NewzIntel.com

Category: Politics

  • MIL-OSI USA: Energy Department Aligns Award Criteria for For-profit, Non-profit Organizations, and State and Local Governments, Saving $935 Million Annually

    Source: US Department of Energy

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced three new policy actions that are projected to save more than $935 million annually for the American taxpayer, while expanding American innovation and scientific research. In three new policy memorandums, the DOE announced that it will follow best practices used by fellow grant providers and limit “indirect costs” of DOE funding to 10% for state and local governments, 15% for non-profit organizations, and 15% for for-profit companies.

    The Energy Department expects to generate over $935 million in annual cost savings for the American people, delivering on President Trump’s commitment to bring greater transparency and efficiency to federal government spending. Estimated savings are based on applying the new policies to 2024 fiscal year spending.

    “This action ensures that Department of Energy funds are supporting state, local, for-profit and non-profit initiatives that make energy more affordable and secure for Americans, not funding administrative costs,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “By aligning our policy on indirect costs with industry standards, we are increasing accountability of taxpayer dollars and ensuring the American people are getting the greatest value possible from these DOE programs.”

    These policy actions follow an announcement made in April to limit financial support of “indirect costs” of DOE research funding at colleges and universities to 15%, saving an estimated additional $405 million annually.

    By enacting indirect cost limits, the Department aligns its practices with those common for other grant providers.

    The full three memorandums are available below:

    POLICY FLASH

    SUBJECT: Adjusting Department of Energy Financial Assistance Policy for State and Local Governments’ Financial Assistance Awards

    BACKGROUND: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2), the Department of Energy (“Department”) is updating its policy with respect to Department financial assistance funding awarded to state and local governments.

    Through its financial assistance programs (which include grants and cooperative agreements), the Department funds research, development, and deployment projects and activities in furtherance of its mission consistent with its policies and priorities.  A portion of the funding provided pursuant to a DOE financial assistance agreement (“Award”) goes to “indirect costs,” sometimes referred to as facilities and administration (F&A) costs.  Facilities costs can sometimes be comprised of such things as depreciation of buildings, rent, equipment, capital improvements, and other operations and maintenance expenses, while administration costs can include such things as general expenses for administrative salaries and fringe benefits such as insurance and paid time off, accounting, office supplies, payroll, and other general administration costs.   

    While the Department is aware that many Award recipients use indirect cost payments to effectuate activities funded by the Department’s financial assistance awards, these indirect cost payments are not for funding the Department’s direct project activities.  As these funds are entrusted to the Department by the American people, the Department must ensure it is putting funds to appropriate use on financial assistance programs.  To improve efficiency and curtail costs where appropriate, the Department seeks to better balance the financial needs of financial assistance award recipients with the Department’s obligation to responsibly manage federal funds. 

    Accordingly, this policy flash announces the Department’s updated policies, procedures, and general decision-making criteria for establishing standards (and limits) for payment of indirect costs related to financial assistance awarded to state and local governments.  When awarding financial assistance to state and local governments these policies, procedures, and criteria are intended to better balance the Department’s dual responsibilities to financial assistance award recipients and the American people.

    Effective immediately, this guidance only applies to new or conditional Awards with state and local governments.  New Awards are considered to be Awards issued under Notices of Funding Opportunity yet to be released. Conditional Awards are awards for prior Notices of Funding Opportunity or Funding Opportunity Announcements where negotiations are not yet complete and/or the Award has not been executed. This guidance does not apply to tribal entities.

    ESTABLISHING APPROPRIATE INDIRECT COST REIMBURSEMENT LIMITS:

    At present, the indirect cost rate for state and local government financial assistance Awards is typically negotiated by one of nine other Federal agencies, depending on the state and local governmental entity involved, see 2 C.F.R. 200, app. V(F)(1). The Department plans to establish a new policy on the payment of indirect costs under Awards to state and local governments.  The Department plans to establish a maximum allowable dollar amount (stated in terms of a percentage of the total project award amount) that it will reimburse for allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs under Awards.  The percentage that will be reimbursable is inclusive of total indirect costs and fringe benefit costs.  

    For the reasons set forth in this memorandum, for New Awards, recipients should continue to utilize their negotiated and approved indirect cost rate(s) in applications for Awards, but the Department will establish a maximum dollar amount that it will reimburse under Awards to state and local governments.  The maximum limit of funds to be paid or reimbursed to a new Award recipient as indirect costs will be calculated as a percentage of the total project award amount and will be included in the Award terms as a cap.  For state and local government financial assistance awards, this maximum percentage is 10 percent (10%). 

    All New Awards to state and local governments will mandate that the Department will limit the payment or reimbursement of all allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs to a maximum of ten percent (10%) of the total project award amount.  This policy will better balance the Department’s twin aims of funding meaningful financial assistance programs to stimulate a public purpose, such as improved infrastructure or technology deployment, and upholding its fiduciary Federal Stewardship obligations to the American people.

    In circumstances where the Secretary has determined it is necessary and appropriate, the dollar threshold for reimbursement of indirect costs may be modified for Award(s) to state and local governments that are subject to this policy.

    Additional information is forthcoming.

    POLICY FLASH

    SUBJECT: Adjusting Department of Energy Financial Assistance Policy for Non-profit Organizations’ Financial Assistance Awards

    BACKGROUND: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2), the Department of Energy (“Department”) is updating its policy with respect to Department financial assistance funding awarded to nonprofit organizations.

    Through its financial assistance programs (which include grants and cooperative agreements), the Department funds research, development, and deployment projects and activities in furtherance of its mission consistent with its policies and priorities. A portion of the funding provided pursuant to a Department financial assistance agreement (“Award”) goes to “indirect costs,” sometimes referred to as facilities and administration (“F&A”) costs. Facilities costs can sometimes be comprised of such things as depreciation of buildings, rent, equipment, capital improvements, and other operations and maintenance expenses, while administration costs can include such things as general expenses for administrative salaries and fringe benefits such as insurance and paid time off, accounting, office supplies, payroll, and other general administration costs.  

    While the Department is aware that many Award recipients use indirect cost payments to effectuate activities funded by the Department’s financial assistance awards, these indirect cost payments are not for funding the Department’s direct project activities. As these funds are entrusted to the Department by the American people, the Department must ensure it is putting funds to appropriate use on financial assistance programs. To improve efficiency and curtail costs where appropriate, the Department seeks to better balance the financial needs of financial assistance award recipients with the Department’s obligation to responsibly manage federal funds.

    Accordingly, this policy flash announces the Department’s updated policies, procedures, and general decision-making criteria for establishing standards (and limits) for payment of indirect costs related to financial assistance awarded to nonprofit organizations. When awarding financial assistance to nonprofit organizations these policies, procedures, and criteria are intended to better balance the Department’s dual responsibilities to Award recipients and the American people.

    Effective immediately, this guidance only applies to new or conditional Awards with nonprofit organizations. New Awards are considered to be Awards issued under Notices of Funding Opportunity yet to be released. Conditional Awards are awards for prior Notices of Funding Opportunity or Funding Opportunity Announcements where negotiations are not yet complete and/or the Award has not been executed.

    ESTABLISHING APPROPRIATE INDIRECT COST REIMBURSEMENT LIMITS:

    At present, the indirect cost rate for nonprofit organization Awards is typically negotiated by the Federal agency with the largest dollar value of Federal awards directly funded to the nonprofit organization, see 2 C.F.R. 200, app. IV(C)(2)(a). The Department plans to establish a new policy on the payment of indirect costs under Awards to nonprofit organizations. The Department plans to establish a maximum allowable dollar amount (stated in terms of a percentage of the total project award amount) that it will reimburse for allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs under Awards. The percentage that will be reimbursable is inclusive of total indirect costs and fringe benefit costs.

    For the reasons set forth in this memorandum, for New Awards, recipients should continue to utilize their negotiated and approved indirect cost rate(s) in applications for Awards, but the Department will establish a maximum dollar amount that it will reimburse under Awards to nonprofit organizations. The maximum limit of funds to be paid or reimbursed to a new Award recipient as indirect costs will be calculated as a percentage of the total project award amount and will be included in the Award terms as a cap. For nonprofit organization Awards, this maximum percentage is 15 percent (15%).

    All New Awards to nonprofit organizations will mandate that the Department will limit the payment or reimbursement of all allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs to a maximum of fifteen percent (15%) of the total project award amount. This policy will better balance the Department’s twin aims of funding meaningful financial assistance programs to stimulate a public purpose, such as improved infrastructure or technology deployment, and upholding its fiduciary Federal Stewardship obligations to the American people.

    In circumstances where the Secretary has determined it is necessary and appropriate, the dollar threshold for payment of indirect costs may be modified for Award(s) to nonprofit organizations that are subject to this policy.

    Additional information is forthcoming.

    POLICY FLASH

    SUBJECT: Adjusting Department of Energy Financial Assistance Policy for For-profit Organizations’ Financial Assistance Awards 

    BACKGROUND: Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2), the Department of Energy (“Department”) is updating its policy with respect to Department financial assistance funding awarded to for-profit organizations.

    Through its financial assistance programs (which include grants and cooperative agreements), the Department funds research, development, and deployment projects and activities in furtherance of its mission consistent with its policies and priorities. A portion of the funding provided pursuant to a Department financial assistance agreement (“Award”) goes to “indirect costs.”. Indirect costs can be comprised of one or more indirect pools to include fringe pools associated with employee benefits, overhead pools that support business operations, and general and administrative (G&A) pools associated with the overall administration of a business.  These indirect pools typically may include costs for health insurance, paid leave, payroll taxes, rent, utilities, professional services, IT, supplies, executive salaries, rent, training, licenses and permits, depreciation, and other general expenses not directly tied to a specific project.  

    While the Department is aware that many Award recipients use indirect cost payments to effectuate activities funded by the Department’s financial assistance awards, these indirect cost payments are not for funding the Department’s direct project activities. As these funds are entrusted to the Department by the American people, the Department must ensure it is putting funds to appropriate use on financial assistance programs. To improve efficiency and curtail costs where appropriate, the Department seeks to better balance the financial needs of financial assistance award recipients with the Department’s obligation to responsibly manage federal funds.

    Accordingly, this policy flash announces the Department’s updated policies, procedures, and general decision-making criteria for establishing standards (and limits) for payment of indirect costs related to financial assistance awarded to for-profit organizations, as defined by 2 C.F.R. Part 910.122. When awarding financial assistance to for-profit organizations these policies, procedures, and criteria are intended to better balance the Department’s dual responsibilities to Award recipients and the American people.

    Effective immediately, this guidance only applies to new or conditional Awards with for-profit organizations. New Awards are considered to be Awards issued under Notices of Funding Opportunity yet to be released. Conditional Awards are awards for prior Notices of Funding Opportunity or Funding Opportunity Announcements where negotiations are not yet complete and/or the Award has not been executed.

    ESTABLISHING APPROPRIATE INDIRECT COST REIMBURSEMENT LIMITS:

    At present, the indirect cost rate for for-profit organization Awards is typically negotiated by the Federal agency with the largest dollar value of Federal awards directly funded to the for-profit organization, see 48 C.F.R. Part 42.003(a). The Department plans to establish a new policy on the payment of indirect costs under awards to for-profit organizations. The Department plans to establish a maximum allowable dollar amount (stated in terms of a percentage of the total project award amount) that it will reimburse for allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs under Awards. The percentage that will be reimbursable is inclusive of total indirect costs and fringe benefit costs.

    For the reasons set forth in this memorandum, for New Awards, recipients should continue to utilize their negotiated and approved indirect cost rate(s) in applications for Awards, but the Department will establish a maximum dollar amount that it will reimburse under Awards to for-profit organizations. The maximum limit of funds to be paid or reimbursed to a new Award recipient as indirect costs will be calculated as a percentage of the total project award amount and will be included in the Award terms as a cap. For for-profit organization Awards, this maximum percentage is fifteen percent (15%).

    All New Awards to for-profit organizations will mandate that the Department will limit the payment or reimbursement of all allowable, allocable, and reasonable indirect costs to a maximum of fifteen percent (15%) of the total project award amount. This policy will better balance the Department’s twin aims of funding meaningful financial assistance programs to stimulate a public purpose, such as improved infrastructure or technology deployment, and upholding its fiduciary Federal Stewardship obligations to the American people.

    In circumstances where the Secretary has determined it is necessary and appropriate, the dollar threshold for payment of indirect costs may be modified for Award(s) to for-profit organizations that are subject to this policy.

    Additional information is forthcoming.

    These flashes will be available online at the Department of Energy Policy Flashes website.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Making Homeownership More Affordable Statewide

    Source: US State of New York

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    Create $100 Million New York State Pro-Housing Supply Fund

    Governor Hochul signed Executive Order 30 in July 2023 creating the Pro-Housing Community Program, which recognizes and rewards municipalities actively working to unlock their housing potential and encourages others to follow suit. In the State Fiscal Year 2025 Enacted Budget, Governor Hochul made the “Pro-Housing Community” designation a requirement for accessing up to $650 million in State discretionary programs. To date, nearly 470 localities have submitted letters of intent, and 300 municipalities from all corners of New York State have received Pro Housing certification. To further support localities that are doing their part to address the housing crisis, Governor Hochul is creating a $100 million Pro-Housing Supply fund for certified Pro-Housing Communities to assist with critical infrastructure projects necessary to create new housing, such as sewer and water infrastructure upgrades.

    Provide Communities Technical Assistance to Become Pro-Housing

    Without resources, some communities may not have the ability to design and adopt pro-housing policies such as master plans, zoning text updates, and streamlined permitting procedures. To help ensure more localities that want to promote housing growth have the ability to do so, Governor Hochul will provide $5.25 million in new grant funding to offer technical assistance to communities seeking to foster housing growth and associated municipal development.

