Category: Russian Federation

MIL-OSI Russia: The Polytechnic University honored the memory of Zhores Alferov

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –

March 15, 2025 marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet and Russian physicist, academician, Nobel Prize laureate Zhores Ivanovich Alferov. On the eve of the anniversary date, SPbPU employees laid flowers at the memorial plaque of the outstanding scientist, who worked at the Polytechnic University for almost 30 years.

“We remember Zhores Ivanovich as a cheerful person who set ambitious goals for himself and achieved them,” said Vitaly Sergeev, First Vice-Rector of SPbPU, at the beginning of the ceremony. “He did a lot for the Polytechnic University, an entire direction within the Polytechnic was created thanks to Zhores Ivanovich, a huge thank you to him for this and bright memory.”

“For me, Zhores Ivanovich was at first an unattainable star, but then he turned out to be very simple and humane in communication,” shared his memories Vladimir Glukhov, advisor to the rector’s office of SPbPU. “I would like to emphasize that the physics and technology faculty he founded was unusual: there were four departments, and each was headed by an academician. And 80 percent of the teachers were members of the Academy of Sciences. And on the basis of this team, the St. Petersburg Academic University was created. As long as we live, we will remember Zhores Ivanovich Alferov.”

“Zhores Ivanovich was distinguished by a very warm attitude towards students,” added Nikolai Ivanov, acting director of the Physics and Mechanics Institute of SPbPU. “Many departments of the Physics and Engineering Faculty that he created are now in PhysMech. And current teachers who studied with Zhores Ivanovich Alferov say that he had an exceptionally kind attitude towards students. It would seem that the director, an academician, a very busy person, but he found time to talk for a long time with his students and postgraduates.”

Professors of the Higher School of Fundamental Physics Research Nikita Averkiev and Vadim Korablyov also spoke at the ceremony, noting Zhores Alferov’s contribution to the training of scientific personnel and the development of international relations.

Thanks to the inventions of Zhores Alferov and his students, such familiar things as lasers, semiconductors, LEDs, and fiber-optic networks became available to humanity. His discoveries became the basis for the creation of modern electronic devices, including mobile phones, CD players, fiber-optic communications, and much more. Alferov made a significant contribution to the development of electronics and digital technologies.

One of Alferov’s outstanding discoveries is the creation of heterojunctions in semiconductors. These are microstructures in which two or more semiconductors with different chemical compositions are brought into contact. In the 1960s, scientists understood what fantastic prospects the implementation of the idea of semiconductor devices based on heterostructures opened up. The main problem, which could not be solved for a long time, was to select semiconductors ideally suited for this. Alferov’s merit lies precisely in the fact that he was the first to succeed in doing this.

In 1967, he and his colleagues created heterostructures with the required properties, and in 1970, the first semiconductor heterolaser operating in continuous mode at room temperature. In 1972, Alferov was awarded the highest scientific award of the USSR – the Lenin Prize, and in the same year he became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And in 1979, he was elected an academician, this happened on his birthday, March 15. In 2000, Alferov’s contribution was also recognized by the highest world scientific award – the Nobel Prize. The scientist received it for the development of semiconductor heterostructures and the creation of fast opto- and microelectronic components.

Zhores Alferov had scientific intuition and was one of the first to appreciate the prospects for the development of quantum dots. His work on heterostructure lasers was continued in the development of quantum dot lasers.

Alferov’s legacy included not only his outstanding scientific works, but also a school for training scientific personnel. In 1988, he created the Physics and Technology Department at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Its graduates had encyclopedic knowledge in the field of physics and practical skills in working with modern measuring equipment. The department consisted of four departments: plasma physics, space research, solid-state microelectronics, and solid-state physics. In 2015, the department became part of the Institute of Physics, Nanotechnology, and Telecommunications of SPbPU (now the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications – Ed.), and Alferov became its scientific director.

Zhores Ivanovich understood that the development of science and the success of its practical use are impossible without an effective system for training scientific and pedagogical personnel in universities. That is why, despite his enormous workload, he agreed to be the chairman of the Scientific and Methodological Council for Physics at the Ministry of Education and Science. His name attracted many famous scientists, leaders and organizers of higher education to work at the NMS. Current issues of teaching physics were discussed at the meetings of the Presidium of the NMS.

Zhores Ivanovich was not only an outstanding scientist, but also a wonderful storyteller and loved to cite real-life stories in his reports and official speeches, and he always did so with great humor. Many stories are collected in the book “Alferov Gate”, compiled by Arkady Sosnov. For Zhores Ivanovich’s 95th birthday, the Polytechnic University reissued this book in a new edition.

On March 17, 2020, in memory of Academician Zhores Alferov and on the 90th anniversary of his birth, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the Main Building of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.

The memory of the outstanding scientist is also perpetuated by the creation of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences on his initiative. This happened in 2023 largely due to the authority and influence of Zhores Ivanovich Alferov. On March 18, the St. Petersburg branch of the RAS will host a ceremonial open meeting dedicated to the 95th anniversary of Academician Zhores Alferov.

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MIL OSI Russia News –

March 15, 2025

MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Executive Board Completes the Fifth Review under the Extended Credit Facility Arrangement for Nepal

Source: IMF – News in Russian

March 14, 2025

The IMF Executive Board completed the fifth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement for Nepal, providing the country with access to SDR 31.4 million (about US$ 41.8 million).
Nepal has made tangible progress in implementing economic reforms under the program, despite a challenging political environment and disruptions caused by the September 2024 floods.
The growth recovery is expected to continue in FY2024/25, supported by increased capital spending including on reconstruction, an accommodative monetary policy stance, and additional hydropower generation.

Washington, DC: On March 12, 2025, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the fifth review under the four‑year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Nepal, allowing the authorities to withdraw the equivalent of SDR 31.4 million (about US$ 41.8 million) under the ECF. This brings total disbursements under the ECF for budget support thus far to SDR 219.7 million (about US$ 289.1 million).

The ECF arrangement for Nepal was approved by the Executive Board on January 12, 2022 (see Press Release No. 22/6) for SDR 282.4 million (180 percent of quota). Nepal has made tangible progress in implementing reforms under the program, which has supported early signs of economic recovery while preserving macroeconomic and financial stability and protecting the vulnerable.

The economy continues to face challenges with subdued domestic demand. Economic activity is expected to pick up moderately in FY2024/25 on account of disruptions caused by the September 2024 floods. Growth is expected to reach 4.2 percent in FY2024/25, supported by a planned increase in capital spending including on reconstruction, an accommodative monetary policy stance, and additional hydropower generation. Post-flood supply-side pressures are expected to be short-lived, and average inflation is projected to remain close to the Nepal Rastra Bank’s target of about 5 percent. Efforts to mobilize revenues will support development spending and fiscal sustainability. The outlook is subject to important downside risks including those related to possible under-execution of capital spending, financial-sector vulnerabilities, and political fragility.

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director, made the following statement:

“Executive Directors welcomed the continued recovery and the broadly adequate performance under the program, acknowledging the challenges posed by political uncertainty and recent flood-related disruptions. They noted that while the outlook remains broadly favorable, it is subject to downside risks. Accordingly, Directors encouraged continued prudent policies to safeguard macroeconomic stability and steadfast implementation of structural reforms to foster sustainable and inclusive growth. Fund capacity development will also be important to achieve program objectives.

“Directors recommended continued gradual, growth-friendly fiscal consolidation to stabilize debt. Noting the need to mobilize revenue to support higher capital spending and protect the vulnerable, Directors welcomed the newly adopted Domestic Revenue Mobilization Strategy. They also underscored the need to strengthen public investment management to enhance capital spending execution. Further advancing fiscal transparency would help to contain fiscal risks and strengthen fiscal sustainability. Directors emphasized the importance of supporting the most vulnerable including through expanding child grants.

“Directors agreed that monetary policy should remain cautious and data-driven to preserve price and external stability. They highlighted the importance of amending the Nepal Rastra Bank Act to strengthen its governance, independence and accountability.

“Directors underscored that increasing financial sector vulnerabilities warrant a proactive approach. They encouraged steps to further align financial sector regulations with international standards, conduct the planned Loan Portfolio Review, and develop a comprehensive strategy to address problematic savings and credit cooperatives. Noting Nepal’s recent FATF grey listing, Directors stressed the urgency of strengthening the AML/CFT framework through reforms to enhance legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks.

“Directors called for ambitious structural reforms to support more sustainable and inclusive growth. They recommended efforts to reduce the high cost of doing business, enhance the investment climate, improve governance, and strengthen anticorruption institutions. Nepal’s high vulnerability to natural disasters underscores the importance of enhancing resilience to climate shocks.”

Nepal: Selected Economic Indicators 2021/22-2029/30 1/

	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25	2025/26		2026/27	2027/28	2028/29	2029/30
			Est.			Projections

Output and Prices (annual percent change)
Real GDP	5.6	2.0	3.1	4.2	5.4		5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
Headline CPI (period average)	6.4	7.7	5.4	5.2	5.4		5.4	5.4	5.4	5.4
Headline CPI (end of period)	8.1	7.4	3.6	5.5	5.4		5.4	5.4	5.4	5.4
Fiscal Indicators: Central Government (in percent of GDP)
Total revenue and grants	22.9	19.3	19.2	19.8	20.9		21.5	22.1	22.6	22.6
of which: Tax revenue	19.8	16.2	16.4	17.0	17.8		18.4	19.1	19.6	19.6
Expenditure	26.1	25.2	21.9	24.3	25.0		25.4	25.8	26.2	26.2
Expenses	21.7	20.8	18.6	19.3	19.4		19.5	19.6	19.8	19.8
Net acquisition of nonfinancial assets	4.3	4.4	3.3	5.0	5.6		5.9	6.2	6.4	6.4
Operating balance	1.2	-1.4	0.6	0.5	1.5		2.1	2.5	2.8	2.8
Net lending/borrowing	-3.1	-5.8	-2.7	-4.5	-4.1		-3.8	-3.7	-3.6	-3.6
Statistical discrepancy	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Net financial transactions	3.1	5.8	2.7	4.5	4.1		3.8	3.7	3.6	3.6
Net acquisition of financial assets	2.6	-0.9	0.5	1.3	1.3		1.3	1.3	1.3	1.3
Net incurrence of liabilities	5.8	4.9	3.2	5.8	5.4		5.1	5.0	4.9	4.9
Foreign	2.0	1.7	1.6	1.7	1.5		1.4	1.3	1.3	1.4
Domestic	3.7	3.3	1.6	4.1	3.9		3.7	3.7	3.5	3.5

Money and Credit (annual percent change)
Broad money	6.8	11.4	13.6	10.1	10.1		10.3	10.5	10.7	10.7
Domestic credit	17.9	8.8	6.2	8.2	9.6		10.3	10.5	10.7	10.7
Private sector credit	13.3	4.6	6.1	7.2	8.1		9.1	10.0	10.7	10.7

Saving and Investment (in percent of nominal GDP)
Gross investment	37.6	31.7	32.9	37.5	39.4		38.3	37.0	35.8	34.7
Gross fixed investment	29.0	25.1	26.1	29.7	31.2		30.4	29.3	28.3	27.5
Private	23.6	21.7	22.7	24.7	25.6		24.5	23.1	21.9	21.1
Central government	5.3	3.4	3.3	5.0	5.6		5.9	6.2	6.4	6.4
Change in Stock	8.7	6.6	6.8	7.8	8.2		8.0	7.7	7.4	7.2
Gross national saving	25.1	30.8	36.7	36.2	35.5		34.5	33.2	32.2	31.0
Private	24.4	32.7	36.5	36.3	34.9		33.3	31.6	30.1	29.1
Central government	0.7	-1.9	0.2	-0.1	0.6		1.2	1.7	2.0	2.0

Balance of Payments
Current account (in millions of U.S. dollars)	-5,174	-361	1,663	-630	-1,969		-2,166	-2,321	-2,479	-2,760
In percent of GDP	-12.6	-0.9	3.8	-1.3	-3.8		-3.8	-3.7	-3.6	-3.7
Trade balance (in millions of U.S. dollars)	-13,759	-10,699	-10,431	-12,481	-15,053		-15,957	-16,797	-17,678	-18,664
In percent of GDP	-33.4	-26.2	-24.0	-26.7	-29.2		-28.2	-27.0	-25.8	-24.8
Exports of goods (y/y percent change)	43.9	-19.9	-2.5	8.9	9.6		9.1	9.7	9.4	9.4
Imports of goods (y/y percent change)	21.9	-22.0	-2.5	18.4	19.4		6.3	5.7	5.7	6.0
Workers’ remittances (in millions of U.S. dollars)	8,326	9,485	10,864	11,151	11,680		12,258	12,766	13,283	13,767
In percent of GDP	20.2	23.2	25.0	23.8	22.7		21.6	20.5	19.4	18.3
Gross official reserves (in millions of U.S. dollars)	8,956	10,954	14,547	15,301	15,004		14,821	14,876	14,897	15,289
In months of prospective imports	7.6	9.3	10.5	9.4	8.7		8.1	7.7	7.2	7.0
Memorandum Items
Public debt (in percent of GDP)	42.7	47.1	48.2	50.0	50.4		50.6	50.6	50.5	50.5
Nominal GDP (in billions of U.S. dollars)	41.2	40.9	43.4	46.8	51.5		56.6	62.3	68.5	75.3
Nominal GDP (in billions of Nepalese Rupees)	4,977	5,349	5,776	6,333	7,040		7,792	8,623	9,543	10,562
Net International Reserves (in millions of U.S. dollars)	8,821	10,507	14,064	14,744	14,451		14,321	14,440	14,541	15,027
Primary Deficit (in billions of Nepali Rupees)	110	239	76	183	179		175	180	182	204
Primary Deficit (in percent of GDP)	2.2	4.5	1.3	2.9	2.5		2.2	2.1	1.9	1.9
Tax Revenue (in billions of Nepalese Rupees)	984	866	945	1,074	1,250		1,436	1,648	1,868	2,065
Tax Revenue (In percent of GDP)	19.8	16.2	16.4	17.0	17.8		18.4	19.1	19.6	19.6
Private sector credit (in percent of GDP)	94.2	91.7	90.1	88.0	85.6		84.3	83.8	83.8	83.9
Exchange rate (NPR/US$; period average)	120.8	130.8	133.0	…	…		…	…	…	…
Real effective exchange rate (average, y/y percent change)	1.6	1.2	1.4	…	…		…	…	…	…

1/ Fiscal year ends in mid-July.

Note: The NSO adopts a 3 year cycle in its national accounts producing preliminary, revised and final estimates for real GDP growth. In May 2023 growth was revised up in FY2020/21 from 4.2 percent to 4.8 percent and from 5.3 percent to 5.6 percent in FY2021/22 in light of new data.

Note: Current baseline forecast is as of January 29, 2025.

IMF Communications Department

MEDIA RELATIONS

PRESS OFFICER: Pemba Sherpa

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

https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/03/14/pr25063-nepal-imf-completes-the-fifth-review-under-the-extended-credit-facility-arrangement

MIL OSI

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 15, 2025

MIL-OSI Europe: Joint statement of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Charlevoix (14 Mar. 2025)

Source: Republic of France in English
The Republic of France has issued the following statement:

We the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, met in Charlevoix on March 12 to 14, 2025.

Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security

We reaffirmed our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence.

We welcomed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire, and in particular the meeting on March 11 between the U.S. and Ukraine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We applauded Ukraine’s commitment to an immediate ceasefire, which is an essential step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in line with the Charter of the United Nations.

We called for Russia to reciprocate by agreeing to a ceasefire on equal terms and implementing it fully. We discussed imposing further costs on Russia in case such a ceasefire is not agreed, including through further sanctions, caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means. This includes the use of extraordinary revenues stemming from immobilized Russian Sovereign Assets. We underlined the importance of confidence-building measures under a ceasefire including the release of prisoners of war and detainees—both military and civilian—and the return of Ukrainian children.

We emphasized that any ceasefire must be respected and underscored the need for robust and credible security arrangements to ensure that Ukraine can deter and defend against any renewed acts of aggression. We stated that we will continue to coordinate economic and humanitarian support to promote the early recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine, including at the Ukraine Recovery Conference which will take place in Rome on July 10-11, 2025.

We condemned the provision to Russia of military assistance by DPRK and Iran, and the provision of weapons and dual-use components by China, a decisive enabler of Russia’s war and of the reconstitution of Russia’s armed forces. We reiterated our intention to continue to take action against such third countries.

We expressed alarm about the impacts of the war, especially on civilians and on civilian infrastructure. We discussed the importance of accountability and reaffirmed our commitment to work together to achieve a durable peace and to ensure that Ukraine remains democratic, free, strong and prosperous.

Regional peace and stability in the Middle East

We called for the release of all hostages and for the hostages’ remains held by Hamas in Gaza to be returned to their loved ones. We reaffirmed our support for the resumption of unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza and for a permanent ceasefire. We underscored the imperative of a political horizon for the Palestinian people, achieved through a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that meets the legitimate needs and aspirations of both peoples and advances comprehensive Middle East peace, stability and prosperity. We noted serious concern over the growing tensions and hostilities in the West Bank and calls for de-escalation.

We recognized Israel’s inherent right to defend itself consistent with international law. We unequivocally condemned Hamas, including for its brutal and unjustified terror attacks on October 7, 2023, and the harm inflicted on the hostages during their captivity and the violation of their dignity through the use of ‘handover ceremonies’ during their release. We reiterated that Hamas can have no role in Gaza’s future and must never again be a threat to Israel. We affirmed our readiness to engage with Arab partners on their proposals to chart a way forward on reconstruction in Gaza and build a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.

We expressed our support for the people of Syria and Lebanon, as both countries work towards peaceful and stable political futures. At this critical juncture, we reiterated the importance of Syria’s and Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We called unequivocally for the rejection of terrorism in Syria. We condemned strongly the recent escalation of violence in the coastal regions of Syria, and called for the protection of civilians and for perpetrators of atrocities to be held accountable. We stressed the critical importance of an inclusive and Syrian-led political process. We welcomed the commitment by the Syrian interim government to work with the OPCW in eliminating all remaining chemical weapons.

We stressed that Iran is the principal source of regional instability and must never be allowed to develop and acquire a nuclear weapon. We emphasized that Iran must now change course, de-escalate and choose diplomacy. We underscored the threat of Iran’s growing use of arbitrary detention and foreign assassination attempts as a tool of coercion.

Cooperation to increase security and resilience across the Indo-Pacific

We reiterated our commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific, based on sovereignty, territorial integrity, peaceful resolution of disputes, fundamental freedoms and human rights.

We remain seriously concerned by the situations in the East China Sea as well as the South China Sea and continue to oppose strongly unilateral attempts to change the status quo, in particular by force and coercion. We expressed concern over the increasing use of dangerous maneuvers and water cannons against Philippines and Vietnamese vessels as well as efforts to restrict freedom of navigation and overflight through militarization and coercion in the South China Sea, in violation of international law. We emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues and reiterated our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. We also expressed support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in appropriate international organizations.

We remain concerned with China’s military build-up and the continued, rapid increase in China’s nuclear weapons arsenal. We called on China to engage in strategic risk reduction discussions and promote stability through transparency.

We emphasized that China should not conduct or condone activities aimed at undermining the security and safety of our communities and the integrity of our democratic institutions.16. We expressed concerns about China’s non-market policies and practices that are leading to harmful overcapacity and market distortions. We further called on China to refrain from adopting export control measures that could lead to significant supply chain disruptions. We reiterated that we are not trying to harm China or thwart its economic growth, indeed a growing China that plays by international rules and norms would be of global interest.

We demanded that the DPRK abandon all its nuclear weapons and any other weapons of mass destruction as well as ballistic missile programs in accordance with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. We expressed our serious concerns over, and the need to address together, the DPRK’s cryptocurrency thefts. We called on DPRK to resolve the abductions issue immediately.

We denounced the brutal repression of the people of Myanmar by the military regime and called for an end to all violence and for unhindered humanitarian access.

Building stability and resilience in Haiti and Venezuela

We strongly denounced the ongoing horrifying violence that continues to be perpetrated by gangs in Haiti in their efforts to seize control of the government. We reaffirmed our commitment to helping the Haitian people restore democracy, security and stability, including through support to the Haitian National Police and Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission and an increased role for the UN. We expressed support for Haitian authorities’ efforts to create a specialized anti-corruption jurisdiction that complies with the highest international standards.

We reiterated our call for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela in line with the aspirations of the Venezuelan people who peacefully voted on July 28, 2024, for change, the cessation of repression and arbitrary or unjust detentions of peaceful protestors including youth by Nicolas Maduro’s regime, as well as the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners. We also agreed Venezuelan naval vessels threatening Guyana’s commercial vessels is unacceptable and an infringement of Guyana’s internationally recognized sovereign rights. We reaffirmed respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations as an enduring value.

Supporting lasting peace in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

We unequivocally denounced the ongoing fighting and atrocities in Sudan, including sexual violence against women and girls, which have led to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and the spread of famine. We called for the warring parties to protect civilians, cease hostilities, and ensure unhindered humanitarian access, and urged external actors to end their support fueling the conflict.

