    1,831

    		  

       CFA franc per US dollars, average

    554.2

    622.4

    		  

    606.5

    606.2

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    		  

    Gross international reserves

    		                        

     In months of next year’s imports (of goods and services)

    5.0

    4.1

    		  

    3.5

    3.5

    4.6

    4.7

    4.8

    4.9

    5.1

    5.2

    		  

     In percent of current GDP

    13.9

    10.1

    		  

    7.8

    8.2

    10.1

    10.0

    10.1

    10.3

    10.6

    10.7

    		  

     In percent of the BCEAO’s sight liabilities

    79.7

    63.8

    		  

    56.9

    58.1

    66.9

    67.1

    66.5

    66.0

    66.2

    66.0

    		  

     In millions of US dollars

    24,172

    18,398

    		  

    15,764

    17,872

    21,593

    24,165

    26,254

    28,967

    32,156

    35,185

    		  

      Sources:  IMF, African Department database; World Economic Outlook; World Bank World Development Indicators; IMF staff

    estimates and projections.

    		  

      All projections presented were prepared in April 2025.

    		                                          

    1 Shows data from the IMF Country Report 24/90 issued on March 1, 2024.

    		                          

    2 The acceleration in GDP growth in 2024 is due to the start of production of large hydrocarbon projects in Niger and Senegal.

    		                          

    3 Excluding intraregional trade.

    		                                          
    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Julie Ziegler

    Phone: +1 202 623-7100Email: MEDIA@IMF.org

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/05/06/pr25130-imf-executive-board-concludes-2025-discussions-common-policies-member-countries-waemu

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Politics with Michelle Grattan: Andrew Leigh on more productive work in the age of AI

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    Australia’s productivity performance has stagnated for years, and Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared addressing this is a second term priority.

    “Productivity” is now an added part of the remit of Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh, along with his responsibility for competition, charities and Treasury matters.

    It’s an area to which Leigh brings some expertise. He is a former professor of economics at the Australian National University and has a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.

    He joins us to discuss productivity and more.

    On the concept of productivity, Leigh outlines some common misconceptions.

    A lot of people think of productivity as being working longer or working harder, rather than working smarter.

    Really, productivity should be how much you can produce per hour, not how much you can produce per year, because I don’t think any of us feel productive if we’re forced to work at night and the weekend when we don’t want to. Improving the way in which we use technology can be important to that.

    On why it has taken government so long to boost productivity, Leigh says:

    The measures tend to be lagging. And it’s about changing the structure of businesses, and sometimes that takes a while to take effect. So, for example in the computer revolution, you don’t immediately see that showing up in the productivity statistics. Same story for electrification a couple of generations earlier.

    These so-called general purpose technologies take a while before work is revamped around them. So too we can have problems that take a while to embed themselves, and then it can take a while to get out.

    On emerging artificial intelligence technology, Leigh, while aware of the concerns, says there’s great potential:

    I think we’re all concerned about the implications for privacy. I think there are reasons to be concerned about the potential anti-competitive aspects if the AI engines consolidate over coming years. But it’s also very clear that this is a technology with great potential to take away drudge parts of our jobs and allow people to focus on the most stimulating types.

    There are invariably job impacts of any technology that comes along, and artificial intelligence is no different from that. We don’t tend to be very good as economists at forecasting precisely where the jobs of the future will come and where they’ll go, but we do know that it’ll have an impact, and this is potentially as big a general purpose technology as any of the others that we’ve seen in the past.

    As a member of parliament from the Australian Capital Territory, Leigh remains keen that both territories get more representation in the Senate.

    I think the ACT [and] the Northern Territory send representatives of strong calibre to the federal parliament. And having more representation for the territories would be a great thing.

    To have more ACT senators, I think, would be a terrific thing. We saw in the last election a pretty ferocious attack from the conservatives on Canberra, and so having more voices in the federal parliament standing up for the ACT would be great.

    Michelle Grattan 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. Politics with Michelle Grattan: Andrew Leigh on more productive work in the age of AI – https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-andrew-leigh-on-more-productive-work-in-the-age-of-ai-256685

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: MSF denounces deliberate humanitarian catastrophe caused by siege on Gaza

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    The US-Israel proposition to control the distribution of supplies in Gaza, Palestine, under the guise of humanitarian aid raises grave humanitarian, ethical, security and legal concerns, says Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Making aid conditional on forced displacement and vetting of the population is another tool in the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population. MSF firmly rejects and condemns any plan that further reduces availability of aid and subjugates it to Israeli military occupation objectives.

    We are witnessing, in real time, the creation of conditions for the eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza, says MSF.

    The obstruction of humanitarian aid is a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2720, which calls for the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians. Claims that aid is being diverted by Hamas remain unverified and in no way justify such measures. As the occupying power, Israel must facilitate impartial humanitarian assistance for the population in need.

    UN, EU member states, and all those with influence over Israel must urgently use their political and economic leverage to stop the instrumentalisation of aid. Humanitarian supplies, food, fuel and medicines must be allowed to reach the population of Gaza now.

    Since Israel’s resumption of attacks and its total blockade of aid on 2 March, Gaza has become a hell on earth for Palestinians. The survival of Palestinians lies at the mercy of Israeli authorities, who are denying the entire population access to food, water, medical care and shelter. Israel continues to pursue its campaign of ethnic cleansing by deliberately destroying the conditions necessary for life.

    Organisations including World Central Kitchen and the World Food Programme (WFP) have announced that they have no more food stocks available in Gaza: most community kitchens and bakeries have closed. MSF medical teams in Gaza City have seen a 32 per cent increase in the number of patients presenting with malnutrition over the past two weeks.

    Dwindling fuel stocks are limiting the ability to desalinate and distribute water. Those health facilities that still function – already critically inadequate in number and capacity for the population – are still being attacked and are suffering from rapidly diminishing stocks of medications and other essential supplies. MSF teams in Gaza have received no supplies for 11 weeks and face critical shortages of essential medical items such as sterile compresses and sterile gloves.

    Israel’s evacuation orders and established no-go military zones now cover 70 per cent of Gaza. The population has been forcibly transferred from one place to another, while not a single area of Gaza has been spared from attacks. The desperateness of the situation is such that MSF teams have treated and discharged patients only to see them return with new injuries.

    Israel’s plan to instrumentalise aid is a cynical response to the very humanitarian crisis they created. If they wished, Israel and its allies could lift the blockade today and let humanitarian aid reach all those in Gaza whose survival depends on it.

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Assisted dying bill: religious MPs were more likely to oppose law change in first round of voting

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

    MPs are due to vote for a second time on the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill in parliament – a law that would legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales.

    The third reading stage will take place after a debate on Friday May 16 and would test MPs’ commitment to a change they initially supported at second reading in November 2024. In this first vote, the bill passed with 331 votes to 276 (with 35 abstentions), but in subsequent stages, the process has been more controversial. Emotions are running high and pressure groups have been vocal on both sides.

    As with many issues of morality, this is a free vote – MPs are not told what to do by their party. And after the second reading in November, MPs could, and did, give a range of reasons for how they voted, including their own experiences of loved ones’ final days, discussions with constituents, the experiences of other countries with assisted suicide – and also their religious views.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

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

    In that first vote, there were clear patterns in voting relating to religious affiliation. MPs with no religion were much more likely to support assisted dying.

    In this group, 76% voted for, while just 18% voted against. Christian MPs overall were more likely to oppose the bill, with 57% voting against with the most pronounced opposition coming from Catholics, who were 74% opposed.

    Muslim MPs were even more likely to vote against, with 84% of them on the no side. Jewish and Sikh MPs were both roughly twice as likely to support the bill as to oppose it, whereas Hindu MPs were more likely to oppose than support by the same margin. The one Buddhist MP – Suella Braverman – voted against.

    Beyond their own demographic, political or religious position, the views of their constituents are also expected to influence how MPs vote. To explore this, I conducted a regression analysis (a statistical method to find a relationship between factors) that included a range of constituency variables, such as the proportion of white residents and the percentage of each religious group (along with those identifying as non-religious).

    I also considered the percentage of constituents with no formal qualifications, graduates, and those reporting some form of disability. In the full model, which incorporated all these variables, none of the religious variables were found to be statistically significant, suggesting that localised religious lobbying did not have a measurable effect on MPs’ voting behaviour.

    However, an interesting finding is that MPs with a higher proportion of disabled people in their constituency were more likely to vote for assisted dying. It is not clear if this relationship is causal, suggesting they had been lobbied by their constituents to support the bill, or a correlation between disabled people being more likely to live in Labour constituencies.

    How MPs voted on assisted dying, November 2024

    Characteristic Overall Yes No Abstain
    Total 642 331 (52%) 276 (43%) 35 (5%)
    Female 261 143 (55%) 107 (41%) 11 (4.2%)
    Ethnic MP 90 30 (33%) 57 (63%) 3 (3.3%)
    LGBT 71 49 (69%) 18 (25%) 4 (5.6%)
    Elected As
    Labour 411 236 (57%) 155 (38%) 20 (4.9%)
    Conservative 121 23 (19%) 93 (77%) 5 (4.1%)
    Liberal Democrat 72 61 (85%) 11 (15%) 0 (0%)
    Scottish National Party 9 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 9 (100%)
    Independent 6 0 (0%) 6 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Democratic Unionist Party 5 0 (0%) 5 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Reform UK 5 3 (60%) 2 (40%) 0 (0%)
    Green Party 4 4 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
    Plaid Cymru 4 3 (75%) 1 (25%) 0 (0%)
    Social Democratic & Labour Party 2 1 (50%) 0 (0%) 1 (50%)
    Alliance 1 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Traditional Unionist Voice 1 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    Ulster Unionist Party 1 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)
    MP Religion
    None 234 179 (76%) 43 (18%) 12 (5.1%)
    Christian (all) 351 132 (38%) 199 (57%) 20 (5.7%)
    Catholic 35 7 (20%) 26 (74%) 2 (5.7%)
    Muslim 25 2 (8.0%) 21 (84%) 2 (8.0%)
    Jewish 13 8 (62%) 4 (31%) 1 (7.7%)
    Sikh 12 8 (67%) 4 (33%) 0 (0%)
    Hindu 6 2 (33%) 4 (67%) 0 (0%)
    Buddhist 1 0 (0%) 1 (100%) 0 (0%)

    Note: the vote tallies differ from that given by the parliament website because I have included tellers for both sides, and correctly assigned MPs who voted in both lobbies as abstentions.

    In the first vote, female MPs were slightly more likely to vote for assisted dying than against it. LGBT MPs leaned heavily towards support (with 69% voting in favour of the law change). And minority ethnic MPs leaned heavily in the opposite directions – with 63% voting against.

    Perhaps predictably, given the prime minister’s open support for assisted dying, Labour MPs supported the bill, with 57% voting in favour and 38% against.

    The Liberal Democrats were overwhelmingly supportive – 85% backed it – whereas 77% of Conservative MPs voted against. All Northern Irish unionist parties – as well as the independent unionist MP – voted against the bill, with no abstentions.

    Reform UK MPs were split, with two against and three in favour (albeit one of the three, the now-suspended Rupert Lowe, only after a survey of his own constituents).

    But there is an interesting story unfolding on the left of politics. The 2024 general election saw challenges to Labour from both the Green Party and so-called Gaza independents. In this free vote, we see the contrasting social views between these two groups play out.

    All Green MPs supported assisted dying, while all Gaza independents – and Jeremy Corbyn – opposed it. This divide echoes Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford’s framework in Brexitland, which distinguishes between “conviction identity liberals” and “ethnic minority ‘necessity liberals’”.

    The latter group aligns with conviction liberals on issues of discrimination due to self-interest, but often diverges on broader socially liberal issues such as assisted dying. Issues like assisted dying lay bare the tensions within this coalition.

    Identifying religion in parliament

    Religion is a personal matter so there is no official database that records the religious affiliation of MPs. It is therefore often impossible to test how religious views interact with voting behaviour. To address this gap, I built a dataset using a three-step methodology to determine MPs’ religious affiliation.

    Among MPs (excluding the Speaker and Sinn Fein MPs, who don’t take their seats), 54.7% (351) are Christian, including 5.5% (35) who are Catholic; 36.4% (234) have no religion; 3.9% (25) are Muslim; 2% (13) are Jewish; 1.9% (12) are Sikh; 0.9% (6) are Hindu; and 0.2% (1) is Buddhist.