    Launch New York State’s First Mixed-Income Revolving Loan Fund

    With major forthcoming economic investments in Upstate New York, such as Micron’s $100 billion investment in Clay, the state continues to need an all-of-the-above approach to the housing supply to address acute housing needs and accommodate job growth. Too often, however, Upstate communities do not have the tools to create mixed income rental housing, leaving many developments permit-ready but unable to secure financing. To bridge this gap and unlock more housing, Governor Hochul is launching the State’s first revolving loan fund to spur mixed-income rental development outside New York City. With a $50 million State investment, the fund will fill construction financing gaps by providing a lower-cost and more flexible form of capital than is generally available in market financing. The funding will revolve and self-sustain over time through repayments once projects have converted to permanent financing after construction.

    Housing Access Voucher Program Pilot

    As part of the FY26 Enacted Budget, Governor Hochul is investing $50 million for the first year of a four-year pilot program for state-funded vouchers for homeless families or families at imminent risk of losing their housing. Vouchers would be available to households making 50 percent of area median income. HCR will administer the program through local partners outside of New York City, with the NYC Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and/or the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) administering the program within New York City. The vouchers will be a critical new tool to help New Yorkers escape or evade homelessness and housing insecurity.

    Provide Starter Home Innovation Funding

    Oftentimes, homes being built by the market today are larger and therefore less affordable than a traditional starter home. An undersupply of smaller, affordable homes limits mobility within the market, preventing young families from becoming homeowners and older New Yorkers from downsizing. Governor Hochul secured $50 million in capital funding to incentivize the building of more starter homes, including innovative approaches to homebuilding such as the use of factory-built and modular development.

    $40 Million to Support the Homeowner Protection Program (HOPP)

    The Homeowner Protection Program is a state-wide network of housing counseling and legal services organizations serving every county in New York. The network provides critical services to at-risk homeowners struggling to maintain their housing and avoid foreclosure. HOPP is also a front line defense in gentrifying neighborhoods helping to prevent fraud and deed theft for vulnerable homeowners. This funding will ensure that this network can continue to serve thousands of homeowners, preserving millions of dollars in equity and stabilizing communities.

    Expand and Strengthen the Resilient and Ready Programs

    Severe weather events are leaving New York homeowners in need of urgent repairs and long-term resilience measures. Governor Hochul secured $50 million in new funding for the Rapid Response Home Repair Program and Resilient Retrofits Program, which have provided vital assistance, helping over 1,300 homeowners to date recover and prepare for future disasters.

    Disincentivizing Institutional Investors from Buying Up One- and Two-Family Homes

    Nationally, private equity firms own more than 500,000 homes. According to some estimates, private equity firms are expected to own up to 40 percent of the single-family rental market by 2030. When large investors hold a disproportionate share of a local housing market it removes opportunities for homeownership, exacerbating the existing scarcity and driving up prices for remaining homes on the market. These consequences are felt most intensely by first-time and low- or moderate-income homebuyers.

    To help level the playing field and increase the opportunities for everyday individuals and families to purchase a home, Governor Hochul signed legislation to disincentivize large investment entities who own 10+ single- and two-family homes and act as a fiduciary for at least $30 million in assets under management from buying single- and two-family homes en masse, and will require a 90-day waiting period for institutional investors to make an offer on one- or two-family homes.

    The prohibition would also apply to an entity that receives funding from a covered institutional investor, other than in the form of a standard mortgage. Nonprofits, land banks, community land trusts, and foreclosure sales would be exempted. With the New York State Attorney General’s enforcement, covered entities that violate the waiting period would be subject to $250,000 penalties, and to $10,000 penalties for failing to provide required notices.

    Additionally, Governor Hochul signed legislation to prohibit institutional investors from claiming depreciation tax deductions for single- and two-family homes, or claiming interest deductions with respect to such homes, to disincentivize their accumulation of single- and two-family homes. The legislation also requires the New York Department of State (DOS) to provide notice when establishing a “cease and desist zone” in which homeowners who opt into coverage are prohibited from being solicited to sell their homes. The notice requirements will require information about the zone to be posted on DOS’ website when a zone is established and annually included in a local newspaper within the area of the zone.

    A safe and affordable home is a basic human right, and the only way to help New Yorkers achieve the American dream of homeownership is to build more housing and support our local communities.”

    Governor Hochul

    Strengthen Laws and Policies To Combat Home Appraisal Discrimination

    For many New Yorkers, their largest investment and most valuable asset is their home. Homes provide families with a safe place to live and an opportunity to build generational wealth. For too long, pervasive appraisal bias throughout the housing industry has unjustly stripped families of color of this opportunity, widening racial homeownership and wealth gaps. Governor Hochul secured agreement on legislation that will make it a violation of the State’s Human Rights Law to discriminate when providing real estate appraisals or in making such services available. The law will further enable DOS to fine appraisers for violations, in addition to other existing remedies, with half of those fines going to a fund to support fair housing enforcement. Governor Hochul also will be taking other administrative actions to diversify the appraiser workforce.

    Create an Affordable Homebuyer Tax Incentive

    Even when homes are developed for the express purpose of being sold to low- and moderate-income homebuyers, local property tax assessments value the homes at fair market value, presenting challenges to creating homes these homebuyers can afford to purchase. The Governor secured an affordable homebuyer property tax incentive at local opt-in for homes built with assistance from governmental entities, nonprofits, land banks, or community land trusts, and sold to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. This will aid such homebuyers by making their dream of homeownership more attainable by bringing down costs and increasing the supply of these homes.

    Double New York State Low Income Housing Credits Annually

    Modeled after the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, the New York State Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (SLIHC) was signed into law in 2000 and has been critical to supporting the development of housing for low-and middle-income households. Governor Hochul is building on this success by including legislation in the Enacted Budget to double the amount of the tax credits available each year through the SLIHC program, making it the largest state low-income housing tax credit program in America. This action alone will generate upwards of $210 million in private investment in affordable housing per year.

    Unlock Historic Tax Credits by Decoupling and Expanding Eligibility

    Currently, New York State law requires Federal and State Historic Tax credits to be coupled together to the same investor and be available only in certain census tracts. These factors depress the economic value of both tax credits and needlessly turn investment away from housing projects, a problem felt especially acutely in upstate New York communities. Governor Hochul signed legislation that can unlock the maximum value of the tax credits by allowing for transferring the State credit to a different entity than the federal credit, and by eliminating the census tract eligibility requirement for affordable housing.

    Empower Communities to Redevelop Vacant Properties into Housing

    Many municipalities struggle with vacant and abandoned buildings that are in a significant state of disrepair in neighborhoods that lack the local economic conditions necessary to incentivize redevelopment by the private sector. Consequently, the investment required to redevelop these properties can exceed their value and the resulting funding gap prevents the property from being rehabilitated. To help communities fight back against vacant properties and revitalize neighborhoods, Governor Hochul secured agreement to authorize localities across the state to adopt a tax exemption to incentivize redevelopment of these properties into affordable homes.

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    Governor Hochul’s Housing Agenda

    Governor Hochul is committed to addressing New York’s housing crisis and making the State more affordable and more livable for all New Yorkers. As part of the FY25 Enacted Budget, the Governor secured a landmark agreement to increase New York’s housing supply through new tax incentives for Upstate communities, new incentives and relief from certain state-imposed restrictions to create more housing in New York City, a $500 million capital fund to build up to 15,000 new homes on state-owned property, an additional $600 million in funding to support a variety of housing developments statewide and new protections for renters and homeowners. In addition, as part of the FY23 Enacted Budget, the Governor announced a five-year, $25 billion Housing Plan to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations, plus the electrification of an additional 50,000 homes. Nearly 60,000 homes have been created or preserved to date.

    The FY25 Enacted Budget also strengthened the Pro-Housing Community Program which the Governor launched in 2023. Pro-Housing certification is now a requirement for localities to access up to $650 million in discretionary funding. Currently, more than 300 communities have been certified, including the city of Syracuse.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Energean Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Confirmed to Speak at Invest in African Energy (IAE) 2025 in Paris

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

    PARIS, France, May 8, 2025/APO Group/ —

    Mathios Rigas, CEO of Energean, will speak at the upcoming Invest in African Energy (IAE) 2025 Forum in Paris, where he will bring critical insights into the future of gas development and investment in Africa. As the head of one of the Mediterranean’s leading independent E&P companies, Rigas is uniquely positioned to discuss how African nations can accelerate gas monetization, meet rising domestic energy demand and attract private sector-led upstream investment.

    Energean’s entry into Morocco marks a notable expansion of its operations in Africa and reflects the company’s strategic focus on gas development across the continent. In April 2024, Energean farmed into the Lixus and Rissana offshore licenses and began drilling at the Anchois gas project in August. Although the discovery did not yield sufficient volumes to justify development, the move signals Energean’s intent to replicate its gas-focused success in the Mediterranean and target gas-weighed assets.

    IAE 2025 (www.Invest-Africa-Energy.com) is an exclusive forum designed to facilitate investment between African energy markets and global investors. Taking place May 13-14, 2025 in Paris, the event offers delegates two days of intensive engagement with industry experts, project developers, investors and policymakers. For more information, please visit www.Invest-Africa-Energy.com. To sponsor or participate as a delegate, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.

    Following the announcement in December 2024 that Energean would target new acquisitions across Africa, along with the Balkans, the UK and the North Sea, the company is actively reshaping its portfolio around high-impact, development-ready assets. This strategic shift comes in the wake of the divestment of mature assets and signals a renewed focus on frontier and underdeveloped regions, where Energean can apply its proven development model. Africa is set to play a central role in this new chapter, offering both resource potential and strong demand fundamentals.

    With its technical capabilities, successful track record in bringing offshore gas projects online, and experience navigating complex regulatory environments, Energean is well-positioned to make a significant contribution to Africa’s gas agenda. The company’s approach aligns with the continent’s energy transition priorities, offering cleaner-burning fuel sources that can support industrial growth, job creation and greater energy independence.

    IAE 2025 will serve as a critical platform for facilitating dialogue between Energean and key African stakeholders – including governments, regulators and investors – as the company deepens its presence on the continent. As Africa advances its gas agenda and seeks partners to support energy security and industrial development, IAE offers unmatched opportunities to share strategic insights, forge new partnerships and drive investment into high-impact, gas-focused projects.

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Harshbarger Reintroduces Legislation to Support Women and Encourage Life

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger reintroduced the Pregnancy.Gov Act, legislation to create a national web application — Pregnancy.gov — that would provide comprehensive, zip code-specific information on public and private resources available to expectant mothers. This initiative can be implemented at no net cost to the federal government, using existing infrastructure and the credibility of a “.gov” domain.

    Congresswoman Harshbarger issued the following statement:

    “When you’re blessed with a pregnancy — whether expected or unexpected — you shouldn’t have to scramble for help. This bill ensures women have easy access to life-affirming resources, including prenatal care, alternatives to abortion, transportation assistance, support for victims of domestic or sexual violence, and much more.

    “This legislation has the potential to save countless unborn lives while helping families welcome God’s greatest gift into the world. I’m proud to lead this effort and continue standing as a strong voice for life.”

    Kristin Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America & Students for Life Action said the following.

    “Many people who advocate for abortion claim the pro-life movement does not care about the woman in the unexpected pregnancy nor the child after they are born. Well, this is clearly far from the truth. The Pregnancy.Gov bill would give all women who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies that there are life-affirming resources for them. According to the Guttmacher Institute, (the think tank arm for Planned Parenthood) shows that 67% of women who seek abortion were pressured or forced into an abortion. This Pregnancy.Gov site is one way to greatly reduce the number of abortions and traumatized mothers who thought they had no other option than to end the life of their own child.”

    Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America LAC, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, added the following.

    “Women facing an unexpected pregnancy need information and they need resources to know they are not alone and have the ability to choose life. 

    “Pregnancy.Gov will be a one-stop-shop listing everything from the local pregnancy resource centers to food and nutrition assistance, education opportunities, and adoption and legal services. We are delighted Rep. Harshbarger has championed this legislation and will work to help gain widespread support for women.”

    Vice President of Government Affairs for SBA Pro-Life America, Hon. Marilyn Musgrave, stated the following.

    “No mother should ever feel alone when she faces an unplanned pregnancy. There are thousands of pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and other organizations nationwide that stand ready to support her before, during, and after pregnancy. These centers provide hope and encouragement as well as practical material, medical, and educational support to millions of families every single year. We thank pro-life champion Representative Harshbarger and her colleagues for supporting moms in need by working to get them access to these critical life-affirming resources.”

    Original cosponsors include: Representatives Brian Babin (R-TX), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Rich McCormick (R-GA), Sheri Biggs (R-SC), Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), and John Rose (R-TN).

    Learn more about the legislation by clicking HERE.

    View the bill text HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: VE Day: We must never appease fascism

    Source: Scottish Greens

    We can never let fascism win.

    Speaking in a Scottish Government debate Commemorating the 80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, Scottish Green Co-leader Patrick Harvie reflected on the horrors of WW2 and warned against appeasing fascism.

    “The motion reminds us of the hundreds of thousands of UK forces, and the tens of thousands of civilians, whose lives were lost in WW2.

    “Beyond that, the war caused up to 85 million deaths worldwide – around 3% of the global population at the time – including six million Jews, and millions of others exterminated by the Nazis. And an estimated 40 to 60 million people were displaced.

    “But mere statistics aren’t enough to truly comprehend the scale of what had to be done in the defeat of Nazism and Fascism, the sacrifice of those who fought, and the scale of the impact on the millions of lives affected.

    “I don’t think I can imagine the emotional release that must have come with the announcement of VE day, and the end of the fighting in Europe.

    “In the wake of such suffering, it led to new beginnings –

    “In recognising that they had fought together, and survived together, people decided to rebuild their society together, with a welfare state & and NHS, an astonishing legacy for that generation to leave us.

    “But also the creation of international institutions of peace, a framework for international law, human rights, and what eventually became the European Union.

    “But it’s important to remember too that VE day was not the end of the story.

    “Not for those still enduring war in other parts of the world.

    “Not for East Germany, which went from Nazi to Communist control; it would be decades before they would achieve freedom, and join a peaceful and democratic family of European nations

    “Not for the gay men liberated from the Nazi concentration camps, who were re-imprisoned by the Allies

    “We must remember too that the struggle to defeat fascism remains our responsibility today.