We condemned the Rwanda-backed M23 offensive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the resulting violence, displacement and grave human rights and international humanitarian law violations. This offensive constitutes a flagrant disregard of the territorial integrity of the DRC. We reiterated our call for M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force to withdraw from all controlled areas. We urged all parties to support the mediation led by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, to promote accountability for human rights abuses by all armed actors, including M23 and the FDLR, and to commit to a peaceful and negotiated resolution of the conflict, including the meaningful participation of women and youth.

Strengthening sanctions and countering hybrid warfare and sabotage

We welcomed efforts to strengthen the Sanctions Working Group focused on listings and enforcement. We also welcomed discussions on the establishment of a Hybrid Warfare and Sabotage Working Group, and of a Latin America Working Group.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: See you in the funny papers: How superhero comics tell the story of Jewish America

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Miriam Eve Mora, Managing Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, University of Michigan

A five-story replica of a stamp of Superman in 1998 in Cleveland, home of the superhero’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File

Nearly a hundred years ago, a hastily crafted spaceship crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas. Inside was an infant – the sole survivor of a planet destroyed by old age. Discovering he possessed superhuman strength and abilities, the boy committed to channeling his power to benefit humankind and champion the oppressed.

This is the story of Superman: one of the most recognizable characters in history, who first reached audiences in the pages of Action Comics in 1938 – what many fans consider the most important single comic in history.

As a historian of American immigration and ethnicity – and a lifelong comics fan – I read this well-known bit of fiction as an allegory about immigration and the American dream. It is, at its core, the ultimate story of an immigrant in the early 20th century, when many people saw the United States as a land with open gates, providing such orphans of the world an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Taken in and raised by a rural family under the name Clark Kent, the baby was imbued with the best qualities of America. But, like all immigrant stories, Kent’s is a two-parter. There is also the emigrant story: the story of how Kal-El – Superman’s name at birth – was driven from his home on Planet Krypton to embrace a new land.

That origin story reflects the heritage of Superman’s creators: two of the many Jewish American writers and artists who ushered in the Golden Age of comic books.

Jewish history…

A card from 1909, found in the Jewish Museum of New York, depicts Jewish Americans welcoming Jews emigrating from Russia.
Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

The American comics industry was largely started by the children of Jewish immigrants. Like most publishing in the early 20th century, it was centered in New York City, home to the country’s largest Jewish population. Though they were still a very small minority, immigration had swelled the United States’ Jewish population more than a thousandfold: from roughly 3,000 in 1820 to roughly 3,500,000 in 1920.

Comic books had not yet been devised, but strip comics in newspapers were a regular feature. They began in the late 19th century with popular stories featuring recurring characters, such as Richard F. Outcault’s “Yellow Kid” and “the Little Bears” by Jimmy Swinnerton.

A few Jewish creators were able to break into the industry, such as Harry Hershfield and his comic “Abie the Agent.” Hershfield’s success was exceptional in three ways: He broke into mainstream newspaper comics, his titular character was also Jewish, and he never adopted an anglicized pen name – as many other Jewish creators felt they must.

Shoppers and vendors outside of haberdasheries on Hester Street in a Jewish neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side around 1900.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Generally, however, Jews were barred from the more prestigious jobs in newspaper cartooning. A more accessible alternative was the cheaper, second-tier business of reprinting previously published works.

In 1933, second-generation Jewish New Yorker Max Gaines – born Maxwell Ginzburg – began a new publication, “Funnies on Parade.” “Funnies” pulled together preexisting comic strips, reproducing them in saddle-stitched pamphlets that became the standard for the American comics industry. He went on to found All-American Comics and Educational Comics.

Another publisher, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, founded National Allied Publications in 1934 and published the first comic book to feature entirely new material, rather than reprints of newspaper strips. He joined forces with two Jewish immigrants, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Leibowitz. At National, they created and distributed Detective and Action Comics – the precursors to DC, which would become one of the two largest comics distributors in history.

It was at Action Comics that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two second-generation immigrants from a Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland, found a home for Superman. It would also be where two Jewish kids from the Bronx, Bob Kane and Bill Finger – born Robert Kahn and Milton Finger – found a home for their character, Batman, in 1939.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, pictured in the 1940s.
New Yorker/Wikimedia Commons

The success of these characters inspired another prominent second-generation Jewish New Yorker, pulp magazine publisher Moses “Martin” Goodman, to enter comics production with his line, “Timely Comics.” The 1939 debut featured what would become two of the early industry’s most well-known superheroes: the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch. These characters would be mainstays of Goodman’s company, even when it became better known as Marvel Comics.

Thus were born the “big two,” Marvel and DC, from humble Jewish origins.

…and Jewish stories

The creation and popularization of superhero comics isn’t Jewish just because of its history. The content was, too, reflecting the values and priorities of Jewish America at the time: a community influenced by its origins and traditions, as well as the American mainstream.

Some of the most foundational early comics echo Jewish history and texts, such as Superman’s story, which parallels the Jewish hero Moses. The biblical prophet was born in Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved, and soon after Pharaoh ordered the murder of all their newborn sons. Similarly, Superman’s people, the Kryptonians, faced an existential threat: the destruction of their planet.

Moses’ life is saved when his mother floats him down the Nile in a hastily constructed and tarred basket. Kal-El, too, is sent away to safety in a hastily constructed craft. Both boys are raised by strangers in a strange land and destined to become heroes to their people.

Comics also reflected the feelings and fears of Jews in a moment in time. For example, in the wake of Kristallnacht – the 1938 night of widespread organized attacks on German Jews and their property, which many historians see as a turning point toward the Holocaust – Finger and Kane debuted Batman’s Gotham City. The city is a dark contrast to Superman’s shining metropolis, a place where villains lurked around every corner and reflected the darkest sides of modern humanity.

Some comic artists and writers used their platform to make political statements. Jack Kirby – born Kurtzberg – and Hymie “Joe” Simon, creators of Captain America, explained that they “knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil.” The comic debut of Captain America in 1941 featured a brightly colored cover with the brand-new hero punching Adolf Hitler in the face.

In later generations, characters penned by Jewish authors continued to grapple with issues of outsider status, hiding aspects of their identity, and maintaining their determination to better the world in spite of rejection from it. Think of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and X-Men. All of these were created by Stan Lee – another Jewish creator, born Stanley Martin Lieber – who was hired into Timely Comics at just 17 years old.

With so many of the most popular comics written by New York Jews, and centered in the city, much of New York’s Yiddish-tinged, recognizably Jewish language made its way onto the pages. Lee’s Spider-Man, for example, frequently exclaims “oy!” or calls bad guys “putz” or “shmuck.”

In later years, Jewish authors such as Chris Claremont and Brian Michael Bendis introduced or took over mainstream characters who were overtly Jewish – reflecting an emerging comfort with a more public Jewish ethnic identity in America. In X-Men, for example, Kitty Pryde recounts her encounters with contemporary antisemitism. Magneto, who is at times friend but often foe of the X-Men, developed a backstory as a Holocaust survivor.

History is never solely about retelling; it’s about gaining a better understanding of complex narratives. Trends in comics history, particularly in the superhero genre, offer insight into the ways that Jewish American anxieties, ambitions, patriotism and sense of place in the U.S. continually changed over the 20th century. To me, this understanding makes the retelling of these classic stories even more meaningful and entertaining.

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

– ref. See you in the funny papers: How superhero comics tell the story of Jewish America – https://theconversation.com/see-you-in-the-funny-papers-how-superhero-comics-tell-the-story-of-jewish-america-248218

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Saudi Arabia’s role as Ukraine war mediator advances Gulf nation’s diplomatic rehabilitation − and boosts its chances of a seat at the table should Iran-US talks resume

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Fellow for the Middle East at the Baker Institute, Rice University

Saudi Arabia is 2,000 miles from Ukraine and even more politically distant, so at first glance it might seem like it has nothing to do with the ongoing war there. But the Gulf state has emerged as a key intermediary in the most serious ceasefire negotiations since Russia invaded its neighbor three years ago.

While it is U.S. officials who are undoubtedly leading the efforts for an agreement, it is the Saudi capital of Riyadh that has been staging the crucial talks.

In a flurry of diplomatic activity on March 10, 2025, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s top political authority, hosted separate meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

The following day, senior Saudi officials facilitated face-to-face meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian delegations.

The resulting agreement, which is now being mulled in Moscow, is all the more notable given that it followed a diplomatic breakdown just weeks before at the Oval Office between Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Whether the proposed interim 30-day ceasefire materializes is still uncertain. On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agreed with the proposal in principle, but he added that a lot of the details needed to be sorted out.

Should a deal be reached, there is every reason to believe it will be inked in Saudi Arabia, which has hosted not only the latest U.S.-Ukrainian talks but earlier rounds of high-level Russian-U.S. meetings.

But why is a Gulf nation playing mediator in a conflict in Eastern Europe? As an expert on Saudi politics, I believe the answer to that lies in the kingdom’s diplomatic ambitions and its desire to present a more positive image to the world. And in the background is the goal of better positioning the nation in the event of diplomatic maneuvers in its own region, notably in regards to any talks between U.S. and Iran.

The diplomatic convertion of MBS

Saudi Arabia’s growing diplomatic role has been a feature of the kingdom’s foreign policy since 2022.

Crown Prince Mohammed, who that year succeeded his father as prime minister, views Saudi Arabia as the convening power in the Arab and Islamic world.

Accordingly, officials in the kingdom have been directed to lead regional diplomacy over a number of pressing issues, including the conflicts in Gaza and Sudan.

At the same time, Saudis have started the process of reconciliation with Iran, which has long been perceived as the chief regional rival to Saudi influence.

This turn to diplomacy marks a shift away from the confrontational policies adopted by the crown prince during his rise to power in Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2018. Policies such as Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen, its blockade of Qatar, the detention of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the conversion of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh into a makeshift prison all fed an image of the young prince as an impulsive decision-maker. Then in 2018 came the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

This approach brought little in the way of stability. Rather, it left the country ensnared in an unwinnable war in Yemen, a fruitless row with Qatar, and diplomatic isolation by Western officials.

A friend to Ukraine and Russia

In regards to the war in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia’s intermediary role is helped by a perception of the kingdom as a neutral nation on the conflict.

Saudi officials, in common with their counterparts in the other Gulf states, have long sought to avoid taking sides in the emerging era of great power competition and strategic rivalry. As such, the kingdom has maintained working relations with both Russia and pro-Western Ukraine since the outbreak of war in Europe.

In 2022, for example, Saudi Arabia and Russia – both leaders of OPEC+ – coordinated oil production cuts to cushion Moscow from the effects of global sanctions the West imposed after it invaded Ukraine. Yet just months later, Saudi Arabia invited Zelenskyy to address an Arab League summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

It was a prelude to a 2023 international summit, also in Jeddah, which brought together representatives from 40 countries to discuss the ongoing war.

Despite failing to produce a breakthrough, the meeting illustrated the convening reach of the crown prince and his intention to act as a diplomatic go-between in the Ukraine-Russia war.

Saudi Arabia and neighboring United Arab Emirates later facilitated occasional prisoner exchanges between the two countries – rare diplomatic successes in three years of conflict.

Staging ground for diplomacy

Direct engagement in high-stakes international diplomacy over the largest war in Europe since 1945 is undoubtedly a step up in Saudi ambitions. But the country’s efforts aren’t purely altruistic. Riyadh believes there’s mileage to be gained in such diplomatic endeavors.

The advent of a Trump presidency has fit Saudi desires. Trump has made his desire to be seen as a dealmaker and peacemaker clear, but he needs a neutral venue in which the hard work of diplomacy can flourish.

Just weeks into the new U.S. administration, the Saudi capital hosted the first meeting between a U.S. secretary of state and Russian foreign minister since Russia invaded in 2022.

It yielded an agreement to “re-establish the bilateral relationship” and establish a consultation mechanism to “address irritants” in ties.

The two rounds of dialogue in Riyadh – first with Russia, then Ukraine – have positioned the Saudi leadership firmly in the diplomatic process. It has also gone some way to rehabilitate Mohammed bin Salman’s image.

The sight of the crown prince warmly greeting Zelenskyy contrasted sharply with the images from a fractious White House meeting that went around the world, presenting the crown prince as a statesmanlike figure.

Turning to Tehran

Such positive optics would have seemed inconceivable as recently as 2019, when the crown prince was shunned and then presidential candidate Joe Biden labeled the country a “pariah” state.

Changing this negative global perception of Saudi Arabia is crucial if the kingdom is to attract the tens of millions of visitors that are pivotal to the success of the “giga-projects” – sports, culture and tourism events that the Saudis hope will drive its economy and allow the kingdom to be less economically dependent on fossil fuel exports.

Whereas easing tensions with Iran and supporting Yemen’s fragile truce are about derisking the kingdom’s vulnerability to regional volatility, facilitating diplomacy over Ukraine is a relatively cost-free way to reinforce the changing narratives about Saudi Arabia.

After all, any breakdown in the Russia-U.S.-Ukraine negotiations is unlikely to be blamed on the Saudis.

Indeed, Saudi officials may view their engagement with U.S. officials over Ukraine as the prelude to further diplomatic cooperation. And this will be especially true if Crown Prince Mohammed is able to establish himself as an indispensable partner in the eyes of Trump.

Saudi officials were excluded from the last major talks between Iran and the U.S., which also involved several other major world powers and led to the 2016 Iran nuclear deal. Trump withdrew from the deal shortly after assuming office for the first time in 2017, and U.S.-Iranian relations have been moribund since then.

The U.S. administration has already mooted the idea of a resumption of negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear capabilities.

Placing Saudi Arabia in the middle of any attempts to secure a new nuclear agreement that would replace or supersede that earlier deal would be a high-risk move, given the intensity of feeling on both the U.S. and Iranian sides and the uneasy coexistence between Tehran and Riyadh.

But doing so would give the kingdom what it most desires: a seat at the table.

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

– ref. Saudi Arabia’s role as Ukraine war mediator advances Gulf nation’s diplomatic rehabilitation − and boosts its chances of a seat at the table should Iran-US talks resume – https://theconversation.com/saudi-arabias-role-as-ukraine-war-mediator-advances-gulf-nations-diplomatic-rehabilitation-and-boosts-its-chances-of-a-seat-at-the-table-should-iran-us-talks-resume-252035

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI USA News: Remarks by President Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Before Bilateral Meeting

Source: The White House

class=”has-text-align-center”>Oval Office

12:33 P.M. EDT

     PRESIDENT TRUMP:  Hello, everybody. It’s great to be with a friend of mine, who was prime minister of the Netherlands, so I got to know him very well. We had a great relationship always.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Absolutely.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Mark Rutte. Now he’s secretary general of NATO and doing a fantastic job. Everybody — every report I’ve gotten is what a great job he did. And I’m not at all surprised when I hear it. We had to support him, and we supported him as soon as I heard the name.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But he was a fantastic prime minister, and he’s doing a fantastic job. An even tougher job. Which is tougher: being the prime minister of Netherlands or?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: This job is quite tough. Yeah. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would think this is a little tougher.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: But — but Dutch politics is also brutal. So — (laughter).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. But this is pretty tough.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But you’re doing good.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to be discussing a lot of things. Obviously, we’ll be discussing what’s happening with respect to Ukraine and Russia.

At this moment, we have people talking in Russia. We have representatives over there — Steve Witkoff and others. And they’re in very serious discussions. As you know, Ukraine has agreed, subject to this — what’s happening today — to a complete ceasefire, and we hope Russia will do the same.

Thousands of people are being killed — young people, usually, mostly young people. We were just talking about it. Thousands of young people are being killed a week, and we want to see that stop. And they’re not Americans, and they’re not from the Netherlands for the most part.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: No.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’re not from — they’re from Russia and they’re from Ukraine, but they’re people. And I think everybody feels the same way. We want it to stop.

It’s also a tremendous cost to the United States and to other countries. And it’s something that would have never happened if I were president, and it makes me very angry to see that it did happen. But it happened, and we have to stop it.

And Mark has done some really good work over the last week. We’ve been working together, and he’s done some really good work. So, I’m very happy about that.

We’ll also be talking about trade and various other things, and I think we’ll have a very, very strong day. We’re going to have lunch afterwards. That’ll go. And then we’ll see you all later.

But, Mark, would you like to say something?

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah. First of all, thank you so much, Mr. President, dear Donald, again for hosting me and — but also for taking time in Florida a couple of weeks after you —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. That’s right.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — you were reelected.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: And, of course, our phone call a couple of weeks ago. And I must say, Trump 45 — you basically — you originated the fact that in Europe we are now spending, when you take it to aggregate, $700 billion more on defense —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — than when you came in office in 2016 — in 2017.

But that was Trump 45. But when look at Trump 47 —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Going to be hard to top. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering. The Europeans committing to a package of $800 billion defense spending. The Germans now —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending. And then, of course, you have Keir Starmer here, the British prime minister, and others all committing to much higher defense spending.

They’re not there. We need to do more. But I really want to work together with you in a run-up to The Hague summit to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership. And we are getting there.

We also discussed defense production, because we need to produce more weaponry. We are not doing enough — not in the U.S., not in Europe. And we are lagging behind when you compare to the Russians and the Chinese. And you have a huge defense industrial base, Europeans buying mo- — four times more here than the other — the other way around, which is good, because you have a strong defense industry.

But we need to do more there to make sure that we ramp up production and kill the red tape. So, I would love to work with you on that.

And finally, Ukraine — you broke the deadlock. As you said, all the killing, the young people dying, cities getting destroyed. The fact that you did that, that you started the dialogue with the Russians and the successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians — I really want to commend you for this.

So, well, The Hague is my hometown. I’d love to host you there in the summer and work together to make sure that —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll do that.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — that will be a splash, a real success, projecting American power on the world stage.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: What Mark is saying is: When I first went to NATO, my first meeting, I noticed that very few people were paying. And if they were, they weren’t paying their fair share. There were only seven countries that were paying what they were supposed to be paying, which was —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: It’s even worse, there were three.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: That’s even worse.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It could be even worse.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But there were just very few countries that were paying. And even the paying, it was at 2 percent, which is too low. It should be higher. It should be quite a bit higher.

But you had Poland and I remember Poland was actually paying a little bit more than they were supposed to, which I was very impressed with. And they’ve been actually terrific and some of the others. But most of them weren’t paying or they were paying very little.

And I didn’t think it was appropriate to bring it up there, but I said, “It’s going to be brought up at my next meeting.” And my next meeting — you know, the first meeting, you want to give them a little break. The second meeting, it began.

And I was able to raise —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: You did. (Laughs.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — hundreds of billions of dollars. I just said, “We’re not going to be involved with you if you’re not going to pay.” And the money started pouring in. And NATO became much stronger because of my actions and working along with a lot of people, including Mark.

But they would not pay for other presidents. I don’t think other presidents even knew that they weren’t paid. I asked, first question, “Has everybody paid up?” And literally, I mean, they showed — they told me seven. You could be right. It could be three. But — that makes it even worse — but they just weren’t paying.

And I said, “No, I won’t protect if you’re not paying. If you’re delinquent or if the money isn’t paid, why would we do that?”

And as soon as I said that, got a little hit from the press, because they said, “Oh, gee, that’s not very nice.” But if you said the other, nobody would have paid. And the money started coming in by the billions.

And, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO, and NATO became strong.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And you remember that. And your predecessor, who I thought was a very good man actually.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Absolutely. Jens Stoltenberg. He sends his best greetings.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. He was terrific.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Stoltenberg, secretary general.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Great man.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he made the statement that when Trump came in, the money started coming in like we never saw before. Hundreds of billions — it was actually probably close to $600 billion came in. And NATO became strong from that standpoint.

And now, we have to use it wisely. And we have to get this war over with. And you’ll be back to a normal — much more normal life.

And maybe we’re close. We’re getting words that things are going okay in Russia, and it doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is.

But they have very serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others. And hopefully, they all want to end this nightmare. It’s a nightmare. It’s a horrible thing, when you look. I get pictures every week. They give me the pictures of the battlefield, which I almost don’t want to see. It’s so horrible to see.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: It’s so terrible.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Young people laying — arms and legs and heads laying all over the field. It’s the most terrible thing that you’ll ever see.

And it’s got to stop. These are young people with mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends, and it’s got to stop.

So, we hopefully are going to be in a good position sometime today to have a good idea. We’ll have — we know where we are with Ukraine, and we are getting good signals outside of Russia as to where we are with Russia, and hopefully they’ll do the right thing.

It’s a really — humanity — we’re talking about humanity. We’re not talking about the money. But then you add the money to it, and, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars is being spent and, really, wasted so unnecessarily. It should have never happened.

So, it’s an honor to have you here. They picked a great gentleman. I’ll tell you, that was — I was so happy to hear, because you had somebody — Stoltenberg was really good. And you have somebody that’s going to do an incredible job. And I was so much in favor of you, you have no idea.

They had another person that I did not like. (Laughter.) I was not happy. And I think I kept him from — you know what I’m talking about. I said, “This is the right man to do it.” And he really did. He was a great prime minister of the Netherlands. He did a great job. And that’s what he’s doing right now.

So, thank you, everybody, for being here. And very great honor to have you. And we even have some of our great energy people here today, right? We have the governor, and we have Chris. You know Chris.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah. Absolutely.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s supposed to be the most talented man in the world of energy, according to the governor. (Laughter.) So, I don’t know if he’s right.

And we have — General, you’ve been fantastic. Thank you very much.

And we have a lot of good people that won’t be so much involved with this, but they wanted to see what was happening. It’s become a little bit of a show — (laughter) — but they wanted to see what was happening. And I think a lot of good things are happening.