    To work this out, I look first to see if an MP is a member of a religiously based group, such as Christians in Parliament. They are classified as belonging to that religion. Second, if an MP has publicly stated their religious beliefs – say, in a speech or interview – they are also classified accordingly.

    Labour MP John Healey is sworn in with a bible.
    Flickr/UK Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND

    These first two steps, however, cover only a fraction of MPs. Fortunately, all MPs are required to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown when sworn in. This oath can be made on a religious text or as a non-religious affirmation, and crucially MPs can choose which text to swear on, making this decision a meaningful and publicly visible indication of belief.

    That brings us to step three: the religious text (or lack thereof) used in the swearing-in ceremony is taken as an additional source of evidence for classification.

    These three sources are used in order of priority. For example, Tim Farron is a member of Christians in Parliament and has spoken openly about his faith, yet he chose to affirm without using a religious text. Even so, he is classified as Christian based on the first two criteria.

    What has been particularly interesting in this case has been the different voting patterns between Christian groups. I was able to set these groups apart because when MPs swear in, Catholics usually request specific versions of the Bible – such as the New Jerusalem Bible – whereas others might simply ask for “the Bible” and are given the King James Version.

    Treating Catholics as a distinct category allows for greater nuance in the analysis of the religious composition of parliament. A full breakdown of the religion of MPs, and the data used for this project, can be found here.

    We’ll soon be able to see how these markers interact with voting in the third reading.

    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 bill: religious MPs were more likely to oppose law change in first round of voting – https://theconversation.com/assisted-dying-bill-religious-mps-were-more-likely-to-oppose-law-change-in-first-round-of-voting-256503

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Do people really want to know their risk of getting Alzheimer’s?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Claudia Cooper, Professor of Psychological Medicine, Queen Mary University of London

    Tricky Shark/Shutterstock.com

    A new study has highlighted the complex emotions and ethical dilemmas of learning your future risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Among 274 healthy research participants from the US aged 65 and over, 40% declined to receive their personal risk estimates – despite having initially expressed an interest in doing so.

    These risk estimates were based on demographic data, brain imaging and blood biomarkers, offering an 82 to 84% accuracy in predicting the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease within five years. By comparison, age alone can predict this risk with 79% accuracy.

    So the value of these tests is modest in people without any cognitive symptoms, and there are potential risks to disclosing them. People told they are at increased risk of dementia describe how this can feel like an illness in itself – or being in limbo between health and disease – and cause distress.

    Participants who did not want to be tested cited the uncertainty of the result, the burden of knowing, and their negative experiences of witnessing Alzheimer’s disease in others. Those with a family history of Alzheimer’s were less likely to want to know their results – perhaps because of greater exposure to these negative experiences.

    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.

    Black participants were less likely to want to know, too, which the researchers suggest could relate to greater experiences of stress, stigma and discrimination, making the prospect of a positive test result feel more threatening.

    Perhaps the question here is not why more people didn’t want to know the result, but whether researchers should routinely offer them at all, given the lack of certainty of the results and the potential for distress.

    Another issue is their limited usefulness for people without symptoms. Addressing lifestyle risk factors, such as eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise, can reduce cognitive decline, a message the public is increasingly aware of. But knowing your risk doesn’t change the advice.

    In contrast to areas like breast cancer, where people at high risk of the disease can be offered preventative measures, such as drugs, surgery or enhanced screening, there are no comparable interventions to reduce dementia risk in people without symptoms.

    The authors of the new study explain that researchers used to be cautious about not sharing test results with participants in Alzheimer’s studies. But now there’s a growing expectation that people will be given their results. A proposed “bill of rights” for dementia research participants includes the right to get their results and have them clearly explained.

    It’s hard to explain how uncertain these results can be. People often worry about getting dementia in general, not just Alzheimer’s, which makes up about two-thirds of all cases. Some people who are told they have a low risk of Alzheimer’s may still develop another form of dementia, such as vascular dementia.

    The wider science that produced these future risk estimates has enabled the development of new diagnostic technologies unimaginable ten years ago. Similar blood tests can detect Alzheimer’s disease pathology in people with cognitive symptoms with over 90% accuracy, potentially enabling more accurate and timely dementia diagnoses.

    Blood tests

    Two major UK research programmes are piloting these blood tests in the NHS to support the more accurate diagnoses of some forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Improved and earlier detection is needed: a third of people with dementia in England and Northern Ireland are never diagnosed.

    The benefits of the first drugs to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease are modest. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence hasn’t yet been convinced that these drugs are worth the cost for the NHS.

    The NHS is trialling blood tests to spot early signs of Alzheimer’s.
    AntonSAN/Shutterstock.com

    Some might question a focus on identifying future risks for dementia before we have good treatments. But developing better treatments depends on the new scientific discoveries that are helping us detect Alzheimer’s earlier. Finding a treatment for an illness requires a detailed understanding of how that illness develops.

    We are closer to delivering accurate detection of Alzheimer’s disease than curative treatment. This presents a dilemma of how much to know about personal risk. Rights-based approaches situate this dilemma with the participant, to decide whether to know rather than researchers to decide whether to tell.

    For researchers, disclosing results compassionately and clearly is difficult and for some, the knowledge will cause distress, however well it is conveyed. The option to receive results should come with warnings.

    Claudia Cooper receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Dementia and Neurodegeneration Policy Research Unit (NIHR206110) and is supported by an NIHR Senior Investigator award (NIHR205009). The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the NHS or the Department of Health and Social Care. She received funding from ESRC/NIHR for the APPLE-Tree secondary dementia prevention programme from 2019-24 (ES/S010408/1). She works as a Professor of Psychological Medicine at Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London.

    – ref. Do people really want to know their risk of getting Alzheimer’s? – https://theconversation.com/do-people-really-want-to-know-their-risk-of-getting-alzheimers-256340

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade Åkerström explores how mothers carry their histories into their daughters’ lives

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Olumayokun Ogunde, PhD Candidate in English, City St George’s, University of London

    In Bitter Honey, novelist Lola Akinmade Åkerström explores the emotional undercurrents of motherhood and daughterhood. The novel reflects on how the past bears down on the present. How mothers carry their histories into their daughters’ lives – often uninvited, sometimes unrecognised.

    My research is concerned with narratives that crack open the heart of African motherhood, stories that strive not only to expose pain, but to understand it. Bitter Honey gestures towards this emotional terrain.

    One particular line is emblematic of this exploration: “‘When I was your age, I moved to Sweden without my mother. With nobody.’ Tina has heard this story a million times.” It captures both the weariness of inherited trauma and the fragility of the desire for understanding that threads through the novel.

    Bitter Honey begins with the promise of protagonist Tina’s rising stardom. Alone in a dressing room, navigating fame and the sudden reappearance of her absentee father, Tina’s story has all the markings of a Bildungsroman (a coming-of-age novel shaped by psychological and moral growth). But the novel’s emotional nucleus is not fame, nor even fatherhood – it’s Tina’s mother, Nancy. Or at least, it wants to be.

    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.

    Nancy’s story is one of deep and curdled regret. Akinmade crafts a portrait of a woman who once stood at the cusp of a glamorous new world, having fallen in love with Malik, an ambassador’s son who offers her access to elite circles, state dinners and the Swedish prime minister. But it is Lars, her white Swedish professor, who slowly unpicks the seams of her life.

    The novel promises a sense of romantic tension, inviting the reader to feel torn between Malik’s genuine warmth and Lars’s sophistication. But no such ambivalence materialises.

    Lars is not charming. He is jealous, controlling and ultimately predatory. Akinmade’s portrayal of Lars makes it clear: he is not a romantic dilemma, he is a colonising force. Nancy’s life with him is one of slow suffocation, and her daughter Tina is born of that rupture.

    Throughout the novel, there are subtle allusions and at times more overt depictions of Tina’s struggle with her mixed heritage. However, these moments feel overwritten, particularly in lines such as Tina’s desire to “fully wear her mixed skin”.

    While the phrasing may aim for poetic resonance, for me, it comes across as reductive. The metaphor inadvertently simplifies a complex and embodied experience, raising uneasy questions. Can identity be worn? Is it something that can be adorned, removed or chosen at will?

    Akinmade appears to be engaging with the constructedness of race and the illusion of agency within African diasporic identity. But Tina’s exploration of these themes lacks depth. There remains a striking incongruity between how she understands herself and how the world perceives her.

    At times her lack of critical self-awareness is jarring. Particularly when set against the more richly developed and emotionally layered portrayal of Nancy.

    Love and regret

    Where Akinmade excels is in her rendering of Nancy. Her character is more vividly drawn, more emotionally accessible than Tina’s. We see her consumed by grief and fear, mothering from a place of survival rather than nurture.

    “She would have resisted him. Even if it meant Tobias and Tina vanishing into thin air, never existing.” This is the agonising truth of Nancy’s lifetime: that her children are reminders of her own loss of agency. Her love is knotted with regret.

    There’s an urgent question running through Bitter Honey. What does it mean to parent when your life has been violently derailed by structures beyond your control?

    This legacy of cultural dislocation is a theme Akinmade touches on but stops short of fully exploring. Nancy, as an immigrant mother, carries a kind of preemptive grief. Her decisions are shaped not just by personal trauma but by a constant anticipation of harm. The immigrant mother often exists in survival mode, where care is expressed not through softness, but vigilance.

    “You figured I have no agency without him?” A line Tina delivers in a moment of confrontation typifies the novel’s uneven dialogue. Akinmade at times stumbles into phrasing that feels stilted or overwrought, reducing what could be moments of real emotional depth into awkward exchanges. Yet her broader ambition, to map generational wounds and diasporic complexity, is clear.

    The novel’s scope is wide. We move between Sweden and the United States, from the 70s to 2006, witnessing how each locale produces different shades of diasporic identity.

    Akinmade is particularly attuned to how Gambian communities shift across contexts – Gambians in Sweden are not like those in London or in New York. This specificity highlights that place informs not only experience but the perception of self.

    Ultimately, Bitter Honey is at its most compelling when it slows down, when it allows Nancy’s grief to speak plainly. One of the novel’s most poignant lines arrives when Nancy warns Tina before she signs with an American label that brands her the “Swedish siren”.

    “The world gives you your heart’s desires, then violently rips it away from your hands when you’re most vulnerable. Please stay vigilant.” Here, Akinmade captures the cruel irony of diasporic ambition, the way success can echo colonial exploitation, offering visibility at the cost of safety.

    Through Tina, the reader is kept at a remove from the raw reality of Nancy. The moments where we begin to glimpse the true texture of her life, her regret, her protectiveness, her survival, are all too fleeting.

    What would their lives look like without this fear? This is the novel’s quiet, unanswered question. Are these maternal guardrails protection or shackles? Bitter Honey doesn’t offer a resolution. But in asking, it reveals the aching legacy that mothers like Nancy pass down: not just trauma, but the impossible task of surviving without softness.

    Olumayokun Ogunde 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. Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade Åkerström explores how mothers carry their histories into their daughters’ lives – https://theconversation.com/bitter-honey-by-lola-akinmade-akerstrom-explores-how-mothers-carry-their-histories-into-their-daughters-lives-254527

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Mrs Dalloway at 100: Virginia Woolf’s timeless novel is a work of pandemic fiction

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anna Snaith, Professor of Twentieth-Century Literature, King’s College London

    Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, set on a June day in 1923, is unusual in that its two protagonists – society hostess Clarissa Dalloway and shell-shocked veteran Septimus Smith – never meet.

    Published 100 years ago on May 14 1925, the novel follows Clarissa as she prepares to host a party. She is visited by a former suitor, Peter Walsh, who has just returned from India. Her movements on London’s streets are intertwined with those of her husband, Richard, and daughter, Elizabeth, as well as a host of minor characters.

    Simultaneously, Septimus is experiencing what we would now understand as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by his service in the first world war. His sense of London as an apocalyptic war zone is exacerbated by his treatment at the hands of his doctors and their refusal to “hear” his trauma.

    Mrs Dalloway has inspired and continues to inspire numerous creative responses and reworkings, such as Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours (1998) and Wayne McGregor’s triptych ballet Woolf Works (2015). The novel now has its own biography by Mark Hussey due to be published next month and DallowayDay celebrations that echo James Joyce’s Bloomsday.