    “As we see an expansionist war against Ukraine being rewarded on the world stage

    “As we see the horrific images of genocide from Gaza

    “As we see the brutality of immigration detention camps and imprisonment without trial in countries claiming to be democracies.

    “As we see far right ideology growing around the world, and the arrest of Nazis in the UK only yesterday.

    “As we hear prominent voices in major political parties seeking to abolish our fundamental human rights, and tear up that astonishing endowment the post war generation left us.

    “As we see the UK Govt celebrating VE Day on the same day as they announce an agreement with a US president whose ideology is indistinguishable from fascism

    “We need to remember that appeasement never works.”

    “I want to finish with the words of Ken Turner, 98, in a video posted on social media yesterday, as he sat in a Sherman tank. Mr Turner served in WW2, as did the tank.

    “I’m old enough to have seen fascism the first time round, and now it’s coming back,”  he said.

    “And driving the tank over a Tesla, crushing it, he gave this message to Elon Musk: “We’ve crushed fascism before and we’ll crush it again”

    “Presiding Officer, Ken gets it. Ken knows what had to be done. Ken knows the cost of what had to be done.

    “But Ken also knows why it had to be done. And he knows that it must still be done. Let’s never forget what Ken has reminded us of.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Peacekeeping Ministerial: Investing in Prisons to Secure Long-lasting Peace

    Source: United Nations – Peacekeeping

    This story was written by the Justice and Corrections Service at the UN Department of Peace Operations, which supports the work of peacekeeping operations and special political missions, as well as other UN entities, to strengthen the rule of law and criminal justice systems, including courts and prisons. 

    In some peacekeeping settings, armed groups attack prisons as a deliberate strategy. Their aim may be to release dangerous inmates and destabilize communities or to free their own members and bolster their ranks by coercing newly released inmates to join them. In others, prisoners are breaking free to escape appalling conditions. Regardless of the reasons, a single mass escape can significantly set back what peacekeeping has taken years to accomplish.  

    “Peacekeepers risk their lives to oppose armed groups and protect civilians, but without a functioning prison system, high-risk prisoners can sometimes simply walk away,” warns Robert Pulver, Chief of the Justice and Corrections Service at the UN Department of Peace Operations. 

    Effective, well-managed prisons are essential to public safety and long-term peace. When prisons are not secured, they can become targets for armed groups. When they are overcrowded, under-resourced or inhumane, they can become flashpoints for violence, mass escapes and radicalization, undermining already fragile peace efforts.  “Without safe, secure and humane prisons, there can be no law and order and no rule of law, the lives of civilians are put in danger and peace remains at risk,” says Pulver.  

    The cost of inaction 

    In January, armed group offensives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) resulted in prison breaks, including in the cities of Goma, Bukavu and Kabare. Over 7,000 prisoners escaped, of which more than 4,500 were high-risk inmates. Some were members of armed groups, some had been convicted of crimes against humanity, war crimes and conflict-related sexual violence. Some remain at large, making threats against victims and those who were involved in the legal proceedings against them. Some have rejoined armed groups, including in command positions.  

    In Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), Ngaragba Prison was housing more than five times its intended capacity, causing food shortages, deaths from malnutrition and heightened security and health risks.  Makala Central Prison in Kinshasa, DRC, was designed to hold 1,500 inmates but was holding close to 10 times that when an escape occurred last September.  Prisons like these “are time bombs waiting to explode,” says Pulver, facing much higher risks of mass escapes.   

    In conflict-affected settings, prison breaks undo the hard work missions have undertaken to remove dangerous individuals from communities and hold them accountable. They erode confidence in state capacity to maintain order and exacerbate cycles of violence – especially when armed actors exploit prison breaks to advance their agendas.  

    Building safe prisons 

    With support from Member States, UN peacekeeping missions are helping national authorities in conflict-affected countries improve prison management and security. In the DRC, UN peacekeeping has supported the installation of surveillance systems, like CCTV and drones, the improvement of infrastructure and the development of emergency response protocols. In the CAR, we have supported health screenings for over 2,000 detainees, helping them get treatment for illness and malnutrition through the International Committee of the Red Cross. In Kosovo, we have supported rehabilitation programmes for inmates.  

    Currently, 28 Member States provide corrections personnel to peacekeeping and special political missions to help in these efforts. These officers help train national prison staff in key areas including the prevention of violent extremism and prison escapes. However, many challenges remain due to insufficient resources, jeopardizing the very security goals peacekeepers strive to achieve.  

    Stepping up support 

    Canada, Rwanda and Sweden co-chair the Group of Friends of Corrections in New York to draw more political support, expertise and resources for this often-neglected aspect of peace operations.  

    The upcoming Peacekeeping Ministerial in Berlin offers a key opportunity for Member States to strengthen this work. Participants are expected to pledge vital resources, including trained corrections personnel and equipment such as protective gear and metal detectors.  

    This support will help transform at-risk prisons from security liabilities into pillars of peace and public safety. 

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Helping heroes heal

    Every day, Alberta’s first responders face danger, trauma and heartbreak to safeguard the lives, futures and well-being of Alberta’s families, communities and loved ones. That’s why it is important to honour their sacrifice by ensuring Alberta’s heroes don’t face their battles alone.

    Budget 2025 provides the Supporting Psychological Health in First Responders (SPHIFR) grant program with an ongoing investment of $1.5 million per year. This grant supports non-profit organizations in delivering critical mental health services to first responders living with or at risk for post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSIs), as well as those conducting applied research to advance prevention and treatment. This funding ensures Alberta’s police and peace officers, correctional workers, paramedics and firefighters (including wildland firefighters) get the help they need, when they need it.

    “First responders and emergency workers face Alberta’s hardest moments – trauma, danger, and crisis – so others don’t have to. This grant program makes sure they get the support they need when it matters most. Alberta’s government will continue to stand with our local heroes by funding the services and research that safeguard their mental health and well-being.”

    Matt Jones, Minister of Jobs, Economy and Trade

    “We owe so much to the men and women on the frontlines working as first responders – police and peace officers, firefighters, paramedics and correctional workers. These jobs come with a cost, with workers often facing post-traumatic stress injuries or other mental health challenges. I am pleased to see funding go toward helping first responders heal from these challenges.”

    Dan Williams, Minister of Mental Health and Addiction

    “Supporting the mental health and well-being of our first responders is crucial. They bravely confront Alberta’s most challenging situations, and this grant program provides essential resources to help them heal and continue their vital work, ensuring they receive the care they deserve.”

    Mike Ellis, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Services

    The grant program helps organizations across Alberta offer accessible, high-impact programming that addresses the psychological risks of first response work. It also funds applied research to develop and evaluate new approaches to treatment and prevention, ensuring support systems evolve to meet the growing needs of those on the front lines.

    Applications are currently open for the 2025-26 intake of the Supporting Psychological Health in First Responders grant program. The application period opened March 31, 2025, and will close on May 26.

    Some grant recipients from 2024-25 included:

    • The Alberta Municipal Health and Safety Association (received $185,435):
      • For their “First Responder and Family PTSI Train the Trainer” project. Building on a previous grant for “Working Mind First Responder,” this funding will train 48 new facilitators to deliver mental health training.
         
    • Legacy Place Society (received $161,000):
      • For their 12-month “Families as Allies” project to support families of first responders recovering from PTSI. The project will offer resources and strategies to help family members care for their own well-being while supporting their loved ones.
    • The University of Alberta (received $331,000):
      • For their “Moving Forward: 3MDR Study with First Responders in Alberta.” The project will train providers in 3MDR, an emerging virtual reality therapy for PTSD.

    “The receipt of SPHIFR grant funding has been pivotal to our ongoing efforts to provide evidence-based mental health services to Alberta first responders, emergency workers and families living with or at risk for PTSI.”

    Craig Hrynchuk, CEO and executive director, Alberta Municipal Health and Safety Association

    Alberta’s government is putting the well-being of first responders at the forefront because when first responders are supported, communities are safer and stronger. By investing in the mental health of first responders, Alberta’s government is helping ensure the province’s emergency workforce remains strong, supported and ready to serve.

    Quick Facts:

    • Since the program launched in 2020, 62 grants have been provided to 32 service providers and 30 for researchers, for a total of almost $7.5 million in funding.
    • In the 2024-25 intake, six service providers and six researchers received a total of $1.5 million in grants.

    Related information: 

    • First responders’ mental health grants

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How Canada can turn tariff tensions into a global affordable housing alliance

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Ehsan Noroozinejad Farsangi, Visiting Senior Researcher, Smart Structures Research Group, University of British Columbia

    Canada is facing a worsening housing crisis. Home prices have exploded, with 45 per cent of Canadians saying they are deeply worried about finding affordable housing.

    The country needs to build an additional 3.5 million homes by 2030 to achieve housing affordability. However, housing supply is lagging well behind that target even as demand continues to rise, driven largely by population growth and immigration.



    Read more:
    Canada’s housing crisis: Innovative tech must come with policy reform

    Into this crisis have come new costs. In March 2025, the United States imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum imports. Canada immediately hit back with its own 25 per cent duties on U.S. steel and aluminum, affecting roughly $12.6 billion of steel and $3 billion of aluminum goods.

    In practical terms, that means higher costs for key building materials like steel beams, aluminum cladding, appliances and machinery.

    Industry groups say these duties will drive up the price of new construction and further erode affordability. In a market already strained, adding tariff charges is like pouring salt on an open wound: it makes every new home more expensive to build and to buy.

    Factory-built housing offers a way forward

    Modern methods of construction, such as modular and prefabricated housing, are a promising answer to the housing shortage. These methods involve large components of houses being produced in factories and assembled at their final location.

    Factory-built housing can be done about 50 per cent faster and up to 35 per cent cheaper than site-built homes.

    Importantly, this speed and affordability do not come at the expense of quality or energy performance. Canadian-built modular homes achieve top efficiency ratings and reach net-zero energy while frequently delivering superior performance compared to site-built homes. They are also greener, as controlled factory processes produce far less waste.

    In Japan, modular factories produce over 15 per cent of all new housing. Sweden’s construction industry heavily relies on prefabricated construction as well; it is present in approximately 84 per cent of detached houses.

    Other countries are rapidly scaling up modern construction methods. Singapore mandates every public housing project to use modular techniques because this enables mass apartment production with efficiency.

    The combination of expensive labour costs and immediate housing needs makes Australia, the United Kingdom and parts of the United States optimal markets for modular construction expansion.

    Canada can lead in modular housing

    Canada has key advantages that make it well suited to expand modular and prefabricated housing. In particular, it has a strong forest products sector for supplying wood panels and engineered timber, a skilled construction and technology workforce and a growing policy drive for lower-carbon building.

    Canadian builders have already shown they can deliver modular housing at scale. Launched in 2020, Canada’s Rapid Housing Initiative committed $1 billion to modular projects, followed by another $1.5 billion in 2021 to quickly house vulnerable populations.

    The Rapid Housing Initiative exceeded its target, creating nearly 4,700 new homes in short order. It proved that factory-built housing can be both fast and high-quality in Canada.

    Canada has the opportunity to build on that success. The 2024 federal budget created a Homebuilding Technology and Innovation Fund aimed at expanding prefabricated housing. It set aside $50 million through Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (to be matched by industry) and up to $500 million in low-cost loans from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for prefabricated apartment projects.

    Prime Minister Mark Carney has also shown interest in modular and prefabricated housing technologies to create sustained demand.

    Provinces like Ontario and British Columbia are focusing on modular construction to cut red tape and better understand how to expand it. Canada’s National Research Council is also consulting on aligning building codes and inspections for factory-built homes with the help of Canadian universities.

    A global alliance on modular housing

    As Canada faces a deepening housing crisis, it has the opportunity to turn today’s tariff tensions into deeper international partnerships.

    By forming an international affordable housing consortium, Canada could collaborate with countries that have succeeded in modern construction methods, like Sweden, Japan, Australia and Germany, to share knowledge. Together, these nations could harmonize building standards and invest in research.

    Here are five practical moves Canada can take to build this global modular housing alliance:

    1. Create a zero-tariff modular homes club.

    Canada should use the trade tools it already has, like the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, to eliminate most tariffs with the European Union and Asian countries. Canada should negotiate an add-on protocol that lets modular components, such as panels and factory equipment, cross borders without tariffs.

    2. Launch a joint show-home projects in partner countries.

    We propose a “FastBuild 1000 initiative” initiative that would see each member nation commit to building a minimum of 1,000 modular homes. Pilot sites could include Vancouver, Sydney, Hamburg and Osaka — urban centres in countries already familiar with modern construction techniques. Engineers could travel across countries to test how modules fit different climates and design codes, while giving factories steady orders.

    3. Pool global buying power for materials and appliances.

    Canada and its partners could form a modular materials co-operative that bundles steel, engineered timber, heat pumps and windows. The proposed system should leverage economies of scale in factory production to make the final product much cheaper.

    4. Open-source designs and one-click certifications.

    Ottawa’s catalogue of pre-approved housing designs could be expanded into a global online catalogue where partner countries can download and adapt pre-existing designs while keeping the structure safe and secure. Simplified, one-click certification would help speed up approvals across borders.

    5. Create a ‘modular skills passport’ and research and development hub.

    Canadian universities and colleges could train workers through micro-credentials in areas like offsite manufacturing, digital construction, robotics, penalization and on-site assembly. Some countries like Japan have a huge prefabrication industry valued at over $24 billion. Linking research and development would give Canada access to the latest technologies while offering partner countries entry into the Canadian construction sector.

    By investing in this kind of international collaboration, Canada can address its domestic housing crisis while leading a fast, green housing revolution that makes homes affordable worldwide.

    Dr. Ehsan Noroozinejad has received funding from both national and international organizations to support research addressing housing and climate crises. His most recent funding for integrated housing and climate policy comes from the James Martin Institute for Public Policy. He has also been involved in securing funding from NSERC and Mitacs.

    Prof. T.Y. Yang secures funding from national and international organizations to develop innovative solutions for housing and climate crises, with a focus on modern methods of construction. His most recent funding has been from NRCan, NSERC and Mitacs.