So, with that, if anybody would have a question.

(Cross-talk.)

Q    Mr. President, o- — on Russia.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Please, go ahead.

Q    Vlad- —

     Q    Sorry. Sorry, Mary. Steve Witkoff’s trip to Moscow, you spoke about it. What sort of agreement do you hope he comes away from there with?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’d like to see a ceasefire from Russia. And we have, you know, not been working in the dark. We’ve been discussing with Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost and all of the other elements of a final agreement.

There’s a power plant involved — you know, a very big power plant involved. Who’s going to get the power plant and who’s going to get this and that. And so, you know, it’s not an easy process.

But phase one is the ceasefire. A lot of the individual subjects have been discussed, though. You know, we’ve been discussing concepts of land, because you don’t want to waste time with the ceasefire if it’s not going to mean anything. So, we’re saying, “Look, this is what you can get. This is what you can’t get.”

They discussed NATO and being in NATO, and everybody knows what the answer to that is. They’ve known that answer for 40 years, in all fairness.

So, a lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed. Now we’re going to see whether or not Russia is there, and if they’re not, it’ll be a very disappointing moment for the world.

Yeah.

Q    And Vladimir Putin just said he is open to a ceasefire, but he does still have some concerns. He suggested that you two should speak directly. Do you have plans to speak to him soon? If so, when?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I would. Yeah, sure.

Q    And are you confident you can get this across the finish line?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. He did say that today. It was a very promising statement, because other people are saying different things, and you don’t know if they have anything to really — if they have any meaning, or I don’t know. I think some of them were making statements. I don’t think they have anything to do with it.

No, he put out a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete. And, yeah, I’d love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast. You know, every day people are being killed. It’s not like — as we sit here, two people will be killed. Think of it. Two people are going to be killed during this little period of time.

     Thousands of people a week are dying, so we really don’t have very much time. We have to make this fast. It shouldn’t be very complicated.

(Cross-talk.)

Yes.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President. A representative of Canada, the finance minister, are in town and will meet members of your administration during the day.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Sure. Yeah.

Q    Any chances that you will ban on the tariffs on aluminum and — and the — the ones that are planned for April 2nd?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No.

Q    You are not going to change your mind?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I’m not. Look, we’ve been ripped off for years, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I’m not going to bend at all on aluminum or steel or cars. We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years. We’ve been subjected to costs that we shouldn’t be subjected to.

In the case of Canada, we’re spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada. I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. I have many friends in Canada. “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, the great. Hey, how good is Wayne Gretzky? He’s the Great One.

But we have — I know many people from Canada that are good friends of mine. But, you know, the United States can’t subsidize a country for $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need anything that they give.

We do it because we want to be helpful, but it comes a point when you just can’t do that. You have to run your own country. And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state. We don’t need anything they have. As a state, it would be one of the great states anywhere.

This would be the most incredible country visually. If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it — between Canada and the U.S. Just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago — many, many decades ago — and makes no sense.

It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state, keeping “O Canada,” the national anthem. I love it. I think it’s great. Keep it, but it’ll be for the state. One of our greatest states. Maybe our greatest state.

But why should we subsidize another country for $200 billion? It costs us $200 billion a year. And again, we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We have more than they do. We don’t need anything. We don’t need their cars. I’d much rather make the cars here.

And there’s not a thing that we need. Now, there’ll be a little disruption, but it won’t be very long. But they need us. We really don’t need them. And we have to do this. I’m sorry, we have to do this.

Yes.

Q    Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    — you have made it very clear that NATO needs to step up, although great progress —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    — has been made in your first mandate. How do you envision this new transatlantic —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you talking about NATO stepping up?

Q    Yes.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, NATO is stepping up through this man. This man is a man that only knows how to step up. And we have the same goal in mind: We want the war ended. And he’s doing his job. He only knows how to do a good job. That’s one thing. That’s why I fought for him to get that job —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Thank you so much.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — because they had some other candidates that I’ll tell you would not have done a very good job.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: I need this part of the — of the movie for my family. (Laughter.)

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right. That’s right. We’ll get you a clip.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah. Exactly. (Laughs.)

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to get him a clip of that — of that little last essay. But the rest of the statements he doesn’t care about.

Q    Sir, how does this new transatlantic cooperation — how do you envision it? What is it going to look like?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we have — that’s one thing. I mean, you know, we’re the other side of the ocean, and they’re right there. And yet, we’re in for $350 billion because of Biden, and they’re in for $100 billion. So, it’s a big difference, and it’s unfair.

And I said, “You have to equalize.” They should equalize. They should have — it should have never happened, where Biden just gave his money away.

Now, as you know, we have an agreement with Ukraine on the rare earths and other things, and that’ll get us

something back — a lot back. It’ll get us our money back. We’re not doing it for that, though. We’re doing — I’m just doing this to get the war stopped. I’m doing it, really, to save lives.

But, at the same time, we were treated very unfairly, as we always are by every country. And we’re in for very substantially more than the European nations are in for, and that shouldn’t be.

You know, they’re much more affected by it than we are, because we do have an ocean in between.

But I don’t know. I think good things are going to happen. I really do. I think good things are going to happen.

I do say — we were talking before, and Mark was very nice. He said, “If you wouldn’t get involved, there would be” — you’d just be going on.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: This thing would have gone on for a long time.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Breaking a deadlock. It was crucial.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, we broke a deadlock.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We did break a deadlock. I hope it’s meaningful.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes, did you have one?

Q    Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, please.

Q    Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Amanda Head with Just the News. On the southern border, you’ve got DHS and ICE, who are reporting that there was a little bit of fudging of numbers during the Biden administration —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    — on both the catch and the release side with respect to reporting the number of illegals coming into the country who were released.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They cheated on the numbers. They were — the numbers were — I love that question.

Q    Right.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Who are you with?

Q    Just the News. Amanda Head.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very nice. That’s good. That’s good.

Q    Do you know how many of those are criminal illegal aliens?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Many of them.

Q    And Biden is out of office —

PRESIDENT TRUMP:   Yeah.

Q    — Alejandro Mayorkas. Who gets held accountable?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, Biden fudged the numbers. The numbers were totally fake, and he gave fake numbers. I knew they were fake. Everybody knew they were fake, but now it came out. And terrible what — what they did. That administration was a horror show for this country.

Q    Can you hold anyone accountable?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t know. They gave phony numbers, and phony numbers are a very bad thing to give. But I’m not sure about that. I don’t know how it would play. We want to get it straightened out.

We have — we’re after many, many bad people that were let into our country. And Kristi Noem and my friend Homan — how good is Tom Homan doing, right? And they’re after them. And they — I mean, you see: They’re taking them out in record numbers. Gang members, gang leaders, drug dealers.

This is a problem the Netherlands does not have. The Netherlands never had this problem. If you’d like to take —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: We have a few drug- — drug dealers, I’m afraid. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I could deliver some people. I could deliver some nice people to the Netherlands if you’d like. (Laughter.)

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: I’m not sure. (Laughs.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, what he did to this country, letting 21 million people flow through an open border — many of those people were hard criminals from prisons and jails, from mental institutions, and I always say “insane asylums,” because they were seriously deranged. And they’re here from not South America, from all over the world. From South America, but from all over the world. And it’s so sad.

You’d say, “Why would anybody do this? Why?”

Yeah, go ahead.

Q    And — and one more. There’s some new internal Democrat polling that doesn’t look great for Democrats, but it also has 54 percent unfavorability for Republicans in swing states and battlegrounds for the midterms. Do you consider those voters cap- — capturable for — for Republicans?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, well, we did — you know, I won every swing state, as you know, by a lot, and I won the popular vote by a lot, and we won the counties. If you look at the counties and district plan, we had 2,725, and they had 501. That’s a real — that’s why the map is all red. So, we had a great thing.

Yeah, I think winning from the Democrats — I saw — if you looked the other night, I made a speech, and I introduced two young ladies who were killed. Two killed. Viciously, violently killed. Young. Unbelievable. Both outstanding people. They were killed by illegal aliens. And the Democrats wouldn’t get up and applaud. The mothers were, I mean, inconsolable. They were crying, and everybody was crying. The Democrats sat there with stone faces. They didn’t clap, they didn’t stand, they didn’t do anything.

We had a young man with very serious cancer, wanted to — his dream is to be with the police department someday, and he was introduced.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: That was very touching.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They didn’t even clap.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah, I saw it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean, they were disgusting. Frankly, they were disgusting. There’s something wrong with them. They’re deranged. They’re deranged. Like Jack Smith, they’re deranged people.

And I never saw anything like it. I’m standing up, and I introduce the mother and the parents of these two young girls that were just recently, essentially, killed. Violently killed. And the Democrats are like this. It’s so sad.

And I saw this morning where — one of them is pretty well-known — one is arguing, fighting like crazy over men being able to play in women’s sports. I said, “Yeah, I thought that was tried.” I thought that was about a 95 — I think it’s a 95 percent issue.

But, in a way, I want them to keep doing it, because I don’t think they can win a race. I mean — and I tell the Republicans, I said, “Don’t bring that subject up, because there’s no election right now. But about a week before the election, bring it up, because you can’t lose.”

And everything is “transgender this, transgender that.” You know, they have bad politics.

But one thing: They stick together. You know?

I wish — and the Republicans stick together, mostly, but we have a couple that are grandstanders. You know, you always have grandstanders in life.

But the Democrats, they don’t seem — they have grandstanders, but when it comes to a vote, they do stick together, right?

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: They get in line. Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So.

Q    It seems like they’ll stick together on the shutdown. Will that hurt Democrats going into midterms?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, if they do a shutdown and, ultimately, that might lead to very, very high taxes, because we’re talking about a shutdown. We’re talking about getting to work immediately on the greatest tax bill ever passed. That was the one we did. It’s a renewal, and it’s an addition to it. And we’re going to cut people’s taxes.

And if we don’t open, the Democrats are stopping all of these good things that we’re providing. We’re providing the greatest package of benefits that this country has ever provided.

The biggest part of that’s going to be tax cuts for the middle class and for businesses, small businesses, employers — people that hire people and jobs.

And if it’s shut down, it’s only going to be — if there’s a shutdown, it’s only because of the Democrats, and they would really be taking away a lot from our country and from the people of our country.

Q    Mr. President, on — on tariffs. You made clear you’re not backing down from this, but many American small-business owners say they are concerned that these tariffs are going to hurt them. What’s your message to them?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’re going to be so much richer than they are right now.

And we have many — yesterday, General Motors was in. They want to invest $60 billion. The people from Facebook were in yesterday. They’re going to invest $60 billion by the end of the year. Other people are talking about numbers.

Apple, as you know, a few days ago, announced $500 billion investment. They’re going to build their plants in the United States, which, as you know, almost all of their plants are in China. Now they’re building in the United States.

Look, the reason is two things. Number one, the election. November 5th. And the other thing is tariffs. I think, probably, in that order.

But Tim Cook came in and he announced 500 — think of it, $500 billion, not million. Five hundred million is a lot, when you think about it, right? But —

VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would have been happy with $500 million. But it’s $500 billion investment by Apple in the United States, and that’s because of the election result and it’s because of the tariffs and the tax incentives too. You know, tariffs and tax incentives. And I’ve never seen anything like it.

We have plants going up now in Indiana. We have plants going up in Michigan. A lot of plants going to be planned from — I’m trying to steer them to Michigan, because Michigan got so badly beaten by, you know, what happened with Europe.

You know, if you look at Europe. Take a look at the EU. We’re not allowed to sell cars there. It’s prohibitive because of their policies, and also their nonmonetary tariffs. They put obstacles in your way that you can do nothing about.

But if you take a look at what happens — so, we sell no cars to Europe — I mean, virtually no cars — and they sell millions of cars to us. They don’t take our agriculture. We take their agriculture. It’s like a one-way street with them.

The European Union is very, very nasty.

They sue our companies. Apple was forced to pay $16 billion on a case that — very much like my cases that I won. They shouldn’t have been even cases. But we felt they had no case, and they ended up having an extremely favorable judge and decision.

But they’re suing Google, they’re suing Facebook, they’re suing all of these companies, and they’re taking billions of dollars out of American companies, many more than the ones I just mentioned. And I guess they’re using it to run Europe or something. I don’t know what they’re using it for.

But they treat us very badly. China obviously treats this very badly. Almost everybody does. And I blame past presidents, to be honest.

Because when I was president, I — we received, so far, about $700 billion from China, over the years, on the tariffs that I put in. No other president got 10 cents from China. And that was only beginning. Except for COVID, it would have — I would have been able to finish the process. But we had to fight the COVID thing, and we did really well with it. But we had to fight.

And then we had actually — as you remember, Mark, we actually handed over the stock market. It was higher than just previous to COVID coming in, which was sort of a miracle, frankly. We did a good job.

But the tariffs are very important. And I think the psychology — there’s great spirit. When Mark came in, he said, “Congratulations. There’s a whole new spirit. There’s a whole new light over this country, and really over the world” —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — because you have somebody that — a whole group of people, really, because I talk about this whole group, that we know what we’re doing. And a lot of great things are happening.

But I’ve never seen investment like this. Trillions of dollars is being invested in the United States now that would have never — our country could have failed. Another four years of this, what happened in the last four years, our country would have been a crime-ridden mess.

And I don’t know if you noticed — a little thing, they call it, but it’s not a little thing if you don’t have — if you like eggs and you don’t have a lot of money — eggs have gone down 25 percent in the last couple of weeks. We inherited that problem: eggs.

Groceries have gone down a little bit. Energy has gone down.

Do you want to speak to that for a second, Governor? Would you just say a couple of words, you and Chris, about energy, what’s happened?

SECRETARY BURGUM: Well, happy to, but I think that — Chris and I just came from CERAWeek, which is the largest conference in the world. So, global leaders, people from the EU, officials from all the energy-producing countries all there. And all the global nationals, all the U.S. The — the spirit of that group is through the roof, because now they realize that in the United States, that President Trump’s policies are pro — pro developing more energy, as opposed to we’re trying to shut down energy.

And that pro-growth, pro-business, pro- — pro-energy approach is giving people the optimism. So, then the markets are reacting to that, and energy prices on the futures market are going to go down because people know we’re — we’re not going to be killing off the energy we need for prosperity in all of our countries, but also for peace, because people have used energy to fuel these wars that President Trump is working so hard to end. And — and we — we know that energy — high energy prices were driving the inflation that he talked about.

So, it accomplishes two goals for us — which is prosperity for the world, peace for the world — when we have smart energy policies. And — and President Trump has brought common sense back to how we think about energy.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And it’s brought down now $65 a barrel, I saw this morning. That’s phenomenal news, and that’s going to bring — that’s what brought it up. The energy went — they took our beautiful energy policies and they just messed them up. And then they went immediately back to them, because — but by that time, they lost it. They lost that bronco, as the expression goes.

Chris, do you have something to say?

SECRETARY WRIGHT: I think Doug said it well, but you just can’t overstate how important the return of common sense, the return of knowledge about energy and pro-American consumers, pro investment in our country. I think, globally, that was welcomed. It means capital flows. It means more sobriety and lower energy prices, more economic opportunity for Americans.

So, yeah, it was elated atmosphere at a global energy conference.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re working on one project, and it should be very easy. It’s a pipeline going through a small section of New York. New York has held it up for years, actually. For years they’ve wanted to do it. For years and years. And it will reduce —

The most expensive energy, almost, in the world is in New England, because they have no way of getting it there because it’s been held up by New York. And the whole of New England and Connecticut and New York — the energy prices are through the roof. And this one pipeline will save per family, $2,500 just on heating and another $2,500 on everything else. So, the energy — by just a simple pipeline going through an area that wants it — an area that’s not a rich area; it’s actually a very poor area — would create jobs and everything else.

And it’s going to be way underground. Nobody’s going to see it. Once they fill it up, nobody’s going to see it. Nobody’s going to know it’s there.

And families in New York and Connecticut and New England are going to save $5,000 a family. Think of that. Because, right now, they have the highest energy prices maybe in the world, they say. New England is a disaster.

So, we’re working on that. In fact, the governor is coming in — governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, who’s a very nice woman. She’s coming in tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock to meet me on that and other things — not only that, but other things.

So, I hope we don’t have to use the extraordinary powers of the federal government to get it done, but if we have to, we will. But I don’t think we’ll have to.

I can tell you, Connecticut wants it and all of New England wants it. And who wouldn’t want it? And it’s also jobs on top of everything else. So, that’s going to be very exciting. So, we’re meeting with the governor tomorrow morning.

(Cross-talk.)

Yeah.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President. Greenland. What is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland and getting them, potentially, to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    — to statehood?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think it’ll happen. And I’m just thinking — I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security — not just security, international. We have a lot of our favorite players, you know, cruising around the coast, and we have to be careful. And we’ll be talking to you.

And it’s a very appropriate — really, a very appropriate question.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: It’s an —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — an issue in the high north, so the Arctic. So, what you did —

So, when it comes to Greenland, yes or no, joining the U.S., I would leave that outside, for me, this discussion, because I don’t want to drag NATO in that.

But when it comes to the high north in the Arctic, you are totally right. The Chinese and — are using these routes. We know that the Russians already arming. We know we have a lack of icebreakers. So, the fact that the seven — outside of Russia, there are seven Arctic countries — working together on this, under U.S. leadership — it’s very important to make sure that that region, that that a part of the world stays safe. And — and we know things are changing there, and we have to be there.

Q    Well, they just had an election there the other day. I mean, do you see a referendum, a plebiscite where the people of Greenland would be in a position to decide if they want to become part of the United States?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, it was a good election for us, as you know. It was not a referendum. It wouldn’t be called that. It was an individual election. But the person that did the best is a very good person, as far as we’re concerned. And so, we’ll be talking about it. And it’s very important.

Mark mentioned the word “icebreaker.” So, we’re in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers, and Canada wants to know if they could use them. I said, “Well, you know, you got to pay for them.” Think of it. Canada. We pay for their military. You know, Canada pays very little for their military, because they think we’re going to protect them, but — even with the icebreakers.

So, we’re going to order 48, and Canada wants to be part of the deal. I say, “You got to get your own icebreakers. I mean, if you’re a state, you can be part of the deal, but if you’re a separate country, you’ve got to get your own icebreakers.”

Russia, as you know, has about 40 of them, and we have 1 big icebreaker. But that whole area is becoming very important and for a lot of reasons. The routes are, you know, very direct to Asia, to Russia, and you have ships all over the place. And we have to have protection. So, we’re going to have to make a deal on that.

And Denmark is not able to do that. You know, Denmark is very far away and really has nothing to do.

What happens? A boat landed there 200 years ago or something, and they say they have rights to it. I don’t know if that’s true. I’m not — I don’t think it is, actually.

But we’ve been dealing with Denmark. We’ve been dealing with Greenland. And we have to do it. We really need it for national security. I think that’s why NATO might have to get involved in a way, because we really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important.

You know, we have a couple of bases on Greenland already, and we have quite a few soldiers that — maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. I don’t know.

What do you think about that, Pete? Don’t answer that, Pete. (Laughter.) Don’t answer that question.

But we have bases, and we have quite a few soldiers on Greenland already.

Q    Mr. President, some people question your commitment to NATO. Will everything — anything change?

Your com- — your commitment to NATO, will anything change? Same amount of money?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think they made —

Q    Same number of troops?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — a great step by putting Mark in charge. I think, to me, that’s a great step, because he and I have seen eye to eye on everything for a long time. We’ve been doing this a long time now.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Nine years now.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And so, that’s a great step.

You have to keep NATO strong. You have to keep it relevant.

But the biggest thing we have to worry about right now is what’s going on right now. I think the rest is going to take care of itself.

I don’t see this having — this was a fluke. This was something that if we had a competent president, it would not have happened. The man was grossly incompetent. All you have to do is look in — take a look at — he signs by autopen.

Who was signing all this stuff by autopen? Who would think you signed important documents by autopen? You know, these are major documents you’re signing. You’re proud to sign them. You have your signature on something — in 300 years, they say, “Oh, look.” Can you imagine? Everything was signed by autopen — almost everything. Nobody has ever heard of such a thing.

Q    Do you —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So —

Q    Sorry.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Should have never happened.

Q    You’re speaking tomorrow at the Justice Department about law and order. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, we’re going to be with the Justice Department. We have a great Justice Department. Pam Bondi is so fantastic. And Todd Blanche and Emil — you got to know him a little bit; he was acting for a little while — and some other people are incredible in the Justice Department.

And I consider the FBI to be a part of it, in a sense, and Kash is going to be fantastic, and all the people he’s — Dan Bongino, I love that. I mean, I love that. I think Dan is great.

I think we have unbelievable people. And all I’m going to do is set out my vision. It’s going to be their vision, really, but it’s my ideas. And basically, we don’t want to have crime in the streets. We don’t want to have people pushed into subways and killed, and then the — the person that did the pushing ends up in a 15-year trial and gets off scot-free. We want to have justice, and we want to have safety in our cities, as well as our communities.

And we’ll be talking about immigration. We’ll be talking about a lot of things. Just the complete gamut. So, I look forward to that. That will be tomorrow at the Justice Department.