    A century on, Mrs Dalloway speaks in so many ways to our own moment of militarisation, neo-imperialism and political crisis. In her diary, Woolf wrote that she wanted to “criticise the social system and to show it at work” and the novel offers an often excoriating critique of the military industrial complex of interwar Britain.

    This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

    In her representation of returned soldier Septimus Smith’s PTSD, Woolf complicates the characters’ refrain that the “war is over” and the collective refusal to acknowledge the trauma of trench warfare. She was ahead of her time as a woman writing about war and in her literary depiction of the term and experience of “shell shock” so soon after the conflict when the condition was still often understood to be cowardice and malingering.

    Septimus’s trauma connects to the unspecified “illness” experienced by Clarissa, wife of a Conservative MP, preparing to host a party that evening. Woolf takes this privileged figure, who appears in her first novel The Voyage Out (1915) as a satirical cameo, and in this iteration offers the reader her rich inner life: her complex stream of thoughts, sensations and philosophical musings.

    The original book jacket.
    Wiki Commons

    Woolf’s acquaintance Kitty Maxse may have been the model for Clarissa. Kitty fell down the stairs to her death, raising the possibility of suicide. Instead, Woolf has Septimus commit suicide when he is faced with the threat of incarceration and the “rest cure”. News of the tragedy interrupts Clarissa’s party, but she understands his act: “Death was defiance. Death was an attempt to communicate … Somehow it was her disaster – her disgrace.”

    Clarissa feels herself, like Septimus, to be expendable: “She had the oddest sense of being herself invisible; unseen; unknown; there being no more marrying; no more having of children … this being Mrs Dalloway; not even Clarissa anymore.”

    Clarissa is 52 and, while the menopause is not mentioned directly, Woolf touches here in such a prescient way on the medicalisation and pathologising of women’s health. The novel is radical in its centring of a middle-aged protagonist – the novel form bends as it is uncoupled from the marriage plot. Woolf’s complex treatment of ageing – “she felt very young; at the same time unspeakably aged” – and the sense of both loss and possibility is acutely felt.

    Clarissa’s conformity to social expectations includes the suppression of her queer desires. Alone in her upstairs room, she reminisces about her “falling in love with women” and more specifically, her kiss with Sally Seton: “the most exquisite moment of her whole life … the whole world might have turned upside down!” Again, in her representation of queer lives, Woolf overturned the status quo.

    Mrs Dalloway and the pandemic

    In its engagement with feminist and queer politics, then, the novel has enduring appeal. But its post-COVID appreciation as a pandemic novel has meant that the novel has been read afresh by a whole new audience. Woolf and Clarissa are both survivors of the post-first world war influenza pandemic (known as the Spanish flu), which infected a third of the global population and caused an estimated 50-100 million deaths.

    We learn that Clarissa had “grown very white since her illness”, “her heart, affected, they said, by influenza”. Her sheer joy at walking London’s summer streets and mixing with crowds of passersby is a legacy of the pandemic as is the sense of loss and tolling of bells that echo through the novel.

    Critic Elizabeth Outka in Viral Modernism: the Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature (2019) has read the pandemic into the novel’s mobile and multifarious perspective.

    [It has] a narrative perspective that could move as nimbly among bodies as a virus, a plot defined less by linear timelines and more by temporal and experiential fluidity, and a structure that could express the delirious, hallucinatory reality that infused the culture.

    Clarissa has a poignant sense of the horror (“it was very, very dangerous to live even one day”) and joy (“in the triumph and the jingle … was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June”) of existence.

    The legacy of the war is present not only in Septimus’s trauma but in a wider civilian trepidation. In one scene, a skywriting aeroplane recalls the aerial and aural threat of wartime air raids over London. In another, a backfiring car sounds to Clarissa like a “violent explosion” or a pistol shot.

    The novel both registers the collective trauma of war but finds solace in the noisy, connective dynamism and diversity of urban life. Perhaps it is in Woolf’s acknowledgement of both the enormity and the minutiae of daily existence that this novel continues to speak to a contemporary readership.

    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.

    Anna Snaith 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. Mrs Dalloway at 100: Virginia Woolf’s timeless novel is a work of pandemic fiction – https://theconversation.com/mrs-dalloway-at-100-virginia-woolfs-timeless-novel-is-a-work-of-pandemic-fiction-256642

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How 7,000 steps a day could help reduce your risk of cancer

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mhairi Morris, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, Loughborough University

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Physical inactivity costs the UK an estimated £7.4 billion each year — but more importantly, it costs lives. In today’s increasingly sedentary world, sitting too much is raising the risk of many serious diseases, including cancer. But could something as simple as walking offer real protection?

    It turns out the answer may be yes.

    A growing body of research shows that regular physical activity can lower the risk of cancer. Now, recent findings from the University of Oxford add more weight to that idea. According to a large study involving over 85,000 people in the UK, the more steps you take each day, the lower your chances of developing up to 13 different types of cancer.

    In the study, participants wore activity trackers that measured both the amount and intensity of their daily movement. On average, researchers followed up with participants six years later. They found a clear pattern: more steps meant lower cancer risk, regardless of how fast those steps were taken.

    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 benefits began to appear at around 5,000 steps a day – anything below that didn’t seem to offer much protection.

    At 7,000 steps, the risk of developing cancer dropped by 11%. At 9,000 steps, it dropped by 16%. Beyond 9,000 steps, the benefits levelled off. The difference in risk reduction became marginal, and varied slightly between men and women.

    These findings support the popular recommendation of aiming for 10,000 steps a day – not just for general health, but potentially for cancer prevention too. These associations also held up when results were adjusted for demographic, BMI and other lifestyle factors, such as smoking, suggesting that the observed changes in cancer risk were indeed down to the average number of daily steps a participant took.

    Step intensity was also analysed – essentially, how fast participants were walking. Researchers found that faster walking was linked with lower cancer risk. However, when total physical activity was taken into account, the speed of walking no longer made a statistically significant difference. In other words: it’s the total amount of walking that counts, not how brisk it is.

    Likewise, replacing sitting time with either light or moderate activity lowered cancer risk – but swapping light activity for moderate activity didn’t offer additional benefits. So just moving more, at any pace, appears to be what matters most.

    The researchers looked at 13 specific cancers, including oesophageal, liver, lung, kidney, gastric, endometrial, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, colon, head and neck, rectal, bladder and breast.

    Over the six year follow-up period, around 3% of participants developed one of these cancers. The most common were colon, rectal, and lung cancers in men, and breast, colon, endometrial, and lung cancers in women.

    Higher physical activity levels were most strongly linked to reduced risk of six cancers: gastric, bladder, liver, endometrial, lung and head and neck.

    Break it up

    Previous studies have relied on self-reported activity logs, which can be unreliable – people often forget or misjudge their activity levels. This study used wearable devices, providing a more accurate picture of how much and how intensely people were moving.

    The study also stands out because it didn’t focus solely on vigorous exercise. Many past studies have shown that intense workouts can reduce cancer risk – but not everyone is able (or willing) to hit the gym hard. This new research shows that even light activity like walking can make a difference, making cancer prevention more accessible to more people.

    Walking just two miles a day – roughly 4,000 steps, or about 40 minutes of light walking – could make a significant impact on your long-term health. You don’t have to do it all at once either. Break it up throughout the day by: taking the stairs instead of the lift; having a stroll at lunchtime; walking during phone calls; parking a bit further away from your destination.

    Getting more steps into your routine, especially during middle age, could be one of the simplest ways to lower your risk of developing certain cancers.

    Of course, the link between physical activity and cancer is complex. More long-term research is needed, especially focused on individual cancer types, to better understand why walking helps – and how we can make movement a regular part of cancer prevention strategies.

    But for now, the message is clear: sit less, move more – and you could walk your way toward better health.

    Mhairi Morris 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 7,000 steps a day could help reduce your risk of cancer – https://theconversation.com/how-7-000-steps-a-day-could-help-reduce-your-risk-of-cancer-255564

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: From boomers to Gen Z: How to solve the public sector succession crisis

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By W. Dominika Wranik, Professor, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University

    Public servants are the backbone of Canadian government. Canadians expect them to act in the best interest of society, to uphold Canadian democratic institutions, to steward public monies and to deliver programs and services.

    But as retirements surge, how can governments attract young people to work for them? It’s difficult when governments suffer from poor reputations, low public trust and offer working conditions that may not appeal to young people.

    What do young Canadians want from their careers, and what will it take for public service to win them over?

    This issue, among others concerning Canadian public servants, are currently being studied at the Professional Motivations Research Lab at Dalhousie University. The lab is led by the lead author of this piece, Dominika Wranik, whose work focuses on measuring and explaining the motivations of professionals in the public service.

    The lab’s insights shed light on the factors that influence how young people make decisions about whether to work for the public sector.

    Looming labour shortage

    In 1966, there were 7.7 working-age individuals for every senior in Canada. But in 2022, the ratio dropped to 3.4 and is projected to drop further over the next decade.

    A labour shortage will create increased competition for top talent between the public and private sector, an issue for governments as research has shown a growing disinterest among youth in pursuing civil service careers.

    Recruitment to the public service is further complicated by declining perceptions of competence and trust in Canadian public institutions. With studies demonstrating that applicants’ perceptions of an organization’s competence affect their attraction to working there, Canadian governments also run the risk of losing potential applicants who don’t view Canada’s public institutions as being competent or trustworthy.

    These challenges come as young Canadians enter the workforce with more career options than ever before, and different expectations from previous generations.

    Salary not the sole motivator

    Young Canadians are not solely interested in high incomes, but also in workplaces that provide a healthy work/life balance and align with their values.

    Data collected in 2024, for example, shows that 87 per cent of British Columbians between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer employers that are socially and environmentally responsible, with 61 per cent stating they would only work for such companies.

    This means Canadian governments are currently finding themselves in a perilous situation, where rising suspicion about their trustworthiness and competence, paired with growing disinterest in the public sector as a whole, means they’re not positioned well to navigate an impending labour shortage.

    Strengthening their capacity to attract and recruit the next generation of workers is therefore imperative, not only for upholding public institutions, but also for rebuilding trust in government.

    In the effort to resolve this issue and enhance recruitment to the public service, Canadian government officials must pore over existing research into the factors that determine why youth and those just entering the labour market — people between the ages of 13 to 27, known as Gen Z — pursue or refrain from pursing public service jobs.

    Some research suggests the three variables that potentially predict whether a member of Gen Z is inclined to pursue a career in the public sector are:

    Perceptions

    In terms of perceptions of the public sector, a recent study found that when choosing between the public and private sectors, university students in Norway and Poland were most influenced by their views of the public sector.

    The more positive the outlook — for example, that public sector work is considered less bureaucratic and less inefficient — the higher the preference to work in the public sector, and vice versa.

    This finding was echoed by racialized minorities in the United States. A 2022 study found that Black, Asian and Latinx young adults between the ages of 18-36 were largely turned off by government work due to perceptions that they weren’t represented or well-served by their “largely white, male and wealthy” local, state or federal government representatives.

    In Canada, a study led by the Public Policy Forum discovered that perceptions of the nature of government work also had a significant impact on a student’s decision to pursue a career in the public sector. Students who chose to enter the public service cited “opportunities to examine a wide range of complex challenges and help create policy solutions that can have a positive impact on many communities.”

    Motivations

    In terms of having public service motivation (PSM) — which refers to an individual’s inclination to serve the public interest — studies have found that members of Gen Z are more likely to be drawn to the public sector if they are high in PSM.

    Specifically, a study of Gen Z students in criminal justice programs found that those who identified with PSM tenets — such as “meaningful public service is very important to me” and “making a difference in society means more to me than personal achievements” — had a significantly higher likelihood of choosing the public sector over the private sector.

    Similarly, an interdisciplinary sample of undergraduate students with higher levels of PSM — and who therefore identified with the PSM dimensions of self-sacrifice, compassion and commitment to public values — were more likely to have a preference for the public sector.

    Job attributes

    Preferred job attributes also influence the employment choices of members of Gen Z. The aforementioned research on Norwegian and Polish youth and another 2017 study by Canada’s Public Policy Forum (2017) find that when Gen Z students are interested in public sector work, it’s due to the semblance of financial and job security.

    Given the growing disinterest among the Canadian population in pursuing employment in the public sector, new insights about what attracts Gen Z workers to the public sector should be required reading by governments across Canada.