    – ref. How Canada can turn tariff tensions into a global affordable housing alliance – https://theconversation.com/how-canada-can-turn-tariff-tensions-into-a-global-affordable-housing-alliance-255829

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Warner Unveils Latest Legislation in Push to Make Housing More Affordable for Virginians

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner
    WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) has introduced two new pieces of bipartisan legislation to encourage new development, expand supply, and make housing more affordable for Virginians.
    “In communities across the Commonwealth, both rural and urban, too many families are struggling to find safe, affordable housing,” Sen. Warner said. “This crisis needs an all-hands-on-deck solution, and that’s why I am proud to continue to look for innovative solutions to help tackle this problem. These bipartisan bills offer commonsense solutions to help boost our housing supply by both protecting our current stock and supporting new investment.”
    The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, introduced with Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), would create a new tax incentive to build and preserve more than 500,000 affordable, single-family homes for homeownership over ten years in under-resourced communities. The tax credit will cover the cost between building or renovating a home in these areas and the price at which they can be sold. The credits would only be available after the homes have been completed and sold to a homeowner – ensuring the investors, not the government, bear the risk. Full text of the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act is available here.
    The Preserving Rural Housing Investments Act, introduced with Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), will support more investment in rural and low-income housing by clarifying the tax-exempt controlled entity rules to ensure that Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are able to participate in partnerships that are crucial for low-income housing investments. Full text of the Preserving Rural Housing Investments Act is available here.
    These bills are just the latest in Sen. Warner’s longstanding efforts to expand access to homeownership and make housing more affordable for Virginians. Since January, he has introduced multiple bills to amend the federal tax code to encourage new housing construction and rehabilitation, including the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act, the Rural Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act, and the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act – all bipartisan bills to encourage redevelopment and new construction in communities across the country. He is also the lead author of the Low-Income First Time Homebuyers (LIFT) Act to help qualified, first-generation homebuyers build equity in their homes by offering a 20-year mortgage for roughly the same monthly payment as a traditional 30-year loan. Warner has also joined his colleagues in sponsoring the Downpayment Toward Equity Act, which would provide federal grants to assist first-generation homebuyers with qualifying expenses toward purchasing their first home, including down payment costs, closing costs, and costs to reduce the rates of interest.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: PM remarks on the UK’s landmark economic deal with the US: Thursday 8 May

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Speech

    PM remarks on the UK’s landmark economic deal with the US: Thursday 8 May

    Prime Minister’s remarks that he delivered at Jaguar Land Rover today (Thursday 8 May) on the UK agreeing a landmark economic deal with the United States.

    Just a few moments ago, I spoke to President Trump, the President of the United States.

    And I am really pleased to announce to you, and I wanted to come to you to announce it, that we have agreed the basis of an historic Economic Prosperity Deal.

    That is a deal will protect British businesses and save thousands of jobs in Britain, really important, skilled, well-paid jobs.

    It will remove tariffs on British steel and aluminium, reducing them to zero.

    It will provide vital assurances for our life sciences sector, so important to our economy and grant unprecedented market access for British farmers without compromising our high standards.

    And for the great British cars that you make here, that we see all around us, this deal means that US tariffs will now be cut from 27.5% to 10% for 100,000 vehicles every year, that’s a huge and important reduction.

    And I know from when I was last here, how much that will have been weighing on your minds when you knew the size of the tariffs that would otherwise be in place. 

    To get that decrease was hugely important to me and I can tell you my teams were working really hard on this deal night and day for weeks. I was working with them.

    And in politics what matters sometimes is who you have in your mind’s eye when you are making these deals, who do you have in your mind’s eye when you are taking decisions. 

    What I took away from here last time was you and the brilliant work that you do and had you in my mind’s eye as we did that. 

    We have scope to increase that quota as we go forward, this is not fixed, this is where we have got to. 

    And all of these tariff cuts will come into place as soon as possible and that’s really important in relation as well to the work that you are doing, and the brilliant cars that you make.

    And as Adrian has said I was here with you just a few weeks ago and I promised you that I would deliver in the national interest.

    And today I am really pleased to come back here, to be able to look you in the eye and say I have delivered on the promise I made to you. 

    And that’s why as soon as I knew this deal was coming in today, I said I want to come back to JLR to talk to the workforce there, for whom this means so such. 

    Now of course we are the first country to secure such a deal with the United States.

    In an era of global instability that is so important. The great challenge of our age is to secure and renew Britain. 

    And that is what we are going to do.  

    Acting in the national interest.

    Shaping this new era – not being shaped by it.

    If it’s not good for Britain, we won’t do it.

    If it doesn’t mean more money in people’s pockets, we won’t do it.

    If it doesn’t mean security and renewal in every part of the country – we won’t do it.

    But that doesn’t mean we’re turning inward. 

    Instead, we are sending a message to the world that Britain is open for business – seeking trade agreements with India on Tuesday, with the US today, and working to boost trade with other partners too – including of course the EU with who we have an important meeting just a week on Monday. 

    Making deals that will benefit working people.

    You know – in recent years an idea has taken hold that you show strength by rejecting your allies. 

    That you shut the door, put the phone down, storm off. I’ve had plenty of people urging me to do that rather than stay in the room and fight for the interests of our country. 

    I want to be absolutely crystal clear – that is not how this Government operates. It is never how this Government operates. We don’t storm off, we stay in the room, and we negotiate, and we work for our country with the national interest at the foremost of our mind. 

    Because the other way of working doesn’t deliver the benefits that working people need.

    And so I also want to be clear – this is just the start.

    With the deal we have done today we can say: jobs saved. Jobs won. But not job done. 

    Because we are more ambitious for what the UK and US can do together.

    So we are hammering out further details to reduce barriers to trade with the United States across the board.

    We have £1.5 trillion invested in each other’s economies, creating 2.5 million jobs across both countries.

    There are so many areas where I think we can even more than that and put more pounds in the pockets of working people across the United Kingdom.

    As the two biggest services exporters in the world, we will work to bring down barriers, creating jobs in our thriving services sectors – in Leeds, in Manchester, London and Birmingham.

    As the only two western nations with trillion-dollar tech sectors we will go further to deepen our partnership in new technologies to shape the innovations of this century together and create the jobs of the future. 

    Because, look – our history shows what we can achieve when we work together.

    And what timing for this deal, that we have agreed this deal on VE Day.  

    80 years ago, today Churchill was addressing the nation at the end of the Second World War. Victory in Europe. 

    And we were standing the United Kingdom with the United States on defence and security. For 80 years we have been the closest of partners, and today we have added to that trade and the economy in the special relationship between us. 

    Defined by peace and economic prosperity. 

    So, it is fitting today that we renew the bond on the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The Armenian government has approved a bill on the country’s accession to the Ashgabat Agreement

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

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

    Yerevan, May 8 (Xinhua) — The Armenian government approved a bill at a meeting on Thursday on the country’s accession to the Ashgabat Agreement on the establishment of an international transport and transit corridor between Iran, Oman, Qatar, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

    The rationale for the decision states that Armenia’s accession to the Ashgabat Agreement will create new opportunities for integration into the transport corridor between the Central Asian countries, the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. This step will contribute to the creation of reliable conditions for the transportation and transit of goods and passengers through the territories of the above-mentioned states, facilitating multimodal transportation, optimizing transportation costs, strengthening Armenia’s transit role and increasing transportation safety.

    It is noted that the agreement will ensure Armenia’s access to international markets, harmonization of transit documents required for international transportation, simplification of customs procedures and unimpeded use of the transport infrastructure of the respective countries.

    In addition, the agreement will promote the development of mutually beneficial economic and business ties and the expansion of cooperation.

    The Armenian government will send the draft law to the Constitutional Court for review and, after receiving a positive response, will submit it to the National Assembly /parliament/ for ratification. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: New child care centre open in downtown Vancouver

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Families and children in Vancouver are benefiting from more licensed child care spaces, providing more options in the downtown core.

    “We are excited that families who are living or working in Vancouver will get to benefit from this new child care centre for years to come,” said Rohini Arora, parliamentary secretary for child care. “These seats are an important addition for the working and single parents, and especially women in this community, who need access to high-quality child care. It represents another strong step forward to build more child care sites in partnership with communities and the federal government, and another step to make access to affordable, quality child care a core service for all British Columbians”

    First Baptist Church of Vancouver received more than $464,000 through the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund to create 37 child care spaces. This fund is jointly supported by provincial investments and federal funding under the 2021-22 to 2030-31 Canada-British Columbia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement.

    “We are delighted to partner with Wind and Tide, a child care provider with over 35 years experience, to provide families with a child care that enables individuals in their early formative years to learn and thrive,” said Suzannah Nacho, pastor, First Baptist Church. “With sandboxes and storytime amid the rooftops of downtown, this space was specifically created to care for the physical, emotional and social needs of children because we believe nurturing our children and families will allow our whole community to flourish.”

    The centre is part of a larger restoration and seismic upgrade of the church. The new licensed child care spaces will include 12 spaces for children younger than 36 months and 25 spaces for children 30 months to school age.

    “Our beautiful city of Vancouver has expressed a consistent need for affordable child care in the downtown area and we are honoured and overjoyed to be a small part of meeting that need,” said Drew Melton, lead pastor, First Baptist Church. “It is a privilege to be part of the West End community in downtown Vancouver and to continue serving the community through providing fun and welcoming child care in partnership with Wind and Tide.”

    Since 2018, ChildCareBC’s accelerated space-creation programs have helped fund the creation of more than 40,900 new licensed child care spaces in B.C., with more than 24,900 of these operational. Funding the creation of new child care spaces is part of the Province’s ChildCareBC plan to build access to affordable, quality and inclusive child care as a core service for families.

    Learn More:

    For more information about the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, visit:
    https://gov.bc.ca/childcare/newspacesfund

    For more information about how B.C. is delivering quality and affordable child care to more families in the province, visit: https://gov.bc.ca/childcare

    For more information about ChildCareBC, visit: https://gov.bc.ca/childcare

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Altana Federal Credit Union employee sentenced to more than 1 year in prison for embezzlement and ordered to pay over $65,000 in restitution

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BILLINGS – A Billings woman who formerly served as the Operations Manager for Altana Federal Credit Union in 2023 was sentenced yesterday to 12 months and 1 day in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release and ordered to immediately pay full restitution of $65,046.37, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

    Kelly Jo Muzzana, 40, pleaded guilty in July 2024 to embezzlement by a credit union employee.

    U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided.

    The government alleged in court documents that throughout 2023, Muzzana served as the Operations Manager for Altana Federal Credit Union in Billings, Montana. In that role, Muzzana had access to customer data and was responsible for managing Altana’s entire fraud-alert process. This included supervising the employees who documented customers’ fraud claims and facilitating what funds were reimbursed by Altana. Muzzana also managed the fraud reporting system and was entrusted to independently authorize bank cards that were re-issued to customers or returned to the bank through the mail.

    During her time as Operations Manager, Muzzana created duplicate bank cards for customers’ accounts and took them home with her. She did the same with cards that Altana received in the mail that were undelivered to customers. Muzzana took numerous bank cards from Altana and used them to make purchases online and in retail stores around Billings, Montana such as Target and Walmart. After using their cards to finance her private spending, Muzzana personally handled many of the subsequent fraud claims to prevent detection by law enforcement.

    Eventually, an Altana customer reported one of Muzzana’s fraudulent purchases to law enforcement. When a detective called Altana to investigate, Muzzana downloaded a recording of the call and, upon learning of the investigation, fled the building and never returned.

    Altana reimbursed its customers all of the money Muzzana stole. In a victim impact statement, Altana’s CEO, Jason Hagadone explained that the credit union “suffered significant reputation risk from this incident. As a financial institution, our members entrust us with one of the most important aspects of their life: their finances. Kelly breached that trust by stealing and using their debit cards.”

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Hargrove prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by the Billings Police Department and FBI.

    XXX

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: 19 Members of a Drug Trafficking Ring Indicted in Cleveland

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    CLEVELAND – A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Ohio has returned a 29-count indictment against 19 members and associates of a Cleveland drug trafficking ring. Those charged are Derek Brantley, 41, Cleveland Heights; Juan Johnny Colon, 42, Cleveland; Luis Joel Rondon, 44, Cleveland; Sydney Anthony, 25, Parma Heights; Ryan Bell, 39, Brunswick; Mark Byrd, 44, Cleveland; Nicholas Calvert, 37, Avon Lake; Jocelyn Dolan, 22, Newton Falls; Antonio Greenlee, 37, Cleveland; Andre Jenkins, 43, Cleveland; Melanie Crespo, 32, Elyria; Jordan Marsh, 27, Cleveland; Nicholas Malusky, 38, Parma; Sean Masters, 54, Fort Pierce, Florida; Brandon Payne, 32, Cleveland; Lee Pomales, 38, Cleveland; Mason Pulvino, 28, North Ridgeville; Martha Rios, 68, Cleveland; and Kalem Watts, 45, Cleveland.

    Federal and local law enforcement agents and officers made the apprehensions in a series of coordinated arrests.

    According to court documents, from October 2023 to December 2024, the defendants charged were alleged to have trafficked various controlled substances but were mostly dealing cocaine. Although based in Cleveland, the ring operated throughout Northeast Ohio and as far away as Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Their operations also included attempts to infiltrate the Ohio prison system.

    Throughout the investigation, authorities seized thousands of dollars in cash and a number of illegal drugs that included cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. Several illegally possessed firearms were also confiscated throughout the investigation.

    During the investigation, several locations in Cleveland were found to be used as stash houses to store and package cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as store firearms.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. Defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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

    This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Strike Force Initiative, which provides for the establishment of permanent multi-agency task force teams that work side-by-side in the same location. This co-located model enables agents from different agencies to collaborate on intelligence-driven, multi­-jurisdictional operations to disrupt and dismantle the most significant drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.