Q    Mr. President, you are a man of peace. You’ve said it several times and made it very clear. A man of peace dealing with belligerent people.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    And I’m thinking we saw you handled Zelenskyy in this very own room. What is your leverage on Putin? Are you thinking sanctions? What if he refuses to —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I do have leverage, but I don’t want to talk about leverage now, because right now we’re talking to him. And based on the statements he made today, they were pretty positive, I think, so I don’t want to talk about that.

I hope Russia is going to make the deal too. And I think once that deal happens, you’re never going to be in a process. I don’t think they’re going back to shooting again. I really believe if we get a peace treaty, a ceasefire treaty, I think that leads to peace. That’s going to really lead to a —

I don’t think anyone wants to go back. They’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s vicious and violent. And I think if President Putin agrees and does a ceasefire, I think we’re going to be in very good shape to get it done. We want to get it over with. That’s why — it was very important what I instructed everybody, including Steve, what we’re looking for: to discuss concepts of land, concepts of —

MR. WALTZ: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — of power plants because it’s complicated. You know, you have a whole — you’re sort of creating the edge of a country.

The sad part is that country, if they didn’t — if this didn’t happen — and it wouldn’t have happened — I don’t know if they would have to give anything back. I guess Crimea?

You know, I said it last time, Crimea was given by Obama, Biden gave them the whole thing, and Bush gave them Georgia. And Trump didn’t give them anything.

I gave them — you know what I gave them? I gave them Javelins. And the Javelins were very effective, as you know. I gave them nothing —

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: 2019.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And then also, if you take a look, I was the one that stopped the pipeline going into Europe. It was totally stopped: Nord Stream 2. Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 before I came along.

But I got along very well with President Putin. I got along with most of them. I get along great with President Xi. I got along great with Kim Jong Un. I got along great with all of them. And we had no wars. We had no problems. We wiped out ISIS in record time. General “Razin” Kane. And he wiped them out.

And he is going to be our new chief, right? He’s going to be —

SECRETARY HEGSETH: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: — the head of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he’s a highly respected man. He’s going to be great.

Pete is going to be fantastic. I have no doubt about it. We have a great team. A really great team.

Yeah, please. Go ahead, please.

Q    Mr. President, some of our allies have said that they’re worried that they could be the next to be attacked by Russia. You’ve spoken directly with the Russian president.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    Do you think those fears are justified?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t. I think when this gets done, it’s done. They’re going to all want to go home and rest. I don’t see it happening. Nope, I don’t see that happening. And we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen. Not going to happen. But we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen.

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Q    Leaders from Russia and Iran are heading to Beijing tomorrow to discuss nuclear programs. What do you hope to get out of that?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, maybe they’re going to talk about non-nuclear programs. Maybe they’re going to be talking about the de-escalation of nuclear weapons, because, you know, I was talking about that with President Putin very strongly. And we could have done something. Had that election not been rigged, we would have had something. I think I would have made a deal with Putin on de-escalation, denuclearization, as they say. But we would have de-escalated nuclear weapons, because the power of nuclear weapons is so great and so devastating.

And, right now, Russia and us have by far the most, but China will catch us within five years. China doesn’t have — but they’re in the process of building.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And they build. And within four or five years, they’ll probably have the same.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: And, by the way, you — this is a Republican tradition. Ronald Reagan, when he negotiated with Gorbachev —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — in the 1980s —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right.

SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — about bringing down the number of nuclear weapons is what you have been doing your first term. And it is important.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It would be a great achievement if we could bring down the number. We have so many weapons, and the power is so great.

And we — number one, you don’t need them to that extent. And then we’d have to get others, because, as you know, in a smaller way — Kim Jong Un has a lot of nuclear weapons, by the way — a lot — and others do also. You have India. You have Pakistan. You have others that have them, and we’d get them involved.

But we started off with Russia and us. We have, by far — actually, by far, the most. And we were going to denuclearize, and that was going to happen.

And then we were going to China. And I spoke to China. I spoke to President Xi about it. And he really liked the idea. You know, he’d like not to spend trillions of dollars building weapons that, hopefully, he’s never going to have to use. And — because they are very expensive also. So, that would have been great.

Okay, one or two more.

(Cross-talk.)

Yeah, go ahead.

Q    Thank you. We are looking at an impending government shutdown Friday at midnight.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

Q    Democrats, for 30 years straight, have said, if there’s a shutdown, bad things happen. Do you anticipate direct negotiations yourself with conference leader of the Democrats, Chuck Schumer?

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, if they need me, I’m there a hundred percent. It’s — right now, it’s two or three people. If it shuts down, it’s not the Republicans’ fault. You know, we passed a bill where we had an incredible Republican vote. We only had one negative vote, a grandstander. You know, one grandstander. There’s always a grandstander in the lot.

     But it was amazing. People were amazed that the Republicans were able to vote in unison like that so strongly.

     If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault. And I’m hearing a lot of Democrats are going to vote for it, and I hope they do. This is an extension.

     But ultimately, we want to vote for one big, beautiful bill where we put the taxes in, we put everything in. We’re going to have big tax cuts. We’re going to have tremendous incentives for companies coming into our country and employing lots of people.

     It’ll be — I called it, in a rare moment, one big, beautiful bill. That’s what I like. And it seems to be that’s where they’re heading. And we’ll have to take care of something to do with Los Angeles.

     A place called Los Angeles almost burned to the ground. By the way, I broke into Los Angeles. Can you believe it? I had to break in.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah?

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: I invaded Los Angeles. And we opened up the water, and the water is now flowing down. They have so much water, they don’t know what to do. They were sending it out to the Pacific for environmental reasons. Okay? Can you believe it? And in the meantime, they lost 25,000 houses. They lost — and nobody’s ever seen anything like it.

     But we have the water. I’d love to show you a picture. You’ve seen the picture. The water is flowing through the half pipes. You know, we have the big half pipes that go down. Used to — 25 years ago, they used to have plenty of water, but they turned it off for — again, for environmental reasons. Well, I turned it on for environmental reasons and also fire reasons.

     And I’ve been asking them to do that during my first term. I said, “Do it.” I didn’t think anything like — could happen like this, but they didn’t have enough water.

     Now the farmers are going to have water for their land, and the water is in there.

     But I actually had to break in. We broke in to do it because we had people that were afraid to give water.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: They were — in particular, they were trying to protect a certain little fish. And I say, “How do you protect a fish if you don’t have water?” They didn’t have any water, so they’re protecting a fish, and that didn’t work out too well, by the way.

     So, they have a lot of water going down throughout California, all coming out from the Pacific Northwest, even some from Canada.

     Thank you, Canada, very much. I appreciate it.

     Next thing you know, they’ll want to turn the water off. They’ll want to charge us for the water.

     But it comes up from the Pacific Northwest, and it’s a beautiful thing to see. I mean, it is brimming with water.

     Now, if they would have had that done, you wouldn’t have had the damage, because the fire would have been put out. The fire hydrants would have been loaded. The sprinklers in people’s living rooms and bedrooms would have been loaded up with the — they had no water. The government makes them put sprinklers in. They had no water in the sprinklers because they had no water.

     So, the water is flowing, and we’re going to have to give a lot of money to Los Angeles to help them, and the Democrats are going to want to do that. So, that’s the one thing different.

     And I frankly, I think that makes it a lot easier. But one of the big thing is we have the big, beautiful bill. We got to get that done. And that will put our country in a position like it’s never been in.

     It’s a reduction of taxes. It’s tremendous incentives for companies to come from all over the world into our country. It’s great environmentally, but it’s not this environmental scam that we went through — that we all went through. It provides for everything.

     It’s a big, beautiful bill, and I hope we can get it approved. And that will be next.

     But in the meantime, we have the continuing resolution, and the Republicans have approved it, and now the Democrats have to approve it. And I hope they will.

     And I think a lot of them — I can tell you, they want to. I’ve spoken to some of them. They really want to. Their leadership may not want them to. And if it closes, it’s purely on the Democrats.

     All right, one more.

     Q    On Korea, sir. We’ve seen tension increasing in the Peninsula. You’ve talked about Kim Jong Un. Do you have any plans of getting — of reestablishing the relationship you had during the first meeting?

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Well, I would. I had a great relationship with Kim Jong Un, North Korea. If I wasn’t elected, if Hillary got in, you would have had a nuclear war with North Korea. He expected it. He expected it. And they said, “Oh, thousands of people.” No, millions of people would have been killed.

     But I got in. We went to Singapore. We met. We went to — to Vietnam. We met. We got along really good. We had a very good relationship. And we still do. We still do. You don’t have that threat that you had.

     Q    You have talked with — have you talked to him?

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: I mean, look, when I was running the first time, it looked like there was going to be a war with North Korea. You know that better than anyone.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Tensions were high. Yes. Yeah.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP. Yeah. And it started off —

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: And everybody was — was startled that you —

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: — invited him for talks.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: But you did, and it —

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: It started out very rough.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah. Yeah.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: And he wouldn’t meet with Obama. Wouldn’t take his calls. I said, “How many times did you call?” They called a lot. He wouldn’t take their call. He told me, “I wouldn’t take his call.”

     But with me, it did start off rough, if you remember. Very rough, actually. Very nasty. And —

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: That was in Singapore, the first one?

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, but then — no, before that. Then it stopped. The rhetoric was extremely tough. It was a little bit —

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: You had it in your speech at the U.N. I remember. (Laughs.)

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah, that’s right. It was a little bit dangerous.

     And then we met. They asked for a meeting, and then we met. And the meeting caused the Olympics, which was in South Korea, to become a tremendous success. Nobody was buying tickets for the Olympics because they didn’t want to be nuked.

     And I met, and not only did the Olympics become successful, but North Korea participated in the Olympics.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah. His sister visited.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: It was an amazing thing.

     SECRETARY GENERAL RUTTE: Yeah.

     PRESIDENT TRUMP: And that was something that was an achievement of the Trump administration. Great achievement. And so, I have a great relationship with Kim Jong Un. And we’ll see what happens.

     But certainly, he’s a nuclear power.

     Okay? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much.

                                  END            1:20 P.M. EDT

MIL OSI USA News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Ricketts: Strong U.S.-Japan Alliance “Fundamental” to Deterring Communist China, Promoting Economic Prosperity

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator Pete Ricketts (Nebraska)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, highlighted how a strong alliance between the United States and Japan can deter Communist China and promote economic prosperity, including in Nebraska.

“For more than 80 years, the U.S.-Japan alliance has acted as the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” said Ricketts. “With Communist China, Russia, the Korean Peninsula, and the Taiwan Strait all within 200 miles of Japanese soil, our forward deployed presence in Japan is fundamental to deter aggression in the region. This is especially pertinent given Beijing’s dramatic military buildup and increasingly provocative actions, grey-zone activity tactics, saber rattling – all to force our allies and partners to bend to its will. Additionally, the alliance forms the foundation of vital multilateral cooperation, from the Quad to trilaterals to South Korea, Australia and the Philippines. I was pleased to see President Trump and Prime Minister Ishiba commit to ‘pursue a new golden age’ for U.S.-Japan relations when they met in February.”

Ricketts also praised President Trump for deepening the economic ties between Japan and Nebraska.

“Thanks in part to President Trump’s trade deals with Japan during his first term, Japan is one of our largest export markets, and certainly the largest for pork and eggs, our second largest for beef, our third largest for corn and overall ag exports,” said Ricketts. “Japan is also a promising market for grain-based fuels. I was encouraged by Japan’s recent announcement that it intends to blend 10% ethanol in gasoline by 2030, and 20% by 2040. And of course, Japan is positioned to become one of the largest export markets for Sustainable Aviation Fuel that rely on grain-based ethanol as feedstock.”

Watch the video HERE

Ricketts made the comments in a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing considered the nominations of George Glass to be the Ambassador to Japan, Pete Hoekstra to be the Ambassador to Canada, and Ron Johnson to be the Ambassador to Mexico.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Joint statement of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Charlevoix

Source: Government of Canada News

March 14, 2025 – Charlevoix, Quebec – Global Affairs Canada

1. We the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, met in Charlevoix on March 12 to 14, 2025.

Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security

2. We reaffirmed our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence.

3. We welcomed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire, and in particular the meeting on March 11 between the U.S. and Ukraine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We applauded Ukraine’s commitment to an immediate ceasefire, which is an essential step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in line with the Charter of the United Nations.

4. We called for Russia to reciprocate by agreeing to a ceasefire on equal terms and implementing it fully. We discussed imposing further costs on Russia in case such a ceasefire is not agreed, including through further sanctions, caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine, and other means. This includes the use of extraordinary revenues stemming from immobilized Russian Sovereign Assets. We underlined the importance of confidence-building measures under a ceasefire including the release of prisoners of war and detainees—both military and civilian—and the return of Ukrainian children.

5. We emphasized that any ceasefire must be respected and underscored the need for robust and credible security arrangements to ensure that Ukraine can deter and defend against any renewed acts of aggression. We stated that we will continue to coordinate economic and humanitarian support to promote the early recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine, including at the Ukraine Recovery Conference which will take place in Rome on July 10-11, 2025.

6. We condemned the provision to Russia of military assistance by DPRK and Iran, and the provision of weapons and dual-use components by China, a decisive enabler of Russia’s war and of the reconstitution of Russia’s armed forces. We reiterated our intention to continue to take action against such third countries.

7. We expressed alarm about the impacts of the war, especially on civilians and on civilian infrastructure. We discussed the importance of accountability and reaffirmed our commitment to work together to achieve a durable peace and to ensure that Ukraine remains democratic, free, strong and prosperous.

Regional peace and stability in the Middle East

8. We called for the release of all hostages and for the hostages’ remains held by Hamas in Gaza to be returned to their loved ones. We reaffirmed our support for the resumption of unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza and for a permanent ceasefire. We underscored the imperative of a political horizon for the Palestinian people, achieved through a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that meets the legitimate needs and aspirations of both peoples and advances comprehensive Middle East peace, stability and prosperity. We noted serious concern over the growing tensions and hostilities in the West Bank and calls for de-escalation.

9. We recognized Israel’s inherent right to defend itself consistent with international law. We unequivocally condemned Hamas, including for its brutal and unjustified terror attacks on October 7, 2023, and the harm inflicted on the hostages during their captivity and the violation of their dignity through the use of ‘handover ceremonies’ during their release. We reiterated that Hamas can have no role in Gaza’s future and must never again be a threat to Israel. We affirmed our readiness to engage with Arab partners on their proposals to chart a way forward on reconstruction in Gaza and build a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.

10. We expressed our support for the people of Syria and Lebanon, as both countries work towards peaceful and stable political futures. At this critical juncture, we reiterated the importance of Syria’s and Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We called unequivocally for the rejection of terrorism in Syria. We condemned strongly the recent escalation of violence in the coastal regions of Syria, and called for the protection of civilians and for perpetrators of atrocities to be held accountable. We stressed the critical importance of an inclusive and Syrian-led political process. We welcomed the commitment by the Syrian interim government to work with the OPCW in eliminating all remaining chemical weapons.

11. We stressed that Iran is the principal source of regional instability and must never be allowed to develop and acquire a nuclear weapon. We emphasized that Iran must now change course, de-escalate and choose diplomacy. We underscored the threat of Iran’s growing use of arbitrary detention and foreign assassination attempts as a tool of coercion.

Cooperation to increase security and resilience across the Indo-Pacific

12. We reiterated our commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific, based on sovereignty, territorial integrity, peaceful resolution of disputes, fundamental freedoms and human rights.

13. We remain seriously concerned by the situations in the East China Sea as well as the South China Sea and continue to oppose strongly unilateral attempts to change the status quo, in particular by force and coercion. We expressed concern over the increasing use of dangerous maneuvers and water cannons against Philippines and Vietnamese vessels as well as efforts to restrict freedom of navigation and overflight through militarization and coercion in the South China Sea, in violation of international law. We emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We encouraged the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues and reiterated our opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. We also expressed support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in appropriate international organizations.

14. We remain concerned with China’s military build-up and the continued, rapid increase in China’s nuclear weapons arsenal. We called on China to engage in strategic risk reduction discussions and promote stability through transparency.

15. We emphasized that China should not conduct or condone activities aimed at undermining the security and safety of our communities and the integrity of our democratic institutions.16. We expressed concerns about China’s non-market policies and practices that are leading to harmful overcapacity and market distortions. We further called on China to refrain from adopting export control measures that could lead to significant supply chain disruptions. We reiterated that we are not trying to harm China or thwart its economic growth, indeed a growing China that plays by international rules and norms would be of global interest.

16. We demanded that the DPRK abandon all its nuclear weapons and any other weapons of mass destruction as well as ballistic missile programs in accordance with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. We expressed our serious concerns over, and the need to address together, the DPRK’s cryptocurrency thefts. We called on DPRK to resolve the abductions issue immediately.

17. We denounced the brutal repression of the people of Myanmar by the military regime and called for an end to all violence and for unhindered humanitarian access.

Building stability and resilience in Haiti and Venezuela

18. We strongly denounced the ongoing horrifying violence that continues to be perpetrated by gangs in Haiti in their efforts to seize control of the government. We reaffirmed our commitment to helping the Haitian people restore democracy, security and stability, including through support to the Haitian National Police and Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission and an increased role for the UN. We expressed support for Haitian authorities’ efforts to create a specialized anti-corruption jurisdiction that complies with the highest international standards.

19. We reiterated our call for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela in line with the aspirations of the Venezuelan people who peacefully voted on July 28, 2024, for change, the cessation of repression and arbitrary or unjust detentions of peaceful protestors including youth by Nicolas Maduro’s regime, as well as the unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners. We also agreed Venezuelan naval vessels threatening Guyana’s commercial vessels is unacceptable and an infringement of Guyana’s internationally recognized sovereign rights. We reaffirmed respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations as an enduring value.

Supporting lasting peace in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

20. We unequivocally denounced the ongoing fighting and atrocities in Sudan, including sexual violence against women and girls, which have led to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and the spread of famine. We called for the warring parties to protect civilians, cease hostilities, and ensure unhindered humanitarian access, and urged external actors to end their support fueling the conflict.

21. We condemned the Rwanda-backed M23 offensive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the resulting violence, displacement and grave human rights and international humanitarian law violations. This offensive constitutes a flagrant disregard of the territorial integrity of the DRC. We reiterated our call for M23 and the Rwanda Defence Force to withdraw from all controlled areas. We urged all parties to support the mediation led by the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community, to promote accountability for human rights abuses by all armed actors, including M23 and the FDLR, and to commit to a peaceful and negotiated resolution of the conflict, including the meaningful participation of women and youth.

Strengthening sanctions and countering hybrid warfare and sabotage

22. We welcomed efforts to strengthen the Sanctions Working Group focused on listings and enforcement. We also welcomed discussions on the establishment of a Hybrid Warfare and Sabotage Working Group, and of a Latin America Working Group.

MIL OSI Canada News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: G7 Foreign Ministers’ Declaration on Maritime Security and Prosperity

Source: Government of Canada News

March 14, 2025 – Charlevoix, Québec – Global Affairs Canada

1. We, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and the High Representative of the European Union, reaffirm the G7’s steadfast commitment to contribute towards a free, open, and secure maritime domain based on the rule of law that strengthens international security, fosters economic prosperity, and ensures the sustainable use of marine resources.

2. Maritime security and prosperity are fundamental to global stability, economic resilience, and the well-being of all nations, and the conservation and sustainable use of ocean ecosystems is essential to all life on Earth. Over 80% of global trade is transported by sea, and 97% of global data flows through submarine cables. Disruptions to maritime routes pose a direct threat to international food security, critical minerals, energy security, global supply chains, and economic stability. We express deep concern over the growing risks to maritime security, including strategic contestation, threats to freedom of navigation and overflight, and illicit shipping activities. State behaviour in these areas has increased the risk of conflict and environmental damage, and imperils all nations’ prosperity and living standards, especially for the world’s poorest.

3. We recognize the role of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the legal framework for governing all activities in the oceans and the seas.

4. We recall the G7 Statements on Maritime Security adopted in Lübeck (2015) and Hiroshima (2016). We welcome related work presently underway through other G7 ministerial tracks and working groups, on a range of issues including securing undersea cable networks and combating abandoned fishing gear. We welcome, as well, G7 work relating to transnational organized crime and terrorism that touches on the maritime domain, including in relation to piracy and armed robbery at sea, trafficking in persons, and strengthening the maritime law enforcement capabilities of coastal states. We acknowledge the importance of regional maritime security frameworks, to support coastal states to address collectively threats to their maritime security. We welcome existing initiatives, such as the G7++ Friends of the Gulf of Guinea (G7++ FoGG, that Canada chairs this year), which has been the primary forum for dialogue among G7 members and partners on maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.

Emerging Threat on Safe Seas and Freedom of Navigation and Overflight

5. Enhancing Stability: We underscore the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the high seas and the exclusive economic zones as well as to the related rights and freedoms in other maritime zones, including the rights of innocent passage, transit passage and archipelagic sea lanes passage, as provided for under international law. We share a growing concern at recent, unjustifiable efforts to restrict such freedom and to expand jurisdiction through use of force and other forms of coercion, including across the Taiwan Strait, and the South China Sea, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea. We condemn China’s illicit, provocative, coercive and dangerous actions that seek unilaterally to alter the status quo in such a way as to risk undermining the stability of regions, including through land reclamations, and building of outposts, as well as their use for military purpose. In areas pending final delimitation, we underline the importance of coastal states refraining from unilateral actions that cause permanent physical change to the marine environment insofar as such actions jeopardize or hamper the reaching of the final agreement, as well as the importance of making every effort to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature, in those areas. We condemn, as well, dangerous vessel maneuvers, the indiscriminate attacks against commercial vessels and other maritime actions that undermine maritime order based on the rule of law and international law. We reiterate that the award rendered by the Arbitral Tribunal on 12 July 2016 is a significant milestone, which is legally binding upon the parties to those proceedings and a useful basis for peacefully resolving disputes between the parties. We reaffirm that our basic policies on Taiwan remain unchanged and emphasize the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to international security and prosperity. We welcome the resumption of exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Freedom of navigation for commercial shipping in the Black Sea must be upheld.