    Read more:
    Public service reflections: Why the role of civil servants must evolve to ensure public trust

    Understanding Gen Z’s misgiving about public sector work will help better position governments to compete with the private sector to recruit the next generation of employees.

    With perceptions of government competence and trustworthiness continuing to fall, it is imperative that Canadian public policymakers take significant steps to engage with Gen Z students and workers to create employment conditions that are attractive and aligned with their values.

    The next generation of government leaders in Canada are currently in high school, college or university classrooms across the country, meaning that research centred in educational institutions is uniquely positioned to uncover valuable regarding how public sector employment is perceived.

    Therefore, government-led engagement that is conducted through town halls, workshops and focus groups can help strengthen trust in government while familiarizing Gen Z students with government careers.

    W. Dominika Wranik receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In the past, she has held funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Mitacs, Research Nova Scotia, and the EU Horizon 2020, as well as short-term funding from several provincial and federal government departments. Dr. Wranik serves as an expert consultant for Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC).

    Alec Brooks and Payton Nicol do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. From boomers to Gen Z: How to solve the public sector succession crisis – https://theconversation.com/from-boomers-to-gen-z-how-to-solve-the-public-sector-succession-crisis-255077

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s tariff threat to foreign films overlooks the value of multilingual cinema

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Gaelle Planchenault, Associate Professor of French Media, Culture, and Applied Linguistics, Simon Fraser University

    With the 78th Cannes International Film Festival underway this week, there is little doubt that one topic will be central to conversations among filmmakers, sales agents and journalists: United States President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 per cent tax on foreign-made films.

    Amid an ongoing tariff war, Trump’s proposal — which may ultimately remain an empty threat — goes beyond economic protectionism. It is cultural protectionism. It also reflects language ideologies that have long constrained the American film industry and American engagement with multilingual cinema.

    Experts have offered various theories about the motivations behind this threat, as well as why it may ultimately prove unwise. In the rush to brace for impact, we often forget the values behind these extreme positions aren’t new. More importantly, we must also remember why it’s vital to protect these cultural expressions.

    As a linguist, I see a clear connection between this proposal and one of the administration’s actions earlier this year, when Trump signed an executive order designating English as the country’s sole official language. This move reflected a deeply rooted monolingual ideology that has long influenced both the U.S. language policy and education systems.



    Read more:
    Trump’s English language order upends America’s long multilingual history

    Monolingual ideology

    Such language ideology reflects a belief in the superiority of monolingualism, a view that American linguist Rosina Lippi-Green links to the “myth of Standard American English.”

    This myth is grounded in the subordination by one dialect, believed to be of higher quality and status, over other languages and dialects. According to Lippi-Green, the enforcement of this ideology follows a systematic process: language is mystified, authority is claimed and a series of negative consequences ensue. Misinformation is generated, targeted languages are trivialized, non-conformers are vilified or marginalized and threats are made.

    Such authority and threats are recognizable in this most recent threat to make access to foreign films difficult. The issue is not just about the economic dimension of foreign-made films. It is also about the perceived threat posed by the presence and influence of other languages. At its core, this reflects a fear or rejection of linguistic diversity.

    In the film industry, this monolingual ideology is closely tied to glottophobic attitudes, also referred to by some scholars as linguicism. These terms define the misrepresentation and negative stereotyping of speakers of languages other than English.

    Hollywood, in particular, has a long history of portraying foreign or heritage languages in stereotypical and often derogatory ways. Consider, for instance, the German-speaking characters in Second World War films, or more recent depictions of Arabic, Mexican Spanish or Russian speakers.

    These portrayals illustrate a tendency to depict other languages as menacing — a point that was also made in the American president’s claim that foreign films pose a “threat” because they constitute “messaging and propaganda.”

    Linguistic stereotyping

    It’s not just characters who speak other languages who have been misrepresented in American films. Those who speak English as a second language — that is with an accent or with a syntax that is marked by their first language — were often played by white actors and subject to similar derogatory stereotypes.

    Linguists have identified patterns in these linguistic representations, referring to them as Injun English, Mock Spanish or yellow voices, among others.

    Lippi-Green has famously argued that such linguistic depictions are ways to reinforce standard language ideologies through linguistic stereotyping in media, including popular Disney cartoons. They effectively teach American children how to discriminate.

    In my work, I examined French-accented English to demonstrate that these representations reflect broader cultural anxieties. Ultimately, this rhetoric reveals more about the U.S. relationship with linguistic diversity than it does about the communities being portrayed.

    Trump has made reference to “any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands.” But it remains unclear how such measures would impact streaming platforms and the diverse range of films they currently offer.

    Hollywood has come a long way since the heydays of linguicism, gradually embracing a more inclusive and multilingual cinematic landscape. Today, films that present a more diverse linguistic landscape are increasingly common. And audiences are accustomed to having access to a wide selection of international content.

    The global success of the French series Call My Agent is just one example. Among others are popular French spy thrillers and romances, Swedish thrillers, Japanese anime and Korean dystopian series.

    The pleasure of watching foreign films

    For years, foreign language films have been recognized as an invaluable resource for language learning. This fact is supported by language learning apps that increasingly recommend users to view TV programs or movies to support learning. Movies and TV provide access to a variety of dialects as well as authentic forms of language.

    As a professor of French media and linguistics, I often use films to teach students about French language and culture. But beyond their educational benefits, foreign-language films offer unique esthetic and emotional pleasures.

    A press image for the show Call My Agent.
    Netflix

    Watching a film is to engage with sound and image. The language itself enhances the immersive experience, contributing to the authenticity of the storytelling. For example, one of my students told me he enjoys turning on closed captions in French. These are also known as SDH: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing. He does this not just for the dialogue but because they capture the full cinematic experience, including the naming of sounds.

    Restricting access to these cultural products would trap viewers in an ideological echo chamber, where only one language is heard and validated.

    Fictional representations play a powerful role in shaping and reinforcing real-world attitudes. Monolingual representations potentially foster linguistic discrimination and intolerance toward any word uttered with an accent or in another language. In short, such restrictions could pave the way for a partial and stunted society.

    Gaelle Planchenault 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. Trump’s tariff threat to foreign films overlooks the value of multilingual cinema – https://theconversation.com/trumps-tariff-threat-to-foreign-films-overlooks-the-value-of-multilingual-cinema-256323

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: CE: Middle East visit yields fruitful results and elevates Hong Kong’s relations with Qatar and Kuwait to new level (with photos/videos)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         â€‹The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, today (May 14) led a business delegation comprising representatives from Hong Kong and Mainland enterprises to continue its visit programme to Kuwait. He met with representatives of the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) and exchanged views with local political and business leaders. He witnessed the achievement of multiple outcomes of co-operation between government departments, enterprises and organisations of Hong Kong, the Mainland and Kuwait, including the signing of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs). He also visited a local enterprise.
     
    In the morning, Mr Lee met with the Director General of the KDIPA, Dr Meshaal Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, to learn about Kuwait’s strategies and achievements in attracting business and investment. Mr Lee noted that last year, Kuwait was Hong Kong’s sixth-largest trading partner in the Middle East, and both places have significant room for development in trade and business between the two places. Hong Kong will continue to serve as a bridge to assist enterprises in going global and attracting external investment, welcoming Kuwaiti enterprises to leverage Hong Kong’s world-class financing support and professional services to explore international markets.
     
    Mr Lee later attended a business luncheon cohosted by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Dubai and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, where he delivered a speech to near 300 local business leaders promoting Hong Kong’s business advantages and development opportunities. He highlighted that the merchandise trade between Hong Kong and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) reached nearly US$20 billion last year, an increase of over 53 per cent in the past four years, while Hong Kong’s merchandise trade with Kuwait last year amounted to US$200 million, up more than 20 per cent from the previous year. Hong Kong is an international financial centre and the world’s largest offshore Renminbi business hub. Hong Kong and Mainland enterprises can complement each other’s strengths. Hong Kong will give full play to its role as a “super connector” and “super value-adder” to deepen international exchanges and co-operation. Mr Lee added that he believes the ties and co-operation between Hong Kong and Kuwait will continue to flourish.
     
    At the luncheon, government departments, enterprises, and organisations from Hong Kong, the Mainland, and Kuwait exchanged and announced 24 MOUs and co-operation agreements, covering areas such as economy and trade, investment, financial services, technology, legal co-operation, cargo clearance and flow, aviation, and post-secondary education.
     
    In the afternoon, Mr Lee and the delegation visited Zain Group, a major mobile telecommunications company, to learn about its business in innovative technologies and digital communications, and exchanged views with company representatives on topics such as drones, AI, and smart city development. Mr Lee remarked that Hong Kong is actively developing into an international innovation and technology centre, and he welcomes the company to invest and pursue co-operation opportunities in Hong Kong.
     
    In the evening, Mr Lee will host a dinner for members of the business delegation comprising representatives from Hong Kong and Mainland enterprises to thank them for their active participation in the programme of the past four days and for working together to explore co-operation opportunities for Hong Kong and the Mainland in the Middle East.
     
    Concluding the visit, Mr Lee said that the business delegation comprising representatives from Hong Kong and Mainland enterprises, which he led to visit Qatar and Kuwait, has yielded fruitful results. He mentioned that the Middle East visit successfully made achievements in six areas, namely:

    1. further strengthening the relationship between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the governments of Qatar and Kuwait, and building consensus for collaboration;
    2. reaching a total of 59 MOUs and agreements, laying a diversified foundation;
    3. leveraging Hong Kong’s strengths under the “one country, two systems” principle in connecting the Mainland and the world, deepening international exchanges and co-operation, and demonstrating the synergistic power of the complementary advantages between Hong Kong and the Mainland;
    4. further building relations with the GCC countries to explore greater business opportunities;
    5. deepening mutual understanding and strengthening commercial and trading networks; and
    6. further enhancing cultural exchanges with the GCC countries.

     
    Mr Lee said that Hong Kong has the distinctive advantages of enjoying strong support of the motherland and being closely connected to the world, noting that the Middle East countries are actively diversifying risks and seeking investment opportunities in China and the HKSAR, which aligns with the global economic shift towards the East. The opportunities in Hong Kong are limitless. This Middle East visit has elevated Hong Kong’s relations with Qatar and Kuwait to a new level, bringing more business opportunities to Hong Kong.
     
    Mr Lee will return to Hong Kong tomorrow (May 15).

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: M&S cyberattacks used a little-known but dangerous technique

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Rincon, Commissioning Editor, Science, Technology and Business

    Richard OD / Shutterstock

    The cyberattack that has targeted Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) is the latest in a growing wave of cases involving something called sim-swap fraud. While the full technical details remain under investigation, a report in the Times suggests that cyber attackers used this method to access M&S internal systems, possibly by taking control of an employee’s mobile number and convincing IT staff to reset critical login credentials.

    Sim-swap fraud is not a new phenomenon, but it is becoming increasingly dangerous
    and more prevalent. According to CIFAS, the UK’s national fraud prevention service, Sim-swap incidents have surged from under 300 in 2022 to almost 3,000 in 2023. What had been mainly a risk to cryptocurrency investors or online influencers is now much more prevalent.

    This form of cyberattack shows how major companies and ordinary people can be compromised through a tactic that exploits human factors, such as trust and how we have built our digital identities around mobile phones.

    Sim-swap fraud begins when a scammer convinces a mobile operator to transfer a victim’s number to a new sim card, or even an esim (one that’s embedded in the device), under the scammer’s control.

    This can be done over the phone, through an online chat, or even with the help of a
    bribed insider. Once the number is transferred, all calls and texts intended for the victim are redirected to the scammer. This includes those crucial verification codes used for logging into email, banking, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and government services such as HMRC.

    This alone would be dangerous. But what makes sim-swap fraud so influential is
    that the cyber scammer often already has access to a patchwork of personal data
    about their target. That information may have been collected from data breaches,
    phishing attacks, low-reputation websites, or even the victim’s social media.

    People often underestimate the extent to which they reveal themselves online: a birthday posted on Instagram, a phone number included in a job posting, or a home address used in an online giveaway. Scammers combine this data to build a convincing profile, enough to fool a mobile operator’s customer service staff into believing they’re talking to the real account holder.

    How the sim-swap fraud works

    Once the scammer gains control of a number, the consequences are extensive.
    Attackers can access sensitive information, including personal documents and
    request and receive password reset links for the user’s other accounts. They can log in to WhatsApp or Telegram accounts, read private messages, impersonate the user, and even contact friends or family members to conduct further scams.