    The specific mission of the OCDETF Cleveland Strike Force is to disrupt and dismantle major criminal organizations and subsidiary organizations, including criminal gangs, transnational drug cartels, racketeering organizations, and other groups engaged in illicit activities that present a threat to public safety and national security and are related to the illegal smuggling and trafficking of narcotics or other controlled substances, weapons, humans, or the illegal concealment or transfer of proceeds derived from such illicit activities in the Northern District of Ohio. The OCDETF Cleveland Strike Force is composed of agents and officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF), and Explosives, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Marshals Service (USMS), U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. Border Patrol, along with task force officers from numerous local law enforcement agencies, including the Cleveland Division of Police. Prosecutions are led by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

    This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division.

    Assistant United States Attorney Robert F. Corts for the Northern District of Ohio is leading the prosecution in this case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Boomer Benefits Announces Upcoming Release of Audiobook: 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Fort Worth, Texas , May 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Boomer Benefits, an award-winning advocate for seniors in the Medicare Supplement and Advantage Plan industry, is excited to announce the upcoming release of the audiobook version of 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make.

    boomer benefits logo

    Authored by Boomer Benefits co-founder and nationally recognized Medicare expert Danielle K. Roberts, the book has already sold over 55,000 print copies. Since its original release, it has helped thousands of Americans better understand Medicare and avoid the common (and often expensive) pitfalls that come with it.

    For the first time, 10 Costly Medicare Mistakes will be available in audio format, read by the author herself. This new format makes Danielle’s guidance more accessible than ever, allowing listeners to learn on the go while reinforcing Boomer Benefits’ commitment to education and empowerment for Medicare beneficiaries.

    Key Highlights of the Audio Book:

    • The most common Medicare mistakes, including enrollment period pitfalls and plan selection
    • Tips to avoid late penalties and ensure timely enrollment
    • Clear explanations of Medicare coverages beneficiaries need to know
    • Bonus content: Medicare timelines, checklists, and exclusive video resources from Danielle Roberts

    “I wrote this book to simplify Medicare and help people avoid the costly missteps I’ve seen all too often,” said Danielle K. Roberts. “Bringing it to audio means even more people can access this information—whether they’re driving, walking, or just prefer listening to reading. I’m excited to help even more folks feel confident about their Medicare choices.”

    About Boomer Benefits

    Boomer Benefits is a nationwide, award-winning insurance agency specializing in Medigap and Advantage Plans for national carriers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, Mutual of Omaha, and many other A-rated carriers. Licensed in 49 states, Boomer Benefits has a Client Service Team dedicated to helping clients with any Medicare issues that arise, free of charge.

    Press inquiries

    Boomer Benefits
    https://boomerbenefits.com
    Kelsey Mundfrom
    info@boomerbenefits.com

    A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.youtube.com/embed/kXkHqV_OBPE

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: MEXC Lists USD1, Accelerating Global Stablecoin Innovation with World Liberty Financial

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VICTORIA, Seychelles, May 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MEXC, a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it will list World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) in the Innovation Zone on May 9, 2025 (UTC). The USD1/USDT trading pair will also open at 08:00 on May 8, 2025 (UTC), and the MEXC Convert feature will be available from 09:00 on May 8, 2025 (UTC), offering users a seamless asset conversion experience. This listing expands the range of digital assets on the platform and further demonstrates MEXC’s commitment to advancing the global stablecoin ecosystem.

    USD1: A New Era in Stablecoins and Financial Transparency

    USD1 is World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin that provides secure and transparent digital asset services for global users. The stablecoin is backed 1:1 by the US dollar, with its reserve assets custodied by BitGo, held by Fidelity and subject to regular audits by third-party accounting firms to ensure transparency and stability. Currently, USD1 is deployed on both Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC), with plans to expand to additional blockchains in the future to enhance interoperability.

    Furthermore, USD1 has made significant strides in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. For example, ListaDAO has launched a USD1 lending vault on BNB Chain, providing liquidity support for 20 million USD1. Renowned market maker DWF Labs has also deployed USD1 liquidity across multiple platforms, further enhancing its availability and market depth. According to the data from CoinMarketCap, USD1’s market capitalization has surpassed USD 2.12 billion, demonstrating strong market demand.

    Special Promotion to Celebrate the Listing

    To celebrate the successful listing of USD1, MEXC is launching a series of special offers to thank its users for their support. Starting May 8, 2025, at 08:00 (UTC), users can enjoy the following benefits:

    • Zero Trading Fees: The USD1/USDT spot trading pair will have 0 trading fees.
    • Zero Withdrawal Fees: Users will enjoy 0 withdrawal fees when withdrawing USD1.

    MEXC Drives the Evolution of Stablecoins Through Ecosystem Empowerment

    As a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, MEXC has earned the trust of 36 million users across 170+ countries worldwide, thanks to its fast token listing process, diverse asset offerings, deep liquidity, and robust security. At the same time, MEXC continues to empower quality projects and partners, actively promoting the healthy development of the global digital asset and stablecoin ecosystem.

    Looking Ahead: A Shared Vision for the Future of Stablecoins

    MEXC’s listing partnership with World Liberty Financial further drives innovation in the development of stablecoins. Looking ahead, MEXC will continue to strengthen its support for stablecoin projects, promoting the widespread adoption of stablecoins globally. At the same time, the platform will keep iterating its products and services to provide users with a more secure and seamless trading experience.

    About MEXC
    Founded in 2018, MEXC is committed to being “Your Easiest Way to Crypto.” Serving over 36 million users across 170+ countries, MEXC is known for its broad selection of trending tokens, everyday airdrop opportunities, and low trading fees. Our user-friendly platform is designed to support both new traders and experienced investors, offering secure and efficient access to digital assets. MEXC prioritizes simplicity and innovation, making crypto trading more accessible and rewarding.
    MEXC Official Website｜ X ｜ Telegram ｜How to Sign Up on MEXC

    Risk Disclaimer:
    The information provided in this article regarding cryptocurrencies does not constitute investment advice. Given the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market, investors are encouraged to carefully assess market fluctuations, the fundamentals of projects, and potential financial risks before making any trading decisions.

    Source

    Contact:
    Lucia Hu
    lucia.hu@mexc.com

    Disclaimer: This is a paid post and is provided by MEXC. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. We do not guarantee any claims, statements, or promises made in this article. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice.Investing in crypto and mining-related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. It is possible to lose all your capital. These products may not be suitable for everyone, and you should ensure that you understand the risks involved. Seek independent advice if necessary. Speculate only with funds that you can afford to lose. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector—including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining—complete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility. Globenewswire does not endorse any content on this page.

    Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an “as-is” basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We assume no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/15818921-c5b2-4fbf-93a6-e7e0c7d6fdf6

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Israeli plan to occupy all of Gaza could open the door for annexation of the West Bank

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City St George’s, University of London

    Israel’s security cabinet has announced a plan to “capture” the whole of the Gaza Strip. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on May 5 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would remain in the territory indefinitely and take over the administration of humanitarian aid. What his government is referring to as its latest “intensive operation” is likely to result in Israel occupying all of Gaza.

    This development should come as no surprise, given previous rhetoric from members of Netanyahu’s cabinet. But the announcement marks a turning point in official policy that could have significant implications.

    Israel’s far-right has repeatedly advocated for the expulsion of Palestinians and the resettlement of Gaza. In response to Netanyahu’s announcement, the finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionist party, Bezalel Smotrich, said that there will be “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for hostages”.

    Smotrich envisioned that a successful Israeli incursion would leave Gaza “totally destroyed”, with the Palestinian population left “totally despairing” and wanting to leave the Strip.

    Yair Golan, leader of the Israeli left-of-centre Democrats party, criticised the plans for an all-out occupation of Gaza. He wrote on X on May 5 that the operation was approved “not in order to protect the security of Israel, but in order to save Netanyahu and his government of extremists”.

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

    It’s an argument that has consistently been raised against Netanyahu’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. The Hostage and Missing Families Forum also criticised the government for sacrificing the lives of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and spilling the blood of more Israeli soldiers.

    Despite this opposition, it is Israel’s far-right politicians who hold the reins of power and appear to be influencing Israeli government policy when it comes to Gaza.

    The government’s objectives to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, and shore up Netanyahu’s precarious position as prime minister – as well as Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries – have given them the opportunity to realise their maximalist dreams. This is not only the reoccupation of Gaza, but also the annexation of the West Bank.

    Gaza and the West Bank have notable differences. An all-out war of the kind being waged in Gaza is unlikely in the West Bank, at least at present. But there have been many attempts from various arms of the Israeli system to drive Palestinians from their land there.

    Driving Palestinians from the West Bank

    At the end of 2023, half a million Israelis were reported as living in the West Bank, compared with almost 3 million Palestinians. As of November 2024, the Israeli Peace Now movement recorded 141 settlements that it said were “officially established” by the Israeli government in the West Bank (not including those in East Jerusalem), with a further 224 outposts established without government approval since the 1990s. These are considered illegal according to Israeli law – although only two of these outposts have ever been evicted.

    In 1993, under the sponsorship of the Clinton administration, the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation signed the Oslo Declaration of Principles (also commonly referred to as Oslo Accord 1). This divided the West Bank into three areas: A, B and C. These are not delineated areas, rather – as the Oslo accords map below shows – they differentiate between Palestinian cities and villages and areas under Israeli civil and military control, about 60% of the total of the land area of the West Bank.

    Area C is where the majority of Israeli settlers live, alongside, at present, 200,000 Palestinians. Oslo Accord II mandated the gradual transfer of control of this area to the Palestinians, but this has never happened.

    Map of Areas A B and C after Oslo II.
    Researchgate

    Research by the Norwegian Refugee Council has found that, despite full control of Area C being central for the creation of a viable Palestinian state, there are two separate planning systems in place, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians.

    Israeli Human Rights Organisation, B’Tselem, has criticised Israel’s planning and building policy in Area C as “aimed at preventing Palestinian development and dispossessing Palestinians of their land”. This is achieved through denying permits for Palestinian construction and demolishing Palestinian buildings, while allowing Israeli settlement construction.

    Meanwhile, for decades the Israeli settlers have engaged in intimidation and violent attacks against Palestinians there. This continuing harassment has led to Palestinian communities being displaced. In his recent documentary film, The Settlers, Louis Theroux films and interviews ultranationalist settlers who make it clear they have nothing but contempt for the Palestinians – solely motivated by what they believe to be their God-given right to sovereignty over the Greater Land of Israel.

    As the exclusive authority over Area C of the West Bank, Israel is obliged by international law to protect the Palestinian communities. But a report by Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, dating back to 2006 identified, even then, “a systematic evasion of applying the law to Israeli civilians who harm Palestinians in the West Bank”. The Israeli authorities, according to Yesh Din, “stand idly by” as crimes are committed by the settlers towards Palestinians.

    2025 the ‘year of sovereignty’

    In February 2023, Smotrich was entrusted with administration over civilian life in Area C. He has made no effort to hide his intentions of establishing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory.

    Unlike in Gaza, the annexation of territory in the West Bank has been incremental and often under the radar. The Palestinian human rights organisation, Al Haq, claims this amounts to de facto annexation of the West Bank.

    Smotrich this week said the government would move forward with its plans to approve construction in the highly contentious E1 area of the West Bank. This would include the building of enough Israeli settlements to “bring in a million residents”.

    Should it go ahead, it would significantly alter the situation by effectively dividing the West Bank in half and would bury any remaining hope for a two-state solution. In the words of Smotrich: “this is how you kill the Palestinian state”.

    Leonie Fleischmann 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. Israeli plan to occupy all of Gaza could open the door for annexation of the West Bank – https://theconversation.com/israeli-plan-to-occupy-all-of-gaza-could-open-the-door-for-annexation-of-the-west-bank-256029

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: What does Netanyahu’s plan for ‘conquering’ Gaza mean for Israel, Palestine and their neighbours? Expert Q&A

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

    The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced that the Israeli military will launch a new “intensified” offensive in Gaza. In a video posted on X, he said Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan for “conquering” the Gaza Strip and establishing a “sustained presence” there.

    This announcement was well-received by far-right ministers in the Netanyahu government. Finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has since declared that an Israeli victory in Gaza would see the territory “entirely destroyed” and its residents “concentrated” in the south. From there, they would “start to leave in great numbers to third countries”.

    The plan, which Palestinian militant group Hamas says represents “an explicit decision to sacrifice” Israeli hostages, far exceeds the aims Israel has been pursuing in the war so far. It has drawn widespread criticism, including from the UK, France, EU and UN, as well as from within Israel.

    Middle East expert, Scott Lucas, answered our questions as to what the plan involves and what it means for neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

    What is Netanyahu’s ultimate plan for Gaza?

    Since March, Netanyahu has been clear that his government’s ultimate plan for Gaza is the “voluntary” emigration of its population.

    It looks like he is using US president Donald Trump’s narcissist thought bubble of Gaza, ethnically cleansed of Gazans in a “Riviera of the Middle East”, as political cover for his ambition and those of his hard-right ministers.

    In January 2024, three months into the military response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on southern Israel, Netanyahu said: “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.”

    But by September, unable to “destroy” Hamas despite the killing of almost 35,000 Gazans and the displacement of 1.9 million of the territory’s 2.1 million inhabitants, the government was considering occupation with the removal of all those in northern Gaza.

    Political pressure from inside Israel, as well as from the Biden administration in the US, forced Netanyahu to back away. And in January 2025, pushed hard by Trump, he accepted a six-week phase one ceasefire. This involved Hamas returning some of the hostages in return for Israel releasing many Palestinians detained in its jails.

    However, Netanyahu had no intention of moving to phase two, which would have paved the way for a more permanent end to the war. The hard-right ministers in his government made clear they would leave and withdraw support in the Knesset (parliament) if the war ended before Hamas had been completely destroyed.

    Netanyahu could face early elections and his trial on bribery charges should his government collapse. This left only one possible resolution to the “open-ended” war on Gaza: occupation.

    So at the start of March, Israel renewed its airstrikes and cut off humanitarian aid. It began expanding ground operations, initially with the declaration of a “buffer strip” and then claiming northern Gaza.