6. Attempts to Change the Status Quo by Force: We oppose unilateral attempts to change the status quo, in particular by force or coercion including in the East and South China Seas. We undertake to implement means through which to track systematically and report on attempts to change the status quo by force and by the establishment of new geographical facts, including through coercive and dangerous actions on the oceans and seas that might threaten regional and international peace and security.

7. Protecting Critical Maritime and Undersea Infrastructure: We are seized of the fact that vital energy and telecommunications infrastructure under the oceans and seas connects our economies and is vital to our prosperity. We recall the G7 Joint Statement on Cable Connectivity for Secure and Resilient Digital Communications Networks (2024) and the New York Joint Statement on the Security and Resilience of Undersea Cables in a Globally Digitalized World (2024). We share a growing concern that undersea communications cables, subsea interconnectors and other critical undersea infrastructure have been subject to critical damage through sabotage, poor seamanship or irresponsible behaviour which have resulted in potential internet or energy disruption in affected regions, delays in global data transmission, or compromised sensitive communications. We will enhance our cooperation with industry to mitigate risks, reduce bottlenecks to operational tasks while strengthening repair capacities in order to improve the overall resilience of critical undersea and maritime infrastructure. In this respect, we welcome the EU Action Plan on Cable Security adopted in February 2025 by the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

8. Maritime Crime: Maritime crime, including piracy, armed robbery at sea, maritime arms trafficking and sanctions evasion, human trafficking, illegal drug trafficking and Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) fishing, continues to impede maritime security, freedom of navigation, and our economy and prosperity. We have been working together to tackle these maritime crimes, but maritime illegal activities have extended into new areas, to become an urgent issue to be addressed. We welcome the G7 Action Plan to combat migrant smuggling adopted under Italy’s 2024 G7 Presidency.

9. Protecting Freedom of Trade: In the past year, indiscriminate Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have endangered maritime security of vessels and their crews, disturbed international trade, and exposed neighboring countries to environmental hazards. Enabled by Iran’s military, financial, and intelligence support, these illegal attacks have also contributed to increased tension in the Middle East and Yemen, with severe repercussions on the intra-Yemeni peace process. The vessel “Galaxy Leader” seized by the Houthis must be released immediately. We appreciate the efforts of all those countries that have engaged to ensure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, protecting crucial shipping lanes and helping to restore regular flows of trade through the Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In this regard, we commend the efforts of EU’s maritime operation “Aspides” and U.S.-led operation “Prosperity Guardian”.

Safe Shipping and Supply Chain Security

10. Curtailing Unsafe and Illicit Shipping Practices: The rise of unsafe and illicit shipping practices, including fraudulent registration and registries, poses a significant threat to global trade and environmental sustainability. We are concerned that unsafe and illicit shipping imposes heavy costs on industry, governments and citizens. Russia’s ability to earn revenue has been sustained through its extensive effort to circumvent the G7+ oil price cap policy through its shadow fleet of often older, underinsured, and poorly maintained ships that routinely disable their automatic identification systems or engage in “spoofing” to avoid detection and circumvent international safety, environmental, and liability rules and standards. North Korea continues to pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and evade sanctions, particularly through its illicit maritime activities, including prohibited ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum and other UN-banned commodities. Through G7 coordination, we have exposed North Korea uses of “dark” vessels – those that engage in illicit activity – to circumvent United Nations Security Council mandated sanctions. Russia and North Korea are strengthening their economic relations including through maritime routes, such as the reported transfer of petroleum products from Russia to North Korea. Unregulated, “dark” vessels undertake IUU fishing, destroying marine habitats and depleting fish stocks, with negative impacts for biodiversity and food security. Unregulated, inadequately insured “dark” vessels also pose a high risk of maritime accidents, including in fragile ecosystems such as the Arctic and Antarctic. We commit to strengthening our coordination, amongst the G7 and with other partners, to prevent the use of unregistered or fraudulently registered, uninsured and substandard vessels engaged in sanctions evasion, arms transfers, illegal fishing and illicit trade. We encourage relevant International Organizations to improve maritime domain awareness by expanding satellite-based vessel tracking and establishing comprehensive data records of the movement of individual ships and of ship-to-ship transfers, as a means of identifying and tracking illicit maritime activities. We are also committed to capacity building of the countries in the region in law enforcement and Maritime Domain Awareness.

11. Shadow Fleet Task Force: We invite members of the Nordic-Baltic 8 (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden), and possibly others, to join participating G7 members in a Shadow Fleet Task Force to enhance monitoring and detection and to otherwise constrain the use of shadow fleets engaged in illegal, unsafe or environmentally perilous activities, building on the work of others active in this area. The Task Force will constitute a response by the participating States to the call by the International Maritime Organization in its Resolution A.1192(33) of 6 December 2023 for Members States and all relevant stakeholders to promote actions to prevent illegal operations in the maritime sector by shadow fleets and their flag states, including illegal operations for the purposes of circumventing sanctions, evading compliance with safety or environmental regulations, avoiding insurance costs, or engaging in other illegal activities.

12. Enhancing Maritime Supply Chain Resilience and Energy and Food Security: Maritime supply chains will continue to underpin the global economy, but these face a variety of threats, both present and future, stemming from both geopolitical tensions and environmental factors. Maritime disruptions raise consumer costs, increase transit times, and can reduce demand in importing countries, which in turn means lower revenues and diminished competitiveness for producers in exporting countries. Such vulnerabilities in maritime transport can undermine energy and food security, particularly for developing nations reliant on stable shipping routes, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). We welcome maritime initiatives involving and supported by G7 partners intended to promote energy and food security, such as the Grain from Ukraine scheme, and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. We invite cooperation with the African Union (pursuant to Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy 2050) and other relevant International Organizations to identify best practices for enhancing maritime supply chain resilience and for safeguarding energy and food security, including in times of geopolitical crisis.

13. Promoting Safe and Resilient Ports and Strategic Waterways: Port ownership and operational control matter to national security, as foreign control or influence over critical port infrastructure can create vulnerabilities in trade, in defence and security, and in economic stability. Port resilience is also crucial to economic stability and global trade and yet ports face growing risks from environmental degradation, extreme weather events and geopolitical conflicts. Strengthening port security and modernizing infrastructure are essential to maintaining safe and efficient maritime trade. Ensuring that the ownership and management of strategic waterways and key maritime choke points are not vulnerable to undue influence by potential adversaries is also essential to national security. We underscore the importance of scrutiny of ownership structures and port management and resilience within our own national jurisdictions, including with regard to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems, to ensure that adversaries do not gain leverage over supply chains, military operations, or the flow of strategic resources. We will work with partners and with relevant International Organizations to encourage robust cybersecurity standards for port ICT infrastructure, to increase resilience against malicious cyber incidents on maritime logistical networks, to reduce monopolistic power over key supply chain nodes, to promote secure and transparent port ownership, to limit unsolicited or undue foreign influence over critical infrastructures and strategic waterways, and to otherwise encourage greater focus on such potential vulnerabilities.

14. Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) at sea poses a significant hazard to the marine environment, to the safety of fishermen and other users of the maritime space, and to various marine economic activities. We commit to enhancing diplomatic efforts and to exchanging best practices among national authorities, relevant international and regional organizations, and relevant industry sectors to accelerate the clean-up of UXO from the seas and ocean.

Sustainable Stewardship of Maritime Resources

15. Strengthen Enforcement Against IUU Fishing: IUU fishing is a major contributor to declining fish stocks and to marine habitat destruction. It may account for a third of all fishing activity worldwide, at a cost to the global economy of more than US$23 billion per year and with negative consequences for fisheries as an enduring economic asset, including for developing countries. We welcome the Canadian-led Dark Vessel Detection System in Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and would see value in replicating the model to support other partners whose fisheries are under threat from IUU fishing. We recognize that data sharing and transparency play a key role in this fight by exposing bad actors and that technological advances can support a robust Monitoring, Control and Surveillance and enforcement landscape. We encourage further progress in addressing IUU fishing, working with and through relevant International Organizations to establish and strengthen rules to sustainably manage fish stocks on the high seas and to improve the enforcement of these measures, including through the further development of detection technologies, aircraft patrols and high seas boarding and inspection of vessels, building upon the 2022 G7 Ocean Deal.

16. We welcome the Third UN Ocean Conference, in Nice, France, from 9 to 13 June 2025.

PARTNERSHIPS

17. This G7 Maritime Security and Prosperity Declaration provides a framework for cooperation with non-G7 partners, including countries hosting major ports, large merchant fleets, or extensive flag registries as well as relevant regional and International Organizations, such as the International Maritime Organization and ASEAN. We would welcome robust cooperation with partners to take forward the goals set out in this Declaration, consistent with the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity, under the efforts of the G7 countries, including a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific region, to build a free and open maritime order based on the rule of law, and of commitment to the sustainable development of the world’s maritime spaces.

18. We welcome the cooperation on Coast Guard Functions, including the Global Coast Guard Forum hosted by Italy in 2025, as well as the Arctic Coast Guard Forum, which could also support the objectives of this Declaration.

[14] March 2025

Charlevoix, Canada

MIL OSI Canada News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Hickenlooper, Crapo Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill to Establish Space National Guard

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Colorado John Hickenlooper
Legislation would move space-related Air and Army National Guard members under Space Force
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Mike Crapo reintroduced the Space Guard Establishment Act to create a Space National Guard, incorporating current Air National Guard and Army National Guard members performing space-related duties within the Space Force command structure.
“A dedicated Space Force reserve component will make sure our National Guard space experts have a clear path to continue their service to community and country,” said Hickenlooper. “It’s a win-win for service members and our leadership in space!”
“Guardsmen and Reservists are often highly specialized and trained individuals tasked with combatting significant threats from global threats such as China and Russia, and those who work on our space capabilities are no different,” said Crapo. “Establishing a Space National Guard will better prepare and streamline the work of our existing space personnel to maintain readiness to respond to and thwart attacks from our adversaries.”
When the Space Force was established in 2019, active-duty service members responsible for space missions were moved out of the Air Force and placed under the authority of the Space Force. No corresponding change was made to ensure that National Guard members working on space also fall under Space Force authority. The proposed legislation would correct this organizational inconsistency.
“Air National Guard fighter wings operate at 1/3rd the cost of their active-duty counterparts but still provide the same ‘fight-tonight’ capability. By acting as a retention net for talent exiting active duty and serving as a cost-effective model to both develop and retain fighter pilots, the Air National Guard presents the nation with an unrivaled value proposition. Throw in the secondary uses of Air Guardsman domestically such as wildfire mitigation, homeland airspace defense, and manpower for civil support all for a fraction of the cost of an active-duty Wing; the Air Guard’s value proposition truly is unparallelled. By providing 30% of the fighter force, for 1/3rd the cost, Air National Guard fighter wings operate as a shining example of efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars. It’s simple, we provide more for less, without sacrificing capability,” said Major General Clellan.
The Department of the Air Force, Space Force, and the National Guard Bureau have already developed a plan to establish a Space National Guard, but that plan has yet to be implemented. There are more than 1,000 National Guard members performing space-related duties from within the Air National Guard. However, organizational problems consistently arise now that all other space service members fall under the Space Force.
A dedicated National Guard for the Space Force would help talented active-duty Space Force personnel transition to civilian careers, ensuring they are able to continue serving their country as well as their states. This bill would also streamline funding, and allow for better implementation of the mobilization processes, inspection systems, and policies and culture of the Space Force.
The bill would override Legislative Proposal (LP) 480, which moved Air National Guard units with space missions into the U.S. Space Force without obtaining a governor’s consent prior to the transfer.
Hickenlooper led 124 members of Congress in a bipartisan letter urging the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to adopt language in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would preserve the authority of governors to oversee National Guard forces within their states. He also led another letter with 85 other members of Congress opposing the inclusion of LP 480 in the NDAA and joined in support of the National Governors Association Council of Governors calling on the Department of Defense to retract LP 480. In addition, Hickenlooper led 31 of his colleagues in submitting an amendment to the NDAA to permit the transfer only with gubernatorial approval. However, the amendment was not included in the final package for the Senate bill and did not have the opportunity for floor consideration.
The Space Guard Establishment Act is supported by the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) and the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS).
Representatives Crow and Boebert introduced companion legislation in the House.
Full text of the bill is available HERE.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Chairman Wicker, Chairman Rogers Joint Statement on Putin’s Rejection of Immediate Ceasefire with Ukraine

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, R-Ala., Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, today responded to press reports citing Vladimir Putin visiting troops at the Kursk front and comments from the Kremlin that the proposed peace deal with Ukraine is “nothing other than a temporary time-out.”
“President Trump and President Zelenskyy both have shown resolve by working toward an enduring peace, but dictator Putin has once again signaled no interest in that outcome.” Chairman Wicker and Chairman Rogers said. “President Biden failed to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion because Vladimir Putin responds only to strength. Thankfully, President Trump understands this reality. We agree with him that if Putin continues to obstruct an end to the war, the U.S. must impose large-scale sanctions. We must make clear that the costs of continuing the bloodshed will far exceed anything Putin has experienced to date. Toward that end, we applaud the Trump administration’s decision today to end the Biden banking sanctions loophole that allowed for the continued purchase of Russian energy and funded Putin’s war machine. Moreover, until Russia lays down its weapons, Ukraine must continue to receive intelligence and military tools from not only the United States but also our NATO allies.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 15, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: Dual Russian And Israeli National Extradited To The United States For His Role In The LockBit Ransomware Conspiracy
Source: Office of United States Attorneys

NEWARK, N.J. – A dual Russian and Israeli national was extradited to the United States on charges that he was a developer of the LockBit ransomware group, United States Attorney John Giordano announced.

In August, Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel pursuant to a U.S. provisional arrest request. Today, Panev was extradited to the United States and had an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa where Panev was detained pending trial.

“Rostislav Panev’s extradition to the District of New Jersey makes it clear: if you are a member of the LockBit ransomware conspiracy, the United States will find you and bring you to justice,” said United States Attorney John Giordano. “Even as the means and methods of cybercriminals become more sophisticated, my Office and our FBI, Criminal Division, and international law enforcement partners are more committed than ever to prosecuting these criminals.”

“No one is safe from ransomware attacks, from individuals to institutions. Along with our international partners, the FBI continues to leave no stone unturned when it comes to following LockBit’s trail of destruction. We will continue to work tirelessly to prevent actors, such as Panev, from hacking their way to financial gain,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Newark Division Terence G. Reilly.

According to the superseding complaint, documents filed in this and related cases, and statements made in court, Panev acted as a developer of the LockBit ransomware group from its inception in or around 2019 through at least February 2024. During that time, Panev and his LockBit coconspirators grew LockBit into what was, at times, the most active and destructive ransomware group in the world. The LockBit group attacked more than 2,500 victims in at least 120 countries around the world, including 1,800 in the United States. Their victims ranged from individuals and small businesses to multinational corporations, including hospitals, schools, nonprofit organizations, critical infrastructure, and government and law-enforcement agencies. LockBit’s members extracted at least $500 million in ransom payments from their victims and caused billions of dollars in other losses, including lost revenue and costs from incident response and recovery.

LockBit’s members were comprised of “developers,” like Panev, who designed the LockBit malware code and maintained the infrastructure on which LockBit operated. LockBit’s other members, called “affiliates,” carried out LockBit attacks and extorted ransom payments from LockBit victims. LockBit’s developers and affiliates would then split the ransom payments which were extorted from victims.

As alleged in the superseding complaint, at the time of Panev’s arrest in Israel in August, law enforcement discovered on Panev’s computer administrator credentials for an online repository that was hosted on the dark web and stored source code for multiple versions of the LockBit builder, which allowed LockBit’s affiliates to generate custom builds of the LockBit ransomware malware for particular victims. On that repository, law enforcement also discovered source code for LockBit’s StealBit tool, which helped LockBit affiliates exfiltrate data stolen through LockBit attacks. Law enforcement also discovered access credentials for the LockBit control panel, an online dashboard maintained by LockBit developers for LockBit’s affiliates and hosted by those developers on the dark web.

The superseding complaint also alleges that Panev exchanged direct messages through a cybercriminal forum with LockBit’s primary administrator, who, in an indictment unsealed in the District of New Jersey in May, the United States alleged to be Dimitry Yuryevich Khoroshev (Дмитрий Юрьевич Хорошев), also known as LockBitSupp, LockBit, and putinkrab. In those messages, Panev and the LockBit primary administrator discussed work that needed to be done on the LockBit builder and control panel.

Court documents further indicate that, between June 2022 and February 2024, the primary LockBit administrator made a series of transfers of cryptocurrency, laundered through one or more illicit cryptocurrency mixing services, of approximately $10,000 per month to a cryptocurrency wallet owned by Panev. Those transfers amounted to over $230,000 during that period.

In interviews with Israeli authorities following his arrest in August, Panev admitted to having performed coding, development, and consulting work for the LockBit group and to having received regular payments in cryptocurrency for that work, consistent with the transfers identified by U.S. authorities. Among the work that Panev admitted to having completed for the LockBit group was the development of code to disable antivirus software; to deploy malware to multiple computers connected to a victim network; and to print the LockBit ransom note to all printers connected to a victim network. Panev also admitted to having written and maintained LockBit malware code and to having provided technical guidance to the LockBit group.

The LockBit Investigation

The superseding complaint against, and apprehension of, Panev follows a disruption of LockBit ransomware in February 2024 by the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA)’s Cyber Division, which worked in cooperation with the Justice Department, FBI, and other international law enforcement partners. As previously announced by the Department, authorities disrupted LockBit by seizing numerous public-facing websites used by LockBit to connect to the organization’s infrastructure and by seizing control of servers used by LockBit administrators, thereby disrupting the ability of LockBit actors to attack and encrypt networks and extort victims by threatening to publish stolen data. That disruption succeeded in greatly diminishing LockBit’s reputation and its ability to attack further victims, as alleged by documents filed in this case.

The superseding complaint against Panev also follows charges brought in the District of New Jersey against other LockBit members, including its alleged primary creator, developer, and administrator, Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev. An indictment against Khoroshev unsealed in May alleges that Khoroshev began developing LockBit as early as September 2019, continued acting as the group’s administrator through 2024, a role in which Khoroshev recruited new affiliate members, spoke for the group publicly under the alias “LockBitSupp,” and developed and maintained the infrastructure used by affiliates to deploy LockBit attacks. Khoroshev is currently the subject of a reward of up to $10 million through the U.S. Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) Rewards Program, with information accepted through the FBI tip website at www.tips.fbi.gov/.

A total of seven LockBit members have now been charged in the District of New Jersey. Beyond Panev and Khoroshev, other previously charged LockBit defendants include:
- In July, two LockBit affiliate members, Mikhail Vasiliev, also known as Ghostrider, Free, Digitalocean90, Digitalocean99, Digitalwaters99, and Newwave110, and Ruslan Astamirov, also known as BETTERPAY, offtitan, and Eastfarmer, pleaded guilty in the District of New Jersey for their participation in the LockBit ransomware group and admitted deploying multiple LockBit attacks against U.S. and foreign victims. Vasiliev and Astamirov are presently in custody awaiting sentencing.
- In February 2024, in parallel with the disruption operation described above, an indictment was unsealed in the District of New Jersey charging Russian nationals Artur Sungatov and Ivan Kondratyev, also known as Bassterlord, with deploying LockBit against numerous victims throughout the United States, including businesses nationwide in the manufacturing and other industries, as well as victims around the world in the semiconductor and other industries. Sungatov and Kondratyev remain at large.
- In May 2023, two indictments were unsealed in Washington, D.C., and the District of New Jersey charging Mikhail Matveev, also known as Wazawaka, m1x, Boriselcin, and Uhodiransomwar, with using different ransomware variants, including LockBit, to attack numerous victims throughout the United States, including the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department. Matveev remains at large and is currently the subject of a reward of up to $10 million through the U.S. Department of State’s TOC Rewards Program, with information accepted through the FBI tip website at www.tips.fbi.gov/.
The U.S. Department of State’s Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) Rewards Program is offering rewards of:

Information is accepted through the FBI tip website at tips.fbi.gov.

Khoroshev, Matveev, Sungatov, and Kondratyev have also been designated for sanctions by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for their roles in launching cyberattacks.

Victim Assistance

LockBit victims are encouraged to contact the FBI and submit information at www.ic3.gov. As announced by the Department in February, law enforcement, through its disruption efforts, has developed decryption capabilities that may enable hundreds of victims around the world to restore systems encrypted using the LockBit ransomware variant. Submitting information at the IC3 site will enable law enforcement to determine whether affected systems can be successfully decrypted.

LockBit victims are also encouraged to visit www.justice.gov/usao-nj/lockbit for case updates and information regarding their rights under U.S. law, including the right to submit victim impact statements and request restitution, in the criminal litigation against Panev, Astamirov, and Vasiliev.