    The victims might see false messages posted in their names or fraudulent transactions made from their accounts. This can lead to financial loss, reputation damage, as well as emotional and mental health issues on the part of the victims.

    In the case of M&S, attackers apparently used this access to manipulate internal
    processes and gain access to sensitive systems. This highlights a broader risk:
    many companies still rely on phone numbers as a secondary verification method for
    staff, making their systems vulnerable to the same cyberattack used against
    individuals.

    How sim-Swap fraud works.
    Hossein Abroshan

    Reducing the risk

    While real-time detection of mobile number hijacking remains difficult, taking specific steps can significantly reduce the likelihood of being targeted and victimised. People should avoid sharing personal data unnecessarily, especially across multiple platforms and, very importantly, on unknown or untrusted websites.

    Many attackers don’t obtain all the necessary information from a single source. Instead, they collect it incrementally, using public profiles, marketing databases and past leaks to form a comprehensive picture.

    Being mindful of where you share your phone number, birthday or other identifiers can make it harder for others to impersonate you. It is also crucial to learn how phishing works and how to recognise it, so you will not submit your sensitive information to phishing or fake websites.

    Avoiding SMS-based authentication, where possible, is another key step. Many
    services now support authenticator apps, such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Due or Authy, which are not tied to your mobile number. For mobile
    accounts themselves, setting up a unique pin or password to your account, which
    must be provided to authorise any changes, can add an extra layer of protection. This makes it harder for someone to initiate a sim swap without that code. However, users alone cannot fulfil this duty.

    Mobile network operators must strengthen identity verification practices, moving beyond basic questions about names and addresses that can be easily gathered or guessed. Banks and other financial institutions should reconsider using SMS or, at the very least, SMS-only as the default method for sensitive authentication. And companies, particularly those handling personal data or financial assets, need to train their IT and customer service teams to recognise the signs of identity based attacks.

    Sim-swap fraud is effective not because it’s highly technical, but because it exploits our trust in phone numbers for identity verification. The M&S case and similar examples show how fragile that trust can be – and why securing our mobile identities is no longer optional.

    – ref. M&S cyberattacks used a little-known but dangerous technique – https://theconversation.com/mands-cyberattacks-used-a-little-known-but-dangerous-technique-256601

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Jefferson, Economic Outlook

    Source: US State of New York Federal Reserve

    Thank you, President Williams. It is wonderful to be back in New York, and it is an honor to speak to you, the directors and advisers to the Second District. You all play an extremely important role for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and, indeed, for the entirety of the Federal Reserve System. You, and your peers around the country, inform President Williams and the other Bank presidents about how you see the economy unfolding in your communities and in your industries. The presidents, in turn, share that vital information with all the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) so that we can make the best monetary policy decisions to benefit all Americans. Thank you for the important contributions.1

    In the spirit of sharing information, I thought it would be helpful to share with you my economic outlook. First, I will discuss how I see recent economic activity. Next, I will talk about developments pertaining to both sides of our dual mandate, maximum employment and price stability. Finally, I will offer my current view of monetary policy.
    Economic ActivityWhile the economy entered a period of heightened uncertainty this year, the underlying data through the first quarter showed resilience. As you can see in figure 1, gross domestic product (GDP) contracted slightly by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, on an annualized basis, after expanding at a 2.4 percent rate in the fourth quarter of 2024. That change, however, overstates the deceleration in activity. A surge in imports apparently ahead of anticipated changes to trade policy did not seem to be reflected fully in inventory or spending data. That misalignment complicated the interpretation of measured GDP data. Private domestic final purchases, which exclude government spending, inventory investment, and net exports, usually gives a better read than GDP on the underlying momentum in the economy. That came in at a 3 percent rate in the first quarter, consistent with readings from last year.
    Looking at figure 2, you can see that inflation-adjusted consumer spending was strong much of last year. Spending eased at the start of 2025, which could in part reflect poor weather and seasonal adjustment challenges. Spending bounced back in March, perhaps reflecting some purchases ahead of expected trade policy changes.
    Of course, those observations of first-quarter economic activity are now in the rearview mirror. Tariff announcements and heightened uncertainty about government policies in general are the dominant economic developments of more recent weeks and have caused me to look carefully at my forecasts. It is not my role to express views on policies coming from the Administration or Congress, but I do study the implications of those policies on economic activity and inflation.
    Various surveys show a decline in business sentiment related to trade policy. The Beige Book reported that some retailers are expecting to raise prices in response to tariffs, which could then limit spending, especially by the most price-sensitive consumers. Manufacturers saw risks of supply chain disruptions related to trade policy changes. Moreover, uncertainty is quite high. As a result, I have adjusted down my expectations for economic growth this year, but I see the U.S. economy as continuing to expand. Of course, trade policy is still evolving, so its ultimate economic implications are not known, and I will be following developments carefully.
    Labor MarketTurning to the labor market, conditions continue to be solid. As you can see in figure 3, the unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in April. It has fluctuated within a narrow and historically low range between 4 and 4.2 percent since the middle of last year. U.S. employers added 177,000 jobs to payrolls last month, effectively matching the average growth over the past six months. Payrolls have been rising at a pace consistent with a stable unemployment rate and a flat labor force participation rate. Hiring has slowed from the rapid pace recorded earlier in the current expansion, but layoffs remain historically low. That can be seen in figure 4. New applications for unemployment benefits this year remain in the same low range recorded over the previous three years.
    Looking at figure 5, you can see the ratio of job vacancies to unemployed workers was at 1 in March, well down from a peak of 2 in 2022. The measure is consistent with a labor market that looks to be in balance and is not a source of inflationary pressure. Looking ahead, I am watching for signs that the labor market could cool as tariff increases begin to weigh on economic activity.
    InflationRegarding inflation, recent data are consistent with further progress toward our 2 percent inflation target; however, that goal has not yet been reached. Looking at figure 6, the blue line shows inflation as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) has trended down from a peak above 7 percent in mid-2022. In March, PCE prices advanced 2.3 percent from a year earlier. Core PCE inflation, which excludes volatile consumer energy and food prices and is usually a better indicator of future inflation, the dashed red line, was at 2.6 percent. Figure 7 shows the components of core PCE inflation, which can provide insight into sources of inflationary pressures. Housing services inflation, the purple dotted line, has fallen notably since early 2023 and could continue to provide support to the disinflation process. Core services inflation, the dashed red line, has largely moved sideways since the early part of last year, contributing little to further disinflation, and I largely expect that pattern to continue as well. In contrast, goods inflation, outside of food and energy, the blue line, has picked up a bit this year.
    There is much uncertainty, however, around the future path of inflation. If the increases in tariffs announced so far are sustained, they are likely to interrupt progress on disinflation and generate at least a temporary rise in inflation. Whether tariffs create persistent upward pressure on inflation will depend on how trade policy is implemented, the pass-through to consumer prices, the reaction of supply chains, and the performance of the economy. Short-term inflation expectations have increased in both survey- and market-based measures, but I think it is notable that most measures of longer-run inflation expectations have been largely stable, suggesting that the American people understand the Federal Reserve’s commitment to return inflation to our 2 percent target.
    While trade policy has received the bulk of recent attention, I remain focused on the aggregate effect from the totality of different government policy changes, including trade, immigration, regulatory, and fiscal policies, as well as their net effects on the economy. This net effect will likely remain uncertain for some time.
    Monetary PolicyLast week I supported the FOMC’s decision to hold the federal funds rate at current levels as the best policy to achieve our dual mandate of maximum employment and price stability. As you can see in figure 8, the FOMC acted last year to reduce the policy rate by a full percentage point. Over the past several meetings, the rate has been held at what I view as a moderately restrictive level. I view the current stance of policy as well positioned to respond to developments that may arise.
    With respect to the path of the policy rate going forward, I will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. Various measures of consumer and business sentiment have declined sharply this year, and I will be watching very carefully for signs of weakening economic activity in hard data. At the same time, higher tariffs could lead to higher inflation this year. It is uncertain whether inflationary pressures would be temporary or persistent. Our monetary policy actions are guided by our dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people. With the increased risks to both sides of our mandate, I believe that the current stance of monetary policy is well positioned to respond in a timely way to potential economic developments.
    ConclusionThe uncertain economic outlook presents a challenge for monetary policymakers. It is critical that we have the best available information from a broad cross section of sources, which is again why your efforts to keep President Williams and other monetary policymakers informed are so critical. Effective policymaking starts with hearing from people in every corner of this country—including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Directors and advisers like you make that possible. Thank you again.

    1. The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee. Return to text

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Rioter Sentenced for Damaging U.S. Government Property During Protest at Union Station

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

    Defendant destroyed an American flag by setting it on fire in front of Union Station in the District as a crowd surrounded him chanting, “Burn that sh–.”

    WASHINGTON – Michael Snow Jr., 25, of Durham, North Carolina, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to four months of probation, 40 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $525 in restitution for destruction of federal property. On July 24, 2024, Snow destroyed an American flag, which was property of the U.S. government, by setting it on fire in front of Union Station in the District as a crowd surrounded him chanting, “Burn that sh–.”

    The sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr., Acting Special Agent in Charge Courtland Rae of the FBI Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division, and Chief Jessica M. E. Taylor of the U.S. Park Police (USPP).

    Snow pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to destruction of government property (less than $1,000).

    According to court documents, on July 24, 2024, an organization was granted a permit to demonstrate in the area of Columbus Circle, located at Massachusetts Avenue. and E St. NE, directly in front of Union Station. From about 3 p.m. until 5 p.m., demonstrators gathered in Columbus Circle. They pulled down flags affixed to the flagpoles, burned the flags and other objects, sprayed graffiti on multiple statues and structures, and interfered with law enforcement trying to place the vandals under arrest.

    The flags, the statues and structures in Columbus Circle, are all property of the federal government. The National Park Service estimated the total cost to clean up and repair the site at $11,282.23.

    Open-source and surveillance video captured images of two individuals lowering an American flag affixed to the eastern flagpole in Columbus Circle. The flag fell to the ground still attached to its halyard. A man later identified as Snow grabbed the flag and carried it into the crowd of protesters.

    He threw the flag onto the ground, produced a lighter, and attempted to set the flag ablaze. Unsuccessful, he yelled: I need a better lighter! The crowd surrounding the man chanted, Burn that sh–!

    Someone handed Snow a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid. Snow doused the flag with the fluid, then, along with an unidentified individual from the crowd, used lighters to torch it.

    On July 25, 2024, a user on the social media platform X posted pictures of the incident. As a result, law enforcement located a driver’s license photograph of Snow.

    The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and the USPP’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Unit, with assistance from the FBI Charlotte Field Office, Raleigh Resident Agency. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah Martin and Brendan Horan.

    Screen shot from a closed-circuit camera shows Snow (circled in yellow) as he grabbed the fallen American flag from the halyard.

    Screenshot from open-source video shows Snow (circled in yellow) and another individual (circled in blue) lighting the flag on fire.

    Screenshot from open-source footage depicts Snow (circled in yellow) on the flag pedestal while the other individual (circled in blue) parades around the burning American flag.

    ##

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: First Busey Corporation Prices Depositary Share Offering

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LEAWOOD, Kan., May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — First Busey Corporation (“Busey”) (Nasdaq: BUSE), the holding company for Busey Bank and CrossFirst Bank, announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 8,000,000 depositary shares, each representing a 1/40th ownership interest in a share of its 8.25% Fixed Rate Series B Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock (the “Series B preferred stock”), with a liquidation preference of $1,000 per share (equivalent to $25.00 per depositary share).

    When, as, and if declared by the board of directors of Busey, dividends will be payable on the Series B preferred stock from the date of issuance at a rate of 8.25% per annum, payable quarterly in arrears, on March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1 of each year, beginning on September 1, 2025. Busey may redeem the Series B preferred stock at its option at a redemption price equal to $25.00 per depositary share, as described in the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering.

    Net proceeds from the offering are expected to be used to redeem Busey’s 5.25% Fixed-to-Floating Rate Subordinated Notes due 2030, and for general corporate purposes including to support balance sheet growth of Busey Bank.

    Busey intends to apply to list the depositary shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “BUSEP.”

    Piper Sandler & Co., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. are serving as joint bookrunning managers for the offering, and Janney Montgomery Scott LLC is acting as the co-manager.

    The Company expects to close the offering, subject to customary conditions, on or about May 20, 2025.