    Netanyahu has now announced a “forceful operation” in which Gaza’s population “will be moved, to protect it”. Israeli ground forces will be in the Strip indefinitely. “They will not enter and come out,” he said.

    Will Egypt and Jordan accept displaced Palestinians from the Gaza Strip?

    When Trump first proposed displacing Palestinians from Gaza, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan said they would refuse to allow an exodus of refugees on their territory. Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, said at the end of January: “The deportation and displacement of the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in.”

    That position has not changed. Egypt and Qatar reiterated on May 7 that they will persist with mediation to alleviate suffering and promote de-escalation within Gaza. Egypt affirmed that it will not be drawn into any agendas that “do not serve the interests of the Palestinian people”.

    Any Arab government that takes in Gazans, even amid a humanitarian crisis, would be tacitly burying the idea of a Palestinian state. That would break a 77-year-old principle and resurrect the Nakba, the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.

    It would also risk unrest from disaffected populations. The Gazans are added to the 5.9 million Palestinians who are refugees in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

    How might Egypt and Jordan respond to increased pressure to house Gazan refugees?

    Trump has previously looked to coerce Egypt and Jordan into accepting Palestinians from Gaza, even threatening to withhold US aid to the two countries.

    But such pressure does not look likely at present. The Trump administration is a chaotic mess. Bent on destroying US agencies, it has gutted the State Department, threatened the military, and undermined intelligence services.

    Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, the real estate developer Steve Witkoff, is now preoccupied with photo opportunities in the Kremlin and informal talks over Iran’s nuclear programme.

    The US government has walked away, leaving Israel to resume the mass killing but abjuring any role beyond that. The UN is not going to back ethnic cleansing. Nor will the EU, China, Russia or the Gulf States.

    Does the depopulation of Gaza now look inevitable?

    Far from it, at least in the sense of Palestinians being relocated from Gaza. In recent weeks, Israel has finally eased its near-total block on exiting Gaza and has allowed hundreds of people to leave.

    But this is not forced removal. It was the Israeli government relenting on urgent cases of those who were trapped in the Strip – dual nationals or their dependents, Gazas needing medical treatment, students, and some people with visas for third countries.

    The depopulation is instead occurring within Gaza. Depopulation through killing, starvation, destruction of healthcare, displacement from housing, and lack of clean water.

    It is depopulation through the reduction of Gazans to nothing more than irritants in the way of Hamas’s quest for survival and the Netanyahu government’s quest for perpetual dominance.

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

    – ref. What does Netanyahu’s plan for ‘conquering’ Gaza mean for Israel, Palestine and their neighbours? Expert Q&A – https://theconversation.com/what-does-netanyahus-plan-for-conquering-gaza-mean-for-israel-palestine-and-their-neighbours-expert-qanda-256150

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Reps. Scholten, James Introduce Bill to Grant Federal Recognition to Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Hillary Scholten – Michigan

    WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Congresswoman Hillary Scholten (D-MI-03) reintroduced the bipartisan Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians Restoration Act alongside Rep. John James (R-MI-10). This bill would give the tribe official recognition from the federal government, and help tribal members receive important services, such as health care, tuition, and housing assistance. 

    “The Grand River Bands are a central part of our state’s history, culture, and community, and it’s long overdue that we officially recognize them as a sovereign tribe,” said Rep. Scholten. “They are foundational to the identity of West Michigan, and for nearly 30 years, the Grand River Bands have been advocating for federal recognition. I’m committed to ensuring they get the resources and respect they deserve.”

    “I am proud to support the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians Restoration Act, a critical and long-overdue measure to grant federal recognition to a tribal nation with deep historical roots in Michigan and an enduring legacy of service, community, and resilience,” said Rep. James. “For generations, the Grand River Bands have made meaningful contributions to our state and country – and yet, they have remained unjustly excluded from the federal recognition they deserve. Without federal recognition, they are denied access to the same opportunities available to other federally recognized tribes including health care, housing assistance, and educational support. This bill fixes that and I’m honored to support it.”

    “On behalf of the Grand River Bands, I extend a heartfelt thank you to Reps. Scholten and James, along with the Michigan Congressional delegation, for helping champion federal recognition for our tribe,” said Ron Yob, chairman of the Grand River Bands. “For more than three decades, we have advocated for acknowledgement by the federal government to give our tribal members access to resources they have long deserved. This bill brings us a step closer to recognition, which will help us continue to grow and preserve our traditions for generations to come.” 

    The Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians (GRB) is a sovereign Native nation with a history of agreements with the United States Government dating back to 1795. Historically, the GRB was made up of 19 bands of Ottawa people who lived along the Grand River and surrounding waterways in southwest Michigan. Today, many members of the Grand River Bands live in communities across Kent, Muskegon, and Oceana counties, and stay connected to the same region their ancestors have called home for generations.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Wicker, Gillibrand Introduce Vieques Recovery and Redevelopment Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the Vieques Recovery and Redevelopment Act. This bipartisan legislation would address the severe health inequities faced by the residents of Vieques off the coast of Puerto Rico. These severe health outcomes are a result of environmental contamination caused by the U.S. Navy’s decades-long usage of the island for military training exercises and as a bombing range.

    “The U.S. Navy left the island of Vieques over twenty years ago, but the thousands of American citizens who live there continue to suffer from contamination and high rates of illness,” said Senator Wicker. “It is time for the U.S. government to settle these victims’ claims and help improve the island’s healthcare infrastructure for the future.”

    “For too long, the people of Vieques have lived with the devastating health and environmental impacts of military testing on their island,” said Senator Gillibrand. “This bill delivers long overdue justice by providing compensation to those harmed, rebuilding access to healthcare, and strengthening efforts to clean up the toxic waste that continues to threaten the Vieques community. I’m proud to help lead this bipartisan effort to finally give the people of Vieques the support and resources they deserve.”

    Full text of the resolution can be found here. 

    Background:

    • From the 1940s until 2003, the U.S. Navy used the island for training exercises and as a bombing range.
    • Decades of munitions testing on the small island led to severe environmental contamination. Vieques’ residents have suffered from the health impacts of long-term exposure to this environmental contamination, including higher rates of cancer, cirrhosis, hypertension, diabetes, and heavy metal diseases.
    • To date, the U.S. government has not provided the residents of Vieques with compensation for damages to their health. Hurricane Maria destroyed Vieques’ only health care center in 2017, exacerbating the island’s health crisis.
    • Today, residents of Vieques must travel by ferry to the main island of Puerto Rico to receive medical care, a dangerous situation that is especially difficult for cancer and dialysis patients. The health crisis in Vieques only continues to worsen, demonstrating why Congress must act with urgency to pass this bipartisan legislation.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Leading the way on internal trade: Minister Jones

    Source: Government of Canada regional news (2)

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Cline Introduces Bipartisan Bill To Close Loophole in Foreign Agents Registration Act

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06)

    Today, Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA) introduced the Foreign Agents Transparency Act, joined by co-sponsors John Moolenaar (R-MI), Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Rob Wittman (R-VA), and Don Davis (D-NC).

    In a 2022 ruling, a D.C. district judge determined that a suspected foreign agent could not be held liable for not registering as a foreign agent since he had ceased lobbying for the Chinese government prior to the lawsuit being filed. This ruling sets a troubling precedent: if the DOJ takes legal action against an unregistered foreign agent, that agent could merely declare the end of their relationship and avoid registration altogether, facing no penalties for their actions.

    This bill ensures that individuals no longer acting as foreign agents are required to register retroactively for their work as foreign agents.

    “Congress must take decisive action to restore FARA to its original and critical purpose following the misguided ruling that weakened this statute,” Rep. Cline said. “We cannot afford to stand idly by while the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries exploit foreign agents to undermine our nation at every turn. This bill is essential because it mandates that anyone working on behalf of a foreign government must register as a foreign agent. We must uphold FARA’s transparency requirements to safeguard America and protect our national security.” 

    “To protect our democracy and national security, we must close loopholes that foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party exploit to run lobbying and influence campaigns,” Chairman Moolenaar said. “The bipartisan Foreign Agents Transparency Act is a targeted measure to ensure that foreign agents cannot skirt disclosure requirements in law.”

    “Foreign influence campaigns have no place operating in the shadows of our democracy,” Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi said. “I’m proud to co-lead the bipartisan Foreign Agents Transparency Act to close loopholes that let unregistered foreign agents evade accountability and deny the American people essential transparency. This bill will ensure more comprehensive disclosure of foreign influence to better protect our national security and democratic institutions.”

    “Foreign agents have exploited loopholes to avoid registering with our government, undermining transparency and enabling foreign adversaries like China to influence U.S. policy and security without oversight,” Rep. Johnson said. “The Foreign Agents Transparency Act will close these gaps by strengthening reporting requirements, ensuring foreign agents can no longer deceive our government.”

    “I’m proud to join my Virginia delegation colleague Rep. Cline and my colleagues on the Select Committee in reintroducing the Foreign Agents Transparency Act, which closes a dangerous loophole that adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party are eager to exploit,” Congressman Rob Wittman said. “Americans deserve to know when foreign governments are working to influence our institutions. This bill restores accountability to the Foreign Agents Registration Act and ensures individuals can’t evade transparency by simply walking away from their foreign principals — strengthening this is absolutely critical to defending our national security and protecting our democracy from covert foreign interference.”

    Background: The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires persons engaging in certain political, financial, or public-relations activities on behalf of a foreign principal to register with the Attorney General and to make periodic disclosures about the relationship with the foreign principal. The purpose of these disclosures is to “prevent covert influence over U.S. policy by foreign principals.”

    Section 612 of FARA states that “termination of [foreign agent] status shall not relieve such agent from his obligation to file a registration statement for the period during which he was an agent of a foreign principal” (emphasis added). In 1987, the D.C. Circuit Court held that an agent’s obligation to file “expires when the agent ceases activities on behalf of the foreign principal.” This reading of the statute is textually strained and wrongly interprets congressional intent. In other words, agents should have an ongoing obligation to register their conduct that covers the period for which they were foreign agents. Under current precedent, an agent may simply terminate the relationship to avoid registration and will face no penalties for failing to register while actively representing the foreign principal. Despite the glaring inconsistencies of the D.C. Circuit’s 1987 ruling, courts are still bound by it today. 

    Read more in Breitbart HERE and the full bill text HERE. 

    Congressman Ben Cline represents the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia. He previously was an attorney in private practice and served both as an assistant prosecutor and Member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Cline and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Botetourt County with their two children.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Harbour Grace — State of emergency called in area of Adam’s Cove, evacuation order in place

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    A state of emergency has been called in Adam’s Cove by the Town of Small Point-Broad Cove-Blackhead-Adam’s Cove in light of a wildfire that has been burning out of control since yesterday afternoon. An emergency evacuation order was issued last evening and a number of residents have been evacuated. Route 70, between the communities of Blackhead and Western Bay, remains closed at this time. The public is directed to stay away from the area.

    During a state of emergency, local government is empowered to apply policies and measures, that may not normally be permitted, to aid in the safety and protection of the public, such as an evacuation order and road closures. RCMP officers are engaged to ensure all safety measures are being followed and that those under an evacuation order have been safely evacuated. Please adhere to all safety measures! Those who do not follow the rules of the state of emergency unnecessarily tie up resources that are best used to address the emergency itself.

    The fire is currently burning in the community of Adam’s Cove. A number of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Route 70 will remain closed while emergency crews continue their efforts to address the fire. Access to the area is not permitted.

    Emergency shelters are available to assist those who have been evacuated at Persalvic Elementary School in Victoria and the AYLA Building in Lower Island Cove. Counsellors are available at Persalvic Elementary to speak with those impacted by the fire, including children.

    At this time, the public is directed to avoid the area while emergency resources continue to do their work. Those who have been evacuated are strongly advised to remain away from their property. The fire has compromised the safety of a number of structures. Updates to the state of emergency and evacuation order will be provided. Those who have been evacuated will be notified when it is safe to return to their property.

    Wildfire season is upon us. Residents of the province are encouraged to be prepared in the event of such an incident in their area. More information is available here: https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/hzd/wldfrs-prp-en.aspx)

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Landmark Economic Deal with US saves thousands of jobs

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Landmark Economic Deal with US saves thousands of jobs

    Today the UK and US has agreed a landmark economic deal which will save thousands of jobs for British carmakers and steel industry

    • Britain secures the first US trade deal protecting British business and British jobs, the second landmark deal in Britain’s national interest in a matter of days following the India deal
    • Prime Minister delivers on his promise to save UK steel and British car makers – saving thousands of jobs across the country
    • US tariffs on automotives immediately slashed from 27.5%, with steel and aluminium reduced to zero
    • Unprecedented market access for British farmers with protections on food standards maintained 

    Thousands of jobs have been saved as the Prime Minister secured a first-of-a-kind trade agreement with the US.

    It is the second major trade announcement this week – following the India Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday, this historic agreement with the US to slash tariffs delivers for UK carmakers, steelworks and farmers – protecting jobs and providing stability for exporters. 

    Car export tariffs will reduce from 27.5% to 10% – saving hundreds of millions a year for Jaguar Land Rover alone. This will apply to a quota of 100,000 UK cars, almost the total the UK exported last year. 

    The Prime Minister visited Jaguar Land Rover last month announcing greater freedom for car manufacturers to back British industry in the face of global headwinds. During this visit he told workers he would accelerate trade deals to protect their jobs, their livelihoods, and to champion British business worldwide. 

    The UK steel industry – which was on the brink of collapse just weeks ago – will no longer face tariffs thanks to today’s deal. The Prime Minister negotiated the 25% tariff down to zero, meaning UK steelmakers can carry on exporting to the US. This follows last month’s intervention from the Prime Minister to take control of British Steel to save thousands of jobs in Scunthorpe.

    In a win for both nations, we have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef – with UK farmers given a tariff free quota for 13,000 metric tonnes. There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports. 

    We will also remove the tariff on ethanol – which is used to produce beer – coming into the UK from the US, down to zero. 

    It is one of many international deals that the Government is landing to boost our economy – following an Indian trade deal which will add £4.8 billion to the UK economy and £2.2 billion in wages every year.

    Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said:

    “The new global era demands a government that steps up, not stands aside. 

    “This historic deal delivers for British business and British workers protecting thousands of British jobs in key sectors including car manufacturing and steel. 

    “My government has put Britain at the front of the queue because we want to work constructively with allies for mutual benefit rather than turning our back on the world.

    “As VE Day reminds us, the UK has no greater ally than the United States, so I am delighted that eight decades on, under President Trump the special relationship remains a force for economic and national security. 

    “This is jobs saved, jobs won but not job done and our teams will continue to work to build on this agreement. 

    “My Government is determined to go further and faster to strengthen the UK’s economy, putting more money in working people’s pockets as part of our Plan for Change.”

    Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:

    “I am delighted our calm approach and proactive engagement with the US has resulted in this deal which cuts tariffs for UK industry and cuts costs for businesses.

    “Businesses across the country will be glad to see our approach working, but this is only the beginning. We look forward to strengthening our trading relationship with the US through a wider economic deal, which will help us to deliver on our Plan for Change to provide economic stability and make this country fit for the future.”

    Adrian Mardell, Chief Executive Officer, JLR said:  

    “The car industry is vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, sustaining 250,000 jobs. We warmly welcome this deal which secures greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports. We would like to thank the UK and US Governments for agreeing this deal at pace and look forward to continued engagement over the coming months.”

    Work will continue on the remaining sectors – such as pharmaceuticals and remaining reciprocal tariffs. But – in an important move – the US has agreed that the UK will get preferential treatment in any further tariffs imposed as part of Section 232 investigations. The deal opens the way to a future UK US technology partnership through which our science-rich nations will collaborate in key areas of advanced technology, for example biotech, life sciences, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, aerospace and space. 

    The Digital Services Tax remains unchanged as part of today’s deal. Instead the two nations have agreed to work on a digital trade deal that will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US – opening the UK up to a huge market that will put rocket boosters on the UK economy.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: David Attenborough’s Ocean reveals how bottom trawling is hurting sealife in horrifying detail

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation, University of Exeter

    A bottom trawl net hanging to dry in the harbour of Harlingen in the Netherlands, showing the rockhopper rollers on the footrope that contacts the seabed. 365 Focus Photography/Shutterstock

    In one of the most powerful scenes of Sir David Attenborough’s new film Ocean, the audience sees industrial fishing from a fish’s perspective.

    Confronting a bottom trawl net as it thunders across the seabed, terrified fish scatter in desperate but futile attempts to escape the vast net swallowing them. The heavy chain that holds the trawl down sweeps away sponges, corals, seagrass and other seabed life, leaving behind utter devastation.

    Attenborough’s latest nature documentary is a visually magnificent and highly personal meditation on the relationship humans have with the sea. It is the most important part of our world, he says. But we have taken it for granted.

    A century of intensifying and destructive fishing has culminated in bottom trawl nets, some as big as cathedrals and weighing many tonnes, being towed along the seabed to catch fish. To allow them to fish more effectively in areas of rough seabed, which is where most marine life is found, fishers in the 1920s invented “rock-hopper” gear: rollers placed along the foot rope that touches the bottom, allowing the net to bounce over obstacles.

    This innovation followed the trajectory of many fishing methods, which was to become more destructive over time to sustain the size of catches in the face of declining fish stocks.

    Trawler nets are designed to gobble up marine life indiscriminately.
    Anney_Lier/Shutterstock

    Shellfish dredging, another fishing method that destroys as it catches, is shown in a second horrifying scene. To catch scallops, steel dredges armed with spikes (imagine the harrows farmers use to break up soil on ploughed fields) drag along the seabed, smashing and pummelling everything. In minutes, seabed life of astonishing diversity and beauty is erased.

    Together, Attenborough explains, bottom trawling and dredging wreak their havoc across an area of seabed larger than the Amazon rainforest every year.

    Attenborough invites viewers to wonder how on Earth these fishing methods are still allowed when the damage is so obvious. Viewers may be even more surprised, and very probably angry, to learn that most marine protected areas in Europe, and indeed worldwide, permit bottom trawling and dredging within their boundaries.

    To understand why this is the case, we have to go back in time.

    A medieval practice

    We know from the parliamentary records of Edward III in 1376 that fishers in southern England were practising bottom trawling as far back as the 1300s. Long-held traditions are hard to change, even when there is irrefutable evidence that they cause harm.

    It is telling, however, that this early description of trawling is a petition urging the king to ban the method for its reckless destruction of habitat and waste of fish.

    Nevertheless, these fisheries expanded because trawling was an efficient means of landing huge quantities of fish. Trawling’s success came at the expense of what we call marine animal forests, habitats built by animals like oysters, horse mussels and sponges – all swept away to leave behind vacant shifting sands, mud and gravel that predominate over vast swaths of seafloor today.

    A recent estimate has suggested that oyster reefs once covered at least 17,000 square kilometres of European seas – an area the size of Northern Ireland. All of this was gone by the beginning of the 20th century. This ecosystem cannot recover until it is offered protection from trawling and dredging. So, why haven’t we protected it?

    Degraded habitats, profoundly altered by trawling, were what scientists and then conservationists found when they first ventured below water after the invention of scuba diving in the mid-20th century. These early submarine explorers mistook them for natural and wild, failing to see the role industrial fishing had played in their creation.

    Being now occupied almost exclusively by creatures used to the passage of trawls – animals that live fast and die young like worms, prawns and whelks – these habitats were labelled as resilient, and not in need of protection.

    This warped perspective fooled us into thinking that marine protected areas left open to bottom trawling would be fine. In the few cases where protected areas exclude trawling, like around the Isle of Arran in western Scotland, the swift resurgence of seabed life has revealed how wrong this assumption was.

    In only five years, sea-moss, sea-nettles, scallops and brittle stars have reoccupied the seafloor, a transformation that is nevertheless just the beginning of a recovery that will carry on for decades.

    Seabeds protected from trawls and dredges can rebound, like this one off the Isle of Arran. It offers a glimpse of what existed before industrial fisheries.
    Henley Spiers/Blue Marine Foundation

    Giving up the trawl and dredge does not mean an end to fishing, as the film explains. In fact, recovering fish populations in protected areas replenish those in fishing grounds nearby, leading to better and more sustainable catches.

    Calling time on destructive fishing

    Perhaps now, at last, the writing is on the wall for bottom trawling and dredging, because they do a more insidious form of damage we have only recently become fully aware of. The ocean floor is one of the planet’s largest carbon stores. A snowfall of sinking organic matter and sediment accumulates on the seabed, where the carbon it contains is buried for thousands of years.

    Left undisturbed, this carbon is out of harm’s way. But when churned up by the passage of trawls and dredges, some is turned back into CO₂, some of which will end up back in the atmosphere.

    The magnitude of these seabed carbon emissions, and their role in climate change, is hotly debated. Getting more reliable estimates is the mission of a five-year project I lead, the Convex Seascape Survey. One thing is already clear from our research, however: there are places underwater – like peat bogs or permafrost on land – that we should not disturb because they harbour immense quantities of carbon.

    Ironically, these muddy basins have in the past few decades become some of the most intensively fished places in the sea because they are home to valuable prawns, which are among the few species still able to support viable fisheries.

    Any country serious about meeting net zero in time to prevent dangerous climate change must act swiftly to protect its seabed carbon stores. And any country serious about ocean conservation knows that marine protected areas are useless if they don’t exclude trawling and dredging.

    David Attenborough, Silverback Films and the Open Planet Studios team have brought these truths to a mass audience, leaving no space for further evasion and denial. What we need now is action.

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

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

    Callum Roberts receives funding from Convex, the Natural Environment Research Council and the European Research Council. He is on the board of Nekton and Maldives Coral Institute and sits on the Minderoo Natural Ecosystems advisory panel, the Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Science advisory board and the CORDAP science advisory panel.

    – ref. David Attenborough’s Ocean reveals how bottom trawling is hurting sealife in horrifying detail – https://theconversation.com/david-attenboroughs-ocean-reveals-how-bottom-trawling-is-hurting-sealife-in-horrifying-detail-255991

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Virginia Delegation Blasts Trump Administration’s Attacks on CDC Programs That Address America’s Maternal Health Crisis

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (Virginia 4th District)

    Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) joined U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark R. Warner (both D-VA) and U.S. Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA-03), Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), Don Beyer (D-VA-08), Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA-10) and Eugene Vindman (D-VA-07) in a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. expressing their grave concerns about President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which have resulted in the dismantling of CDC programs aimed at addressing America’s maternal health crisis. In the letter, the members urge the Trump Administration to protect these vital programs and to strengthen the CDC’s public health efforts. 

    In 2022, the United States maternal mortality rate was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. In Virginia, it was 32.7 deaths per 100,000 live births. According to the CDC, more than 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

    “The agency has historically played a vital role in promoting quality maternal health care and improving birth outcomes through surveillance, evidence-based awareness campaigns, and federal-state partnerships. Collecting and maintaining data on maternal morbidity and mortality is key to improving this care and targeting interventions,’” the members wrote. “Yet the Trump Administration has terminated or placed on leave senior scientists and staff with deep institutional knowledge, imposed nearly $3 billion in spending cuts, and demanded a complete overhaul and reorganization of the agency’s programming.”

     “These actions have resulted in an abrupt halting of programs critical to maternal health which will set back the progress we have made to protect America’s moms and babies,” the members continued. “…Since the announced [Reductions in Force] (RIF), centers like the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities have been gutted, with most or all staff terminated and most of their maternal health activities stopped or significantly scaled back – putting moms and babies at risk.”

    “Although the Administration previously stated that the RIF and subsequent restructuring at HHS would be aimed toward administrative roles and would increase efficiency, it is clear that the Administration’s actions are already harming America’s moms and babies,” the members wrote. “Under your leadership, these indiscriminate terminations and spending cuts have destabilized the CDC and limited the capability of the agency to provide critical, quality maternal health guidance and surveillance to Americans building families… We urge you to protect these vital programs and to support the strengthening of public health efforts at the CDC, especially for America’s moms and babies.”

    In light of HHS’ harmful actions, the members demanded the Secretary:

    1. Provide an official number of terminations across the CDC, including a breakdown by center. Such information should also specify the job title of each employee and a description of the programs they contributed to, including maternal health programming.
    2. Provide an updated organizational chart that outlines programs run by each center at the CDC, including which programs will be terminated or shifted to another center as a result of the RIF and reorganization.
    3. Provide a list of programs previously run out of the CDC that will be transferred to a new agency or under a new authority and provide the rationale for such a move, including the relevant experience and expertise that the new agency or authority has to run such a program, including as it specifically pertains to the CDC’s maternal and child health programs.
    4. Provide a list of all maternal health programs across HHS, indicating which programs have been cut and which programs are duplicative and have therefore been combined.
    5. Explain how the administration will ensure continued collection of high-quality data for programs that are being shifted to a new agency or authority while protecting data security—given the CDC has unique data authority and infrastructure to protect sensitive information, ensuring that reported data is not identifiable. Other agencies under HHS do not have the same infrastructure, which the CDC has spent years developing.

    Full text of the letter can be found here and below.

    Dear Secretary Kennedy:

    We write to express our concern regarding recent efforts to undermine the mission of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC is the premier public health agency in the country, leading the charge in protecting the health of nearly 350 million Americans through critical public health research, data collection, and evidence-based initiatives to address and prevent infectious and chronic diseases. Yet on March 27, 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced massive staffing cuts to align with President Trump’s executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” These cuts – made through Reductions in Force (RIF) at agencies across HHS – include reducing the CDC workforce by 2,400 employees, or 18 percent of its total employment. President Trump’s efforts to undermine the mission of the CDC have resulted in the dismantling of vital CDC programs, including those aimed at addressing America’s maternal mortality crisis.

    Ensuring moms have access to quality health care, including prenatal and postpartum services, is a critical component to supporting moms and addressing pregnancy-related deaths. In 2022, the national maternal mortality rate was 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. In Virginia, it was 32.7 deaths per 100,00 live births. According to the CDC, more than 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. The agency has historically played a vital role in promoting quality maternal health care and improving birth outcomes through surveillance, evidence-based awareness campaigns, and federal-state partnerships. Collecting and maintaining data on maternal morbidity and mortality is key to improving this care and targeting interventions. Yet the Trump Administration has terminated or placed on leave senior scientists and staff with deep institutional knowledge, imposed nearly $3 billion in spending cuts, and demanded a complete overhaul and reorganization of the agency’s programming.[5] These actions have resulted in an abrupt halting of programs critical to maternal health which will set back the progress we have made to protect America’s moms and babies.

    As directed by Congress, the CDC is statutorily required to carry out multiple activities to address maternal health. Since the announced RIF, centers like the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities have been gutted, with most or all staff terminated and most of their maternal health activities stopped or significantly scaled back – putting moms and babies at risk. This undermining of CDC programs harms public health agencies across the Commonwealth that utilize CDC data and funding to support local initiatives to increase access to care and reduce maternal mortality.

    • As required by statute, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring Systems (PRAMS) is a surveillance system designed to reduce infant morbidity and mortality through education and support for moms. Running continuously since 1987, PRAMS is a partnership between the federal government and state and local public health agencies. PRAMS is the only public health survey system that provides state-specific, population-based data from women about their pregnancy and the months after birth. This unique data system is critical for informing efforts to reduce infant and maternal morbidity and mortality through interventions before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. This multi-decade-long program is on an indefinite pause, hurting states, moms, and babies. In Virginia, despite receiving a notice of award for the fifth year of their PRAMS grant cycle, public health officials have not been able to move forward with regular grant activities and may be forced to shut down operations at the end of their grant cycle should additional funding not become available.
    • As also required by statute, the CDC monitors pregnancy success rates for Assisted Reproductive Technologies, including in-vitro fertilization (IVF), at clinics across the nation. This program helps ensure families are able to make an informed decision regarding their choice to start or build their family. Yet recent executive actions have resulted in the termination of CDC staff who ran this program, impeding the ability of the CDC to fulfill its congressional mandates and harming American families. Virginia has a long-standing history of supporting access to IVF: the first person born in the U.S. via IVF was born in Virginia over 40 years ago.