The FBI Newark Field Office, under the supervision of Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly, is investigating the LockBit ransomware variant. Israel’s Office of the State Attorney, Department of International Affairs, and Israel National Police; France’s Gendarmerie Nationale Cyberspace Command, Paris Prosecution Office — Cyber Division, and judicial authorities at the Tribunal Judiciare of Paris; Europol; Eurojust; the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency; Germany’s Landeskriminalamt Schleswig-Holstein, Bundeskriminalamt, and the Central Cybercrime Department North Rhine-Westphalia; Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice, Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Canton of Zurich, and Zurich Cantonal Police; Spain’s Policia Nacional and Guardia Civil; authorities in Japan; Australian Federal Police; Sweden’s Polismyndighetens; Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Politie Dienst Regionale Recherche Oost-Brabant of the Netherlands; and Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation have provided significant assistance and coordination in these matters and in the LockBit investigation generally.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew M. Trombly, David E. Malagold, and Vinay Limbachia for the District of New Jersey and Trial Attorneys Debra Ireland and Jorge Gonzalez of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) are prosecuting the charges against Panev and the other previously charged LockBit defendants in the District of New Jersey.

The Justice Department’s former Cybercrime Liaison Prosecutor to Eurojust, Office of International Affairs, and National Security Division also provided significant assistance.

Additional details on protecting networks against LockBit ransomware are available at StopRansomware.gov. These include Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Advisories AA23-325A, AA23-165A, and AA23-075A.

The charges and allegations contained in the superseding complaint and above-named Indictments are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

###

Defense counsel: Frank Arleo, Esq.

MIL Security OSI –
March 14, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘We must not normalise the war in Ukraine,’ warns country coordinator

Source: United Nations 2-b

18 December 2024 Peace and Security

On Wednesday UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine Matthias Schmale briefed the press after visiting the war-ravaged eastern Donetsk region, sharing harrowing accounts of human resilience amid the chaos of Russia’s ongoing invasion.

The UN’s top official in the country – who also coordinates all the organization’s humanitarian work there – emphasised the urgent need for peace, justice, and sustained international support.

In October and November alone, over 2,180 civilian deaths and injuries were verified.

The intense fighting has also led to a stream of evacuations, with nearly 40,000 people displaced from frontline areas in the past two months.

Elderly and disabled worst hit

Mr. Schmale highlighted the heightened vulnerability of marginalised groups while recounting meeting two elderly evacuees in Dnipro, who shared their despair after losing everything to the war.

“Understandably, they expressed a pessimistic outlook for a better future,” he noted.

He voiced concerns for people with disabilities as he observed firsthand their plight during a visit to a transit centre.

“I observed how incredibly challenging it is for people with disabilities to cope with the traumas and disruptions caused by the ongoing war,” he underscored.

Resilience in crisis

Amid the devastation, frontline humanitarian workers have continued to serve communities in crisis.

In Donetsk region, doctors and health staff, supported by the World Health Organization, provide essential healthcare in extremely harsh conditions.

However, as Ukraine enters its third winter since the full-scale invasion, below-zero temperatures and systematic attacks on energy infrastructure pose significant risks.

Recent strikes in late November and mid-December caused widespread blackouts, affecting millions and leaving vulnerable populations in high-rise buildings without heating, clean water, or functioning sewage systems.

“The attacks have already severely worsened the dire situation for the most vulnerable populations,” the coordinator warned.

Addressing the winter crisis

The UN’s humanitarian winter response plan aims to address emergency needs, including providing solid fuel, cash assistance, and water system repairs.

However, $500 million is required to fully implement these efforts by March 2025.

Additionally, a broader humanitarian appeal for $2.2 billion is being prepared for 2025 to assist an estimated 12.7 million people.

This includes sustaining early recovery programmes, such as education, while addressing critical emergency needs.

Concluding his statement, the Resident Coordinator delivered a powerful message: “We must not normalise the war in Ukraine.”

“The guns must fall silent and there must be peace with accountability and justice served in full respect of the UN Charter and the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he emphasised.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 9, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Senators Coons, Shaheen, Warner, Reed, Kelly, and Reps. Himes, Smith release joint statement on European Security Announcement

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), ranking member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jack Reed (D-R.I), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee released the following statement about the announcement of a new European security agreement:

“We applaud the bold new steps outlined by our European partners to strengthen their defense and stand with Ukraine on the frontlines of democracy. This historic announcement paves the way for more than $800b in additional defense investments across the continent and shows that the leaders of Europe are clear-eyed about the dangers we face and are willing to rise to the challenge. They understand that a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace rests on strengthening our collective defense and deterrence, particularly in the face of a growing alignment between our adversaries in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

“This announcement also demonstrates Europe’s resolve in working to secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. Ukraine must come to the negotiating table from as strong a position as possible in pursuit of a deal that protects Ukrainian sovereignty, strengthens transatlantic security, and ensures that Putin and his fellow dictators understand that aggression will never triumph over the drive for freedom. Our own nation’s strategy towards Ukraine was driven by that reality. For the past three years, we’ve been helping Ukraine on the battlefield to ensure it has the strongest position at the negotiating table. We know Putin will only stop when we stop him, and Ukrainian troops have been bravely fighting and dying to achieve that goal without putting any of our own servicemembers in harm’s way. That must continue. Now, the Europeans, who have already contributed more to Ukraine’s war effort than we have, have pledged major increases in defense spending and investments and signaled that they will take the lead in crafting a package of security guarantees to give Ukraine the best chance to ensure their security and bring the war to an end. The United States is stronger and safer when we stand with our partners in Europe, and we must continue to do so.”

MIL OSI USA News –

March 9, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: How AI Has Advanced Healthcare & Start-Up Empowers Millions of Farmers | WEF | Top Stories Week

Source: World Economic Forum (video statements)

This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 5 ways AI has advanced healthcare – AI is improving surgery in a number of ways. From building ideal surgical plans for patients to guiding surgeons through tricky procedures.Globally, 4.5 billion people lack access to essential healthcare services. AI could help bridge that gap. Yet healthcare is ‘below average’ in its adoption of AI compared to other industries.

4:42 Start-up empowers millions of farmers – Farmerline is revolutionizing agriculture in Africa with its AI-driven interactive voice response tool, Darli AI. Available in 27 languages, including 20 African languages, Darli serves as a 911 for farmers—providing critical farming insights in a language they understand. Research shows that farmers are 60% more likely to adopt new techniques when information is delivered in their native language.

7:56 Workplace traditions we should rethink – Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and professor at Wharton. Traditional hierarchies can stifle innovation, he says. One ‘no’ from on high can be all it takes to kill an idea. So, instead of a ladder with just one route upwards, what about a corporate lattice?

10:58 Why businesses need geopolitical muscle – Nikolaus Lang is Chair of the BCG Center for Geopolitics. As the world becomes more multipolar, with power centres outside the West in China, Russia, and increasingly the Global South, shifting trade flows are breaking down old alliances, and economic nationalism is on the rise. In this environment, businesses can put on ‘geopolitical muscle’ by focusing on 2 key elements.
_____________________________________________

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiYgYTVwbcM

MIL OSI Video –

March 9, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Murphy: Six Weeks In, This White House Is On Its Way To Being The Most Corrupt In U.S. History
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

[embedded content]

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to expose the unprecedented corruption of the Trump administration’s first six weeks in office. Murphy condemned Trump’s normalization of pay-to-play politics, where billionaire donors dictate policy and taxpayer money is funneled into the pockets of the president, Elon Musk, and the corporate elite.

“In the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption,” Murphy said. “It’s not fundamentally different than what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. And their strategy is to do it all out in the open, to do it at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption – or, maybe more charitably, that this is just how government works, that government is just corrupt, and so the fact that it’s happening out in the open instead of happening secretly, well, it’s really nothing new.”

Murphy laid out more than 20 examples of blatant corruption from just the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, including:
1. The launch of Trump’s meme coin, enabling anyone seeking to influence the administration to privately funnel money directly to the president.
2. The gutting and manipulation of watchdog agencies like the NLRB, CFPB, and OSHA to benefit Elon Musk, the billionaires in Trump’s cabinet, and other elites.
3. The Eric Adams quid pro quo and the weaponization of the DOJ to reinforce a system of political retribution and favoritism.
4. The use of government contracts and stock deals to reward Trump’s allies, enriching them through taxpayer-funded opportunities and further consolidating political power.
“This is how democracies die,” Murphy continued. “Democracies die when the very powerful people steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically, that we come to believe that it’s normal. And listen, I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly, and the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open. And I’m not saying that there haven’t been instances of corruption. Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of, and convicted of, acts of corruption. It has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time. But never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently. And so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up, as a body and as a nation, to say that this isn’t okay.”

He concluded: “The Trump meme coin is not okay. It’s not okay for people who have interest before the federal government to be able to anonymously funnel money to the president of the United States. It’s not okay for Elon Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data, against him or his competitors, that nobody else gets access to. It’s not okay to just cancel contracts that were going to Musk’s competitors and substitute in his own business, just because he has the ability to do it as a friend of Donald Trump. The rule of law matters. Doing things by the rules matter. This level of corruption was not occurring behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all. And it’s our decision, as a body and as a country, to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption.”

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

MURPHY: “Mr. President, I’m a big Boston Red Sox fan. One of the most famous players in Red Sox recent history is Manny Ramirez. Manny Ramirez was a good baseball player, but he had a habit of doing some pretty ridiculous things on the field and off the field that were really detrimental to the team, some really bizarre on-field behavior – cutting off throws from other outfielders before they got to the infield – bizarre off-the-field behavior that disrupted the team. It became so regular that a phrase was adopted among the Red Sox fans: ‘That’s just Manny being Manny.’ Over the years it just was accepted that every year Manny Ramirez was going to do a whole bunch of stuff that was really detrimental to the team. And over time, it just kind of became accepted, that that was a fact of life, a way of life with Manny Ramirez. And as time went on, people reacted less hostilely. It barely got noticed in some cases when he was engaged in these detrimental forms of conduct.

“And I tell that story because it stands for kind of a universal concept: when bad behavior gets normalized, it no longer feels like bad behavior. Even if that behavior is hurting people. Today, the world is littered with corrupt governments, governments where the leaders and the really rich men who surround the leaders – the oligarchs – steal from people. That’s what they do, the leaders and the leaders’ friends just keep a hand constantly in the government treasury and they steal taxpayer dollars. They rig the rules of the economy in order to make themselves fabulously rich. They hurt the citizens of those countries.

“Vladimir Putin, for instance, has never had a job outside of government, but he’s reportedly worth $200 billion. One of his many houses cost $1.4 billion to build, supposedly the landscaping costs on an annual basis for that house are $2 million alone. That $1.4 billion house was paid for by money he stole from the Russian treasury. In other words, he stole it from the Russian people. Putin and his friends have been doing it for so long and doing it so openly and brazenly – Putin, for instance, wears a watch that retails for half a million dollars, even though his official salary is only $140,000. They’ve been doing this so openly and brazenly, they’re so public in their corruption in Russia, that it’s just accepted. It’s just mainstream, the fact that Putin and his cronies steal from the Russian people.

“That’s what’s happening in America today. And it’s heartbreaking for me to say this, but in the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption. It’s not fundamentally different than what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. And their strategy is to do it all out in the open, to do it at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption – or, maybe more charitably, that this is just how government works, that government is just corrupt, and so the fact that it’s happening out in the open instead of happening secretly, well, it’s really nothing new.

“But this is not how government works. The things that have happened over the last six weeks are unprecedented. The president and his billionaire friends are not supposed to steal from us. They are not supposed to use their power and their access to power – their access to government levers – to rig the rules to enrich themselves. That has always been wrong. It is still wrong. And we do not have to accept this.

“And so in the next few minutes, I want to try out an exercise. I want to try to lay out for you as quickly as I can just some of the most significant instances of blatantly corrupt activity that’s happened in just the first six weeks of Trump’s presidency. When you see it all together, there is no way to avoid a simple conclusion. This White House is on its way to being the most corrupt in the history of the country. And just because they are doing it out in the open for everybody to see doesn’t mean that it’s not corrupt.

“My hope is that if you see it all in one place, the gravity of this moment may hit you. My hope is that my colleagues and the public choose not to normalize a president or his advisors using the Oval Office as a blunt mechanism to make themselves even wealthier. It is our decision – our decision – to have zero tolerance for corruption. It’s also our decision to just decide to become a place like Russia where our leaders are allowed to routinely steal from us.

“This is a heartbreakingly long list. This is just 20 or so examples of corrupt behavior in the first six weeks of the Trump presidency. So here it goes. We’re going to start on January 17.

“On January 17, Trump launches the meme coin. This is maybe the most corrupt of all of the acts, because what is the meme coin? The meme coin is essentially a mechanism by which Russian oligarchs or corporate CEO’s can literally send money privately directly to Donald Trump. Nobody knows who buys the meme coin, but Trump makes money when people buy it. And so it is just an open sewer valve that allows for anybody who is trying to influence the Trump administration to be able to secretly funnel money to Donald Trump. He reserves 80% of the coin. He waits to release that coin until the price jumps back up again, which essentially means he’s waiting for people who want favors from him to buy a bunch of the coin to inflate the value so that he releases more and makes more money. It’s a disgusting kind of corruption because this is essentially Trump just posting his Venmo for anybody secretly to wire him as much money as they want. We’ve never seen something like this before where anybody who has anything to gain from the Trump administration, through a manipulation of the value of Trump’s meme coin, can funnel money directly to the president, whisper in his ear, ‘That was me. That was me that purchased all that coin, that jumped up the value that allowed you to release new coin. Hey, take care of me on the back end.’

“On January 20, when he’s sworn in, he institutes his new energy agenda. Now, open reporting suggested that during the campaign he met with the oil and gas industry and they cut a deal in which the oil and gas industry would give him a billion dollars of campaign contributions in order to receive favorable treatment when Trump was sworn in. And guess what happens on January 20? Trump unveils his energy strategy, and what does it do? It preferences oil and gas and it punishes oil and gas’ competitors. It, for instance, freezes all permits on wind projects, both for the land and the sea. It undercuts permitting processes, not for oil and gas but for oil and gas’ competitors. Oil and gas got exactly what they asked for. They gave a campaign contribution and they got the favorable treatment. Five days later, Trump fires 17 inspectors general. What do inspectors general do? They look for corruption inside of these agencies. What do you do if you are trying to engage in corruption, if you are trying to steal from the American people? You fire the inspectors general.

“Two days later, on January 27, Trump fires Gwynne Wilcox from the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board. When she’s fired, the National Labor Relations Board cannot function any longer? Why does this matter? Because the person that’s been put in charge of reviewing the hirings and firings of these agencies is Elon Musk, who, by the way, has lots of cases before the NLRB. So do the people that are standing behind Trump during the inauguration. Almost all of them have active cases before the NLRB. The billionaires supporting Donald Trump now don’t have to worry about the NLRB because on January 27, the NLRB is rendered powerless.

“Three days later, on January 30, Trump awards more than $800,000 worth of stock to several of the board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group. This is the publicly traded company behind his social media platform. So now his Cabinet members – people like Kash Patel and Linda Mcmahon – are owning equity in Trump’s media platform; equity that can be cashed out, sold to people who want to buy them out of their interest at any time. Those people who might want to buy them out, Cabinet members, could be individuals with issues before the Department of Education, before the FBI. Yet another avenue in which people who have influence, who want to gain influence inside the Trump administration, have a conduit to be able to move cash from their pocketbooks, from their treasury, from their bank accounts, into the bank accounts of Trump cabinet members.

“Shortly thereafter, we start to see the weaponization of the DOJ. On February 23, a civil complaint from DOJ that had been pending against SpaceX– Elon Musk’s signature company – is dropped. Eight days later, the DOJ drops a case against a Republican Congressman. On February 19, two or three weeks later, the DOJ opens up something called Operation Whirlwind, which threatens anyone who dares to criticize the work of Elon Musk and DOGE. Over the course of the next three weeks, the DOJ is turned into an entity that drops cases against those who are loyal to Donald Trump and pursues aggressively investigations against those who are trying to criticize Donald Trump.

“On February 1, Trump fires the director of the CFPB and announces plans to shut down – to shutter – the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Again, very much like the NLRB, this is an agency that was, at the moment that it was rendered powerless, investigating Elon Musk and many of the biggest financial backers of Donald Trump. So once again, those that have access to Donald Trump, the billionaires that are close to him, now don’t have to worry about labor violations being investigated by the NLRB, now they don’t have to worry about consumer protection actions being taken against them by the CFPB.

“On February 4, there is the first of two extraordinary meetings in the White House in which Donald Trump convenes his business partners – his business patterns – the Saudi Golf League and the PGA to try to negotiate a solution to the dispute between those two golf leagues. Why? Because Trump has a business interest in that dispute being resolved. The Saudi Golf League plays tournaments at Trump’s courses in the United States, so if the White House, using its official power, can try to negotiate a settlement between those two groups, Trump stands to make money.

“On February 6, something absolutely stunning happens. Pam Bondi, the AG, issues a memorandum in which she proposes to dull the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

If you are representing a foreign government before the United States, you have to register so that we know if you are acting on behalf of American interests or you are acting on behalf of foreign interests. In the prior Trump administration, Trump officials got in big trouble for secretly working for, and getting paid by, foreign governments without registering. Well, what does Trump announce? That they are going to limit the applicability of the enforcement of that statute, making it much easier for Trump’s friends – for his MAGA crowd, for the people who show up to Mar-a-Lago – to get paid quietly by foreign governments in order to influence Donald Trump.

“On February 10, maybe aside from the meme coin, the most stunning act of corruption: the Eric Adams quid pro quo, in which Eric Adams, indicted for corruption, is let off the hook. His charges are dismissed in exchange for the mayor’s pledge of political loyalty to Donald Trump. They literally went on TV and announced the deal that we’re getting rid of the charges against Eric Adams, as long as the mayor pledges political loyalty to the President. That was so corrupt that six or seven DOJ officials resigned, because they refused to withdraw those charges, but the deal went through because the seventh, or the eighth, or the ninth official finally filed the withdrawal.

“And now in America, it is 100% clear that if you want to get away with corruption, if you want to steal from your constituents and you’re an elected official in this country, all you have to do is just sign up for political loyalty with Donald Trump, and he will instruct the Department of Justice to let you get away with it.

“On February 10, Donald Trump directs the DOJ to pause enforcement of U.S. laws that prohibit companies from paying bribes overseas. Come on! Like, come on! He instructs the DOJ to pause enforcement of U.S. laws that prohibit companies to pay bribes overseas. Here’s an example: Goldman Sachs was engaged in outright bribery–they were paying bribes to Malaysian officials, so that they could get a contract to manage the resources of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

“American companies should not be overseas bribing foreign governments. That compromises America’s reputation and America’s national security. But now, we are going to pause enforcement of the laws that stop American companies from bribing foreign governments, because corruption is now being normalized. This is what you do if you want to normalize corruption, is that you make it legal for American companies to engage in corruption overseas. That makes it easier for Trump to get away with corruption here.

“Two days later, on February 12, the announcement comes out that the State Department is going to buy $400 million of armored Teslas. Okay, so now it’s getting even more blatant. It’s getting even more brazen. The State Department is just going to buy a whole bunch of product from Elon Musk, product they were not previously scheduled to buy. It is true that the Biden administration had a blueprint that was going to buy some electric vehicles, but it was around $483,000-worth of vehicles. Trump revises that blueprint of spending so that now the federal government is going to spend $400 million on armored Teslas from Elon Musk.

“Let’s see: that’s February 12. That same day, Elon Musk’s people infiltrate the Department of Labor. And reporting suggests that during that infiltration, Elon Musk’s personal representatives get access to enforcement information at OSHA, not only against Elon Musk’s companies–and by the way, SpaceX has an employee injury rate that is nine times higher than the industry average–but also workplace safety violations against Elon Musk’s competitors. Here’s the message: if you are close to Donald Trump personally, if you support him politically, you can get secret access to enforcement data against your companies and your companies’ competitors. That’s what happens on February 12.

“Three days later, there’s some suspicious firings at the FDA. Again, related to Elon Musk’s personal financial interests. Elon Musk owns a medical device company called Neuralink. It is currently being reviewed by the FDA. And guess what? On February 15 and 16, all over a weekend, there are 20 people fired from the FDA’s Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices. Fired by DOGE, run by Elon Musk. Clear message: you’re going to get fired if you aren’t on the right side of Elon Musk’s application. Now, whether that was explicit or not, if the guy who is firing you has a pending application before your department, aren’t you going to think twice? Aren’t you going to think twice about ruling against his interests? This is why this is all unprecedented. Again, this feels normal because it’s been happening every day. But never before in American history have we allowed someone who has a pending application for approval of a medicine or a medical device to be able to personally decide who gets hired and who gets fired at the regulatory agency making the decision over that medical device.

“But now, this stuff is happening every day. Because on February 15 as well, that same weekend, there’s an announcement that the FDA cuts are going to be even deeper, perhaps as big as 50%. That means that hundreds of drugs and devices won’t get approved at the FDA. And you know who benefits from that? The folks that are selling the snake oil products. And guess who’s selling the snake oil products? The people who work for Donald Trump, selling vita-gummy scams. The Director of the FBI is selling vaccine reversal pills. When the FDA gets gutted, it’s the people who sell those unregulated products who stand to gain.

“On February 19, four days later, we find out that the IRS is going to be cut by 7,000 people. And the biggest chunk of the folks who are going to be laid off are the people who do the audits of the billionaires, and the millionaires, and the corporations. And so once again, Elon Musk and the people standing behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day are going to get off, because the IRS just had its enforcement powers–its audit powers–absolutely gutted.”

“That same day, on February 19, you start to receive word that advertising on Elon Musk’s platform is starting to grow again. And the reporting on February 19 indicates that American companies have come to the collective decision that they need to keep advertising on Elon Musk’s platform, because Elon Musk has so much regulatory power inside the federal government. That they need to make sure they’re paying Musk through Twitter and through X, so that if they ultimately need something from the federal government, they can get it. This, again, is why we have never, ever in the history of this country, allowed for the richest man in the world, somebody who controls major companies, to also have an official position inside the government. Because, of course, of course, it opens up these clear avenues where people are going to do business with him privately to try to curry favor with him publicly.

“I’m not done. It just keeps going. The next day, on February 20, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’s monthly meeting is canceled and not rescheduled. And so we were very worried that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who makes money off of his attacks on vaccines, would continue those attacks when he took over HHS. Because if faith in vaccines continues to plummet, it is very likely that RFK Jr. will make money. Why? Because the not-for-profit that he will likely return to, the company that he will return to after he leaves, makes money as vaccine misinformation spreads, and he also continues to collect fees for referring cases to a company that handles claims of personal injury due to vaccines. And so when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is canceled, it is a clear indication that yes, this campaign of assault on vaccines is going to continue, which, not surprisingly, is likely to make RFK Jr. even more money.

“On February 26, we see Trump’s MAGA hats, that are for sale on his website, displayed in the Oval Office. And it’s just a reminder that so many people inside Trump’s universe continue to sell merchandise on the side in order to make money. Donald Trump has always done this, and we’ve just accepted it, even though it is a kind of corruption in and of itself. But Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, is still selling Kash-branded merchandise even while he’s going to run the FBI. Elon Musk and others are selling DOGE merchandise. So as they trumpet their brand inside the government, they’re making money off their brand outside of the government.

“On February 26, maybe the third-most significant [instance] of brazen corruption happens. News breaks that Elon Musk is just going to have the FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that has been in the works for years, and instead just substitute in Starlink for Verizon. Just extraordinary that this is happening in plain view of everybody. Elon Musk takes his private company, uses his access to government to just shove out of the way his competitors, and instead insert himself and his company. Again, we’ve never seen this ever before in American history, and now it’s happening on a daily basis.

“And now we get to this week. This week, Wired reports that guests are paying millions of dollars to dine with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago, and business leaders are being targeted with advertisements that sell access to a one-on-one meeting with the President of the United States for $5 million. Come on! Like, seriously! There’s advertisements that say if you’re a business CEO and you pay $5 million to Donald Trump, you can get a meeting with him. This isn’t okay! And yet, because it happens every single day, every single day they’re asking for us to pretend that this is normal. This is just six weeks. It’s just six weeks. And the last thing on the list is an offer to meet with the president for $1 million or $5 million. If any previous president had sent out an advertisement suggesting that you can meet with them for a payment to them of $1 million to $5 million, in and of itself we would deem that to be unacceptable. But Donald Trump and Elon Musk believe that because they have arranged this dizzying pace of corruption, in which not a day goes by in which something doesn’t happen inside our government in which Elon Musk or Donald Trump use their power in order to rig the rules to enrich themselves, that we are all going to feel that it’s normal.

“This is how democracies die. Democracies die when the very powerful people steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically, that we come to believe that it’s normal. And listen, I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly, and the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open. And I’m not saying that there haven’t been instances of corruption. Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of, and convicted of, acts of corruption. It has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time. But never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently. And so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up, as a body and as a nation, to say that this isn’t okay.

“The Trump meme coin is not okay. It’s not okay for people who have interest before the federal government to be able to anonymously funnel money to the president of the United States. It’s not okay for Elon Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data, against him or his competitors, that nobody else gets access to. It’s not okay to just cancel contracts that were going to Musk’s competitors and substitute in his own business, just because he has the ability to do it as a friend of Donald Trump. The rule of law matters. Doing things by the rules matter. This level of corruption was not occurring behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all. And it’s our decision, as a body and as a country, to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption. I yield the floor.”
MIL OSI USA News –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Daylight saving time and early school start times cost billions in lost productivity and health care expenses

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, Associate Professor of Neurology, University of Pittsburgh

Daylight saving time kicks in on March 9, 2025, but some say it leads to more heart attacks, depression and car accidents. Lord Henri Voton/E+ via Getty Images

Investigations into the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster revealed that key decision-makers worked on little sleep, raising concerns that fatigue impaired their judgment. Similarly, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in a massive environmental catastrophe. The official investigation revealed the third mate, in charge of steering the ship, was running on too little sleep, among other problems.

While these specific disasters were not caused by daylight saving time, they are conclusively linked to fatigue, based on postaccident investigations and reports. They underscore the well-documented dangers of sleep deprivation and fatigue-related errors. Yet a vast body of research shows that every year, the shift to daylight saving time needlessly exacerbates these risks, disrupting millions of Americans’ sleep and increasing the likelihood of accidents, health issues and fatal errors.

Imagine a world where one simple decision – keeping our clocks aligned with the natural cycle of the Sun – could save lives, prevent accidents and improve mental well-being. It’s not just about an hour of lost sleep; it’s about how small disruptions ripple through our health, our workplaces and even our children’s futures.

I’m a neurologist who specializes in sleep health. I’ve seen firsthand the negative impacts of poor sleep; it has enormous personal and economic consequences.

Yet despite overwhelming research supporting better sleep policies – such as delaying school start times to align with adolescent biology and the adoption of permanent standard time – these issues remain largely overlooked in public policy discussions.

Sleep deprivation comes with real costs

Chronic sleep deprivation does more than leave people tired. It costs an estimated US$411 billion annually in lost productivity and health care costs. Poor sleep leads to workplace mistakes, car accidents and long-term health issues that strain businesses, families and the economy as a whole.

Fortunately, there’s a fix. Smarter sleep policies – such as permanent standard time and later school start times – can boost efficiency, improve health and save lives.

Sleep-deprived teens have lower test scores and graduation rates.
skynesher/E+

Up before dawn

Teenagers are the most sleep-deprived age group in the U.S. Multiple studies and surveys show that anywhere from 71% to 84% of high school students report getting insufficient sleep.

This is largely due to early school start times, which force teens to wake up before their biological clocks are ready. If you have a teenager, you probably see it every day: The teen struggling to wake up before sunrise, rushing out the door without breakfast, then waiting in the dark for the school bus.

More than 80% of public middle and high schools in the U.S. start before 8:30 a.m., with 42% starting before 8 a.m. and 10% before 7:30 a.m. As a result, some districts have bus pickups as early as 5 a.m.

Teenagers are going through a natural shift in their circadian rhythms by about two hours. This shift, driven by hormones and biology, makes it hard for them to fall asleep before around 11 p.m. The bodies of teens aren’t wired for these schedules, yet schools and society have designed a system that forces them to function at their worst.

Declining scores, drowsy driving and depression

Sleep-deprived teens have lower grades and test scores, more car crashes caused by drowsy driving, more alcohol and drug use and higher rates of depression, anxiety suicide and aggressive behavior, including carrying weapons.

Along with the health benefits, studies have found that moving school start times to 8:30 am or later could add $8.6 billion to the economy within two years, partly by increased graduation rates.

While concerns about increased transportation costs exist, such as the need for additional buses or drivers due to staggered school start times, some districts have found that optimizing bus routes can offset expenses, making the change cost-neutral or even cost-saving. For instance, a study in Boston found that reorganizing bus schedules using advanced algorithms reduced the number of buses needed and improved efficiency, which allowed high school students to start later and better align with their natural sleep cycles. This change not only supported adolescent sleep health but also saved the district $5 million annually.

Studies show that daylight saving time does not reduce energy use.

More heart attacks, car wrecks and suicide

Every March, most Americans shift their clocks forward for daylight saving time. Studies show this change disrupts sleep and leads to measurable adverse outcomes, including a significant increase in heart attacks. These effects linger for days after the shift, as sleep-deprived workers struggle to adjust.

The mental health impact is also severe. Suicide rates increase in the weeks following the switch, particularly for those already vulnerable to depression.

Unlike daylight saving time, standard time follows the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which is primarily regulated by exposure to sunlight. Our internal clocks are most stable when morning light exposure occurs early in the day, signaling the body to wake up and regulate key biological functions such as hormone production, alertness and metabolism. In contrast, daylight saving time artificially extends evening light, delaying the body’s release of melatonin and making it harder to fall asleep at a biologically appropriate time.

Studies have found that adopting permanent standard time could prevent up to 5,000 suicides annually by reducing seasonal depression, decrease errors, injuries and absenteeism in the workplace and make roads safer, potentially preventing 1,300 traffic deaths each year.

Times are changing

The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time in 1974. It was so unpopular that Congress repealed it within nine months.

Russia tried it too, in 2011, but switched back three years later. The United Kingdom dropped permanent daylight saving time in 1971 after three years, and Portugal in 1996 after four. All of these countries found that the switch caused widespread public dissatisfaction, health concerns, more morning car accidents and disrupted work schedules. No country is currently on year-round daylight saving time.

These examples provide real-world evidence that permanent DST is undesirable due to public dissatisfaction, safety concerns and negative health effects – all three countries attempted it and ultimately reversed course. Since 2022, there has been renewed debate, largely driven by former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act, which aims to make DST permanent.

However, the name is misleading because it doesn’t “protect” sunshine but rather eliminates critical morning light, which is essential for regulating circadian rhythms. Major health organizations, along with the National Safety Council, strongly oppose permanent DST due to its well-documented risks.

There are signs that suggest the U.S. is finally waking up to these problems. Out of 13,000 school districts, 1,000 have independently adopted later school start times. California and Florida have enacted laws requiring high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. California’s mandate went into effect in 2022, and Florida’s is set to begin in 2026.

Permanent standard time and later school start times are not radical ideas. They’re practical, evidence-based solutions based on human biology. Implementing these changes nationally would require congressional action. However, current federal law already allows states to adopt permanent standard time, as Arizona and Hawaii have done, setting a precedent for the rest of the country.

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

– ref. Daylight saving time and early school start times cost billions in lost productivity and health care expenses – https://theconversation.com/daylight-saving-time-and-early-school-start-times-cost-billions-in-lost-productivity-and-health-care-expenses-248280

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Briefing – EU-UK relations on energy and climate – 07-03-2025

Source: European Parliament

Much of the relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) is set out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which came fully into force in May 2021. The depth and complexity of relations between the EU and the UK following the latter’s withdrawal on 31 January 2020 vary depending on the policy area concerned. For example, the TCA devotes many more articles to energy relations than to climate relations. This is due to a variety of reasons, but can often be partially explained by the depth of previous relationships, as well as physical infrastructure already in place (such as electricity and gas interconnectors between the UK and EU Member States). In the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UK and the EU have increased their coordination, particularly on energy. At the same time, both the EU and UK are moving ahead on energy and climate issues at different paces. Concerns therefore exist that differing regulatory approaches might result in discrepancies that could hamper trade between the EU and the UK. The TCA provisions on energy cooperation will expire on 30 June 2026, unless the UK and EU jointly decide to renew them. In that context, experts have proposed several areas where the parties could renew and deepen their cooperation. This updates an EPRS briefing first published in June 2023.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – German version of Russia Today back on X despite EU sanctions – P-000391/2025(ASW)
Source: European Parliament
German edition of Russia’s leading propaganda outlet, Russia Today (RT), had re-established its presence on X as a part of a broader pro-Kremlin strategy to interfere with Europe’s democratic processes. As of now, the RT Germany account on X has been suspended[1].

Since 1st March 2022, the EU has imposed restrictive measures on RT Germany for its role in systematically spreading disinformation justifying and in support of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Its broadcasting license has been suspended and it is prohibited for operators in the EU to broadcast, enable or facilitate the broadcasting of any content by RT Germany by any means[2].

It is the responsibility of national competent authorities to implement these measures and ensure that any breach is investigated. The Commission closely monitors compliance.

On 18 December 2023, the Commission opened formal proceedings[3] to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA)[4] including in relation to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU and the effectiveness of measures taken to combat information manipulation on the platform.

On 12 July 2024, the platform was informed of the Commission’s preliminary view that it is in breach of the DSA[5]. On 17 January 2025, the Commission addressed further technical investigatory measures to X[6], including a request for access to certain of X’s commercial Application Programming Interfaces, technical interfaces to its content that allow direct fact-finding on content moderation and virality of accounts.

These steps will allow the Commission services to take all relevant facts into account in the complex assessment under the DSA of systemic risks and their mitigation by X.

[1] https://x.com/RTDE_OFFIZIELL

[2] Article 2f(2) of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/350 of 1 March 2022 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine.

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_679

[4] Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act) (Text with EEA relevance).

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_3761

[6] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-addresses-additional-investigatory-measures-x-ongoing-proceedings-under-digital-services
Last updated: 7 March 2025
MIL OSI Europe News –
March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Security in every sector

Source: European Investment Bank

Teresa Ribera, European Commissioner for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, insisted that Europe should stick to its core values, even at a time when the world seems to be in turmoil. “Our values should guide our external and internal policies,” she said.

“Translating our values means people have sustainable and inclusive growth, which is essential for maintaining a healthy environment, job security, social peace and preserving the resilience of our society.”

The social peace and resilience of which Ribera spoke were at the heart of a series of panels on housing, in which all participants acknowledged a crisis in Europe now. EIB President Calviño announced a new action plan that includes €10 billion in investment in the sector over the next two years.

EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen described the challenges facing Europe as interrelated, with high energy prices, climate change, and the threat posed by Russia. “Competitiveness, decarbonization, fighting climate change and becoming independent of Russian fossil fuels is at the core of everything we do right now,” he said.

Jørgensen said that rents in Europe had risen by as much as a quarter over the last 15 years and house prices by a half. One in ten Europeans are spending 40% or more of their disposable income on housing. “But behind these numbers are people, young people forced to put off starting a family, vulnerable people threatened with homelessness, students who cannot take up university places, workers who cannot accept job offers, rural communities facing depopulation, cities unable to retain teachers, nurses or police officers, because they cannot afford to live where they work,” he said. “These people and their stories provide living proof of the housing crisis and the impact it has on Europe.”

The European Commission has established a housing task force to deliver an affordable housing plan early next year. The European Investment Bank’s launch of a pan-European investment platform for housing was central to the Commission’s plans, he said.

Others are already moving against the housing crisis.

Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni described new regulations to cap rents and, by 2028, to eliminate licences to rent apartments to tourists.

Croatia’s state secretary at the Ministry for Regional Development and EU Funds, Zrinka Raguž, laid out the country’s action plan for affordable housing, which includes an end to real estate tax for those aged less than 45, who also pay only 50% of the value-added tax on the property. Other measures include “activating” vacant properties, more affordable housing, easier planning rules, and more student dorms. Croatia’s plan will cost €2 billion before 2030 and will be funded from the national budget, EU loans, and the rent to be paid on the affordable housing.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Briefing – Greenland: Caught in the Arctic geopolitical contest – 07-03-2025

Source: European Parliament

Greenland is a self-governing Arctic island within the Kingdom of Denmark, which strives for economic self-sufficiency and future independence. This representative democracy of 56 542 inhabitants will elect 31 members to Greenland’s Parliament on 11 March 2025. These parliamentary elections are taking place against the fraught background of rising geopolitical tensions. In the context of a heating – literally and figuratively – Arctic, Greenland is a focus of geopolitical competition and growing confrontation between major powers – the United States (US), Russia and China. The island has high strategic importance, due to its proximity to the emerging Arctic shipping routes, its strategic location in relation to security and defence activities, and its vast untapped natural resources, including mineral reserves. According to its foreign policy strategy, Greenland is open to enhanced cooperation and dialogue with partners, including the US. Indeed, the US has been an important ally of Greenland and security guarantor since 1951. Relations have strengthened and widened during the last two decades, with cooperation now encompassing not only security, but also environment, science, health, technology, trade, tourism, education, and culture. However, US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on acquiring Greenland has shocked Greenlanders, Danes and Europeans alike. Upon the island’s withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC, now European Union) in 1985, Greenland became an Overseas Country and Territory, associated through Denmark. The main areas of cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Greenland are fisheries, education, and, lately, green growth. The EU has recently stepped up its engagement with Greenland by opening an office in Nuuk in March 2024 and signing a Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic partnership to develop sustainable raw materials value chains in November 2023. The European Parliament engages with its counterparts from Greenland through meetings with the Nordic Council and West Nordic Council. In October 2021, the European Parliament called for the EU to establish an enhanced political dialogue on bilateral cooperation with Greenland.

MIL OSI Europe News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Amid Evolving Political Reality, Security Council Speakers Urge Breakthrough on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Compliance

Source: United Nations MIL OSI b

The new political reality in Syria presents an opportunity to obtain long-overdue clarifications on the Syrian chemical weapons programme, rid the country of all such weapons and ensure long-term compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.

“The importance of closing all outstanding issues related to Syria’s chemical weapons dossier cannot be overstated,” said Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, during her briefing to the 15-member Council.

Although the previous Syrian authorities submitted 20 amendments to Syria’s initial declaration, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Declaration Assessment Team was never able to confirm that the information was accurate. Over the last 11 years, the Team has raised and reported a total of 26 outstanding issues with Syria’s declaration.

“The OPCW Technical Secretariat has reported that the substance of the 19 outstanding issues remains a ‘serious concern’ as it involves large quantities of potentially undeclared or unverified chemical warfare agents and chemical munitions,” she added.

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission and the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and in several incidents, identified the Syrian Arab Armed Forces as the perpetrators. The OPCW Technical Secretariat has reported that Syria continued to use, and possibly produce, chemical weapons after joining the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013. “The situation left by the previous Syrian authorities is extremely worrying,” she went on to stress.

But, there are some encouraging signs. The OPCW Director-General recently received assurances that the new authorities are committed to destroying any remains of the chemical weapons programme, bringing justice to the victims and ensuring Syria’s compliance with international law. A new focal point for chemical weapons matters within the Syria’s Foreign Ministry travelled to The Hague for in-person meetings with the OPCW Technical Secretariat on how to advance the OPCW’s “Nine-Point Action Plan for Syria”.

In the coming days, a team of experts from the OPCW Technical Secretariat will be deployed to Damascus to establish OPCW’s permanent presence in Syria and start jointly planning deployments to chemical weapons sites. While the commitment of the caretaker authorities in Syria to fully cooperate with the OPCW Technical Secretariat is commendable, the work ahead will not be easy and will require additional resources from the international community. “I urge the members of this Council to unite and show leadership in providing the support that this unprecedented effort will require,” she said.

In the ensuing discussion among Council members, many speakers took note of the developments reported to date, underscoring them as important steps towards implementing relevant Council resolutions and securing Syria’s fulfilment of its international commitments. Several speakers also stressed the importance of ensuring that chemical weapons do not fall into the hands of non-State actors.

Need to Prevent Transfer of Mass Destruction Weapons to Terrorists

“Terrorists cannot be allowed to have access to weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons,” Pakistan’s delegate said. The new Syrian authorities must address long-standing questions and ensure unimpeded access to enable the OPCW to independently and fully verify the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria, he emphasised. China’s delegate also said that effectively resolving the Syrian chemical issue will help prevent chemical weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists. Resolving the issue of Syrian chemical weapons should be a top priority for the international community, he added, warning that the risk of terrorist organizations within Syria expanding their position in the country “remains high”.

Greece’s delegate stressed the importance of “securing chemical weapons-related locations and materials therein, during the [political] transition” in Syria. According to the latest OPCW monthly reports, he noted, no monthly report was received recently from Syria and its authorities have not completed declaring all the chemical weapons it currently possesses, including sarin, sarin precursors and chlorine. The interim Government must work constructively with OPCW to close the 19 outstanding issues, and thus to confirm that it has abandoned the use of chemical weapons and concluded the total destruction of stockpiles.

Several speakers highlighted the plight of the Syrian people, with Slovenia’s delegate emphasizing that Syrian civilians still await justice after 14 years of bloody conflict. “The use of chemical weapons has always resulted in a human tragedy,” she recalled. The representative of Denmark, Council President for March, speaking in her national capacity, stressed the importance of justice for Syrians who were victim to the Assad regime’s horrific chemical attacks. “The toppled regime of Bashar al-Assad had used these inhumane weapons against its own people in at least nine cases documented by independent investigations,” echoed France’s delegate. And for more than 11 years, the Assad regime obstructed the work of OPCW, he recalled.

‘Historic Opportunity’ for Renewed Momentum

“This is an opportunity that must not be squandered,” the representative of Panama stressed, echoing many speakers who also spotlighted this moment as a unique chance for Syria to start fresh. Efforts are being made to rebuild institutions and restore the rule of law. In the same vein, he also echoed several speakers as he expressed concern over increasing clashes and tensions across the country. “We urge all parties to halt this escalation and to prioritize dialog and stability,” he urged.

“We have a historic opportunity to close this dark chapter in history and to start a new one — creating a Syria that is safer for its people and more secure for the region and the world,” said the representative of the United States, underscoring that all elements of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons programme must now be secured, declared and safely destroyed under international verification. This imperative is two-fold: to bring Syria into compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and critically, to ensure that any remaining elements do not end up in the wrong hands, she said. However, “the window of opportunity is short”, she cautioned, highlighting “a tremendously important mission” before OPCW.

The fall of the Assad regime presents “a golden opportunity” to destroy Syria’s remaining chemical weapons programme, said the speaker for the United Kingdom, as he welcomed the commitments already made by the Syrian interim authorities to fully cooperate with OPCW. For things to progress, however, the international community must provide the financial and technical assistance that is required. He also urged Israel to de-escalate their actions in Syria, adding that such military moves risk destabilizing an already fragile situation. The representative of Republic of Korea also called on regional actors to refrain from actions that could impede Syria’s full implementation of its Chemical Weapons Convention obligations. Israel’s air strikes could not only create a risk of contamination, but also lead to the destruction of valuable evidence for investigations related to past use of chemical weapons. “Broader accountability measures must be pursued as part of Syria’s political transition,” he stressed.

Moscow Questions Expert Deployment to Chemical Weapons Sites

The Russian Federation’s delegate stated that his country was instrumental in Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, which placed its chemical arsenal under international control. “On the whole, we support any progress that would help resolve the remaining outstanding issues in Syria’s initial declaration,” he said. However, he expressed doubts about the OPCW’s ability to carry out its technical mandate impartially, citing long-standing concerns over the politicization of its work. Cautioning against the deployment of full-fledged OPCW teams in Syria, he argued that any conclusions such missions might reach “won’t enjoy the trust of the international community”. Given the uncertain conditions in the country, verifying the presence of chemical weapons is “not the top priority for the current authorities,” he said, emphasizing: “We need to understand this and not push ahead with this topic.”

Other speakers commended recent diplomatic progress, with Algeria’s delegate, speaking also for Guyana, Sierra Leone and Somalia, acknowledging the recent engagement between Syria and OPCW and the designation by the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of a new focal point for chemical weapons matters. He commended Qatar’s “instrumental role” as a revitalizing channel for engagement. While recognizing the challenges faced by the Declaration Assessment Team in addressing all outstanding issues, he welcomed the readiness of the new Syrian leadership to inaugurate a new chapter of open and transparent relations with the Organization.

Türkiye’s delegate said that the high-level discussions during this visit of the OPCW Director-General “represent a crucial turning point in establishing direct cooperation between Syria and the OPCW, putting an end to years of stagnation”. Echoing several other speakers, he commended Qatar for temporarily assuming the role of representing Syria’s interests at OPCW, and also called on the Council to take decisive action against Israel’s expansionist and destabilizing acts.

New Foreign Policy, New Phase of Cooperation

For his part, Syria’s representative said his country is “keen to adopt a new foreign policy” grounded in international law, and to honour its obligations under international legal instruments it has acceded to. Accordingly, he reiterated his country’s commitment to cooperate with OPCW and “close this file once and for all”. However, he stressed that Israel’s aggression against several military and civilian facilities in Syria on 9 December 2024 complicates the relevant logistical, technical and practical challenges.

Highlighting “a new phase of cooperation” with OPCW, he requested that Syria’s privileges and rights as a State party — which have been suspended — be restored and collective punitive measures be lifted. “This undermined its efforts to achieve economic development and meet the needs of its people,” he observed, adding that Syria is keen today to eliminate the threat posed by prohibited chemical weapons, promote international peace and stability and “ensure that these atrocities will not occur in the future”.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Almost 84 thousand people have moved from dilapidated housing in the Northwestern Federal District since 2019

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

March 7, 2025

In the Northwestern Federal District, the resettlement of people from houses unfit for habitation continues.

In the Northwestern Federal District, people are being resettled from uninhabitable buildings. Vladimir Putin set the task of reducing the emergency housing stock and improving the living conditions of people living there for the Russian construction industry. Since 2019, when the implementation of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment” began, the subjects of the Northwestern Federal District have resettled 1.5 million square meters of housing recognized as uninhabitable, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported.

“Resettlement of emergency housing is one of the tasks that the Government keeps under special control. We are working on solving this problem together with the regions. Under the national project “Housing and Urban Environment”, almost 84 thousand citizens have been resettled from emergency housing in the district to date. The unsuitable housing stock has been reduced by 1.5 million square meters. The resettlement program not only helps improve the quality of life of thousands of Russians, but also contributes to the renewal of urban development and the creation of a comfortable urban environment. Since 2025, these tasks have been solved within the framework of the new national project “Infrastructure for Life”, – said the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to Marat Khusnullin, in the Northwestern Federal District, the largest number of residents moved from dilapidated housing in the Arkhangelsk Region – 26.1 thousand people, the Leningrad Region – 12.7 thousand people, the Komi Republic – 10.4 thousand people, the Republic of Karelia – 9.4 thousand people and the Vologda Region – 7.1 thousand people.

The General Director of the Territorial Development Fund, Ilshat Shagiakhmetov, noted that many regions are working ahead of schedule, completing assigned tasks in a shorter time frame.

“In addition, it has already become a good tradition that regions connect their mechanisms to solve the problem of resettling emergency housing, create their own resettlement programs. Thus, the subjects of the Northwestern Federal District, at the expense of their budgets, resettled 13.2 thousand people out of the total number. Here we can note the Komi Republic, where the region independently resettled 3.8 thousand people, and the Arkhangelsk Region, where, thanks to the initiative of the subject, almost 3 thousand citizens improved their housing conditions,” said the head of the Territorial Development Fund.

The program for resettling citizens from emergency housing stock is supervised by the Russian Ministry of Construction. Its operator is the Territorial Development Fund.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Financial news: Moscow Exchange roundtable participants discussed equal career opportunities for all

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Moscow Exchange – Moscow Exchange –

March 6, 2025

Moscow Exchange held a round table dedicated to equal career opportunities in public Russian companies.

Representatives of Russian business, consultants and experts in the field of sustainable development and stock exchange infrastructure discussed current issues and best practices of Russian companies aimed at ensuring equal career opportunities, and also assessed their contribution to popularizing the concept of sustainable development in the financial market.

As part of the event, Moscow Exchange presented the results of a study on the disclosure of non-financial information by 65 issuers – companies from the first and second levels of the Moscow Exchange quotation list that issued non-financial reports for 2023. According to the results of the study, 94% of companies disclose general information about the gender and age of employees, gender composition depending on the job level – 82%, but only 51% of issuers disclosed information on initiatives in the field of equal opportunities between men and women.

The event ended with the traditional ringing of the stock exchange bell, which is held in support of international initiatives to ensure equal career opportunities. These days, stock exchanges around the world demonstrate their commitment to these initiatives and draw attention to current issues in this area.

Elena Kuritsyna, Senior Managing Director for Issuer and Government Relations at Moscow Exchange:

“Every year in March, we hold a ceremonial ringing of the stock exchange bell in support of international initiatives to ensure equal career opportunities. This is one of the fundamental principles of the long-term sustainable development program, and the best practices of Russian companies can serve as a starting point for its popularization. Moreover, equal opportunities are a concept that affects each of us, daily influencing our career paths in business, science, sports and other areas of life. In today’s conditions, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of a balanced approach to recruitment and rewarding employees. Its widespread application can have a positive effect on the entire economy and society.”

Moscow Exchange is doing a lot of work with market participants in the field of sustainable development and is demonstrating by its own example the impact of implementing sustainable development principles. In 2025 Moscow Exchange included in updated ESG ranking Russian financial organizations, compiled by the National Rating Agency (NRA). Based on the degree of implementation of sustainable development principles in its strategic and operational activities, the exchange is included in the first, highest group of the ranking.

Moscow Exchange as an issuer adheres to the best practices in the field of non-financial reporting disclosure. In 2024, the fifth sustainability report, and for the first time a climate report has been prepared. The company has environmental policy, which defines the basic principles, objectives and priorities of the exchange’s activities in the field of environmental protection and nature management.

In January 2025, Moscow Exchange presented an updated version of the guide for issuers “How to comply with best sustainability practices”.

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

Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

HTTPS: //VVV. MEEX.K.M.M.

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Financial News: Money Market Funds Are the Main Trend of 2024 in the Retail Mutual Fund Segment

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Central Bank of Russia –

The value of assets under management by the management company in 2024 increased to 26.3 trillion rubles, which is 25.8% more than the value at the end of the previous year.

The main increase in funds was provided by closed-end mutual investment funds (ZPIF). The driver of this market segment in the fourth quarter was individual ZPIFs, and interest in real estate funds also remained.

In the retail segment, almost the entire inflow of funds came from money market exchange-traded funds. Their popularity grew throughout the year, and in the fourth quarter it reached its peak: the net inflow of funds was the highest since the existence of such funds (452 billion rubles). The average weighted return of ruble exchange-traded money market mutual funds for 2024 was 18.1%.

Read more in“Review of key performance indicators of management companies” for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Preview photo: Bangkok Click Studio / Shutterstock / Fotodom

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Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect

HTTPS: //VVV.KBR.ru/Press/Event/? ID = 23437

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Alexander Novak discussed the development of a national model of target conditions for doing business with representatives of federal authorities, regions and business associations

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

March 7, 2025

Alexander Novak, together with Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia Maxim Oreshkin, held a meeting on the development of a national model of target conditions for doing business.

“The President has set national development goals, and one of the key tasks is to ensure that the economy grows at a rate higher than the world average and maintain fourth place in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. To do this, we need to achieve sustainable growth rates and increase the volume of investment in fixed assets by 60%. One of the areas of work to achieve these indicators is the constant improvement of the investment climate. On the instructions of the President, the Ministry of Economic Development, together with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, is developing a national model of target conditions for doing business,” said Alexander Novak.

The national model includes priority areas and target indicators at the federal and regional levels to simplify the launch and operation of a business in Russia.

“The Government is currently developing a plan for structural changes in the Russian economy in order to remove restrictions that prevent rapid growth. Target conditions for doing business are one of the key elements of this work. Our task is to reduce losses, unnecessary steps and ineffective stages along the investment process,” said Maxim Oreshkin.

“The goal of the national model is to solve specific problems of improving the business climate through reforms that businesses need. To measure changes, it is necessary to develop target indicators of efficiency at the federal and regional levels. That is, to determine the criteria for assessing the activities of government bodies in working with businesses. At all stages – from registering a legal entity to entering the international market,” said Maxim Reshetnikov, head of the Ministry of Economic Development.

The Minister noted that the formation and implementation of the national model play a key role in the plan of measures for structural changes in the economy until 2030. The implementation of the model will affect not only the provision of a favorable institutional environment and improvement of the business climate, but also the solution of other strategic tasks. For example, stimulating investment, providing financial resources for economic growth, and developing the labor market.

11 working groups headed by representatives of companies and government bodies are engaged in identifying procedural and process-related difficulties in doing business at various stages of the life cycle of enterprises. The first results have shown that there are both long-standing issues and promising areas for reform.

For example, these are bankruptcy and competition laws, out-of-court settlement mechanisms, issues of labor market flexibility, diversification of business financing sources, and improvement of law enforcement practices in energy infrastructure.

Svetlana Chupsheva, Director General of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, reported on regional indicators of the national model of target conditions for doing business. She focused on the methodology for determining and monitoring target indicators at the regional level.

“At the regional level, it is planned to use 29 key indicators of the National Investment Climate Rating. The average results of 20 leading regions were taken as benchmarks by 2027, and the results of the leading five by 2030. We plan to approve them at the next meeting of the State Council Commission on Investments. Then, together with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia and the regions, we will develop action plans to achieve the set goals,” the head of ASI said.

Federal indicators will be reflected in regional ones for mandatory implementation at the local level. Thus, the rating will remain a tool for measuring the state of the investment climate. And the model will determine where and what problems need to be solved in order to improve the conditions for business operations.

Representatives of regions, business associations and federal agencies also took part in the meeting.

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MIL OSI Russia News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Financial news: 03/07/2025, 17-10 (Moscow time) the values of the upper limit of the price corridor and the range of market risk assessment for the security RU000A0JXSS1 (Akron B1P2) were changed.

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Moscow Exchange – Moscow Exchange –

07.03.2025

17:10

In accordance with the Methodology for determining the risk parameters of the stock market and deposit market of Moscow Exchange PJSC by NCO NCC (JSC), on 07.03.2025, 17-10 (Moscow time), the values of the upper limit of the price corridor (up to 85.42) and the range of market risk assessment (up to 910.84 rubles, equivalent to a rate of 13.75%) of the RU000A0JXSS1 (Akron B1P2) security were changed.

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HTTPS: //VVV. MEEX.K.M.M.

MIL OSI Russia News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Hoeven, Rounds Reintroduce Legislation to Ban Foreign Adversaries from Buying American Farmland and Agricultural Businesses

US Senate News:

Source: United States Senator for North Dakota John Hoeven
03.07.25
WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven this week joined Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) in reintroducing the Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security (PASS) Act, legislation to ban individuals and entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from purchasing agricultural land and businesses located near U.S. military installations or sensitive sites.
“Foreign adversaries are buying up U.S. farmland which is a threat not only to our food security, but our national security. Our legislation will prevent these bad actors from purchasing farmland and agricultural businesses near our strategic assets to better protect our nation from those with malign intentions,” said Hoeven.
The PASS Act is also cosponsored by Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).
In February 2025, President Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) to promote foreign investment while protecting America’s national security interests. In the NSPM, the President specifically mentioned adopting new rules to stop China from “buying up America.”
Specifically, the PASS Act would:
Ban purchases of agricultural land by individuals/entities controlled by North Korea, China, Russia and Iran near military installations and sensitive sites.
Make the Secretary of Agriculture a voting member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for all covered transactions involving the purchase of agricultural land, biotechnology, and any other transaction related to the agriculture industry in the United States.
Give the U.S. Department of Agriculture the ability to refer cases to CFIUS for review if there is reason to believe an agriculture land transaction may raise a national security concern.

MIL OSI USA News –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Video: How Does the EU Help Ukraine?

Source: Council of the European Union (video statements)

How much aid has the EU provided to Ukraine?
With various reports in the news and on social media, let’s clarify the facts:
€135 billion – remember this figure.
Since day one of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the EU and its member states have been Ukraine’s strongest supporters.
In fact, this happens to be the largest aid operation in EU history.
In this video, we’ll show how EU solidarity is helping Ukraine and its people.
At almost €135 billion, the EU’s support is massive.
And it’s more than just military aid – it’s a historic effort to help Ukraine now and prepare it for the future as a member of the European Union.

———————–

Subscribe – www.youtube.com/user/eucouncil

———————–

Follow us:
Instagram – instagram.com/eucouncil
Facebook – facebook.com/eucouncil
X – https://x.com/EUCouncil

To find out more, visit the Council’s web explainer on EU aid to Ukraine : https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-solidarity-ukraine/

Visit our channel for more informative videos – www.youtube.com/user/eucouncil
——————
00:00 – Who’s given Ukraine the most financial support?
00:38 – Military assistance: Strengthening Ukraine’s defense
00:58 – Training Ukrainian soldiers: Strengthening Ukraine’s armed forces
01:08 – Emergency relief: Addressing immediate humanitarian needs
01:28 – Rebuilding Ukraine: Restoring critical infrastructure
01:42 – Economic stability: Keeping Ukraine running
01:59 – Supporting refugees: A safe haven in the EU
02:11 – Russian immobilized assets
02:22 – Preparing Ukraine for EU membership
02:29 – The EU stands with Ukraine
——————

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utSodYS8Ssg

MIL OSI Video –

March 8, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: J.D. Vance has become Trump’s attack dog, but he’s yet to prove himself a worthy successor

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Richard Hargy, Visiting Research Fellow in International Studies, Queen’s University Belfast

The US vice-presidency is famously rather dull and mostly frustrating, according to some of the people who have taken on the role.

“I do not propose to be buried until I am dead,” Daniel Webster is believed to have said, after turning down the vice presidency in 1839. “I would a great deal rather be anything, say professor of history, than vice president,” said Theodore Roosevelt, just before taking the job.

J.D. Vance, the current vice-president, appears to have little intention of sitting back in the shadows while waiting for his chance at the top job. Instead, the former marine turned politician is rapidly turning into Donald Trump’s high-profile attack dog.

His aggressive questioning of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in a televised press conference at the White House on February 28, switched the tone of the whole event from uncomfortable to disastrous.

“Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America … and the president of the United States of America, who is trying to save your country,” Vance said to Zelensky, before pushing the Ukrainian president to respond.

The press conference, which had been set up to sign a US-Ukraine mineral deal, descended into chaos, and ended with Donald Trump deciding that he was not prepared to go ahead, and Zelensky was not ready.

The New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear described the astonishing spectacle of a vice-president inserting himself into a tense diplomatic melee as both a sign of Vance’s “media savvy”, as well as his desire to not be “relegated to the B-team” and a determination not to be in the shadow of Elon Musk.

It also demonstrated Vance’s awareness of something Trump expects from all subordinates: being publicly defended by them.

Steadfast loyalty to Trump is a non-negotiable prerequisite. As Dartmouth College professor, Russell Muirhead, and Harvard professor emerita, Nancy L. Roenblum, have said: “Trump’s problem is not that he requires loyalty to his agenda … It is that he demands personal loyalty.”

Vance understands this, which has been evidenced in acts such as publicly backing Trump’s argument that his executive power should not be challenged by the courts. On X, the vice-president argued that, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

J.D. Vance on his role in the Zelensky press conference.

Tough on allies

On the foreign policy front, the vice-president has also come out fighting, and showing his willingness to be Trump’s rottweiler in all arenas. Last month in Munich Vance used a speech to reprimand the continent’s leaders for stepping away from fundamental values by suppressing free speech.

Vance went on to criticise the US’s European allies some days later when he called out a UK-France plan for European troops to guarantee peace in Ukraine, stating the proposal was unworkable and could not be guaranteed by “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

A key advantage that Vance enjoys over his Republican predecessor, Mike Pence, is that he does not have to navigate between the Republican establishment and Maga factions of the party. Both these worlds have coalesced around Trump. Vance is also considered, like Trump, to be a spokesperson for Maga values.

Where did Vance come from?

Only a few years ago, however, Vance was far from a Trump loyalist. In 2016 he referred to Trump as “cultural heroin” and worried he could be “America’s Hitler”.

Vance, 40, is the third youngest vice-president in US history. In his 2016 best-selling biography, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance told of his difficult upbringing in Ohio and Kentucky as well as offering his own personal insight into the struggles facing impoverished white working-class people. Vance’s memoir made him a coveted analyst during the first Trump administration to explain the president’s appeal to these communities.

Vance appears in lockstep with Trump on almost all foreign policy issues, particularly Ukraine, and his pro-Russia position. Even before his election to the Senate in 2022, Vance had made known his opposition to US aid to the country in support of its military campaign against Russia. In a podcast interview he said, “I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

One area of difference could be with his position on the western military alliance. In his address to the Munich Security Conference Vance said: “I don’t think that we should pull out of NATO, and no, I don’t think that we should abandon Europe. But yes, I think that we should pivot.”

It is unclear if the same can be said of Donald Trump. Germany’s new chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, issued a blunt warning: “We must prepare for the possibility that Donald Trump will no longer uphold NATO’s mutual defence commitment unconditionally”.

John Bolton, a former National Security Advisor to Trump, believes the current commander-in-chief is shifting the goalposts on what he demands from fellow Nato members relating to defence spending and by setting targets that few European states can meet.

In the early weeks of this second Trump administration, Vance has sought to remain a loyal subordinate and someone who will “reinforce (Trump’s) hard-right agenda”, according to Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a research non-profit.

Just over four weeks into his new role, however, Vance has yet to secure the total endorsement from his boss to be his heir apparent. During an interview on Fox News on February 10, when asked if he viewed Vance as his inevitable successor in 2028, Trump responded: “No, but he’s very capable.”

The clearly ambitious Vance knows the next four years could make or break his ability to get the top job, and right now he is betting that his attack-dog status could help win him that role.

Richard Hargy 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. J.D. Vance has become Trump’s attack dog, but he’s yet to prove himself a worthy successor – https://theconversation.com/j-d-vance-has-become-trumps-attack-dog-but-hes-yet-to-prove-himself-a-worthy-successor-250554

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

March 8, 2025

Category: Russian Federation

IMF Communications Department

MEDIA RELATIONS

Jewish history…

…and Jewish stories

The diplomatic convertion of MBS

A friend to Ukraine and Russia

Staging ground for diplomacy

Turning to Tehran

Ukraine’s long-term prosperity and security

Regional peace and stability in the Middle East

Cooperation to increase security and resilience across the Indo-Pacific

Building stability and resilience in Haiti and Venezuela

Supporting lasting peace in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Strengthening sanctions and countering hybrid warfare and sabotage

Elderly and disabled worst hit

Resilience in crisis

Addressing the winter crisis

Sleep deprivation comes with real costs

Up before dawn

Declining scores, drowsy driving and depression

More heart attacks, car wrecks and suicide

Times are changing

Need to Prevent Transfer of Mass Destruction Weapons to Terrorists

‘Historic Opportunity’ for Renewed Momentum

Moscow Questions Expert Deployment to Chemical Weapons Sites

New Foreign Policy, New Phase of Cooperation

Tough on allies

Where did Vance come from?