    The Company filed a “shelf” registration statement (File No. 333-274620) (including a base prospectus (the “Base Prospectus”)) on September 21, 2023 and the related preliminary prospectus supplement on May 13, 2025 (the “Preliminary Prospectus Supplement”) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for the offering to which this communication relates. You may obtain these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, Busey, any underwriter or any dealer participating in the offering will arrange to send you the Base Prospectus and the Preliminary Prospectus Supplement if you request it by emailing Piper Sandler & Co. at fsg-dcm@psc.com or calling Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC toll-free at 1-866-718-1649 or Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, A Stifel Company at 1-800-966-1559.

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

    Corporate Profile
    As of March 31, 2025, First Busey Corporation (Nasdaq: BUSE) was a $19.46 billion financial holding company headquartered in Leawood, Kansas.

    Busey Bank, a wholly-owned bank subsidiary of First Busey Corporation headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, had total assets of $11.98 billion as of March 31, 2025. Busey Bank currently has 62 banking centers, with 21 in Central Illinois markets, 17 in suburban Chicago markets, 20 in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area, three in Southwest Florida, and one in Indianapolis. More information about Busey Bank can be found at busey.com.

    CrossFirst Bank, a wholly-owned bank subsidiary of First Busey Corporation headquartered in Leawood, Kansas, had total assets of $7.45 billion as of March 31, 2025. CrossFirst Bank currently has 16 banking centers located across Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. More information about CrossFirst Bank can be found at crossfirstbank.com. It is anticipated that CrossFirst Bank will be merged with and into Busey Bank on June 20, 2025.

    Through Busey’s Wealth Management division, the Company provides a full range of asset management, investment, brokerage, fiduciary, philanthropic advisory, tax preparation, and farm management services to individuals, businesses, and foundations. Assets under care totaled $13.68 billion as of March 31, 2025. More information about Busey’s Wealth Management services can be found at busey.com/wealth-management.

    Busey Bank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, FirsTech, specializes in the evolving financial technology needs of small and medium-sized businesses, highly regulated enterprise industries, and financial institutions. FirsTech provides comprehensive and innovative payment technology solutions, including online, mobile, and voice-recognition bill payments; money and data movement; merchant services; direct debit services; lockbox remittance processing for payments made by mail; and walk-in payments at retail agents. Additionally, FirsTech simplifies client workflows through integrations enabling support with billing, reconciliation, bill reminders, and treasury services. More information about FirsTech can be found at firstechpayments.com.

    For the fourth consecutive year, Busey was named among 2025’s America’s Best Banks by Forbes. Ranked 88th overall, Busey was one of seven banks headquartered in Illinois included on this year’s list. Busey was also named among the 2024 Best Banks to Work For by American Banker, the 2024 Best Places to Work in Money Management by Pensions and Investments, the 2024 Best Places to Work in Illinois by Daily Herald Business Ledger, the 2025 Best Places to Work in Indiana by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and the 2024 Best Companies to Work For in Florida by Florida Trend magazine. We are honored to be consistently recognized globally, nationally and locally for our engaged culture of integrity and commitment to community development.

    First Busey Corporation Contacts
    For Financials:  For Media:
    Scott Phillips, Interim CFO Amy L. Randolph, EVP & COO
    First Busey Corporation  First Busey Corporation
    (239) 689-7167 (217) 365-4049
    scott.phillips@busey.com amy.randolph@busey.com
       

    Forward-Looking Statements
    This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to Busey’s financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance, and business. Forward-looking statements, which may be based upon beliefs, expectations, and assumptions of Busey’s management and on information currently available to management, are generally identifiable by the use of words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “intend,” “estimate,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “position,” or other similar expressions. Additionally, all statements in this document, including forward-looking statements, speak only as of the date they are made, and Busey undertakes no obligation to update any statement in light of new information or future events.

    A number of factors, many of which are beyond Busey’s ability to control or predict, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements. These factors include, among others, the following: (1) the strength of the local, state, national, and international economies and financial markets (including effects of inflationary pressures, the threat or implementation of tariffs, trade wars, and changes to immigration policy); (2) changes in, and the interpretation and prioritization of, local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and governmental policies (including those concerning Busey’s general business); (3) the economic impact of any future terrorist threats or attacks, widespread disease or pandemics, or other adverse external events that could cause economic deterioration or instability in credit markets (including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East); (4) unexpected results of acquisitions, including the acquisition of CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc., which may include the failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions and the possibility that the transaction and integration costs may be greater than anticipated; (5) the imposition of tariffs or other governmental policies impacting the value of products produced by Busey’s commercial borrowers; (6) new or revised accounting policies and practices as may be adopted by state and federal regulatory banking agencies, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board; (7) changes in interest rates and prepayment rates of Busey’s assets (including the impact of sustained elevated interest rates); (8) increased competition in the financial services sector (including from non-bank competitors such as credit unions and fintech companies) and the inability to attract new customers; (9) changes in technology and the ability to develop and maintain secure and reliable electronic systems; (10) the loss of key executives or associates, talent shortages, and employee turnover; (11) unexpected outcomes and costs of existing or new litigation, investigations, or other legal proceedings, inquiries, and regulatory actions involving Busey (including with respect to Busey’s Illinois franchise taxes); (12) fluctuations in the value of securities held in Busey’s securities portfolio, including as a result of changes in interest rates; (13) credit risk and risk from concentrations (by type of borrower, geographic area, collateral, and industry), within Busey’s loan portfolio and large loans to certain borrowers (including commercial real estate loans); (14) the concentration of large deposits from certain clients who have balances above current Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance limits and may withdraw deposits to diversify their exposure; (15) the level of non-performing assets on Busey’s balance sheets; (16) interruptions involving information technology and communications systems or third-party servicers; (17) breaches or failures of information security controls or cybersecurity-related incidents; (18) the economic impact on Busey and its customers of climate change, natural disasters, and exceptional weather occurrences such as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, blizzards, and droughts; (19) the ability to successfully manage liquidity risk, which may increase dependence on non-core funding sources such as brokered deposits, and may negatively impact Busey’s cost of funds; (20) the ability to maintain an adequate level of allowance for credit losses on loans; (21) the effectiveness of Busey’s risk management framework; and (22) the ability of Busey to manage the risks associated with the foregoing. These risks and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating forward-looking statements and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: AMD Announces New $6 Billion Share Repurchase Authorization

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced that its board of directors approved a new $6 billion share repurchase program. The new authorization is in addition to the remaining balance, as of March 29, 2025, of approximately $4 billion of its existing share repurchase program, increasing the total current repurchase authority to approximately $10 billion.

    “Our expanded share repurchase program reflects the Board’s confidence in AMD’s strategic direction, growth prospects, and ability to consistently generate strong free cash flow,” said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. “We remain committed to disciplined capital allocation and driving strong shareholder returns, including investing in our leadership product portfolio to drive growth, while returning capital to owners.”

    The timing and total amount of stock repurchases will depend upon market conditions and may be made from time to time in open market purchases or privately negotiated purchases. This program has no termination date, may be suspended or discontinued at any time and does not obligate the company to acquire any amount of common stock.

    About AMD

    For more than 55 years AMD has driven innovation in high-performance computing, graphics and visualization technologies. AMD employees are focused on building leadership high-performance and adaptive products that push the boundaries of what is possible. Billions of people, leading Fortune 500 businesses and cutting-edge scientific research institutions around the world rely on AMD technology daily to improve how they live, work and play. For more information about how AMD is enabling today and inspiring tomorrow, visit the AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) website, blog, LinkedIn and X pages.

    Cautionary Statement

    This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) including those related to AMD’s share repurchase program; AMD’s strategic direction, growth prospects and ability to consistently generate strong free cash flow; AMD’s commitment to disciplined capital allocation and driving strong shareholder returns; AMD’s investment in AMD’s leadership product portfolio to drive growth; and AMD’s ability to return capital to owners, which are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as “would,” “may,” “expects,” “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “projects” and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this press release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this press release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Such statements are subject to certain known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond AMD’s control, that could cause actual results and other future events to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. Material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, without limitation, the following: Intel Corporation’s dominance of the microprocessor market and its aggressive business practices; Nvidia’s dominance in the graphics processing unit market and its aggressive business practices; competitive markets in which AMD’s products are sold; the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry; market conditions of the industries in which AMD products are sold; AMD’s ability to introduce products on a timely basis with expected features and performance levels; loss of a significant customer; economic and market uncertainty; quarterly and seasonal sales patterns; AMD’s ability to adequately protect its technology or other intellectual property; unfavorable currency exchange rate fluctuations; ability of third party manufacturers to manufacture AMD’s products on a timely basis in sufficient quantities and using competitive technologies; availability of essential equipment, materials, substrates or manufacturing processes; ability to achieve expected manufacturing yields for AMD’s products; AMD’s ability to generate revenue from its semi-custom SoC products; potential security vulnerabilities; potential security incidents including IT outages, data loss, data breaches and cyberattacks; uncertainties involving the ordering and shipment of AMD’s products; AMD’s reliance on third-party intellectual property to design and introduce new products; AMD’s reliance on third-party companies for design, manufacture and supply of motherboards, software, memory and other computer platform components; AMD’s reliance on Microsoft and other software vendors’ support to design and develop software to run on AMD’s products; AMD’s reliance on third-party distributors and add-in-board partners; impact of modification or interruption of AMD’s internal business processes and information systems; compatibility of AMD’s products with some or all industry-standard software and hardware; costs related to defective products; efficiency of AMD’s supply chain; AMD’s ability to rely on third party supply-chain logistics functions; AMD’s ability to effectively control sales of its products on the gray market; long-term impact of climate change on AMD’s business; impact of government actions and regulations such as export regulations, tariffs and trade protection measures, and licensing requirements; AMD’s ability to realize its deferred tax assets; potential tax liabilities; current and future claims and litigation; impact of environmental laws, conflict minerals related provisions and other laws or regulations; evolving expectations from governments, investors, customers and other stakeholders regarding corporate responsibility matters; issues related to the responsible use of AI; restrictions imposed by agreements governing AMD’s notes, the guarantees of Xilinx’s notes, the revolving credit agreement and the ZT Systems credit agreement; impact of acquisitions, joint ventures and/or strategic investments on AMD’s business and AMD’s ability to integrate acquired businesses, including ZT Systems; AMD’s ability to sell the ZT Systems manufacturing business; impact of any impairment of the combined company’s assets; political, legal and economic risks and natural disasters; future impairments of technology license purchases; AMD’s ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; and AMD’s stock price volatility. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to AMD’s most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.

    Media Contact:
    Phil Hughes
    AMD Communications
    512-865-9697
    phil.hughes@amd.com

    Investor Contact:
    Liz Stine
    AMD Investor Relations
    720-652-3965
    liz.stine@amd.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (FMCB) Increases Cash Dividend for the 60th Consecutive Year

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LODI, Calif., May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTCQX: FMCB) (the “Company” or “FMCB”), the parent company of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California (the “Bank” or “F&M Bank”), the Board of Directors declared a mid-year cash dividend of $9.30 per share, an increase of 5.7% over the $8.80 per share paid in July of 2024. The cash dividend is payable on July 1, 2025, to shareholders of record on June 10, 2025. Net income over the trailing twelve months was $88.7 million compared with $87.5 million for the same trailing period a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share over the trailing twelve months totaled $123.32, up 5.97% compared with $116.37 for the same trailing period a year ago.

    For the quarter ended March 31, 2025, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp reported net income of $23.0 million, or $32.86 per diluted common share, compared with $22.7 million, or $30.56 per diluted common share for the first quarter of 2024. Annualized return on average assets for the first quarter of 2025 was 1.70% and return on average equity was 15.65%. Total assets at quarter-end were $5.7 billion. The Company’s credit quality remained solid with only $193,000 in non-accrual loans and leases as of March 31, 2025 and a negligible delinquency ratio of 0.01% of total loans and leases. At quarter-end, the Company’s allowance for credit losses was $75.4 million, or 2.10% of total loans and leases. The Company’s common equity tier 1 ratio was 13.75% at March 31, 2025, and the total risk-based capital ratio was 15.23%. All F&M Bank capital ratios exceeded the regulatory requirements to be classified as “well-capitalized”. For further details on our first quarter results please see our press release dated April 16, 2025.

    Kent A. Steinwert, Chairman, President and CEO noted, “The Board is very pleased with the Company’s strong first quarter 2025 and record full-year 2024 financial results and unanimously approved the cash dividend. This year marks the 90th consecutive year that Farmers & Merchants Bancorp has paid cash dividends and the 60th consecutive year we have increased dividends. As a result of the reliability of our cash dividends over many decades, we remain a member of a select group of only 55 publicly traded companies designated as “Dividend Kings” by Sure Dividend where Farmers & Merchants Bancorp is currently ranked 17th.”

    About Farmers & Merchants Bancorp

    Farmers & Merchants Bancorp, trades on the OTCQX under the symbol FMCB, and is the parent company of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California, also known as F&M Bank. Founded in 1916, F&M Bank is a locally owned and operated community bank, which proudly serves California through 33 convenient locations. F&M Bank is financially strong, with $5.7 billion in assets, and is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s safest banks by national bank rating firms. The Bank has maintained a 5-Star rating from BauerFinancial for 35 consecutive years, longer than any other commercial bank in the State of California.

    Farmers & Merchants Bancorp has paid dividends for 90 consecutive years and has increased dividends for 60 consecutive years. As a result, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp is a member of a select group of only 55 publicly traded companies referred to as “Dividend Kings,” and is ranked 17th in that group based on consecutive years of dividend increases. A “Dividend King” is a stock with 50 or more consecutive years of dividend increase.

    In August 2024, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp was named by Bank Director’s Magazine as the #2 best performing bank in the nation across all asset categories in their annual “Ranking Banking” study of the top performing banks for 2023. In August 2023, the Bank was named by Bank Director’s Magazine as the #1 best performing bank in the nation across all asset categories in their annual “Ranking Banking” study of the top performing banks for 2022.

    In April 2024, F&M Bank was ranked 6th on Forbes Magazine’s list of “America’s Best Banks” in 2023. Forbes’ annual “America’s Best Banks” list looks at ten metrics measuring growth, credit quality, profitability, and capital for the 2023 calendar year, as well as stock performance in the 12 months through March 18, 2024.

    In December 2023, F&M Bank was ranked 4th on S&P Global Market Intelligence’s “Top 50 List of Best-Performing Community Banks” in the US with assets between $3.0 billion and $10.0 billion for 2023. S&P Global Market Intelligence ranks financial institutions based on several key factors including financial returns, growth, and balance sheet risk profile.

    In October 2021, F&M Bank was named the “Best Community Bank in California” by Newsweek magazine. Newsweek’s ranking recognizes those financial institutions that best serve their customers’ needs in each state. This recognition speaks to the superior customer service the F&M Bank team members provide to its clients.

    F&M Bank is the 15th largest bank lender to agriculture in the United States. F&M Bank operates in the mid-Central Valley of California, including Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, and Merced counties and the east region of the San Francisco Bay Area, including Napa, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

    F&M Bank was inducted into the National Agriculture Science Center’s “Ag Hall of Fame” at the end of 2021 for providing resources, financial advice, guidance, and support to the agribusiness communities as well as to students in the next generation of agribusiness workforce. F&M Bank is dedicated to helping California remain the premier agricultural region in the world and will continue to work with the next generation of farmers, ranchers, and processors. F&M Bank remains committed to servicing the needs of agribusiness in California as has been the case since its founding over 109 years ago.

    F&M Bank offers a full complement of loan, deposit, equipment leasing and treasury management products to businesses, as well as a full suite of consumer banking products. The FDIC awarded F&M Bank the highest possible rating of “Outstanding” in their last Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) evaluation.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectations regarding the Company’s financial performance. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words such as “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate” or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could” or “may.” Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding loan and deposit production levels of net interest margin, the ability to control costs and expenses, the competitive environment, financial and regulatory policies of the United States government, general economic conditions, inflation, recessions, tariffs, economic uncertainty in the United States, and changes in interest rates. Forward-looking statements in this press release include matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, among others: the effects of and changes in monetary and fiscal policies, including the interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve Board and their effects on inflation risk; political and economic uncertainty, including any decline in global, domestic or local economic conditions or the stability of credit and financial markets; and other relevant risks detailed in the Company’s Form 10-K, Form 10-Qs, and various other securities law filings made periodically by the Company, copies of which are available from the Company’s website. All such factors are difficult to predict and are beyond the Company’s ability to control or predict. There also may be additional risks that the Company does not presently know, or that the Company currently believes to be immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those contained in these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances after the date of this press release or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

    For more information about Farmers & Merchants Bancorp and F&M Bank, visit fmbonline.com.

    Investor Relations Contact

    Farmers & Merchants Bancorp
    Bart R. Olson
    Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

    Phone: 209-367-2485
    bolson@fmbonline.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Sprout Social Unveils New Innovations in its Care Solution, Empowering Brands to Drive Business with Proactive Social Care

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Innovations to Care by Sprout will enable marketers to provide proactive, secure and insights-driven customer care on social.
    • New releases, available today, include additional bot channels, customizable workflows, compliance and governance capabilities, as well as more holistic reporting functionality.
    • Sprout announces its upcoming AI agent integration to resolve inquiries in seconds and free teams from repetitive tasks using a trained bot deployed across multiple channels.

    CHICAGO, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sprout Social (Nasdaq: SPT), an industry-leading provider of cloud-based social media management software, today announced a set of new innovations to its Care by Sprout Social solution. Designed to help brands meet rising customer expectations, the new features empower teams to deliver more proactive, secure and insights-driven social care–elevating support from a reactive necessity to a strategic business driver. Sprout Social also announced an upcoming AI agent integration, which will further enhance the care experience for customers and drive even more efficiency and impact for brands.

    Social media has become central to product discovery and purchasing, which means brands must deliver fast, personalized social care across platforms or risk losing vital customer trust and business. In fact, 73% of consumers say they will buy from a competitor if a brand doesn’t reply to them on social. While reactive support is expected, the new innovations in Care by Sprout empower brands to deliver proactive care, turning positive interactions into business assets that build loyalty and attract new customers.

    “We’re entering a new era where social care is a key differentiator, influencing purchasing decisions and shaping brand loyalty,” said Scott Morris, Sprout Social’s Chief Marketing Officer. “These latest innovations give brands the tools to not only meet but exceed customer expectations, turning care into a powerful driver of business outcomes across the organization. As technology and expectations continue to accelerate, our focus remains on building an adaptable, powerful platform that keeps our customers ahead of the curve.”

    Key Innovations in Care by Sprout:

    • Harness the Power of AI: Sprout’s upcoming AI agent integration will quickly resolve routine care inquiries, allowing human agents to dedicate their time on more complex, meaningful tasks.
    • Automate for Efficiency: New bot channels, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, along with enhanced flexibility features like Queue Customizations, empower teams to engage customers across more platforms, streamline agent workflows, and allow brands to tailor social care programs to their specific needs.
    • Proactively Protect Your Brand: New governance and compliance capabilities enable brands to manage more complex social care cases within social—eliminating the need to deflect to traditional channels. With secure forms and data masking, customer data stays protected, while access controls and blocked word settings help teams maintain security and brand integrity.
    • Unlock Actionable Insights: New Cases API allows brands to easily connect social care data to broader datasets for more holistic insights, while features like goal time reporting help brands better understand their team operations and trends over time.

    “At ScottsMiracle-Gro, we’ve realized that social care isn’t just a support function but a strategic imperative that the success of our entire organization relies on,” said Sara Smith, Manager of Consumer Services at ScottsMiracle-Gro. “Sprout Social has helped us embrace this shift by providing an intuitive platform that brings our social and care teams together, enabling us to connect more effectively with our audiences and strengthen customer relationships. Social is now where critical engagement happens, and with Sprout, we’re navigating this new era of care as a united front that’s always ready to show up for our customers.”

    These enhancements further build on Sprout’s innovative care solution, which features AI capabilities, intuitive workflows and an industry-leading integration with Salesforce Service Cloud. The updates will be featured in today’s Breaking Ground, Sprout’s quarterly showcase of the company’s latest product updates and cutting-edge industry insights.

    For more information on Care by Sprout Social, please visit https://sproutsocial.com/social-customer-service/

    Social Media Profiles:
    www.x.com/SproutSocial
    www.x.com/SproutSocialIR
    www.facebook.com/SproutSocialInc
    www.linkedin.com/company/sprout-social-inc-/
    www.instagram.com/sproutsocial

    Contact
    Media:
    Kaitlyn Gronek
    Email: pr@sproutsocial.com
    Phone: (773) 904-9674

    Investors:
    Lexi Johnson
    Email: lexi.johnson@sproutsocial.com
    Phone: (312) 528-9166

    About Sprout Social

    Sprout Social is a global leader in social media management and analytics software, built on the belief that All Business is Social℠. Sprout’s intuitive platform puts powerful social data into the hands of approximately 30,000 brands so they can deliver smarter, faster business impact. Named the #1 Best Software Product by G2’s 2024 Best Software Award, Sprout offers comprehensive publishing and engagement functionality, customer care, influencer marketing, advocacy, and AI-powered business intelligence. Sprout’s software operates across all major social media networks and digital platforms. For more information about Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT), visit sproutsocial.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “enables,” “estimate,” “expect,” “explore,” “intend,” “long-term model,” “may,” “might” “outlook,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “strategy,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or the negative of these terms, and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. These statements may relate to the success, performance, and effect on our business and customers of our product features, our market size and growth strategy, our estimated and projected costs, margins, revenue, expenditures and customer and financial growth rates, our plans and objectives for future operations, growth, initiatives or strategies. By their nature, these statements are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including factors beyond our control, that could cause actual results, performance or achievement to differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. These assumptions, uncertainties and risks include that, among others: we may not be able to sustain our revenue and customer growth rate in the future; price increases have and may continue to negatively impact demand for our products, customer acquisition and retention and reduce the total number of customers or customer additions; our business would be harmed by any significant interruptions, delays or outages in services from our platform, our API providers, or certain social media platforms; if we are unable to attract potential customers through unpaid channels, convert this traffic to free trials or convert free trials to paid subscriptions, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected; we may be unable to successfully enter new markets, manage our international expansion and comply with any applicable international laws and regulations; we may be unable to integrate acquired businesses or technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions and investments; unstable market, economic, and political conditions, such as recession risks, effects of inflation, trade tensions, changes in government spending, labor shortages, supply chain issues, high interest rates, and the impacts of current and potential future bank failures and impacts of ongoing overseas conflicts, could adversely impact our business and that of our existing and prospective customers, which may result in reduced demand for our products; we may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness; covenants in our credit agreement may restrict our operations, and if we do not effectively manage our business to comply with these covenants, our financial condition could be adversely impacted; any cybersecurity-related attack, significant data breach or disruption of the information technology systems or networks on which we rely could negatively affect our business; and changing regulations relating to privacy, information security and data protection could increase our costs, affect or limit how we collect and use personal information and harm our brand. Additional risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements are included under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the SEC on February 26, 2025, and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 filed with the SEC on May 8, 2025, as well as any future reports that we file with the SEC. Moreover, you should interpret many of the risks identified in those reports as being heightened as a result of the current instability in market, economic, and political conditions. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements are made and are based on information available to Sprout Social at the time those statements are made and/or management’s good faith belief as of that time with respect to future events. Sprout Social assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, except as required by law.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Lady Gaga bomb plot: Thwarted plan lifts veil on the gamification of hate and gendered nature of online radicalization

    Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By David Nemer, Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia

    Lady Gaga performs at Copacabana Beach on May 3, 2025, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Live Nation

    The more than 2 million people who attended Lady Gaga’s free concert on Copacabana Beach on May 3, 2025, had no idea of a plot that, if successful, would have turned the event into a tragedy fueled by hate. Just hours before a sea of admirers waved fans in sync with the singer during the event, the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police thwarted a planned attack involving Molotov cocktails and improvised bombs – and targeting the American singer’s LGBTQ following.

    Two people have since been arrested over the plot, which was organized by users of digital platforms such as Discord. The intent, authorities say, was radicalizing and recruiting teenagers to carry out the planned attack.

    Those responsible hoped to entice these young people into actions that would gain online notoriety.

    More than 2 million people are said to have attended the Lady Gaga concert in Rio.
    Daniel Ramalho/AFP via Getty Images

    Although authorities were able to prevent the attack, the incident stands as a stark warning about the growth of hate networks among youth − and how platforms fuel the radicalization of teenagers, especially boys and young men.

    As experts in the anthropology of technology and information science, we see something deeply generational about this phenomenon. The recent Netflix series “Adolescence” broke viewership records by portraying an environment in which young people live in hyperconnected online spheres, absent of state oversight and parental supervision. In these spheres, bullying toxic masculinity permeates, and violence – often targeted at women and sexual minorities – is normalized.

    The show was set in the U.K., but it holds up a mirror to the world. Data from polling company Gallup reveals a growing ideological divide between young men and women in Gen Z across the globe. Too often, that divide, in which young men and boys are turning against progressive values, is being expressed through actions associated with the “manosphere,” such as misogyny and incel behavior.

    Platforms for hate

    In the United States, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male counterparts, according to Gallup’s surveys. In Germany, where a right-wing coalition recently won national elections and the extreme-right AfD party is rising in popularity at an alarming rate, the gap is also 30 points. In Poland, although the far-right left power at the end of 2023 after eight years, nearly half of men ages 18 to 21 support far-right parties − compared with just one-sixth of women in the same age range.

    This polarization is emerging just as online platforms such as Discord, TikTok and Reddit have become formative spaces of identity.

    Instead of promoting diversity, however, many of these platforms have been used as machines for producing and spreading hate. The 2021 study Mapping Discord’s Darkside, published in the journal New Media & Society, shows that despite marketing efforts to distance itself from the far right, Discord hosts thousands of servers associated with neo-Nazi, misogynistic, racist, transphobic and conspiratorial discourse. Researchers identified 2,741 such servers − with more than 850,000 active members.

    These networks end up functioning as recruitment hubs, where young people − especially boys − are lured in by edgy memes, promises of belonging and identity games based on excluding others. Discord’s structure, which prioritizes privacy and decentralization, has become fertile ground for the emergence of what scholar Adrienne Massanari calls “toxic technocultures.”

    Services such as Disboard − an informal search engine for Discord servers − are used to recruit teens into communities that glorify Nazism, encourage hatred toward women and people from the LGBTQ+ community, and even offer “services” for coordinated attacks on other servers. And this appears to be the case in the thwarted attack on the Lady Gaga concert.

    Presenting a challenge

    A significant factor in the success of these radicalizing environments is gamification − the use of gamelike elements such as challenges, rewards and leaderboards in nongame contexts. When applied to social networks and extremist forums, gamification turns engagement into competition and hate speech into a playful challenge.

    This practice makes the entrance into extremism more palatable for young, impressionable people by masking violence behind seemingly harmless mechanics. As noted in the European Commission’s 2021 report Gamification and Online Hate Speech, gamification has become a powerful tool for normalizing and spreading hate, particularly among young people seeking recognition and belonging.

    This process, known as “bottom-up gamification,” occurs when users create the rules, symbolic rewards and challenges. For example, by turning hate speech into “challenges” that involve humiliating women or people from the LGBTQ+ community online, the dehumanization of targets is presented in playful, viral ways.

    Turning hate into entertainment

    The investigation into the foiled attack on Lady Gaga’s Copacabana concert revealed exactly this mechanism: The attack was treated as a “collective challenge,” with youths recruited to build Molotov cocktails and explosive backpacks in order to gain notoriety on social media.

    The logic of gamification also creates a structure of “achievement” and “scoring” that fosters competition and reinforces radical ideology. As shown in the 2022 study by criminologists Suraj Lakhani and Susann Wiedlitzka, attacks such as the 2019 mosque attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 51 people were killed, were planned and executed with strong inspiration from gaming, including live broadcasts similar to “Let’s Play” sessions, in which people offer live commentary during walk-throughs of games, typically first-person shooting games, and viewer comments that treat the number of deaths as a “score.”

    More than 50 people were killed in the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques in New Zealand on March 15, 2019.
    Omer Kablan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    This aestheticization of violence serves as a bonding element among young men in digital spaces, especially those who already feel marginalized or frustrated and who find in these games of hate a sense of belonging and affirmation. In this way, gamification transforms hate into entertainment, strengthening ties in toxic communities and making it harder to recognize the behavior as extremism.

    Turning a generation off hate

    Society is, we believe, facing a dual challenge: the need for moderation of platforms and for support for measures preventing men and boys from being drawn into toxic digital spaces.

    The gender divide within Gen Z is no small matter, too. It reflects, in broad terms, a rift between a generation of young women who, empowered by #MeToo and other feminist movements, have embraced progressive causes, and a generation of men who, threatened by their perceived diminished power in this new environment, are being co-opted by far-right and misogynistic discourse in digital spaces.

    This gap has real consequences in personal relationships, in schools and for democracy at large. But it also reveals something that we believe must be stated clearly: Platform regulation is not just a technical issue. The future of a generation cannot be built on algorithms that reward hate and radicalization.

    This article is a translated and adapted version of a story that was originally published by The Conversation Brazil on May 8, 2025.

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

    – ref. Lady Gaga bomb plot: Thwarted plan lifts veil on the gamification of hate and gendered nature of online radicalization – https://theconversation.com/lady-gaga-bomb-plot-thwarted-plan-lifts-veil-on-the-gamification-of-hate-and-gendered-nature-of-online-radicalization-256199

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Territorial concessions will be central to any Ukraine peace deal, and to Russia’s long-term plan

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

    If the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, meet in Istanbul on May 15, territory – and who controls it – will be high on their agenda.

    Putin offered to start direct talks between Russia and Ukraine at a press conference on May 11. Donald Trump pushed Zelensky to accept this offer in a social media post, saying that “Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”

    The Ukrainian president, still buoyed by a meeting with the British, French, German and Polish leaders that called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, agreed shortly afterwards.

    Russia has said it wants to focus on the Istanbul communique of March 2022 and a subsequent draft agreement that was negotiated, but never adopted, by the two sides in April 2022.

    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.

    These 2022 negotiations focused on Ukraine becoming a permanently neutral state and on which nations would provide security guarantees for any deal. They also relegated discussions over Crimea to separate negotiations with a ten-to-15-year timeframe.

    Russia uses the phrase “the current situation on the ground” as thinly disguised code for territorial questions that have become more contentious over the past three years. This relates to Russian gains on the battlefield and the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions in September 2022 (in addition to Crimea, which Russia also illegally annexed in 2014).

    Russia’s position, as articulated recently by the country’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, is that “the international recognition of Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as part of Russia is … imperative”.

    This is clearly a non-starter for Ukraine, as repeatedly stated by Zelensky. There could, however, be some flexibility on accepting that some parts of sovereign Ukrainian territory are under temporary Russian control. This has been suggested by both Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, and Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.


    Institute for the Study of War.

    Black Sea’s strategic value

    The territories that Russia currently occupies, and claims, in Ukraine have varying strategic, economic and symbolic value for Moscow and Kyiv. The areas with the greatest strategic value include Crimea and the territories on the shores of the Azov Sea, which provide Russia with a land corridor to Crimea.

    The international recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, as apparently suggested under the terms of an agreement hashed out by Putin and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, could expand the areas of the Black Sea that Russia can claim to legally control.

    This could then be used by the Kremlin as a launchpad for renewed attacks on Ukraine and to threaten Nato’s eastern maritime flank in Romania and Bulgaria. Any permanent recognition of Russia’s control of these territories is, therefore, unacceptable to Ukraine and its European partners.



    Read more:
    Russia-China ties on full display on Victory Day – but all is not as well as Putin is making out

    Donetsk and Luhansk are of lower strategic value, compared with Crimea and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. However, they do have economic value because of the substantial resources located there. These include some of the mineral and other resources that were the subject of a separate deal which the US and Ukraine concluded on April 30.

    They also include Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia and a large labour force among their estimated population of between 4.5 million to 5.5 million people who will be critical to Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.

    Beyond the strategic and economic value of the illegally occupied territories, the symbolism that both sides attach to their control is the most significant obstacle to any deal, given how irreconcilable Moscow’s and Kyiv’s positions are. For both sides, control of these territories, or loss thereof, is what defines victory or defeat in the war.

    Putin may be able to claim that some territorial gains in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 are a victory for Russia. But even for him any compromise that would see Russia give up territory that it has conquered – often at exceptionally high cost – would be a risky gamble for the stability of his regime.

    Anything less than the complete restoration of the country’s territorial integrity in its 1991 borders would imply recognition of defeat in the war for Ukraine. This would critically threaten the stability of the Zelensky government, whose political programme rests on exactly the premise of a return to the 1991 borders.

    Long-term consequences

    As a result, the Ukrainian leadership has become hostage to its own information strategy, which has placed the “return of all territories” at the top of the criteria for victory. This is a goal widely shared among Ukrainians, according to a poll conducted by the Razumkov Center in March 2025. But it will be hard to achieve.



    Read more:
    US-Ukraine minerals deal looks better for Kyiv than expected – but Trump is an unpredictable partner

    Apart from the potential domestic fall-out from any territorial compromises that Ukraine may be forced to make, there is another reason why the territorial question has become so intractable.

    Beyond any strategic, economic and symbolic value that the occupied Ukrainian territories hold from the Kremlin’s perspective, control over territory has always been an instrument for Russia to pursue its broader geopolitical agenda of exercising influence over its neighbours – from Moldova, to Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine.

    It is also important to remember that Russia’s territorial claims in Ukraine have gradually expanded since 2014. Until September 2022, when it annexed the other four regions, Russia laid claim to Crimea only.

    There is no guarantee that any territorial concession from Kyiv now would put a permanent end to Moscow’s territorial expansionism. It is therefore worrying that Trump envoy Witkoff, in an interview with the Breitbart news website, reiterated the US view that the two sides need to find compromises on who controls which territories.

    Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was not a war over territory as such, but was part of Moscow’s agenda to restore the sphere of influence that it lost at the end of the cold war. This agenda is far from finished.

    The strategy of both Moscow and Washington to focus on territorial consequences may lead to a ceasefire. But it will not address the fundamental issue of how to deal with a vengeful and revisionist autocracy on Europe’s doorsteps.

    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.

    Tetyana Malyarenko 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. Territorial concessions will be central to any Ukraine peace deal, and to Russia’s long-term plan – https://theconversation.com/territorial-concessions-will-be-central-to-any-ukraine-peace-deal-and-to-russias-long-term-plan-256347

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Tariff-related disruptions to outweigh other oil and gas themes, says GlobalData

    Source: GlobalData

    Tariff-related disruptions to outweigh other oil and gas themes, says GlobalData

    Posted in Oil & Gas

    US tariffs and energy security are expected to remain the focal points for oil and gas trade in 2025. Tariff-induced trade tensions might exert downward pressure on the US and global economy in the near term, potentially affecting the energy demand. It is therefore important for the industry to assess the impact of macroeconomic themes of tariffs, along with geopolitics, and supply chain while charting out its growth plans, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

    GlobalData’s thematic report, “Top 20 Oil & Gas Themes – 2025,” identifies the top 20 themes that will impact the oil and gas industry in 2025. Besides macro themes, the ones enabling the transition towards clean energy, such as renewables, low-carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and electric vehicles (EV) are expected to have a potential impact on oil and gas operations in 2025 and beyond.

    Ravindra Puranik, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The US government initially imposed hefty import tariffs on most countries in line with their respective trade deficits, which were later normalized at 10% for a period of 90 days. As a result, the global economic forecast is clouded by the frequent changes in the US tariffs and the prospect of retaliatory rate increases from affected trading partners, especially China.”

    The industry has largely recovered from the geopolitical developments since 2022 that had vastly impacted global supply chains. While the global oil demand is anticipated to grow in 2025, fueled by consistent economic expansion in Asia, the stability of supply hinges on geopolitical risks and the production strategies of OPEC+ nations.

    Puranik adds: “A resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, along with incremental increases in OPEC+ output post-April 2025, could ensure adequate market supply, even in the face of stringent US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela.”

    Traditional oil and gas themes, namely LNG, shale, and integrated refineries will continue to enable companies to remain competitive in the energy market. The report also features disruptive tech themes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud computing, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics.

    Puranik concludes: “GlobalData research shows that companies who invest in the right themes become success stories; those who miss the big themes ultimately fail. Given that so many themes are disruptive, it is very easy to be blindsided by industry outsiders invading the sector. In this scenario it is important to understand the biggest themes in the industry and the how they could help companies thrive in the rapidly changing energy dynamics.”

    MIL OSI Global Banks –