    The CDC also coordinates across agencies to administer programs that support the safety and surveillance of maternal health and birth outcomes at a state and local level. The CDC provides valuable resources that enable state and local officials to conduct targeted outreach to improve maternal health outcomes.

    • In coordination with the Health Resources and Services Administration, the CDC administers the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Program (MCHEP). Through MCHEP, the CDC places senior epidemiologists in state, local, and Tribal public health agencies to support projects to improve maternal health outcomes. These highly qualified and experienced epidemiologists often serve in public health agencies that, without the help of the CDC, would not otherwise be able to support such a position. Historically, 26 states have benefitted from the MCHEP, yet because of actions by the Trump Administration, seven of the current 10 epidemiologists have been placed on leave. The critical work of MCHEP cannot continue without these epidemiologists and any disruption in programs will lead to devastating consequences.
    • In coordination with HHS’s Office of Women’s Health, the CDC has historically been a leader in supporting state surveillance on stillbirth incidence. The PRAMS Study of Associated Risks of Stillbirths (SOARS) survey was developed through a partnership between the CDC and the Utah Department of Health. This survey gathered essential data for monitoring stillbirth and other relevant factors while also raising awareness on the prevalence of the issue and combatting the stigma around stillbirth. Prior to the Administration’s recent actions, the CDC intended to expand this work and begin implementation of task force recommendations to address stillbirth. The future of this work is in jeopardy due to the Administration’s actions.
    • In coordination with state and local public health agencies, the CDC has historically supported a coordinated response to public health emergencies that could have an impact on pregnant and postpartum women. For example, during the 2016 Zika virus outbreak, Virginia public health officials utilized PRAMS data to target communications and surveillance for pregnant women, as they were recognized as a highly vulnerable population, and report to the CDC’s U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry for future monitoring and follow-up of birth outcomes. The recent reduction in staffing levels will undoubtedly impede the CDC’s ability to coordinate a swift response to future public health emergencies that could impact moms and babies.

    Although the Administration previously stated that the RIF and subsequent restructuring at HHS would be aimed toward administrative roles and would increase efficiency, it is clear that the Administration’s actions are already harming America’s moms and babies. Under your leadership, these indiscriminate terminations and spending cuts have destabilized the CDC and limited the capability of the agency to provide critical, quality maternal health guidance and surveillance to Americans building families. In light of your harmful actions, please respond to the following questions by May 23, 2025:

    1. Provide an official number of terminations across the CDC, including a breakdown by center. Such information should also specify the job title of each employee and a description of the programs they contributed to, including maternal health programming.
    2. Provide an updated organizational chart that outlines programs run by each center at the CDC, including which programs will be terminated or shifted to another center as a result of the RIF and reorganization.
    3. Provide a list of programs previously run out of the CDC that will be transferred to a new agency or under a new authority and provide the rationale for such a move, including the relevant experience and expertise that the new agency or authority has to run such a program, including as it specifically pertains to the CDC’s maternal and child health programs.
    4. HHS has justified the RIF and subsequent reorganization by stating that “18% of notices were at duplicative programs, primarily maternal health (and HIV) programs”. Provide a list of all maternal health programs across HHS, indicating which programs have been cut and which programs are duplicative and have therefore been combined.
    5. The CDC has unique data authority and infrastructure to protect sensitive information, ensuring that reported data is not identifiable. Other agencies under HHS do not have the same infrastructure, which the CDC has spent years developing. For programs that are being shifted to a new agency or authority, how will the administration ensure the continued collection of high-quality data while protecting data security?

    A healthy nation starts and ends with healthy moms and babies. Recent administrative actions have disrupted maternal health care and will only contribute to the maternal mortality crisis in Virginia and our country. We urge you to protect these vital programs and to support the strengthening of public health efforts at the CDC, especially for America’s moms and babies.

    Sincerely,

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congresswoman Lauren Boebert Introduces the American Energy Act

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Lauren Boebert (Colorado, 3)

    WASHINGTON, DC– Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-04) this week introduced the American Energy Act, a bill to streamline the permitting process for oil & gas producers and allow American energy companies to focus on creating jobs and lowering costs instead of bureaucratic red tape. Rep. Boebert introduced similar legislation in 2023, which passed through the House as part of H.R. 1 in the 118th Congress.

    “Our American oil & gas producers need to get back to what they do best: creating jobs, lowering energy costs for American families and small businesses, and producing the cleanest natural gas in the world,”said Congresswoman Boebert.“The days of bureaucracy and red tape under the Biden Administration are done; my American Energy Act streamlines the permitting process and allows energy companies to move forward instead of being held up by endless layers of government and malicious litigation from progressive advocacy groups.”

    The full text of Congresswoman Boebert’s American Energy Act can be found HERE.

    BACKGROUND:

    The American Energy Act ensures that the Department of Interior continues to process Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) under a valid existing lease regardless of any unrelated civil action and extends the term of an APD from 2 years to 4 years.

    A backlog of thousands of APD’s were still waiting approval under the Biden Administration’s Department of Interior, freezing the ability of oil & gas producers to create well-paying jobs and engage in responsible energy exploration.

    In addition to bureaucratic red tape, lawsuits filed by radical progressive lawfare groups held up the approval process for many of the APDs under consideration by the DOI. The American Energy Act requires courts to remand lease sale Environmental Impact Studies to agencies to remedy when necessary, rather than allowing judges with a political agenda to simply vacate these leases.

    Cosponsors of the legislation include: Rep. Jeff Hurd (CO-03), Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05), Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT-01), Rep. Byron Donalds (FL-19), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08), Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Rep. Jeff Crank (CO-05), Rep. Barry Moore (AL-01), Rep. Pat Harrigan (NC-10), Rep. Julie Fedorchak (ND-AL), Rep. Ben Cline (VA-06), and Rep. Michelle Fischbach (MN-07).

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Landmark economic deal with United States saves thousands of jobs for British car makers and steel industry

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Landmark economic deal with United States saves thousands of jobs for British car makers and steel industry

    Thousands of jobs have been saved as the Prime Minister secured a first-of-a-kind trade agreement with the US.

    • Britain secures the first US trade deal protecting British business and British jobs, the second landmark deal in Britain’s national interest in a matter of days following the India deal
    • Prime Minister delivers on his promise to save UK steel and British car makers – saving thousands of jobs across the country
    • US tariffs on automotives immediately slashed from 27.5%, with steel and aluminium reduced to zero
    • Unprecedented market access for British farmers with protections on food standards maintained

    Thousands of jobs have been saved as the Prime Minister secured a first-of-a-kind trade agreement with the US.

    It is the second major trade announcement this week – following the India Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday, this historic agreement with the US to slash tariffs delivers for UK carmakers, steelworks and farmers – protecting jobs and providing stability for exporters. 

    Car export tariffs will reduce from 27.5% to 10% – saving hundreds of millions a year for Jaguar Land Rover alone. This will apply to a quota of 100,000 UK cars, almost the total the UK exported last year. 

    The Prime Minister visited Jaguar Land Rover last month announcing greater freedom for car manufacturers to back British industry in the face of global headwinds. During this visit he told workers he would accelerate trade deals to protect their jobs, their livelihoods, and to champion British business worldwide. 

    The UK steel industry – which was on the brink of collapse just weeks ago – will no longer face tariffs thanks to today’s deal. The Prime Minister negotiated the 25% tariff down to zero, meaning UK steelmakers can carry on exporting to the US. This follows last month’s intervention from the Prime Minister to take control of British Steel to save thousands of jobs in Scunthorpe.

    In a win for both nations, we have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef – with UK farmers given a tariff free quota for 13,000 metric tonnes. There will be no weakening of UK food standards on imports. 

    We will also remove the tariff on ethanol – which is used to produce beer – coming into the UK from the US, down to zero. 

    It is one of many international deals that the Government is landing to boost our economy – following an Indian trade deal which will add £4.8 billion to the UK economy and £2.2 billion in wages every year.

    Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said:

    The new global era demands a government that steps up, not stands aside. 

    This historic deal delivers for British business and British workers protecting thousands of British jobs in key sectors including car manufacturing and steel. 

    My government has put Britain at the front of the queue because we want to work constructively with allies for mutual benefit rather than turning our back on the world.

    As VE Day reminds us, the UK has no greater ally than the United States, so I am delighted that eight decades on, under President Trump the special relationship remains a force for economic and national security. 

    This is jobs saved, jobs won but not job done and our teams will continue to work to build on this agreement. 

    My Government is determined to go further and faster to strengthen the UK’s economy, putting more money in working people’s pockets as part of our Plan for Change.

    Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:

    I am delighted our calm approach and proactive engagement with the US has resulted in this deal which cuts tariffs for UK industry and cuts costs for businesses.

    Businesses across the country will be glad to see our approach working, but this is only the beginning. We look forward to strengthening our trading relationship with the US through a wider economic deal, which will help us to deliver on our Plan for Change to provide economic stability and make this country fit for the future.

    Adrian Mardell, Chief Executive Officer, JLR said:

    The car industry is vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, sustaining 250,000 jobs. We warmly welcome this deal which secures greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports. We would like to thank the UK and US Governments for agreeing this deal at pace and look forward to continued engagement over the coming months.

    Work will continue on the remaining sectors – such as pharmaceuticals and remaining reciprocal tariffs. But – in an important move – the US has agreed that the UK will get preferential treatment in any further tariffs imposed as part of Section 232 investigations. The deal opens the way to a future UK US technology partnership through which our science-rich nations will collaborate in key areas of advanced technology, for example biotech, life sciences, quantum computing, nuclear fusion, aerospace and space. 

    The Digital Services Tax remains unchanged as part of today’s deal. Instead the two nations have agreed to work on a digital trade deal that will strip back paperwork for British firms trying to export to the US – opening the UK up to a huge market that will put rocket boosters on the UK economy.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Director of Kent car sales company banned for Covid loan abuse

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Director of Kent car sales company banned for Covid loan abuse

    Joseph Harrison, the director of South East Commercials Ltd was disqualified as a director for 12 years and ordered to repay £38,295.

    • Car dealer Joseph Harrison applied for two Covid Bounce Back loans, totalling £90,000 on behalf of his company. 

    • He was only entitled to one Covid loan for his company, South East Commercials Ltd, under the rules of the scheme. 

    • Harrison was subject to a director disqualification order which came into effect on 6 May 2025 following a hearing at the High Court in London.  

    A car dealer from Kent – who is now living in Spain – has been banned from being a company director for 12 years after his company received a second £45,000 Covid Bounce Back loan it was not entitled to.  

    Joseph Harrison, from Wrotham, was the director of South East Commercials Ltd – a used car sales dealership in Kent – before it was dissolved in January this year.  

    An Insolvency Service investigation found that the 38-year-old applied for a Covid loan of £45,000 in June 2020.   

    However, he applied for a second loan – in August 2020 – for a further £45,000 having declared this was his first and only application for his business.  

    At a hearing at the High Court in London on 15 April 2025 Harrison was disqualified from being a director for 12 years, with his ban beginning on 6 May 2025. 

    He was also ordered to repay the current balance of £38,295 from the second loan.  

    Ann Oliver, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:  

    Joseph Harrison applied for and received a second Covid loan when he was only entitled to one for his car sales business.  

    A 12-year ban is a significant disqualification and demonstrates the seriousness of his actions.  

    The Insolvency Service is committed to ensuring those who abused this scheme – which was designed to benefit the economy and help small businesses – are brought to justice. 

    Joseph Harrison operated as a sole trader for a number of years before South East Commercials Ltd was incorporated in May 2020.  

    The company sold used cars and light motor vehicles, such as motorcycles.  

    In the report to creditors, Mr Harrison stated that the first Bounce Back loan application was made by a third party on his behalf.  

    The Insolvency Service did not find evidence of a third party’s involvement.  

    He also stated that he did not know that only one successful loan application was permitted under the scheme.  

    However, the Insolvency Service has seen evidence that Mr Harrison signed the declaration on his company’s second loan application confirming that this was his first and only application. 

    Joseph Harrison was disqualified for 12 years under sections 6 and 15A of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. 

    The Bounce Back loan scheme helped small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, at a low interest rate, guaranteed by the Government.  

    Further information:  

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Door supervisor convicted after working with a suspended licence

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Door supervisor convicted after working with a suspended licence

    A man has been convicted for working at a Cambridgeshire venue with a suspended Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence.

    Amadu Tavares was working at No6 Cocktail Bar in St Neots on Friday 10 May 2024 when Cambridgeshire Police carried out licence checks on door staff. They found that his licence had previously been suspended by the SIA on 10 April 2024. 

    He was invited for interview under caution with SIA investigators on 11 July 2024 and again on 31 July 2024 however failed to attend for interview on either date.  

    Tavares appeared at Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on 15 January 2025 where he entered a guilty plea for offences contrary to Section 3 of the Private Security Industry Act 2001. He received a £200 fine, an £80 victim surcharge and had to pay £280 towards prosecution costs, totalling £560.

    Nicola Bolton, Criminal Investigations Manager at the SIA, said: 

    Our priority is public protection. We carefully review the actions of licence holders and suspend or revoke licences when necessary to keep people safe.  

    Mr Tavares chose to ignore the suspension of his licence, putting public safety at risk and undermining the integrity of the industry. The sentence handed down by the court will serve as a strong reminder that non-compliance has serious consequences.

    Background

    By law, security operatives working under contract must hold and display a valid SIA licence. Information about SIA enforcement and penalties can be found on GOV.UK/SIA.  

    The offence relating to the Private Security Industry Act 2001 that is mentioned above is:  

    • Section 3 – engaging in licensable conduct without a licence 

    The SIA is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry in the UK, reporting to the Home Secretary under the terms of the Private Security Industry Act 2001. The SIA’s main duties are the compulsory licensing of individuals undertaking designated activities and managing the voluntary Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS).

    Media enquiries

    For media enquiries only, please contact:

    SIA press office

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –