Category: Science

MIL-OSI Africa: Healthcare in Africa on brink of crisis as US exits WHO and USAid freezes funds: health scholar explains why
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director, African Population and Health Research Center

US president Donald Trump has taken a series of decisions that have delivered body blows to the global management of health. He has announced that the US will leave the World Health Organization. And a 90-day freeze has been placed on money distributed by the US Agency for International Development (USAid) pending a review by the US State Department. This includes funds for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar). The decisions have triggered alarm in the global health sector.

Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center, outlines which countries are most at risk and which health programmes will suffer the most damage.

What does the US exit mean for Africa?

The US exit from the WHO and the freeze announced on USAid funding are devastating moves that will have drastic effects on the health of millions of people in Africa.

The US is by far the WHO’s largest state donor, contributing approximately 18% of the agency’s total funding.

US development aid is used to run large-scale health programmes on the continent. For example, Nigeria received approximately US$600 million in health assistance from the US, over 21% of the 2023 health budget.

The WHO is a global health body that synthesises scientific research and develops guidelines that countries in Africa rely on to shape their own policies and practices.

The biggest loss for Africa under the USAID umbrella will be funding for Pepfar, which is used for HIV-related programmes including prevention, testing and treatment. Through Pepfar, the US government has invested over US$110 billion in the global HIV/Aids response.

Read more: WHO in Africa: three ways the continent stands to lose from Trump’s decision to pull out

What’s going to be lost?

A range of capabilities.

Firstly, technical guidance. The WHO provides technical guidance to countries on issues ranging from TB management to cost-effective malaria control.

Secondly, the ability to mobilise resources. The WHO has the mandate and mechanisms to assemble experts from across the globe to evaluate new therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. They can evaluate new evidence on emerging patterns of new bugs, resistance to current treatments, and so on.

Thirdly, the WHO has tools and mechanisms that have been key to African countries’ health policy decisions. These include:
- the WHO’s list of Essential Medicines to inform decision-making on critical drugs
- a similar mechanism to evaluate new vaccines, resulting in guidance that makes regulatory approval faster and easier in African countries which don’t have strong systems.
Fourth, the WHO also provides resources for emergency response, as in the event of disease outbreaks such as Ebola and COVID-19. The WHO is able to quickly mobilise experts and funds and to coordinate emergency responses.

Fifth, the WHO provides evidence-informed guidelines. It does this by gathering and sharing information like the causes of outbreaks, while monitoring signals of potential outbreaks and coordinating efforts to develop new technologies, such as vaccines and medical devices.

Sixth, the WHO’s ability to support critical programmes in tuberculosis prevention and emergency response will be reduced.

Seventh, the withdrawal of US citizens working in these global agencies – and the orders to stop sharing data – mean the US is essentially excluded from global information-sharing mechanisms that keep us all safe. It will be harder to share information about emerging health threats in the US with the rest of the world and vice versa.

Which countries will be most affected?

Many African countries are heavily reliant on the support provided by Pepfar and USAID to fund programmes in the health sector and for humanitarian assistance.

Countries which will be most affected are those with a high burden of HIV, TB and malaria and those with large populations of refugee and internally displaced people.

Currently the top eight USAid recipients in Africa are: Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Without funds being rapidly mobilised to fill the gap left by the US withdrawal, the effect on the health of millions of Africans is at stake. Failure to prevent new infections, and the threat of drug resistance developing because of disrupted treatment, will have far-reaching consequences.

In Uganda, where about 1.4 million people are living with HIV/Aids, 60% of the spending on its HIV/Aids programme was from Pepfar, and about 20% from the Global Fund (partly funded from Pepfar).

A drastic reduction in funding will be devastating for patients and the greater health system.

The Pepfar programme, a lifeline for millions of Africans, has been under threat since before the most recent aid freeze. In 2024, the American congress only gave a one-year authorisation instead of the typical five-year funding authorisation.

A conservative backlash against this programme has been growing for years with concerns that some funds may be used to fund abortion. The current authorisation expires in March 2025 and falls within the 90-day aid review period. With the current approval expiring next month, and in light of the current atmosphere, it is very likely that it may not be renewed.

Read more: How US policy on abortion affects women in Africa

What steps should African countries be taking?

There has a been a lot of discussion around jobs and lives lost, but not much around what happens next: how African governments are planning on mitigating shortfalls in their health budget in the short term and foreseeable future.

Therefore we need to ask our governments what that means for us and how they are planning to ensure that we do not reverse the gains made so far. This includes preventing millions of HIV infections, improved testing and provision of life-saving antiretroviral treatment.

The sudden and drastic decisions taken by the Trump administration have been hailed by several commentators as the wake-up call the continent needs – to wean itself off dependency on a flawed “development aid” system that is admittedly a tool for geopolitical influence.

Read more: US health funding cuts: what Nigeria stands to lose

The disbelief and chaos in the global health sector should be rapidly mobilised into citizen action, for governments to invest in a critical sector that has depended on foreign assistance for too long. In the absence of sustained investment, the gains in the health sector may be lost, reversing decades of progress in global health.

Lastly, Africans, especially scientists and academics, need to stand up to the worrying anti-science trend that underlies some of these drastic policies. The growing mistrust in science and scientific institutions will not abate unless it is challenged.

It is ridiculous that a continent of 1.3 billion people is reliant on the whims of one man many kilometres away; on his signature on a single document.

The world needs to wake up. We need to wake up.

– Healthcare in Africa on brink of crisis as US exits WHO and USAid freezes funds: health scholar explains why
– https://theconversation.com/healthcare-in-africa-on-brink-of-crisis-as-us-exits-who-and-usaid-freezes-funds-health-scholar-explains-why-248906

MIL OSI Africa –
February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Power vacuum in west Africa’s Sahel: 3 ways China could fill the gap as west exits

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi, Faculty member, Department of Political Science, Lagos State University

With France fast losing its influence in west Africa’s Sahel region and an unpredictable US president in power, will China fill the vacuum?

The Sahel region covers 10 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

French troops have been expelled from three of these – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – after military coups. Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast have also expelled French troops. The troops were there because of the security threat from extremist groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Niger also ended an agreement to keep about 1,000 US troops involved in a counter-terrorism mission. Niger’s military government described the US as having a “condescending attitude”.

While it has been rightly argued that the presence of the western powers did not resolve the security challenges of the region, their withdrawal creates a vacuum.

I am a political science and international relations researcher who has been studying China-Africa relations for over a decade.

I argue that Beijing could take advantage of the vacuum in the Sahel in at least three ways: expansion of investments in critical minerals; resolution of the Ecowas crisis (when Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali exited the regional bloc); and increased arms sales.

This is especially so as China is not new to the Sahel region of west Africa. For instance, China is constructing a US$32 million headquarters for Ecowas in Abuja, Nigeria.

Three ways China could benefit

First, China could expand its influence – and the next four years hold enormous opportunities in this regard.

US president Donald Trump’s likely transactional and unpredictable approach to international relations may force African countries to look to China. For instance, they may need China to help fill the void created by the US decision to dismantle USAID and freeze international development aid.

Nigeria joined Brics as a partner country a few days before the inauguration of Trump. Brics is a group of emerging economies determined to act as a counterweight to the west and to whittle down the influence of global institutions. It was established in 2006 and initially composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This decision by the largest economy in the Sahel is an expression of its commitment to China – with potential implications for other Sahelian countries.

The vacuum offers Beijing the opportunity to strengthen its investment and position as a top beneficiary of the critical minerals, such as gold, copper, lithium and uranium, in the Sahel region.

In 2024, west African gold production was estimated to be 11.83 million ounces. Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Guinea and Mali were the major contributors.

Second, China is in a unique position to push for a resolution of the Ecowas crisis.

Following military coups, the Ecowas regional economic bloc sanctioned Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Ecowas even threatened Niger with a military invasion. The three countries then decided to leave Ecowas to form the Alliance of Sahel States.

As a neutral actor whose non-interference policy accommodates both civil and military regimes, Beijing is in a position to bring Ecowas and the Alliance of Sahel States into negotiation before the final departure date of 29 July 2025.

If it succeeds, China would look more like a peaceful power, an image that is contested by others.

Building on its soft power projects like the Confucius Institutes and scholarships, China would look like the “saviour” of Ecowas integration.

This is what it did in the case of the Tazara railway project, where China supported Tanzania and Zambia to build a railway line together. It supported the African countries when the US and Europe had failed, were reluctant or were not interested.

Third is Chinese arms sales.

Chinese arms are already in the Sahel. In 2019, Nigeria signed a US$152 million contract with the China North Industries Corporation Limited (Norinco) to provide some of the weapons needed to fight the Boko Haram terror group. Since then, Chinese drones and other equipment have become a feature in Nigeria’s counter-terrorism response.

The Chinese arms market could receive a major boost beyond Nigeria with the withdrawal of western countries from the Sahel. Western countries are likely to be reluctant to sell arms to the countries that have evicted their military.

Sanctions on Russia have also increased the likelihood of Chinese arms in the Sahel.

For example, a few months after France and the US left the region, some reports suggested that Russian mercenaries in the Sahel region were using Chinese weapons. Norinco – China’s top arms manufacturer and seventh largest arms supplier in the world – has opened sales offices in Nigeria and Senegal.

In June 2024, Burkina Faso received 100 tanks from China. Three months after, Mali signed an agreement with Norinco to bolster its fight against terrorism.

Bumpy road ahead

China’s non-interference can accommodate both civil and military governments in the Sahel. This is an advantage for Beijing in some ways. But it could also have unexpected impacts.

There are competing local interests in the Sahel and Beijing’s deepening involvement could be (mis)interpreted as supporting one over the other.

This could make Chinese interests a target in the violence.

It is also unclear if China is capable or willing to fill the vacuum created by the evicted western powers. But it looks as though China can benefit from the situation in the Sahel in the short term.

Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi has previously received research funding or travel support from organisations like the KU Leuven, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Social Science Research Council (SSRC), Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Lagos State University, Chatham House (i.e. Robert Bosch Stiftung), Centre for Population and Environmental Development (CPED), Think Tank Initiative, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Coimbra Group Scholarship Programme, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund), Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF), American Council of Learned Societies’ African Humanities Program (ACLS-AHP), Merian Institute of Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), Development Studies Association (DSA) UK, Collective for the Renewal of Africa (CORA), Ford Foundation, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS). However, I must clearly and strongly state that none of these funders have at any time sought to influence or influenced my writings or public engagement. Thus, this article is one of my many expressions of my academic freedom.

– ref. Power vacuum in west Africa’s Sahel: 3 ways China could fill the gap as west exits – https://theconversation.com/power-vacuum-in-west-africas-sahel-3-ways-china-could-fill-the-gap-as-west-exits-248353

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Power vacuum in west Africa’s Sahel: 3 ways China could fill the gap as west exits

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi, Faculty member, Department of Political Science, Lagos State University

With France fast losing its influence in west Africa’s Sahel region and an unpredictable US president in power, will China fill the vacuum?

The Sahel region covers 10 countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal.

French troops have been expelled from three of these – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – after military coups. Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast have also expelled French troops. The troops were there because of the security threat from extremist groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Niger also ended an agreement to keep about 1,000 US troops involved in a counter-terrorism mission. Niger’s military government described the US as having a “condescending attitude”.

While it has been rightly argued that the presence of the western powers did not resolve the security challenges of the region, their withdrawal creates a vacuum.

I am a political science and international relations researcher who has been studying China-Africa relations for over a decade.

I argue that Beijing could take advantage of the vacuum in the Sahel in at least three ways: expansion of investments in critical minerals; resolution of the Ecowas crisis (when Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali exited the regional bloc); and increased arms sales.

This is especially so as China is not new to the Sahel region of west Africa. For instance, China is constructing a US$32 million headquarters for Ecowas in Abuja, Nigeria.

Three ways China could benefit

First, China could expand its influence – and the next four years hold enormous opportunities in this regard.

US president Donald Trump’s likely transactional and unpredictable approach to international relations may force African countries to look to China. For instance, they may need China to help fill the void created by the US decision to dismantle USAID and freeze international development aid.

Nigeria joined Brics as a partner country a few days before the inauguration of Trump. Brics is a group of emerging economies determined to act as a counterweight to the west and to whittle down the influence of global institutions. It was established in 2006 and initially composed of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. This decision by the largest economy in the Sahel is an expression of its commitment to China – with potential implications for other Sahelian countries.

The vacuum offers Beijing the opportunity to strengthen its investment and position as a top beneficiary of the critical minerals, such as gold, copper, lithium and uranium, in the Sahel region.

In 2024, west African gold production was estimated to be 11.83 million ounces. Ghana, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Guinea and Mali were the major contributors.

Second, China is in a unique position to push for a resolution of the Ecowas crisis.

Following military coups, the Ecowas regional economic bloc sanctioned Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Ecowas even threatened Niger with a military invasion. The three countries then decided to leave Ecowas to form the Alliance of Sahel States.

As a neutral actor whose non-interference policy accommodates both civil and military regimes, Beijing is in a position to bring Ecowas and the Alliance of Sahel States into negotiation before the final departure date of 29 July 2025.

If it succeeds, China would look more like a peaceful power, an image that is contested by others.

Building on its soft power projects like the Confucius Institutes and scholarships, China would look like the “saviour” of Ecowas integration.

This is what it did in the case of the Tazara railway project, where China supported Tanzania and Zambia to build a railway line together. It supported the African countries when the US and Europe had failed, were reluctant or were not interested.

Third is Chinese arms sales.

Chinese arms are already in the Sahel. In 2019, Nigeria signed a US$152 million contract with the China North Industries Corporation Limited (Norinco) to provide some of the weapons needed to fight the Boko Haram terror group. Since then, Chinese drones and other equipment have become a feature in Nigeria’s counter-terrorism response.

The Chinese arms market could receive a major boost beyond Nigeria with the withdrawal of western countries from the Sahel. Western countries are likely to be reluctant to sell arms to the countries that have evicted their military.

Sanctions on Russia have also increased the likelihood of Chinese arms in the Sahel.

For example, a few months after France and the US left the region, some reports suggested that Russian mercenaries in the Sahel region were using Chinese weapons. Norinco – China’s top arms manufacturer and seventh largest arms supplier in the world – has opened sales offices in Nigeria and Senegal.

In June 2024, Burkina Faso received 100 tanks from China. Three months after, Mali signed an agreement with Norinco to bolster its fight against terrorism.

Bumpy road ahead

China’s non-interference can accommodate both civil and military governments in the Sahel. This is an advantage for Beijing in some ways. But it could also have unexpected impacts.

There are competing local interests in the Sahel and Beijing’s deepening involvement could be (mis)interpreted as supporting one over the other.

This could make Chinese interests a target in the violence.

It is also unclear if China is capable or willing to fill the vacuum created by the evicted western powers. But it looks as though China can benefit from the situation in the Sahel in the short term.

– Power vacuum in west Africa’s Sahel: 3 ways China could fill the gap as west exits
– https://theconversation.com/power-vacuum-in-west-africas-sahel-3-ways-china-could-fill-the-gap-as-west-exits-248353

MIL OSI Africa –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How the human neck became a locus of power, beauty and frailty

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kent Dunlap, Professor of Biology, Trinity College

Jack Lemmon kisses Lee Remick’s neck in a scene from the 1962 film ‘Days Of Wine And Roses.’ Warner Brothers/Getty Images

I broke its neck.

When making a vase at the potter’s wheel, I torqued its slippery neck clear off the pot as I tried to thin it into a graceful curve.

I find vases gratifying to make and their shapes especially pleasing to the eye. But vases also must be handled with particular care because one part of their “body” – the neck – is often so narrow that it can be easily broken.

That day at the wheel, I realized that it was not unlike the human neck. Though only a small portion of the human body – about 1% by surface area – our necks have an outsize influence on our psyche and culture.

From selfies to formal portraits, the neck positions the head in expressive poses. The neck’s vocal cords vibrate to make meaningful words and moving songs. We passionately kiss it and spritz it with alluring perfume. We use it to nod our head in agreement, tilt our head in confusion and bow our head in prayer.

Ornaments such as necklaces can express fashion sense as well as signal wealth and status. Collars can accent the face in portraits as well as denote occupational class, blue collar versus white collar.

Yet, for all its aesthetic and expressive potency, the neck is also a site of fear and deep vulnerability. Villains and vampires zero in on the neck. Stressful days at work make us clench our neck muscles until they ache. A pleasant meal can be jolted into terror if a morsel slips into the wrong tube in the neck, sending us into a coughing fit.

For millennia, people in power have oppressed their subjects by exploiting the narrowness and fragility of the neck – a dark history of dominating and terrorizing one another using shackles, nooses and guillotines. The widely circulated video of George Floyd’s murder was a brutal reminder that violent asphyxiation is hardly confined to the distant past.

As I became aware of the significance of the neck in culture, I began to explore how these two attributes – its expressive vitality and unnerving vulnerability – could coexist and be concentrated so intensely in one small region of the body. Eventually, it became a book.

I am foremost a biologist, and in writing my book, I came to see that the neck’s vitality and vulnerability are rooted in its biology: The neck performs an especially wide variety of crucial functions, and it is the product of a quirky evolutionary history.

The neck does so many things, all at the same time. For example, it transports over 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of blood, air and food between the head and the torso every single day. It moves the head every six seconds on average to direct our visual attention. Its vocal cords vibrate hundreds of times per second with every spoken word.

But this multifunctionality, this vitality, is possible only because of its vulnerability. To be mobile and flexible, the neck must be narrow, and so it is easily strained. Its crucial transport tubes – the windpipe, esophagus and blood vessels – must also be thin and near the surface, making them easily punctured and compressed.

From water to land

Our vertebrate ancestors “invented” this peculiar contraption as they evolved from water to land.

Our fish ancestors had no neck because they needed a single rigid axis to move efficiently through water. Since moving around on land did not require a stiff spinal column, early terrestrial vertebrates evolved flexibility just behind the head, enabling them to widely scan the environment and to direct their mouths toward prey without moving their whole bodies. Picture a zebra swinging its head side to side surveying the savanna for predators, or a lizard tilting its head down and to the side to snap up a crawling bug.

‘American Flamingo’ by Robert Havell and John James Audubon, 1838.
National Gallery of Art

Early land vertebrates also evolved lungs, and this transformation freed up the gill structures that fish used for breathing to evolve into various useful – and sometimes problematic – neck structures, such as the voice box, tonsils and the little flap that separates the windpipe and esophagus.

This repurposing of scraps left over from the gills of our distant ancestors contributed to the diverse capacities of our neck. But as products of a quirky evolutionary “renovation,” humans and other land vertebrates live with a jerry-rigged design that fates us to carry many collateral vulnerabilities at the neck.

The peculiar human neck

While the human neck retains the basic design of our ancestors, it’s nonetheless quite unusual among vertebrates.

Most land vertebrates elevate their bodies on four legs, so their necks must be long enough to lower their heads to the ground to feed and strong enough to raise it up high to look around. Again, think of a zebra feeding on the savanna.

Because humans walk on two legs, we balance our head atop our spine. Since we use our hands to grab our food, we don’t need strong neck muscles to move the head around. So, compared with most mammals our size, our necks are relatively weak, making them more prone to strain and injury.

As another milestone in human evolution, the voice box migrated to a relatively low position in the neck, and this unusual placement contributes to our capacity to make an especially broad range of vocal sounds that we use for speech. However, this descent of the voice box within the throat also makes us more susceptible to choking and sleep apnea.

The neck epitomizes the dual nature of the human condition, the ways in which beauty and frailty are often entwined, two sides of the same coin in our biology, in our relationships – and, yes, even in ceramic vases.

Kent Dunlap 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. How the human neck became a locus of power, beauty and frailty – https://theconversation.com/how-the-human-neck-became-a-locus-of-power-beauty-and-frailty-238672

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Why the price of your favorite chocolate will continue to rise

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Narcisa Pricope, Professor of Geography and Land Systems Science and Associate Vice President for Research, Mississippi State University

Chocolate prices spiked amid very dry conditions in Africa. Chuck Fishman/Getty Images

Valentine’s Day often conjures images of chocolates and romance. But the crop behind this indulgence faces an existential threat.

Regions like northeastern Brazil, one of the world’s notable cocoa-producing areas, are grappling with increasing aridity – a slow, yet unrelenting drying of the land. Cocoa is made from the beans of the cacao tree, which thrives in humid climates. The crop is struggling in these drying regions, and so are the farmers who grow it.

This is not just Brazil’s story. Across West Africa, where 70% of the world’s cacao is grown, and in the Americas and Southeast Asia, shifting moisture levels threaten the delicate balance required for production. These regions, home to vibrant ecosystems and global breadbaskets that feed the world, are on the frontlines of aridity’s slow but relentless advance.

A farmer in Colombia holds a cacao pod, which holds the key ingredients for chocolate.
©2017CIAT/NeilPalmer, CC BY-NC-SA

Over the past 30 years, more than three-quarters of the Earth’s landmass has become drier. A recent report I helped coordinate for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification found that drylands now cover 41% of global land, an area that expanded by nearly 1.7 million square miles (4.3 million square kilometers) over those three decades — about half the size of Australia.

This creeping dryness is not just a climate phenomenon. It’s a long-term transformation that may be irreversible and that carries devastating consequences for ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods worldwide.

What causes aridity?

Aridity, while often thought of as purely a climate phenomenon, is the result of a complex interplay among human-driven factors. These include greenhouse gas emissions, land use practices and the degradation of critical natural resources, such as soil and biodiversity.

These interconnected forces have been accelerating the transformation of once-productive landscapes into increasingly arid regions, with consequences that ripple across ecosystems and economies.

Greenhouse gas emissions: A global catalyst

Human-induced climate change is the primary driver of rising aridity.

Greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, increase global temperatures. Rising temperatures, in turn, cause moisture to evaporate at a faster rate. This heightened evaporation reduces soil and plant moisture, exacerbating water scarcity – even in regions with moderate rainfall.

Aridity began accelerating globally in the 1950s, and the world has seen a pronounced shift over the past three decades.

This process is particularly stark in regions already prone to dryness, such as Africa’s Sahel region and the Mediterranean. In these areas, reduced precipitation – combined with increased evaporation – creates a feedback loop: Drier soils absorb less heat, leaving the atmosphere warmer and intensifying arid conditions.

The number of people living in dryland regions has been rising in each region in recent years. Years 1971-2020. Scales vary.
UNCCD

Unsustainable land use practices: A hidden accelerator

Aridity is also affected by how people use and manage land.

Unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing and deforestation strip soils of their protective vegetation cover, leaving them vulnerable to erosion. Industrial farming techniques often prioritize short-term yields over long-term sustainability, depleting nutrients and organic matter essential for healthy soils.

For example, in cocoa-producing regions like northeastern Brazil, deforestation to make room for agriculture disrupts local water cycles and exposes soils to degradation. Without vegetation to anchor it, topsoil – critical for plant growth – washes away during rainfall or is blown away by winds, taking with it vital nutrients.

These changes create a vicious cycle: Degraded soils also hold less water and lead to more runoff, reducing the land’s ability to recover.

Aridity can affect the ability to grow many crops. Large parts of the country of Chad, shown here, have drying lands.
United Nations Chad, CC BY-NC-SA

The soil-biodiversity connection

Soil, often overlooked in discussions of climate resilience, plays a critical role in mitigating aridity.

Healthy soils act as reservoirs, storing water and nutrients that plants depend on. They also support biodiversity below and above ground. A single teaspoon of soil contains billions of microorganisms that help cycle nutrients and maintain ecological balance.

However, as soils degrade under aridity and mismanagement, this biodiversity diminishes. Microbial communities, essential for nutrient cycling and plant health, decline. When soils become compacted and lose organic matter, the land’s ability to retain water diminishes, making it even more susceptible to drying out.

In short, the loss of soil health creates cascading effects that undermine ecosystems, agricultural productivity and food security.

Global hot spots: Looming food security crises

Cocoa is just one crop affected by the encroachment of rising aridity.

Other key agricultural zones, including the breadbaskets of the world, are also at risk. In the Mediterranean, Africa’s Sahel and parts of the U.S. West, aridity already undermines farming and biodiversity.

By 2100, up to 5 billion people could live in drylands – nearly double the current population in these areas, due to both population growth and expansion of drylands as the planet warms. This puts immense pressure on food systems. It can also accelerate migration as declining agricultural productivity, water scarcity and worsening living conditions force rural populations to move in search of opportunities.

A map shows average aridity for 1981-2010. Computer simulations estimate that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities caused a 1.2% larger increase in the four types of dry regions combined for the periods between 1850 and 1981–2010 than simulations with only solar and volcanic effects considered.
UNCCD

Aridity’s ripple effects also extend far beyond agriculture. Ecosystems, already strained by deforestation and pollution, are stressed as water resources dwindle. Wildlife migrates or dies, and plant species adapted to moister conditions can’t survive. The Sahel’s delicate grasslands, for instance, are rapidly giving way to desert shrubs.

On a global scale, economic losses linked to aridification are staggering. In Africa, rising aridity contributed to a 12% drop in gross domestic product from 1990 to 2015. Sandstorms and dust storms, wildfires and water scarcity further burden governments, exacerbating poverty and health crises in the most affected regions.

The path forward

Aridity is not inevitable, nor are its effects completely irreversible. But coordinated global efforts are essential to curb its progression.

Countries can work together to restore degraded lands by protecting and restoring ecosystems, improving soil health and encouraging sustainable farming methods.

Communities can manage water more efficiently through rainwater harvesting and advanced irrigation systems that optimize water use. Governments can reduce the drivers of climate change by investing in renewable energy.

Continued international collaboration, including working with businesses, can help share technologies to make these actions more effective and available worldwide.

So, as you savor chocolate this Valentine’s Day, remember the fragile ecosystems behind it. The price of cocoa in early 2025 was near its all-time high, due in part to dry conditions in Africa. Without urgent action to address aridity, this scenario may become more common, and cocoa – and the sweet concoctions derived from it – may well become a rare luxury.

Collective action against aridity isn’t just about saving chocolate – it’s about preserving the planet’s capacity to sustain life.

Narcisa Pricope is a member of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Science-Policy Interface, which works to translate scientific findings and assessments into policy-relevant recommendations, including collaboration with different scientific panels and bodies.

– ref. Why the price of your favorite chocolate will continue to rise – https://theconversation.com/why-the-price-of-your-favorite-chocolate-will-continue-to-rise-246227

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: 5 premium online research tools all Philly students can use for free

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joyce Valenza, Associate Teaching Professor of Library and Information Science, Rutgers University

The School District of Philadelphia has 250 district and alternative schools – but only a few have libraries with certified librarians. Lisa5201/E+ Collection via Getty Images

Years ago, as a high school librarian in suburban Philadelphia, I hosted a group of honors students from a high school just across the nearby city border. With the support of their alumni association, the city students planned to build a library at their school.

While our 30,000-volume physical collection impressed them, it was our virtual library, websites designed to support student projects, and subscription-based digital collections and databases that evoked the most profound reaction.

When I asked the students what they were researching, in unison, they responded “Hamlet criticism.” When I showed them results from an e-book database from the POWER Library web portal, I heard gasps.

One young man pulled a dog-eared book out from his backpack. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Do you mean that we’ve been passing this single book around when all of those e-books are available to us free?”

His parting words haunted me: “We will never be able to compete with those students when we go to college.”

As a library and information science professor, and a librarian for 40 years, I have researched information equity disparities among high school students and witnessed them firsthand.

Consider, for example, this startling figure: The School District of Philadelphia has just four certified librarians for its nearly 118,000 students across 250 schools. The district confirmed this number in an email to The Conversation U.S.

Many of the nearby suburban districts that border Philadelphia, such as Lower Merion, Abington, Upper Darby, Haverford Township and Springfield Township, where I worked, have at least one librarian per school.

Philadelphia’s school district is making efforts to address the librarian shortage. In late 2024, it hired a director of library science, Jean Darnell, who plans to add more libraries and librarians to district schools. But she cautions that it will require financial resources to do so.

Information privilege

The gap discovered by the students I hosted that day wasn’t just about one book versus many. It was about not having the same high-quality, paywalled tools for research, and the guidance of trained librarians to help them navigate the research process.

Information science researchers refer to this gap as information privilege.

Inspired by education activist and researcher Peggy McIntosh’s 1989 essay “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Duke University librarian Hannah Rozear designed a graphic to illustrate what information privilege looks like for high school and college students.

Duke University librarian Hannah Rozear offers examples of what information privilege looks like for high school and college students.
Hannah Rozear, CC BY-NC-SA

As part of my work on an information equity initiative for the International Society for Technology in Education, I enhanced the diagram. I wanted to expand the notion of equity of information access and equity of information experiences in K-12 education.

The author expanded the Information Privilege backpack concept to apply to K-12 students.
Joyce Valenza, CC BY-NC-SA

In addition to simply having access to a variety of high-quality resources, students with information privilege learn to critically and ethically use information to create and share meaningful research projects with the knowledge they build.

That student’s realization of what he didn’t know he didn’t have sparked my development of a three-year research project with colleagues across six New Jersey colleges. Our team of academic librarians, library and information science educators, and high school librarians followed students who had certified high school librarians into their first college year.

We found dramatic differences in college preparedness based on high school library experiences.

The students who had certified high school librarians consistently reported feeling fully prepared for college-level research. They were confident in navigating academic databases. They arrived at college able to identify information needs, understand information genres, search effectively, and craft thoughtful arguments from their research. They were also better able to meet the standards for information literacy at the college level.

Students who had librarians in high school felt better prepared for college-level research, the author’s study found.
Visual Vic/Moment Collection via Getty Images

Access to POWER library

Due in part to the lack of school librarians, many Philadelphia parents and students haven’t yet been introduced to the freely available resources of the POWER Library.

Sponsored by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the POWER Library portal offers audio books and e-books, movies, reference materials, magazines, journals, newspapers and other digital resources for users of all ages.

Annual subscriptions to these resources would cost US$56,515 for schools and $73,366 for public libraries.

In Pennsylvania, if your school has a library, the librarian will have ensured that students can easily log in to the POWER Library during school hours.

Pennsylvania students in schools without a library or a librarian can independently access the POWER library at any hour of the day using the barcode on their public library card, or by signing up for a POWER Library eCard.

The POWER Library page highlights Power Teens and Power Kids resources.

Here are five of my favorite tools from the collection that support students’ academic research:

1. EBSCO eBooks – This collection of more than 16,000 e-books includes nonfiction, textbooks, specialized subject area encyclopedias, literary criticism, and college prep and other study guides.

2. AP Newsroom – With more than 3,000 media items added daily, AP Newsroom allows students to visually explore 185 years of world history and breaking news through on-the-scene, high-quality photography, sound, video and graphics. Topics cover major events as well as sports, culture and entertainment. Students will find primary source content to track developing stories and support research and analysis of historic events. Over 20 million royalty-free stock images are included.

3. Gale eBooks – Gale, a well-respected publisher, offers students a complete library reference section available from anywhere. The high-quality encyclopedias and multivolume reference sets span literature, American and global history, social issues, science, biography, business and much more.

4. Gale OneFile: High School Edition – This research portal connects students to magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books and engaging multimedia that cover the wide range of subjects they might encounter in a high school curriculum. It also prepares them for the academic databases they’ll encounter at college. Gale In Context: Elementary, meanwhile, offers a similar range of kid-friendly content for younger researchers.

5. SIRS Discoverer – For upper-elementary and middle schoolers, SIRS Discoverer engages students’ curiosity and critical thinking in such areas as animals, countries, states and biographies. Don’t miss the “Issues” section, which covers topical issues like global warming, artificial intelligence and cellphones in schools with contextual information, vocabulary and organized viewpoints.

Libraries offer democratic access to critical information by providing free entry to digital resources that would otherwise be too costly for most people. This is true whether you’re a student or not.

In addition to the POWER Library, anyone who lives, works, pays taxes or attends school in Philadelphia can use the extensive digital resources offered by the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Residents outside Pennsylvania can use this map to identify similar resources in their state, or they can explore the databases provided by public libraries around the country.

Joyce Valenza 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. 5 premium online research tools all Philly students can use for free – https://theconversation.com/5-premium-online-research-tools-all-philly-students-can-use-for-free-237930

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Teen girls are facing an increased risk of suicide − and stress related to sexual identity might be contributing to it

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Joseph Cimpian, Professor of Economics and Education Policy, New York University

In 2021, about 48% of LGBQ females considered suicide, compared with roughly 20% of heterosexual females, data shows. bymuratdeniz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

The alarming national rise in suicidal thoughts and behaviors among teenage girls has made headlines recently. Experts point to social media, cyberbullying and COVID-19 as potential new sources of stress for teenagers.

However, a well-known source of stress that now affects more teenagers compared with a decade ago has been overlooked in explanations for this increase – stress related to sexual identity.

As scholars focused on education policy, we conducted research showing that the increase in suicidal thoughts and behaviors corresponds with a dramatic rise in the number of female high school students who identify as LGBQ – lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning.

A double bind for LGBQ teens

While some LGBQ youth are growing up in supportive environments, our findings suggest that an increasing number may be experiencing a double bind – a communication dilemma in which a person receives two or more mutually conflicting messages.

Many LGBQ youth may believe it’s safe to “come out” due to greater access to information and the increased visibility of LGBQ people in U.S. society. But coming out earlier in life could expose them to discrimination and social stress in their schools, families and communities.

This stress related to sexual orientation can contribute to a greater prevalence of mental health concerns, including suicide.

We analyzed national data from over 44,000 U.S. high school students who took the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. We did this to understand these parallel national trends of rising suicide risk and rising LGBQ identification among teens.

Between 2015 and 2021, the percentage of high school girls identifying as LGBQ jumped from 15% to 34%. During this same period, all females who reported they thought about suicide increased from 23% to 29%. Creating a plan to commit suicide rose from 19% to 23%.

But looking at the data more closely reveals something crucial: Girls who identified as LGBQ consistently reported much higher rates of thinking about, planning and attempting suicide.

In 2021, about 48% of LGBQ females considered suicide, compared with roughly 20% of heterosexual females. When we accounted for this difference statistically, we found the overall rise in female suicidal thoughts and behaviors were explained by more students identifying as LGBQ.

Meanwhile, the percentage of male students identifying as LGBQ increased only slightly, from 6% in 2015 to 9% in 2021, with similar smaller changes in suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Why more students may be identifying as LGBQ

The increase in LGBQ identification among more female students in the past decade likely indicates greater access to information and social acceptance. It may also reflect the greater visibility of LGBQ people, including in popular media and leadership roles, which may help young people better understand and label their own identity.

Today’s teenagers, regardless of sexual orientation, have more language and representation to help them make sense of their experiences than previous generations did. Some teens have supportive parents and attend schools that are supportive of their sexual orientation.

While more young people feel able to openly identify as LGBQ, many still face substantial challenges that can affect their mental health.
kieferpix/iStock/Getty Images Plus

However, identifying as LGBQ may still come with significant challenges for many youth.

Research has consistently shown that LGBQ youth face unique stressors. They include discrimination, rejection by family members and friends and bullying and harassment.

Studies incorporating several generations of LGBQ people over the past 50 years find that, despite more societal acceptance, LGBTQ+ people born in the 1990s reported stressors at least as high as older generations born in the 1950s-80s. And younger generations reported the highest rate of suicide attempts.

Our findings highlight a critical point. The rising rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among all teenage girls cannot be understood in isolation from their social context and identities. While more young people feel able to openly identify as LGBQ, many still face substantial challenges that can affect their mental health.

We believe this understanding has important implications for how we address the crisis. Simply implementing general suicide prevention programs may not be enough. Experts may need to craft targeted support that addresses the specific challenges and pressures faced by LGBQ youth.

The need for supportive school environments

Schools play a crucial role in supporting student well-being.

However, states such as Indiana, Florida and Iowa have recently restricted resources and support for LGBQ and trans students.

Since 2021, legislators in at least 24 states have attempted to pass similar laws.

Other states, such as Montana, Tennessee and Arizona, don’t outright ban this curriculum. But they severely restrict how educators can discuss sexual orientation and gender identity by adding additional burdens on educators, including parental notification requirements.

The Trump Administration, meanwhile, has started to roll back earlier federal efforts to protect LGBQ and trans students and recently deleted the Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

Our research suggests this approach could be dangerous.

If we want to address rising suicidal thoughts and behaviors among teenage girls, we need to understand and support LGBQ youth better.

Rather than reducing support, schools, parents and youth advocates could maintain and expand their resources to support LGBQ youth. This includes efforts to create safe and affirming school environments, and training staff and teachers to support LGBQ students effectively.

Joseph Cimpian receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

Dr. McQuillan has been hired by the ACLU to provide expert testimony in court cases. Dr. McQuillan has also received funding from the Spencer Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, and the Wisconsin Partnership Project.

– ref. Teen girls are facing an increased risk of suicide − and stress related to sexual identity might be contributing to it – https://theconversation.com/teen-girls-are-facing-an-increased-risk-of-suicide-and-stress-related-to-sexual-identity-might-be-contributing-to-it-247671

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Poor sleep and addiction go hand in hand − understanding how could lead to new treatments for opioid use disorder

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ryan Logan, Professor of Psychiatry, UMass Chan Medical School

Whether sleep disorders worsen addiction or addiction worsens sleep disorders is unclear. Maria Korneeva/Moment via Getty Images

A good night’s sleep often sets the stage for a positive day. But for the nearly quarter of American adults struggling with mental illness, a good night’s rest is often elusive.

For patients with psychiatric conditions from addiction to mood disorders such as depression, disrupted sleep can often exacerbate symptoms and make it harder to stay on treatment.

Despite the important role circadian rhythms and sleep play in addiction, neuroscientists like me are only now beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms behind these effects.

Sleep and addictive drugs have an entangled relationship. Most addictive drugs can alter sleep-wake cycles, and sleep disorders in people using drugs are linked to addiction severity and relapse. While this poses a classic “chicken-or-egg” dilemma, it also presents an opportunity to understand how the sleep-addiction connection could unlock new treatments.

Circadian rhythms and health

At the center of the connection between sleep and mental health lies circadian rhythms: your body’s internal clock.

These rhythms align your bodily functions with your environment, synchronizing your body to day and night down to the molecular level. It does this through a series of proteins that interact in a feedback loop, turning genes on and off in regular patterns to support specific functions. Although your sleep-wake cycles are the most visible expression of circadian rhythms, these rhythms orchestrate most of your physiology.

If you have ever traveled across time zones, you have likely experienced a common form of circadian disruption called jet lag. This misalignment impairs your sleep and concentration, and can leave you feeling irritable.

While jet lag is a temporary nuisance, chronic circadian disruption such as frequent night shifts can lead to long-term health consequences, including an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Circadian rhythms, sleep and opioid use

A major focus of my lab is on opioid addiction, a disease that has claimed nearly 80,000 lives a year since 2021 in the U.S. and has limited treatment options.

People addicted to opioids often experience disruptions to circadian rhythms, such as in their sleep and their levels of corticotropin, a key hormone that regulates stress. These disruptions are associated with many negative health consequences. In the short term, these disruptions can impair cognitive functions such as attention and increase negative emotions. Over time this can worsen mental and physical health. Studies of opioid addiction in mice reveal similar disruptions in sleep and various hormonal rhythms.

Importantly, poor sleep is common throughout a person’s experience with opioid use disorder, from actively using to withdrawal from opioids, and even while on treatment. This complication can have profound consequences. Studies have linked sleep disruption to a 2.5-fold increased risk of relapse among those undergoing treatment.

Unlocking the clock for opioid addiction

Using brain tissue from deceased donors and experiments in mice, my team is identifying molecular changes associated with psychiatric disorders in people. We model these changes in mice to explore how they affect disease severity and behavior.

Through genetic sequencing and computer modeling, my lab is able to profile all the RNA molecules in a brain region and understand how their rhythmicity – the peaks and troughs of their activity across the day – changes due to opioids. This provides a complete snapshot of which genes change at what time, allowing my team to peer into the molecular mechanics that may drive opioid addiction.

Opioids can alter the activity of genes involved with sleep.
Robert Reader/Moment via Getty Images

For example, we looked at two brain regions strongly associated with addiction: the nucleus accumbens and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We found that patients with opioid addiction had completely different gene expression patterns in these brain regions compared with those without addiction. Some genes had adopted a completely different rhythm of activity, while others had lost their rhythmicity altogether.

Genes that lost rhythmicity included those involved in various components of the molecular clock and those linked to sleep duration. This further highlights how circadian disruption is a symptom of opioid use while beginning to uncover its underlying mechanisms.

In work that is pending peer review, my team focused on one major gene that lost rhythmicity in patients with opioid addiction: NPAS2. This component of the molecular clock is highly active in the nucleus accumbens and important for sleep and circadian regulation. We found that blocking functional NPAS2 formation led to increased fentanyl-seeking behavior in mice. Interestingly, we observed that female mice were willing to press a lever more times than male mice to obtain fentanyl, reflecting documented sex differences in opioid addiction among people. In another study, we also found that lack of NPAS2 exacerbated sleep disruption in mice that were administered fentanyl.

Together, our findings reinforce the role circadian rhythms play in addiction. Future work may clarify whether targeting NPAS2 could treat opioid addiction symptoms. Quality sleep isn’t just about waking up refreshed – it could also lead to reduced opioid use and fewer overdoses.

Ryan Logan receives funding from National Institutes of Health.

Mackenzie Gamble 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. Poor sleep and addiction go hand in hand − understanding how could lead to new treatments for opioid use disorder – https://theconversation.com/poor-sleep-and-addiction-go-hand-in-hand-understanding-how-could-lead-to-new-treatments-for-opioid-use-disorder-242664

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Russia’s shrinking world: The war in Ukraine and Moscow’s global reach

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ronald H. Linden, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

Russia President Vladimir Putin sent a guarded message of congratulations to Donald Trump on inauguration day, but then held a long direct call with his “dear friend,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

From Putin’s perspective, this makes sense. Russia gets billions of dollars from energy sales to China and technology from Beijing, but from Washington, until recently, mostly sanctions and suspicion.

Moscow is hoping for a more positive relationship with the current White House occupant, who has made his desire for a “deal” to end the Ukraine war well known.

But talk of exit scenarios from this 3-year-old conflict should not mask the fact that since the invasion began, Putin has overseen one of the worst periods in Russian foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.

Transatlantic unity

The war in Ukraine has foreclosed on options and blunted Russian action around the world.

Unlike the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the 2022 invasion produced an unprecedented level of transatlantic unity, including the expansion of NATO and sanctions on Russian trade and finance. In the past year, both the U.S. and the European Union expanded their sanction packages.

And for the first time, the EU banned the re-export of Russian liquefied natural gas and ended support for a Russian LNG project in the Arctic.

EU-Russian trade, including European imports of energy, has dropped to a fraction of what it was before the war.

The two Nordstrom pipelines, designed to bring Russian gas to Germany without transiting East Europe, lie crippled and unused. Revenues from energy sales are roughly one-half of what they were two years ago.

At the same time, the West has sent billions in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, enabling a level of resilience for which Russia was unprepared. Meanwhile, global companies and technical experts and intellectuals have fled Russia in droves.

While Russia has evaded some restrictions with its “shadow fleet” – an aging group of tankers sailing under various administrative and technical evasions – the country’s main savior is now China. Trade between China and Russia has grown by nearly two-thirds since the end of 2021, and the U.S. cites Beijing as the main source of Russia’s “dual use” and other technologies needed to pursue its war.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has moved from an energy-for-manufactured-goods trade relationship with the West to one of vassalage with China, as one Russia analyst termed it.

Hosting an October meeting of the BRICS countries – now counting 11 members, including the five original members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South America – is unlikely to compensate for geopolitical losses elsewhere.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China President Xi Jinping toast their friendship in March 2023.
Pavel Byrkin/AFP via Getty Images

Problems at home …

The Russian economy is deeply distorted by increased military spending, which represents 40% of the budget and 25% of all spending. The government now needs the equivalent of US$20 billion annually in order to pay for new recruits.

Russian leaders must find a way to keep at least some of the population satisfied, but persistent inflation and reserve currency shortages flowing directly from the war have made this task more difficult.

On the battlefield, the war itself has killed or wounded more than 600,000 Russian soldiers. Operations during 2024 were particularly deadly, producing more than 1,500 Russian casualties a day.

The leader who expected Kyiv’s capitulation in days now finds Russian territory around Kursk occupied, its naval forces in the Black Sea destroyed and withdrawn, and its own generals assassinated in Moscow.

But probably the greatest humiliation is that this putative great power with a population of 144 million must resort to importing North Korean troops to help liberate its own land.

… and in its backyard

Moscow’s dedication to the war has affected its ability to influence events elsewhere, even in its own neighborhood.

In the Caucasus, for example, Russia had long sided with Armenia in its running battle with Azerbaijan over boundaries and population after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Moscow has brokered ceasefires at various points. But intermittent attacks and territorial gains for Azerbaijan continued despite the presence of some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers sent to protect the remaining Armenian population in parts of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan’s forces abruptly took control of the rest of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 100,000 Armenians fled in the largest ethnic cleansing episode since the end of the Balkan Wars. The peacekeepers did not intervene and later withdrew. The Russian military, absorbed in the bloody campaigns in Ukraine, could not back up or reinforce them.

The Azeris’ diplomatic and economic position has gained in recent years, aided by demand for its gas as a substitute for Russia’s and support from NATO member Turkey.

Feeling betrayed by Russia, the Armenian government has for the first time extended feelers toward the West — which is happy to entertain such overtures.

Losing influence and friends

Russia’s loss in the Caucasus has been dwarfed by the damage to its military position and influence in the Middle East. Russia supported the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad against the uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2011 and saved it with direct military intervention beginning in 2015.

Yet in December 2024, Assad was unexpectedly swept away by a mélange of rebel groups. The refuge extended to Assad by Moscow was the most it could provide with the war in Ukraine having drained Russia’s capacity to do more.

Russia’s possible withdrawal from the Syrian naval base at Tartus and the airbase at Khmeimim would remove assets that allowed it to cooperate with Iran, its key strategic partner in the region.

More recently, Russia’s reliability as an ally and reputation as an armory has been damaged by Israeli attacks not only on Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed forces in Lebanon and Syria, but on Iran itself.

Russia’s position in Africa would also be damaged by the loss of the Syrian bases, which are key launch points for extending Russian power, and by Moscow’s evident inability to make a difference on the ground across the Sahel region in north-central Africa.

Dirty tricks, diminishing returns

Stalemate in Ukraine and Russian strategic losses in Syria and elsewhere have prompted Moscow to rely increasingly on a variety of other means to try to gain influence.

Disinformation, election meddling and varied threats are not new and are part of Russia’s actions in Ukraine. But recent efforts in East Europe have not been very productive. Massive Russian funding and propaganda in Romania, for example, helped produce a narrow victory for an anti-NATO presidential candidate in December 2024, but the Romanian government moved quickly to expose these actions and the election was annulled.

Nearby Moldova has long been subject to Russian propaganda and threats, especially during recent presidential elections and a referendum on stipulating a “European course” in the constitution. The tiny country moved to reduce its dependency on Russian gas but remains territorially fragmented by the breakaway region of Transnistria that, until recently, provided most of the country’s electricity.

Despite these factors, the results were not what Moscow wanted. In both votes, a European direction was favored by the electorate. When the Transnistrian legislature in February 2024 appealed to Moscow for protection, none was forthcoming.

When Moldova thumbs its nose at you, it’s fair to say your power ranking has fallen.

Wounded but still dangerous

Not all recent developments have been negative for Moscow. State control of the economy has allowed for rapid rebuilding of a depleted military and support for its technology industry in the short term. With Chinese help and evasion of sanctions, sufficient machinery and energy allow the war in Ukraine to continue.

And the inauguration of Donald Trump is likely to favor Putin, despite some mixed signals. The U.S. president has threatened tariffs and more sanctions but also disbanded a Biden-era task force aimed a punishing Russian oligarchs who help Russia evade sanctions. In the White House now is someone who has openly admired Putin, expressed skepticism over U.S. support for Ukraine and rushed to bully America’s closest allies in Latin America, Canada and Europe.

Most importantly, Trump’s eagerness to make good on his pledge to end the war may provide the Russian leader with a deal he can call a “victory.”

The shrinking of Russia’s world has not necessarily made Russia less dangerous; it could be quite the opposite. Some Kremlin watchers argue that a more economically isolated Russia is less vulnerable to American economic pressure. A retreating Russia and an embattled Putin could also opt for even more reckless threats and actions – for example, on nuclear weapons – especially if reversing course in Ukraine would jeopardize his position. It is, after all, Putin’s war.

All observers would be wise to note that the famous dictum “Russia is never as strong as she looks … nor as weak as she looks” has been ominously rephrased by Putin himself: “Russia was never so strong as it wants to be and never so weak as it is thought to be.”

Ronald H. Linden has in the past received funding from Fulbright, DAAD, German Marshall Fund, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, Woodrow Wilson Center, US Institute of Peace.

– ref. Russia’s shrinking world: The war in Ukraine and Moscow’s global reach – https://theconversation.com/russias-shrinking-world-the-war-in-ukraine-and-moscows-global-reach-247754

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Are animals smart? From dolphin language to toolmaking crows, lots of species have obvious intelligence

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Leticia Fanucchi, Clinical Assistant Professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Oklahoma State University

Dolphins communicate using a sophisticated combination of clicks and whistles. Stephen Frink/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Are animals smart? – Deron

It’s a fascinating question that intrigues millions of pet owners, animal lovers, veterinarians and scientists all over the world: Just how smart are animals?

Scientists once believed a brain with billions of neurons was a requirement for intelligence. After all, that’s why you’re able to think – neurons are the nerve cells in the brain that connect and transmit messages to each other.

For the record, the human brain has about 86 billion neurons. For comparison, dogs and cats have less than one billion.

Yet the more that scientists like me study animal emotion and cognition – the ability to learn through experiences and thinking – the more we find that humans are not very special at all. Many nonhuman species can do these things too.

Right now, there’s no agreement on how to decide whether a particular animal species is intelligent. But most scientists who study animal cognition have observed that many animals are able to solve problems, use tools, recall important information about their environment and recognize themselves in the mirror.

Measuring an animal’s intelligence is harder than you might think.

Toolmaking bears and crows

Memory is a marker of intelligence. Of all animals, humans possess the most accurate and sophisticated memory. But elephants can recognize as many as 30 traveling companions at a time. They also learn to migrate away from drought-prone areas, based on memories of earlier droughts.

That kind of recall – known as episodic memory – is the ability to remember an event, including when and where it occurred. Until recently, scientists thought only humans had it. But now researchers have learned that some birds, cats, rats, monkeys and dolphins have it too.

Crows are among the smartest of animals.
Santiago Urquijo/Moment via Getty Images

Animals may not remember every experience – neither do people – but they do recall things critical to their survival. For example, birds know where they stored food. Monkeys know the presence of a predator.

Scientists once thought tool use was an exclusively human ability, but that’s not so. Chimpanzees use sticks to catch termites and stones to crack nuts open. Crows can even manufacture tools. By bending a wire, they can make a hook to retrieve a food reward that’s otherwise out of reach.

Researchers presented eight captive brown bears with this food challenge: Three objects – a large log, a small log and a box – were placed in an outdoor enclosure. A food reward was suspended above them. Six of the eight bears were able to move the logs and box into positions that enabled them to fetch the reward. Essentially, they used the three objects as tools.

Chimps use gestures and facial expressions to communicate.

Dolphin, chimpanzee communication

Language is another measure of intelligence. People, of course, have enormously sophisticated communication skills. But dolphins have complex dialects in the form of crackles, squeaks and whistles. Many researchers say the noises are a language. Chimpanzees and gorillas have used sign language to express emotions and ask for things from people.

Self-awareness – the ability to recognize yourself as an individual – signals intelligence. Babies don’t recognize themselves in the mirror until they are about a year and a half old. Up until then, they probably think the mirror image they see is another baby.

Many other species, including dolphins, ravens and elephants, recognize themselves in the mirror. Researchers put a red dye mark on chimpanzees under anesthesia; once awake, the chimps saw their reflection in a mirror. Instead of touching the red mark on their reflection in the glass, they touched the red mark on themselves, indicating self-recognition.

Just because animals can’t do certain things, it doesn’t mean they’re unintelligent. After all, humans can’t fly like a bird or swim like a fish. Nor is there a need for us to have the incredible sense of smell a dog has. We’d be sniffing hundreds of different smells from miles away – the scents from perfumes and pollution, gardens and garbage. From an evolutionary standpoint, that wouldn’t help us much. Plus, we’d get sick of it very quickly.

But all animals, including humans, have developed a wide range of capabilities so they can succeed in the environment they live in. Put simply, we’re all using our brains. Now that’s intelligent.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

Leticia Fanucchi 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. Are animals smart? From dolphin language to toolmaking crows, lots of species have obvious intelligence – https://theconversation.com/are-animals-smart-from-dolphin-language-to-toolmaking-crows-lots-of-species-have-obvious-intelligence-230378

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Here’s how researchers are helping AIs get their facts straight

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Lu Wang, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

AI chatbots need help learning to give accurate answers. CreativaImages/iStock via Getty Images

AI has made it easier than ever to find information: Ask ChatGPT almost anything, and the system swiftly delivers an answer. But the large language models that power popular tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude were not designed to be accurate or factual. They regularly “hallucinate” and offer up falsehoods as if they were hard facts.

Yet people are relying more and more on AI to answer their questions. Half of all people in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 22 now use AI to get information, according to a 2024 Harvard study. An analysis by The Washington Post found that more than 17% of prompts on ChatGPT are requests for information.

One way researchers are attempting to improve the information AI systems give is to have the systems indicate how confident they are in the accuracy of their answers. I’m a computer scientist who studies natural language processing and machine learning. My lab at the University of Michigan has developed a new way of deriving confidence scores that improves the accuracy of AI chatbot answers. But confidence scores can only do so much.

Popular and problematic

Leading technology companies are increasingly integrating AI into search engines. Google now offers AI Overviews that appear as text summaries above the usual list of links in any search result. Other upstart search engines, such as Perplexity, are challenging traditional search engines with their own AI-generated summaries.

The convenience of these summaries has made these tools very popular. Why scour the contents of multiple websites when AI can provide the most pertinent information in a few seconds?

AI tools seem to offer a smoother, more expedient avenue to getting information. But they can also lead people astray or even expose them to harmful falsehoods. My lab has found that even the most accurate AI models hallucinate in 25% of claims. This hallucination rate is concerning because other research suggests AI can influence what people think.

It bears emphasizing: AI chatbots are designed to sound good, not give accurate information.

Language models hallucinate because they learn and operate on statistical patterns drawn from a massive amount of text data, much of which comes from the internet. This means that they are not necessarily grounded in real-world facts. They also lack other human competencies, like common sense and the ability to distinguish between serious expressions and sarcastic ones.

All this was on display last spring, when a user asked Google’s AI Overviews tool to suggest a way to keep cheese from sliding off a pizza. The tool promptly recommended mixing the cheese with glue. It then came to light that someone had once posted this obviously tongue-in-cheek recommendation on Reddit. Like most large language models, Google’s model had likely been trained with information scraped from myriad internet sources, including Reddit. It then mistakenly interpreted this user’s joke as a genuine suggestion.

While most users wouldn’t take the glue recommendation seriously, some hallucinated information can cause real harm. AI search engines and chatbots have repeatedly been caught citing debunked, racist pseudoscience as fact. Last year, Perplexity AI stated that a police officer in California was guilty of a crime that he did not commit.

Showing confidence

Building AI systems that prioritize veracity is challenging, but not impossible. One way AI developers are approaching this problem is to design models that communicate their confidence in their answers. This typically comes in the form of a confidence score – a number indicating how likely it is that a model is providing accurate information. But estimating a model’s confidence in the content it provides is also a complicated task.

How confidence scores work in machine learning.

One common approach to making this estimate involves asking the model to repeatedly respond to a given query. If the model is reliable, it should generate similar answers to the same query. If it can’t answer consistently, the AI is likely lacking the information it needs to answer accurately. Over time, the results of these tests become the AI’s confidence scores for specific subject areas.

Other approaches evaluate AI accuracy by directly prompting and training models to state how confident they are in their answers. But this offers no real accountability. Allowing an AI to evaluate its own confidence leaves room for the system to give itself a passing grade and continue to offer false or harmful information.

My lab has designed algorithms that assign confidence scores by breaking down a large language model’s responses into individual claims that can be automatically cross-referenced with Wikipedia. We assess the semantic equivalence between the AI model’s output and the referenced Wikipedia entries for the assertions. Our approach allows the AI to quickly evaluate the accuracy of all its statements. Of course, relying on Wikipedia articles, which are usually but not always accurate, also has its limitations.

Publishing confidence scores along with a model’s answers could help people to think more critically about the veracity of information that these tools provide. A language model can also be trained to withhold information if it earns a confidence score that falls below a set threshold. My lab has also shown that confidence scores can be used to help AI models generate more accurate answers.

Limits of confidence

There’s still a long way to go to ensure truly accurate AI. Most of these approaches assume that the information needed to correctly evaluate an AI’s accuracy can be found on Wikipedia and other online databases.

But when accurate information is just not that easy to come by, confidence estimates can be misleading. To account for cases like these, Google has developed special mechanisms for evaluating AI-generated statements. My lab has similarly compiled a benchmarking dataset of prompts that commonly cause hallucinations.

But all these approaches verify basic facts – there are no automated methods for evaluating other facets of long-form content, such as cause-and-effect relationships or an AI’s ability to reason over text consisting of more than one sentence.

Developing tools that improve these elements of AI are key steps toward making the technology a source of trustworthy information – and avoid the harms that misinformation can cause.

Lu Wang 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. Here’s how researchers are helping AIs get their facts straight – https://theconversation.com/heres-how-researchers-are-helping-ais-get-their-facts-straight-245463

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: Dmitry Chernyshenko: The creation of a network of advanced schools is a strategic step into the future of our country

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government for the creation of advanced general education organizations

February 10, 2025

Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government for the creation of advanced general education organizations

February 10, 2025

Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government for the creation of advanced general education organizations

February 10, 2025

Meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government on the creation of advanced general education organizations

February 10, 2025

Meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government on the creation of advanced general education organizations

February 10, 2025

Previous news Next news

Dmitry Chernyshenko at a meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government for the creation of advanced general education organizations

A meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government for the creation of advanced general education organizations was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.

Maxim Oreshkin recalled that President Vladimir Putin in his Address to the Federal Assembly instructed that no less than 12 advanced schools be created by 2030.

“The creation of such schools is planned in each federal district under the national project “Youth and Children”. They will help prepare a personnel reserve for knowledge-intensive and high-tech sectors of the economy. This is not just a matter of building 12 more schools, it should be a strategic step into the future of our country. At a meeting of the Coordination Council under the Government of Russia, a decision was made to approve the presented concept of advanced general education organizations. It is important that within its framework, not only the scientific, educational and infrastructural component will be worked out, but also issues of educational work, teacher training and assessment of student success,” noted Dmitry Chernyshenko.

The implementation of such a large-scale project requires synchronization of efforts of all participants in the process: the state, society, educational institutions and business. The Ministry of Education, together with regions, universities and social partners, is already preparing mechanisms for these changes.

Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov announced that the first three flagship schools will open in the Novgorod, Ryazan and Pskov regions.

“The project to create flagship schools is not easy, but it is very important for our country. These will be schools for talented children in all federal districts. We plan to open the first three educational organizations on September 1, 2027. Graduates will develop domestic science and economics, and we set the goal of 100% employment of students in leading companies. These institutions will become methodological centers for schools in all federal districts and will disseminate the best pedagogical practices,” said Sergey Kravtsov.

Children will study in flagship schools from grades 7 to 11 and undergo annual knowledge assessment, and teachers will undergo qualification testing. Teachers will be provided with decent salaries. The creation of a network of schools involves mutual exchange between students and teachers from different regions.

First Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services Alexander Lomakin presented information on the progress of construction of advanced general education institutions in the Novgorod, Pskov and Ryazan regions. In addition, advanced schools are planned to be created in the Belgorod, Nizhny Novgorod regions and other regions.

The acting governor of the Novgorod region, Alexander Dronov, the governor of the Pskov region, Mikhail Vedernikov, and the governor of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, also spoke in detail about the creation of schools.

The head of the educational foundation “Talent and Success” Elena Shmeleva noted the experience of “Sirius” in developing the federal territory around the educational center “Sirius”.

The meeting was also attended by Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Nikita Anisimov, governors of the Belgorod, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Murmansk regions, Krasnodar Krai, heads of the Republic of Crimea and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, representatives of the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Digital Development, and Rosobrnadzor.

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 –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: ARU studies the health benefits of herring eggs

Source: Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is partnering with Norwegian biotechnology company Arctic Bioscience to carry out the largest research project to date exploring how nutrients derived from fish eggs can support a healthy and active lifestyle across all ages.

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that can play an important role in maintaining overall health. However, the general population typically consumes few foods that are rich in omega-3, such as oily fish.

The new three-year project, called Active Romega, is investigating the benefits of omega-3 phospholipid fish oil and proteins derived from herring roe, which are the eggs of the fish. Unlike other omega-3 supplements, herring roe omega-3 contains a higher concentration of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and specialised pro-resolving mediators (SPMs).

DHA and SPMs have been shown to have potent anti-inflammatory effects and are also believed to benefit muscle function, metabolism, and cognitive function, which are all key to supporting a healthy lifestyle.

The Active Romega project comprises two distinct research strands led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) PhD students Dani Dalmay and Jorge Pinto. These are exploring the effects of herring roe omega-3 on exercise metabolism and recovery, specifically focusing on active females, and how herring roe omega-3 can support the healthy ageing process in older adults.

The overall project is being led by Dr Sanjoy Deb, Associate Professor in Exercise and Nutritional Science at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).

“The use of fish oils has shown promise across various health parameters, with emerging research indicating particular benefits for women and in supporting healthy ageing.

“This new partnership with Arctic Bioscience allows us to undertake robust research to explore the public health benefits of herring-derived omega-3, alongside exercise. This will be the first time this specific type of omega-3 has been tested to investigate its benefits in these areas.

“One of the reasons herring roe omega-3 is unique is its higher concentration of DHA [docosahexaenoic acid] compared to EPA [eicosapentaenoic acid] – most fish oils have more EPA than DHA – and the oil is naturally rich in the metabolites of DHA and EPA, namely specialised pro-resolving mediators such as resolvins, protectins and maresins. Herring roe omega-3 also has a phospholipid chemical structure, rather than a more typical triglyceride structure.

“Some studies suggest better absorption and improved health outcomes from marine-based phospholipids, although research is still in its infancy. Our Active Romega project should contribute significantly to this area of research.”

Dr Sanjoy Deb

“Arctic Bioscience is honoured to be a part of this project with Anglia Ruskin. We have been working with herring roe phospholipids and proteins for many years now, both in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical field, and see many potential health benefits for their use in sports nutrition.”

Hogne Hallaråker, founder and Chief Science Officer of Arctic Bioscience

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI: ASM named in CDP’s ‘A List’ for climate and water

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Almere, the Netherlands
February 10, 2025

ASM has been awarded CDP’s prestigious ‘A List’ ranking for both climate and water reporting, recognizing its corporate sustainability leadership, performance, and transparency.

This is the first time ASM has achieved A List status with the global environmental non-profit, CDP, the organization that runs the world’s most recognized environmental disclosure system and sets the standard for environmental reporting. From over 22,000 annual reporting submissions this year, CDP has awarded its highest A List ranking to only a select group of companies demonstrating the strongest sustainability leadership.

ASM is among very few companies in the semiconductor industry to score an A in CDP’s 2024 assessment, with even fewer reaching the A List for both climate and water. This marks a significant milestone in our sustainability journey and is a testament to our continued commitment to environmental progress.

ASM has been reporting into CDP for thirteen consecutive years, consistently strengthening our environmental strategy and performance. In 2024, we reached 100% renewable electricity across our global operations, reinforcing our commitment to sustainable business practices.

Inclusion in CDP’s prestigious A List highlights the strides we have made in reducing our operational carbon footprint and exemplifies our focus on meaningful climate action. In addition to decarbonizing our own operations, we are investing in research and development to enhance the energy efficiency of our deposition equipment, enabling our customers to reduce their energy consumption while maintaining high-performance production capabilities. This ensures our technologies contribute to lower emissions in semiconductor manufacturing and the broader tech ecosystem.

In 2021, ASM published an ambitious target of reaching net zero by 2035. In 2023, ASM’s net zero target was approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a first in the semiconductor industry. ASM’s Climate Transition Plan, released in early 2024, details how we target to achieve this goal by decarbonizing our products, optimizing our operations, and collaborating with our value chain to drive sustainability improvements to ensure ASM remains at the forefront of sustainable innovation.

As ASM expands, we are focused on achieving green standards such as LEED building certification, which rates buildings for energy efficiency and sustainability across multiple environmental aspects. Our new facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is currently in design, aims to reuse more than 80% of the water it consumes, significantly reducing ASM’s water footprint and supporting circular resource use.

John Golightly, ASM VP of Sustainability remarked: “We are honored to receive this recognition for our efforts in climate and water. CDP’s A List is the gold standard for environmental reporting, so our inclusion for the first time is a proud moment, for our company and everyone who worked so hard on our sustainability journey. Our resolute focus on transparently reporting our progress has led us to this point and we will continue to push the boundaries of sustainable semiconductor manufacturing, with cutting-edge innovation and collaborative partnerships to create a greener, more resilient future. Accelerating Sustainability is a strategic objective at ASM for good reason. We believe our products and operations enable positive impact for society and our planet.”

About ASM International

ASM International N.V., headquartered in Almere, the Netherlands, and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and process solutions to produce semiconductor devices for wafer processing, and have facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. ASM International’s common stock trades on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol: ASM). For more information, visit ASM’s website at www.asm.com.

Contact

Investor and media relations

Victor Bareño
T: +31 88 100 8500
E: investor.relations@asm.com

Investor relations

Valentina Fantigrossi
T: +31 88 100 8502
E: investor.relations@asm.com

The MIL Network –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: The EU was built for another age – here’s how it must adapt to survive

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University

Shutterstock/gopixa

To European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Europe is like a Volkswagen Beetle – an iconic car produced by a once-mighty German manufacturer which has been struggling to adapt to a new world.

“Europe must shift gears,” she urged in a speech to business executives gathered in Davos, Switzerland at the beginning of the year. Yet, her call to arms failed to raise more than an eyebrow. After all, she has repeated the same call many times since she was elected six years ago. So far, there has been little result.

The US president, Donald Trump, may now even be tempted to finish off the EU (the most developed of the world’s multilateral organisations) by dividing its members over the single market for trade. This arrangement is the cornerstone upon which the union was built, but can it withstand Trump’s attempts to play European nations off against each other in order to get the best deal for himself?

The problem is that Trump is simply bringing to its most extreme consequences the weakness of a system that was built for stable times which are long gone. We urgently need a new idea, and it cannot be for a “United States of Europe”. That is a dream from the past that could not be more at odds with Europe’s current political climate.

Mini unions

Europe is unable to chart a path forward because it needs unanimity among its member states in order to make any major decision. Votes are not even weighted to reflect the different sizes of each of the club’s members.

This is a weakness that would gradually cause the deterioration of any international organisation. But in the case of the EU, the crisis is more serious because member states have surrendered part of their decision power. As a result, if the EU cannot move quickly, even member states turn out to be paralysed.

Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, has often been singled out as the bad guy especially – this has happened every time the EU has tried to approve sanctions against Russia or aid to Ukraine. But examples of free riding abound even among the founding parties.

For decades, France has resisted any attempt to reorganise the common agricultural policy that sends a third of the EU’s budget to farmers, many of them French. Italy has halted the ratification of the reform of the European stability mechanism that should protect states from financial instability, out of the assumption among part of the Italian electorate that this may compromise further sovereignty.

Elsewhere, Germany’s constitutional court has derailed the reform of the EU electoral law that divides the election of the European parliament into a dysfunctional system of 27 national contests, because of the resistance of the German political system to any electoral law which is not proportional.

We need to find a way to change all this. And the solution cannot be the rather abstract idea of a union that proceeds at different speeds, where the older members are supposed to be part of an inner circle. Nor is it feasible to expect the abolition of unanimous voting for the simple reason that to forgo unanimity, you need a unanimous vote.

Instead, the EU should become the coordinator of multiple unions, each formed by the member states themselves around specific policies. A union might form around defence, for example, among member states which are ready for such a partnership, such as Poland, the Baltics and Finland.

Another might bring together countries that wish to collaborate on large projects such as a pan-European high-speed train, or a fully integrated energy market that may allow Italy, France and Spain to save billions of euros and decarbonise more quickly.

This is not entirely new. Arrangements like the euro and the free circulation of people (the Schengen area) follow this principle. Only a subset of EU nations are part of these projects, and offers have even been extended to join beyond the EU’s borders. Monaco is in the euro, for example, while Norway is in Schengen, despite neither being an EU member state.

The problem with these unions is that they are incomplete. The complement to the monetary union is a recently reformed “stability pact” that leaves so many loopholes that 11 out of its 20 members do not comply. And even within Schengen, there are still no proper common borders. The result is continuous reciprocal accusations of exporting each other’s illegal migrants.

The solution here is to fully share the levers within a certain policy area on terms which are more flexible and voluntary for the union’s members.

The possibility of calm divorce

Resilience is achieved through adaptability. Therefore, these new arrangements must make divorce between union members possible from the outset – and establish the terms of such a rupture in advance.

And in the event of an extreme case, the other parties should also be able to ask one of the members to leave their union (so as to avoid being systematically held to ransom by a free rider). The current union treaty does contain a provision (article 50) that enables a member to leave, as the UK did – but if Brexit showed anything, it was that this mechanism has limited use at preventing a divorce from descending into chaos.

People should always be part of these decisions, of course. When states decide to surrender some of their sovereignty to a larger organisation such as the EU, it changes the nature of the pact between the citizens of a country and the people who make decisions on their behalf. This evident truth has been ignored for decades as the EU has gradually been built from the top down.

The European Union currently resembles the marriages we once had in Europe (until well into the 20th century), before it was acknowledged that they are a civil (not necessarily religious) contract that can be dissolved through divorce – not some divine construct that can never be undone.

The marriage between EU countries is blighted by cheating and empty rhetoric. This is an issue we can no longer avoid if Europe wants to do more than just “shift gears”. The EU was the most successful political project of the 20th century. If it wants to continue to be so in the 21st, it has to learn to be flexible. Only those who can adapt survive.

Francesco Grillo is Director of the think tank Vision. Vision is convenor of three global conferences on the future of the EU, climate change and AI .

– ref. The EU was built for another age – here’s how it must adapt to survive – https://theconversation.com/the-eu-was-built-for-another-age-heres-how-it-must-adapt-to-survive-248811

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder that causes lifelong suffering – here’s what you need to know

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Cristina Pina, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences, Brunel University of London

3D illustration of sickle cell red blood cells Meletios Verras/Shutterstock

Right now, approximately 20 billion red blood cells are busy travelling through your blood vessels. They are delivering oxygen to all the different tissues in your body and removing carbon dioxide to be breathed out of your lungs.

Red blood cells are discs curved inwards on both sides, without a cell nucleus. They are full of haemoglobin, a protein responsible for gas exchanges. At the core of a haemoglobin molecule is an iron carrying component called haem, which can be loaded with oxygen.

The shape of the red blood cell is useful to flexibly navigate blood vessels of all sizes, deforming as needed. It also provides a large surface for gas exchange. Haemoglobin collects oxygen in the lungs, where there is plenty of it, and releases it across the body, where there is much less.

But not if you suffer from sickle cell disease, which affects nearly eight million people worldwide, most in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the UK, approximately 17,500 people have sickle cell disease and 300 babies are born with the condition each year. It is a genetic disorder caused by inherited mutations in a person’s DNA that affect the properties of haemoglobin.

Haemoglobin is made up of four proteins organised around the iron-carrying haem group. These proteins are called globins, and each haemoglobin molecule has two alpha and two beta-globins.

Sickle cell disease changes adult beta-globin. Instead of two alpha and two healthy beta chains, sickle cell disease patients have two alpha and two mutant beta chains. The resulting haemoglobin is called HbS.

HbS has different characteristics to normal adult haemoglobin, causing severe symptoms. HbS is structurally unstable. Upon high temperatures, dehydration, acidity, such as happens during infections, it clumps inside the red blood cells. The clumps make red blood cells rigid and change their shape from flexible doughnuts into inflexible sickles – hence the name of the disease.

Rigid sickle cells cannot travel through narrow blood vessels, which clogs them, forming clots that stop blood circulation in different places. The clots change oxygen and acidity locally, causing more sickling.

Accumulation of clots causes some of the most severe symptoms of sickle cell disease, including strokes, kidney failure, blindness, prolonged and painful erections (called priapism) and loss of circulation in the lungs – the excruciating acute chest syndrome.

Repeated clotting scars and destroys the spleen, increasing the risk of recurrent infections, often by streptococcal bacteria which can cause severe pneumonia and sepsis.

Sickle red blood cells also break easily, a phenomenon called haemolysis. The body tries to produce more red blood cells, but cannot correct the underlying defect. Patients experience symptoms similar to other forms of anaemia, including pallor, breathlessness upon exertion, fatigue. Haemolysis leads to inflammation and damages blood vessels, further aggravating sickling symptoms.

Lifelong suffering

Symptoms and complications of sickle cell disease start in the first year of life and progress in severity. The disease reduces the quality and duration of life of patients – in the UK, those with sickle cell disease have a life expectancy of 67.

Worldwide, life expectancy is below 50 and many children with sickle cell disease in sub-Saharan Africa die before the age of five. Sickle cell disease patients are dependent on transfusions of healthy red blood cells – over time this causes complications of its own.

Until recently, the only cure for sickle cell disease was stem cell transplantation – also known as bone marrow transplantation – from a healthy donor with a compatible immune system which will not be rejected by, or attack, the patient. Often, this is a sibling or a parent, but, in up to 75% of cases, a compatible relative cannot be found.

Stem cell transplantation replaces the cells in the blood factory of the patient, which produce HbS, with blood-making cells without the genetic defect, which produce normal adult haemoglobin. Transplanted blood stem cells maintain healthy haemoglobin production for life.

In the absence of transplantation, sickle cell disease patients receive regular transfusions, which deliver healthy red blood cells. But, unlike stem cells, red blood cells are short-lived.

Patients also receive a drug called hydroxycarbamide, which is used to treat cancer patients and can be toxic, but alleviates symptoms. Hydroxycarbamide acts by turning on a gene that leads to the production of foetal haemoglobin, which is not affected by the sickle cell disease mutation.

In 2024, two forms of gene therapy were approved for sickle cell disease treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration. Both involve collecting stem cells from the patient, modifying them genetically, and transplanting them back into the patient so the body makes blood with corrected cells for the rest of the patient’s life.

The first of the gene therapies, commercially called Casgevy, works by removing and inactivating a gene that is normally responsible for producing beta-globin. This replaces HbS in the red blood cells with the unaffected foetal haemoglobin.

Read more:
Nobel Prize for chemistry honors exquisitely precise gene-editing technique, CRISPR – a gene engineer explains how it works

The second gene therapy, called Lyfgenia (Lovotibeglogene autotemcel), works differently. It introduces an additional gene in the stem cells which makes it less likely for HbS to form aggregates and cause sickling, reducing the more severe symptoms of the disease.

The development and testing of gene and cell therapies for sickle cell disease is still an ongoing effort of many scientists and companies. That there are now two approved therapies for sickle cell disease highlights the importance of supporting investigation and development of breakthrough technologies based on detailed understanding of biological mechanisms of disease.

These investigations are key to treating patients with genetic diseases, which often do not have any other available treatments.

Cristina Pina receives funding from Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group via the Little Princess Trust and the National Centre for the Replacement, Reduction and Refinement of Animals in Research. She receives honoraria for consulting services to the Medicines Discover Institute at the University of Cardiff via an MRC research grant to Simon Ward.

Victor Hernandez-Hernandez receives funding from GOSHCC Charity, Newlife Charity, Welcome Trust, Fight for Sight, EU FP7. He is co-founder, shareholder and employee of Axovia Therapeutics Ltd.

– ref. Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder that causes lifelong suffering – here’s what you need to know – https://theconversation.com/sickle-cell-disease-is-a-genetic-disorder-that-causes-lifelong-suffering-heres-what-you-need-to-know-243827

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: How the war in Ukraine has made flying worse for the climate

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Viktoriia Ivannikova, Assistant Professor in Aviation Management, Dublin City University

UladzimirZuyeu/Shutterstock

Some long-haul flights connecting Europe and Asia are emitting 40% more CO₂ since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, my new study shows. The spike is largely due to airspace closures above conflict zones which are forcing airlines to seek alternative routes, significantly increasing flight times. Longer flights consume more fuel and increase the operating costs for airlines, quite apart from their contribution to climate change.

The research I led with colleagues highlights how conflicts contribute to climate change in unexpected ways. Understanding this is crucial for tackling aviation’s environmental footprint.

The war in Ukraine closed the country’s airspace and limited access to the airspace of the Russian Federation and Belarus. This amounts to the biggest closure of airspace since the cold war, spanning 18 million km².

Airlines that previously flew in Russian or Ukrainian airspace on routes between Europe and Asia, North America and Asia, and North America and the Middle East now take significant detours. For example, Finnair’s flight AY73 from Helsinki to Tokyo now covers an additional 3,131 kilometres, extending flight times by up to 3.5 hours. North American flights to Asia have been rerouted over the Arctic and Central Asia.

Safety concerns and geopolitical sanctions have forced airlines to carefully navigate around restricted zones.

The situation is further complicated by restrictions in other conflict regions – including the Middle East, where the airspaces of Syria, Yemen and Iraq are also considered no-fly zones for many airlines. The global aviation map has been redrawn, forcing airlines to adapt quickly to a new and challenging reality.

Several international flights now skirt war zones.
Viktoriia Ivannikova

This has been accompanied by significant costs, both financially and to the climate. We analysed 14 long-haul routes between Europe and Asia that were affected by airspace restrictions and operated by three European airlines: Finnair, LOT Polish and Lufthansa.

The findings are striking: rerouted flights burn an additional 23 to 28.5 tonnes of fuel per journey, releasing an extra 72 to 90 metric tonnes of CO₂. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of several cars for a single flight.

Airlines have also reported significant operating cost increases due to the extra flight hours, including higher fuel consumption, air navigation charges and crew salary increases. Our analysis showed that on certain routes between Europe and Asia, costs have risen by between 19% and 39%, while emissions have increased by between 18% and 40%, depending on the airline.

On routes from Warsaw to Beijing, Warsaw to Tokyo and Warsaw to Seoul, LOT Polish Airlines has reported an increase of 23% in average aircraft operating costs following flight restrictions. CO₂ emissions on these routes have increased by 24% and ticket prices have also risen.

Finnair, which historically relied on Russian airspace for efficient Europe-Asia connections, appears to be the most affected carrier. Following flight restrictions, aircraft operating costs on the routes from Helsinki to Shanghai, Helsinki to Tokyo and Helsinki to Seoul have risen by 39%, while average CO₂ emissions on these routes have increased by 40%.

Our findings shed new light on the massive carbon footprint of war, which is often overlooked in climate policy. Using a forecasting model with specialised software, we found that continued avoidance of the airspaces of Russia and Ukraine could increase all aviation-related CO₂ emissions globally by up to 29% in 2025, compared with 2022.

Aviation already accounts for 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions, and this figure is expected to grow as air travel expands.

Aeroplanes seed heat-trapping clouds that amplify their climate impact.
Peter Gudella/Shutterstock

Our findings demonstrate that the need to decarbonise transport cannot be separated from broader geopolitical issues. As wars and conflicts reshape airspace availability, they also worsen aviation’s carbon footprint. It’s not just the airline industry that bears these costs – we all do, in the form of rising temperatures and a changing climate.

What action needs to be taken?

While the challenges are significant, there are solutions.

Upgrading airline fleets with more fuel-efficient aircraft, such as the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787, can help to reduce CO₂ emissions by roughly 20%–25% compared with older aircraft models, such as the Boeing 777-200ER or Airbus A330-200.

Optimising flight paths using advanced air traffic management systems could help too. These systems, allow aircraft to choose the shortest and most efficient paths and can reduce unnecessary detours.

International agreements to manage airspace collectively during times of conflict can keep essential flight corridors open and ensure airlines avoid inefficient rerouting.

Airlines are investing in sustainable aviation fuels, which emits less than traditional kerosene – but insufficient supplies, high costs and other challenges make this an expensive and partial solution. With no viable low-carbon alternatives for aircraft, reducing air travel should be the priority.

As researchers, we see our findings as a call to action. By understanding the environmental consequences of conflict, we can work towards a more sustainable future for aviation and the planet.

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

Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

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

– ref. How the war in Ukraine has made flying worse for the climate – https://theconversation.com/how-the-war-in-ukraine-has-made-flying-worse-for-the-climate-249039

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: AI is transforming the search for new materials that can help create the technologies of the future

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Domenico Vicinanza, Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science, Anglia Ruskin University

Battery technology is one area that can benefit from the development of novel materials. IM Imagery / Shutterstock

From the bronze age to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the discovery and development of new materials has been a driving force in human history. These novel materials have helped advance technology and shape civilisations.

Today, we are at the beginning of a new era, where artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be in the perfect position to transform the search for useful materials. This looks set to completely change the approach to their investigation, creation and testing.

In ancient times, human civilisations experimented with natural resources to create tools and artifacts. The bronze age, in the mid-4th millennium BC, was a significant milestone. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, led to the development of stronger tools and weapons, as well as advancements in agriculture and construction.

Bronze is often referred to as the first “new material” created by humans. We took different elements and created something new, with better properties that either ingredient and unique qualities. The invention of glass in ancient Mesopotamia around 3,500BC was another groundbreaking moment.

A superconductor (the dark material) makes a magnetic cube levitate. The field of the magnet induces currents in the superconductor that generate an equal and opposite field, balancing out the gravitational force on the cube.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Fast forward to the 20th century and the discovery of plastic polymers, ceramics and superconductors opened new frontiers in technology. Ceramics, known for their durability and heat resistance, became a staple in industries from aerospace to electronics.

Superconductors, materials that can conduct electricity with zero electrical resistance, are already used in maglevs (magnetic levitation trains), particle accelerators and medical devices.

AI enters the fray

Searching for new materials that could help drive the development of the next groundbreaking technologies has previously been a long and expensive process. This has been due to the complexity of many materials at the atomic and molecular levels. Traditional methods are essentially based on trial and error and need specialised equipment and resources.

The inherent uncertainty and risk in material discovery further complicates and lengthens the process. However, advancements in AI, including in a subset of AI called machine learning, are beginning to transform the whole landscape, enabling more efficient and targeted approaches. In machine learning, mathematical rules called algorithms learn from data to improve at tasks without human intervention.

The main shift is a new methodology based on “generative” AI systems, which can create new content. AI systems can now directly produce novel materials when provided with desired properties and constraints.

Earlier this month, a team at Microsoft published a paper in Nature that introduced a pair of AI tools for the design of inorganic materials (those not based around the element carbon).

AI tools can generate thousands of potential materials within a short space of time.
Yurchanka Siarhei / Shutterstock

These tools play complementary roles in materials discovery. They are called MatterGen and MatterSim. The first one creates new candidate materials, and the second filters and validates them – to ensure they could be made in the real world.

The specific desired properties that can be incorporated through MatterGen include a specific symmetry, or mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties.

Unlike traditional methods that mostly rely on intuition (along with extensive and tedious experimentation), MatterGen can generate thousands of potential materials with specific desired properties in a fraction of the time.

This AI-led approach accelerates the initial stages of material design. It allows researchers to explore a broader range of possibilities and focus on the most promising candidates.

MatterSim applies rigorous computer analysis to predict the stability and viability of these proposed materials. This predictive capability helps filter out theoretical possibilities from physically feasible ones. This ensures that only stable materials move forward in the discovery process.

New tools in the box

At this point, we might wonder, what does a new material, identified through this process, look like? MatterSim is mostly focusing on crystals, or more appropriately unique crystalline structures with a specific arrangement of atoms.

These structures are tailored to meet precise property constraints, making them suitable for various applications. These include high energy batteries, flexible electronics, displays, solar panels or advanced medical implants.

Flexible electronics are another area where materials discovery could drive advances.
Peter Sobolev

Microsoft’s powerful duo, however, is not alone in its quest. Google DeepMind’s Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (Gnome) is another tool promising to dramatically speed up the discovery process. Gnome uses a form of AI that’s inspired by the human brain called deep learning. It predicts the stability of new materials, significantly shortening the exploration and discovery phase.

In a paper published in 2023, researchers from Google DeepMind demonstrated that their AI model could identify 2.2 million new stable materials. Some 736 of these have already been experimentally realised. This is a tenfold increase over previous methods. These materials, many of which were previously unknown to human chemists, have potential applications in clean energy, electronics, and more.

Even if both Google’s Gnome and Microsoft’s MatterGen are AI-based, they differ in their approaches and, in some ways, provide complementary methodologies. Gnome predicts the stability of new materials by creating variations on existing structures, and it focuses on identifying stable crystalline materials.

MatterGen, on the other hand, employs a generative AI model to directly engineer novel materials based on specific design requirements. It creates material structures by changing elements, positions and periodic lattices (a repeating structure in three dimensions).

The implications of AI-driven material discovery are vast. They could potentially lead to innovations in fields such as energy storage and environmental sustainability. One of the most promising applications is, for example, the development of new batteries.

As the world makes the transition to renewable energy sources, the demand for efficient, long lasting batteries has grown and will continue to do so. AI tools can help researchers design and identify new materials able to support higher energy densities, faster charging times and longer lifespans.

Beyond energy storage, new materials can be used to design new medical devices, implants and even drug delivery systems. This could improve patient outcomes and advance medical treatments.

In aerospace, lightweight, durable materials could enhance the performance and safety of aircraft and spacecraft. Meanwhile, new materials for water purification, carbon capture, and waste management could address pressing environmental challenges.

Domenico Vicinanza 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. AI is transforming the search for new materials that can help create the technologies of the future – https://theconversation.com/ai-is-transforming-the-search-for-new-materials-that-can-help-create-the-technologies-of-the-future-249392

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI: Groundbreaking Formal Verification Further Enhances the Quality of CHERIoT-Ibex

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, Feb. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — lowRISC C.I.C., the open silicon ecosystem organisation, today announced the addition of formal verification to the toolbox of open source design verification (DV) techniques used to ensure the commercial level quality of the Microsoft-created CHERIoT-Ibex core, the processor at the heart of the UKRI-funded Sonata™ platform.

CHERIoT-Ibex pipeline with specification installed using a pipeline follower

Prof. Tom Melham and Louis-Emile Ploix of the University of Oxford, and Alasdair Armstrong of the University of Cambridge, have created an extensive formal verification framework to establish observational equivalence, using unbounded proofs, between the hardware and the RISC-V International Sail specification of instruction behaviour. This greatly strengthens confidence in the design’s conformance to the specification. The verification uses the Cadence Jasper™ tool, along with new Sail support to automatically build a SystemVerilog reference model from the specification. They describe their work in a pre-print paper published on arXiv, and have collaborated with Microsoft to upstream this into the open source CHERIoT-Ibex repository.

CHERIoT-Ibex is Microsoft’s open-source extension of lowRISC’s Ibex®, a 32-bit RISC-V processor. CHERIoT provides fine-grained memory protection for embedded systems, which deterministically mitigates over two thirds of memory vulnerabilities and enables efficient compartmentalization. Of course, it is critical that the hardware correctly implements the CHERIoT extension to ensure that the security guarantees it offers are valid. “Correct” implementation is defined in a standardised way for RISC-V using Sail. This is a domain-specific language which describes, in a formal but readable fashion, exactly what each processor instruction does.

This new formal verification framework and proof developed by the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and lowRISC takes the formal specification for CHERIoT — written in Sail — and checks that for any stream of instructions the CHERIoT-Ibex implementation performs the same memory operations. This equivalence checking is decomposed into multiple steps to help the tool converge, by first proving simple properties, then using those to prove more and more complex ones. It is important to note that the proofs developed as part of this work are different from the more common bounded proofs, where only a limited amount of system evolution is explored for counter-examples. By contrast, unbounded proofs hold true for all possible executions. While no single verification technique should be relied on in isolation, a formal proof (in combination with a traditional functional verification flow) significantly increases confidence in the design.

Besides the work on CHERIoT-Ibex, lowRISC has also published an adaptation of this proof for regular Ibex (which of course also has extensive conventional DV), the main microprocessor core used in the OpenTitan® root of trust.

“We’re thrilled to see the achievement of this milestone, demonstrating that well managed open-source silicon designs can not just match the DV quality of commercial IP, in some cases they’re beginning to lead the field,” said Dr. Gavin Ferris, CEO of lowRISC. “The successful formal verification of CHERIoT-Ibex exemplifies our Silicon Commons approach, bringing the best of industry, academia and the open source community together through collaborative engineering — and moving the game forward for everyone. Now, not only can companies bring products to market cheaper and faster by leveraging open-source silicon designs, they can do so with the strongest possible assurance that specification fidelity has been maintained. We’re proud to have worked with Microsoft, the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Cadence to help make this fantastic result possible.”

“The CHERIoT-Ibex project has been an ideal challenge for our formal verification research at Oxford, which aims at both scientific innovation and strong real-world impact,” Professor Tom Melham and lead verification engineer Louis-Emile Ploix said. “We are delighted that our work has significantly helped to increase confidence in the commercial-grade quality of Microsoft’s CHERIoT-Ibex core, driven by the development of a new Sail to Verilog compiler by our colleagues at the University of Cambridge, and demonstrated new methodology for RISC-V formal verification. Our hope is that other RISC-V verification projects can substantially benefit from our experience, through our publications and open source formal verification code.”

“We are excited to see this formal verification milestone, building on the Sail formal specifications of RISC-V, CHERI RISC-V, and CHERIoT developed by multiple partners over recent years,” said Professor Peter Sewell at the University of Cambridge. “This links formal specifications of the instruction set, previously used for architecture design, hardware testing, software development, and formal reasoning about software, all the way down to the detailed hardware design. The work shows that full formal verification is viable for such designs with reasonable effort.”

“Finding and fixing bugs early in the design cycle is crucial to address the fast growing complexity of chip design. Formal verification is a key technology that allows teams to boost the functional verification productivity, reduce costs, improve quality, and ensure more reliable designs in less time,” Ziyad Hanna, Corporate Vice President of Cadence Design Systems, said. “We’re delighted that Cadence Jasper Formal Verification Platform has been instrumental in supporting this effort, contributing to the future of secure computing.”

lowRISC would like to thank all the supporters of the Sunburst project, with special thanks to Microsoft for contributing the core CHERI implementation within the CHERIoT-Ibex processor and making it open source. “Microsoft is thrilled to upstream an extensive formal verification framework and proof to the open-source CHERIoT-Ibex repository. The CHERIoT-Ibex core augments lowRISC’s Ibex with the CHERIoT ISA extension,” said Tony Chen, Partner Security Architect at Microsoft. “The formal verification pioneered by Oxford University has instilled an unmatched level of confidence in the CHERIoT-Ibex core.”

CHERIoT-Ibex is the processor core of Sonata which puts CHERI technology into the hands of embedded-system engineers. Sonata is part of the Sunburst project, which is funded by DSbD and UKRI (Grant Number 107540). The early, foundational work at Oxford on the formal verification of CHERIoT-Ibex was funded by DSbD and UKRI as part of the SCorCH project (EPSRC Grant Number EP/V000225/1).

About lowRISC®
Founded in 2014 at the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, lowRISC is a not-for-profit company/CIC that provides a neutral home for collaborative engineering to develop and maintain commercial-quality open source silicon designs and tools for the long term. The lowRISC not-for-profit structure combined with full-stack engineering capabilities in-house enables the hosting and management of high-quality projects like OpenTitan and Sunburst via the Silicon Commons® approach.

Media Contact
lowRISC@w2comm.com

An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/432a234b-dca0-44be-9118-91ca2b8996c4

The MIL Network –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: Growing Plants in ‘America’s Attic’

Source: US State of Connecticut

Carl Johnson ’19 ’21 (CAHNR) starts his day by making the rounds in the greenhouses he tends, checking for any “plant emergencies” or problems with the facility.

This is standard fare for any horticulturalist. But Johnson is doing it somewhere pretty special. He works at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Johnson works in an off-site, high-security production complex that supports all the Smithsonian museums.

“I’ve heard it referred to as ‘America’s attic,’” Johnson says. “The stuff on this campus is pretty wild. There’s whale bones and mummies and artifacts.”

Johnson manages a living botanical research collection belonging to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany. This collection supports the work of scientists doing research at the Smithsonian on topics like plant genetics, evolutionary biology, morphology, and species conservation.

“They’ll travel around the world, and they’ll come back with a seed, or a cutting, or a piece of a plant that they want to grow, and it’s my job to take it and grow it here in D.C. in the greenhouse,” Johnson says.

Johnson also works with staff from Smithsonian Gardens who produce interior exhibits and horticultural displays around the Smithsonian museums.

Johnson’s interest in plants and caring for living things started early. He grew up with a small vegetable garden at his house and started caring for plants and pets when he was young.

“I think it’s rewarding to take care of things and see them thrive,” Johnson says. “It’s very fulfilling to take a plant that might be challenging to grow, then figure out what that specific species needs. In the end, I am, hopefully, successfully growing it and seeing it thrive here in the greenhouse.”

Johnson worked at Logees Greenhouses in Danielson for a few years before coming to UConn, where he pursued both his associate and bachelor’s degrees in plant science from the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources.

“I wasn’t the biggest academic person,” Johnson says. “Having the Ratcliffe Hicks associate’s program allowed me to get into UConn and then transition from that to the bachelor’s plant science degree was perfect for me. It brought it all together.”

At UConn, Johnson joined the Horticulture Club. The student club took a trip to Washington, D.C. and met with James Gagliardi ’05 (CAHNR), with whom one of the other members had interned. Gagliardi was working as a horticulturalist at the Smithsonian Institute at the time.

The club members toured the U.S. Botanic Garden with Susan Pell, now the director of the organization, which turned out to be an important moment for Johnson.

“I just found her and her job really inspiring, and I kept thinking about how cool it would be to work in a place like that,” Johnson says.

As Johnson was preparing to graduate, a position at the U.S. Botanic Garden opened. With the help of UConn’s Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills, two weeks after graduation, he started working there.

Johnson worked at the Botanic Garden for a few years before moving over to the Smithsonian in his current role. In that prior role, Johnson was responsible for preparing the gardens each morning for the public, checking on plants and cleaning up anything that may have been left by visitors. He then spent most of his days at the production facility where they grow backups of all the plants on display in case one gets sick or damaged.

“If you think of the plants in the Garden as actors, all the understudies are at the production facility,” Johnson says. “Anything you see on display, there’s three or four extras waiting to take its place.”

While working at the U.S. Botanic Garden, Johnson got to cross off a major botanical bucket list item – growing a “corpse flower.” The corpse flower, or Amorphophallus titanum, gets its nickname from the rotting-flesh-like aroma its flower produces.

“When we have a bloom it’s a big deal,” Johnson says. “It only happens every few years, and the public gets really excited, and people who might not even be interested in plants come to see it.”

Through his years of gardening experience, Johnson says he’s had the chance to grow just about every plant he’d ever dreamed of.

“Getting into plants, I had favorites, plants that I thought were cool, and I had these dream plants that I was hoping to encounter and grow, and I’ve gotten to grow all of them,” Johnson says.

Johnson credits his experience at UConn with preparing him for the work he has done since graduation.

“There’s a lot of basic gardening stuff that comes with this job that I learned at UConn and in my jobs before that people might not think would remain as relevant,” Johnson says. “I still water, I still weed, I still prune. All of those basic gardening skills are still everyday essential things.”

At UConn, Johson interned at the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory, the Home and Garden Center, and in the Floriculture Greenhouse, taking full advantage of having active greenhouses on campus and the services provided to the community through UConn Extension.

“I did every possible internship that was available to someone in plant science,” Johnson says.

Johnson says his internship with Shelley Durocher, laboratory technician in the Floriculture Greenhouse, especially prepared him for the work he does now at the Smithsonian.

“That’s what [Durocher] does – she works with the researchers, and she grows their plants to whatever their specifications are and for whatever research purpose they have in mind,” Johnson says. “So that was a one-to-one translation. It was a super valuable experience.”

This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply.

Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

MIL OSI USA News –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI: ACT-ion Raises $7.5 million in Pre-Series A Round Led by BASF Venture Capital

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

DALLAS, Feb. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ACT-ion Battery Technologies, a startup in the field of lithium ion battery cathode active materials (CAM), announced today the successful closing of its Pre-Series A funding round. Founded in 2019, ACT-ion has developed both an efficient and cost-effective means to produce single crystalline cathode active materials. This chemistry agnostic process addresses a critical challenge in the lithium-ion battery value chain: the need to both reduce CAM production costs and increase production throughput.

The USD 7.5 million round was led by BASF Venture Capital, with participation from Hunt Energy Enterprises, Mirae Asset Capital, Arosa Capital Management, and LG Technology Ventures. ACT-ion will use the proceeds to accelerate its innovative CAM production technology, aiming to establish an operational pilot facility by 2025, with validations from leading industry partners.

ACT-ion is the recent recipient of a R&D 100 award which recognized the Company’s innovation to overcome the complexity and cost of CAM manufacturing. ACT-ion’s continuous process generates coated single crystal CAM leading to higher performance and longer cycle life lithium-ion batteries. ACT-ion has successfully demonstrated this manufacturing platform for a variety of chemistries.

“We are excited to have the support of Pre-Series A investors who share our vision for battery materials and manufacturing,” said Jin Lim, CTO and Interim CEO of ACT-ion. “This funding will allow us to bring our innovative solutions to market faster and make a meaningful impact on the global energy landscape.”

“We are excited to have led this financing round and to support ACT-ion as a partner. With the market need for novel battery materials, and the processes to produce them, ACT-ion’s mission to improve CAM aligns well with BASF efforts to deliver innovation to our customers,” said Joshua Speros, Investment Manager at BASF Venture Capital.

“The domestic production of battery materials at cost will mark a significant milestone in the US CAM industry,” said Lillian Shattock, Director of Private Investments at Arosa Capital Management. “We are thrilled to support ACT-ion, as we believe their technology can be a pivotal enabler of domestic CAM manufacturing.”

Incubated within and spun-out of Hunt Energy Enterprises LLC, “the ACT-ion venture was developed to target the largest cost constraint within lithium batteries and thereby help enable growth for markets such as electric drones, electric vehicles and power tools,” said Victor Liu, Chairman of ACT-ion.

About ACT-ion Battery Technologies

ACT-ion Battery Technologies is a leading lithium battery cathode active material (CAM) technology company. As an advanced manufacturing technology company, ACT-ion’s rapid continuous process produces coated single crystal CAMs for lithium batteries through a novel, clean, and chemistry-agnostic process, requiring lower energy and cost. For more information, please visit www.act-ion.com.

About Hunt Energy Enterprises

Hunt Energy Enterprises is the corporate energy technology venture group within Hunt Energy Company, LP. As such, Hunt Energy Enterprises has incubated several technologies that leverage its operations and knowledge to create new energy companies and partnerships with entrepreneurs in both the conventional petroleum business and cleantech power. It is part of a larger privately-owned group of companies managed by the Ray L. Hunt family that engages in oil and gas exploration, refining, power, real estate, ranching and private equity investments. For more information, please visit www.huntenergyenterprises.com.

About BASF Venture Capital GmbH

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF Venture Capital GmbH also contributes to this corporate purpose. Founded in 2001, BASF Venture Capital invests in Europe, the United States, Canada, China, India, Brazil, and Israel. Our goal is to generate new growth potential for current and future business areas of BASF by investing in innovative startups. The focus of our venture investments includes decarbonization, circular economy, Agtech, new materials, digitalization and new, disruptive business models. For more information, please visit https://www.basf.com/global/en/who-we-are/organization/group-companies/BASF_Venture-Capital

About Arosa Capital Management

Arosa Capital Management is an alternative investment manager that focuses on investments in alternative energy, traditional energy and related sectors. Founded in 2013, Arosa’s approach is rooted in rigorous fundamental analysis and deep sector expertise to invest in private and public companies as well as in credit and commodities on a cross asset basis. The focus of Arosa’s ventures strategy is investments in private companies that primarily pursue alternative, renewable, or efficient energy technologies. For more information, please visit www.arosacapital.com.

About Mirae Asset Capital

Mirae Asset Capital is a leading financial institution specializing in fostering innovation and driving new growth opportunities as a trusted financial partner. Established in 1997, the firm invests in groundbreaking ideas across sectors including AI, robotics, energy, and biotechnology. Leveraging the extensive global network of the Mirae Asset Financial Group, Mirae Asset Capital operates across key markets such as Korea, the United States, India, and China. For more information, please visit vc.miraeassetcapital.com.

About LG Technology Ventures

LG Technology Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of the LG Group. LG Technology Ventures was established in 2018 and its team consists of experienced investors, entrepreneurs, technologists, and industry domain experts. Currently, LG Technology Ventures is managing over $805 million of fund assets and invests in early-stage start-ups in artificial intelligence, mobility, advanced materials, life-sciences, next generation display, mobile, and 5G. We strive to create value for our portfolio companies by helping them develop strategic partnerships with LG Companies. For more information, please visit https://www.lgtechventures.com/.

For more information, please contact: ACT-ion Communications, Email: inquiry@act-ion.com

The MIL Network –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: ACMD appoints new members
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Four more experts have been appointed members to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Following the announcement of 10 leading experts joining the ACMD’s Advisory Council in January, 4 more appointments have been made today.

Professor Karen Ersche

Professor Sunjeev Kamboj

Doctor Lorna Nisbet

Jon Privett

The 4 will be joining the ACMD which provides advice and makes recommendations to the government on the harms caused by drugs.

Professor Ersche is Professor of Addiction Neuroscience at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, whilst Professor Kamboj is Professor of Translational Clinical Psychology at the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College London.

Doctor Nisbet is Senior Lecturer (teaching and research) at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, at the School of Science and Engineering, University of Dundee.

Jon Privett will bring his extensive knowledge as an expert witness in drug trafficking with the Metropolitan Police to the ACMD.

The appointments have been made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

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Published 10 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Interest continues to soar in ‘earn while you learn’ apprenticeships

Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

(L-R): Roger Wilson, Chief Executive Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council; Lee Campbell, SRC Principal & CEO; Harry Hamilton, ABC LMP Vice-Chairperson; Councillor Kyle Savage, Deputy Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon; Tracy Rice, ABC LMP Chairperson; Alderman Paul Greenfield. (Economic Development and Regeneration Committee Chair, ABC Council).

Over 920 people attended The Big Apprenticeship Event at the Craigavon Civic and Conference Centre on Thursday 6 February, to explore the opportunities available with apprenticeships and higher level apprenticeships across sectors from robotics, accountancy, beauty therapy, construction and engineering to transport and science.

This is a key event in the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon (ABC) Labour Market Partnership’s Get Future Ready campaign, in partnership with Southern Regional College (SRC). The event ran alongside the Department for the Economy’s (DfE) Apprenticeship Week, which occurred from the 3 – 7 February 2025.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Councillor Kyle Savage said; “Apprenticeships have come a long way from being associated with traditional trades to being a much sought-after pathway to a successful career in a wide range of sectors.

“Throughout this event we have heard first hand from employers, education and training providers and current apprentices about how apprenticeships, which have greatly increased in recent years, are important for our future economy and a worthwhile investment for employers and apprentices alike. Employers can harness skills that best meet the needs of the business and apprentices feel secure and confident by learning sector-specific skills and gaining industry recognised qualifications.”

“In council we are committed to working with our partners to drive the vision of the Labour Market Partnership to help get local people closer to work and into work through apprenticeships so everyone can achieve their full potential.”

The theme for this year’s Apprenticeship Week was ‘Getting it Right for You’, highlighting the varied and flexible opportunities that exist with an apprenticeship.

Lee Campbell, Principal & CEO of Southern Regional College added; “It has been incredible to witness the increased interest and enthusiasm for all things apprenticeships. The College has continuously developed the range of apprenticeship opportunities available, catering for the diverse interests and career pathways of people within the southern region.

“Apprenticeship and higher level apprenticeships offer participants the distinct opportunity to train for a career in a chosen field, whilst being in employment. Our aspiration is to enable as many people as possible to start a career they enjoy and are passionate about. We look forward to September when we will be welcoming new apprentices starting their journey with Southern Regional College.”

Click here to find out more about apprenticeships at SRC.

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: HSE Launches Advanced Training Course on AI in Education

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

Faculty of Computer Science HSE University is launching a professional development course on artificial intelligence in education. Program is intended for teachers, lecturers, and methodologists planning to integrate AI technologies into the educational process, as well as for management teams of educational institutions interested in improving educational processes through the implementation of AI.

Teachers from the Faculty of Computer Science at the National Research University Higher School of Economics will show how to make artificial intelligence an assistant to a teacher so that it works for the benefit of the educational process. For example, students will be able to use neural networks to develop tests and educational materials, and analyze academic performance.

The program consists of four blocks. The first is devoted to the effectiveness of AI in educational practice and the ethical issues of its use. The second block will examine AI services in detail: Yandex GPT, GigaChat, Perplexity and others. Teachers will tell how to use them to create programs of academic disciplines, articles, presentations, tests and assignments, and conduct data analysis. Block 3 contains information on how AI is currently used in education, business and media. The last block is a bonus. It is intended for those who want to delve deeper into the structure of large language models and learn about the practice of their application. Upon completion of the training in the Artificial Intelligence in Education program, students will be able to confidently create their own projects for integrating AI into the educational process based on the studied cases and examples.

The integration of artificial intelligence tools into the educational process is not just a fashionable trend, but a necessity in today’s rapidly changing world, the expert believes Center for Continuous Education of the Faculty of Computer Science of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and the course creator Daria Kasyanenko, who spoke about the course and the importance of using AI tools in education.

“AI opens up huge opportunities for personalizing learning, automating routine tasks, and increasing the efficiency of the educational process as a whole. Our course is designed to help teachers master these innovative technologies and implement them in their teaching practice,” she emphasized.

The Higher School of Economics already has successful experience in this area. Last year, as part of the strategic academic leadership program “Priority 2030” More than 50% of HSE full-time employees have completed the course “Artificial Intelligence in Education and Research”.

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 –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Space Norway orders THOR 8 telecom satellite from Thales Alenia Space

Source: Thales Group

Headline: Space Norway orders THOR 8 telecom satellite from Thales Alenia Space

Cannes, February 10^th, 2025 – Space Norway, Northern Europe’s leading satellite operator, and Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), today announced they have signed a contract for the supply of a new communications satellite, THOR 8.

THOR 8 © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

From its orbital slot at 1° west, the THOR 8 communications satellite will meet the growing demand for connectivity and ensure continuity of Space Norway’s broadcasting service over a geographic coverage area from the Nordics to Central and Eastern Europe. THOR 8 will provide top-tier satellite connectivity for broadcasters and high-speed internet access for fixed and mobile infrastructure (maritime, terrestrial and aeronautical services) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With a launch mass of 4 metric tons, the satellite will be built on Thales Alenia Space’s Spacebus 4000B2 platform and will operate in the Ka and Ku frequency bands.

As prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the design, manufacture, testing and delivery of the satellite. THOR 8 will be launched in 2027 and will have an in-orbit service life of over 15 years.

Morten Tengs, CEO of Space Norway & Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space © Thales Alenia Space/Briot

“I would like to thank Space Norway for its continued trust in Thales Alenia Space,” said Hervé Derrey, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “THOR 8 is our second satellite built for Space Norway, after THOR 6, which was launched in 2009. This new contract further underscores the success of our robust and proven Spacebus 4000 product line, which has represented a total of 41 satellite programs, including 15 based on Spacebus 4000B2 product.”

Morten Tengs, CEO of Space Norway, stated: “The deployment of the THOR 8 satellite is a significant milestone in our mission to deliver advanced and reliable connectivity solutions. This strategic addition will enhance our capabilities, providing critical services to safeguard the interests of both national and international governments while meeting the demands of our commercial partners. We extend our gratitude to Thales Alenia Space for their long-standing partnership and commitment towards this transformational project.”

About THALES ALENIA SPACE

Drawing on over 40 years of experience and a unique combination of skills, expertise and cultures, Thales Alenia Space delivers cost-effective solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments and private industry alike count on Thales Alenia Space to design satellite-based systems that provide anytime, anywhere connections and positioning, monitor our planet, enhance management of its resources, and explore our Solar System and beyond. Thales Alenia Space sees space as a new horizon, helping to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of approximately €2.2 billion in 2023 and has around 8,600 employees in 8 countries, with 16 sites in Europe.

MIL OSI Economics –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: President of India to Inaugurate International Conference on Integrative Health Solutions in Delhi on the occasion of Unani Day tomorrow

Source: Government of India

President of India to Inaugurate International Conference on Integrative Health Solutions in Delhi on the occasion of Unani Day tomorrow

The Government of India remains committed to advancing the development of Unani medicine, ensuring that it contributes meaningfully to public welfare and the overall health of the global community: Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Union Minister of State, (I/C) Ministry of Ayush

Posted On: 10 FEB 2025 3:40PM by PIB Delhi

President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate the two-day International Conference on Unani Day tomorrow at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science and Technology & Ministry of Earth Sciences and Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Ayush & Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare will also be present on the occasion.

Every year the 11th of February marks Unani Day, celebrating the birth anniversary of eminent Unani physician, educator, and freedom fighter Hakim Ajmal Khan. The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), a premier research council under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India, is hosting the distinguished International Conference on “Innovations in Unani Medicine for Integrative Health Solutions – A Way Forward” from February 11-12, 2025, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

While highlighting the growth of the Unani system of medicine and the focus of the Government towards integration of Ayush systems in mainstream healthcare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Union Minister of State, Independent Charge, Ministry of Ayush, said, “I am proud to witness the growing integration of Unani medicine into the global healthcare framework. By fostering innovation and collaboration, we aim to bring forward comprehensive healthcare solutions that honour our traditional practices while addressing modern health challenges. The Government of India remains committed to advancing the development of Unani medicine, ensuring that it contributes meaningfully to public welfare and the overall health of the global community.”

While underlining the focus of the Government to boost scientific research activity in Ayush systems, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, stated that “The establishment of research centres in the Ayush sector, the inclusion of Ayush in mainstream health policies, and integration of traditional systems into the broader health framework reflects India’s commitment to preserving and promoting our cultural heritage. This international conference aims to highlight the latest advances in Unani Medicine and their utility in holistic health systems.”

The International Conference offers a dynamic platform for dialogue, collaboration, and knowledge exchange, aiming to highlight the pivotal role of Unani Medicine in the promotion of global health and well-being. Key Objectives of the Conference Include-Fostering Innovation: Exploring new frontiers in Unani medicine for integrative healthcare solutions; Global Collaboration: Facilitating knowledge-sharing among national and international experts in traditional and integrative medicine; Showcasing Achievements: Highlighting the latest research and advancements in Unani medicine by CCRUM.

Key Highlights of the Event include- Scientific Sessions: Expert-led keynote addresses and discussions on integrating Unani medicine into modern healthcare; Exhibition: A vibrant display of innovations in Unani and herbal pharmaceuticals, educational institutions, research organisations, and service providers; Global Participation: Delegates from countries including the USA, South Africa, Iran, Malaysia, UAE, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh will contribute to insightful deliberations.

On this occasion, several publications by CCRUM will be released, including the Souvenir of the International Conference. Additionally, NABL and NABH certificates will be awarded to CCRUM institutions. A short video showcasing the Council’s recent initiatives will also be launched. Furthermore, Certificates of Appreciation will be awarded for the best research papers, outstanding contributions to Unani medicine, and the best-performing institutions.

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MV/AKS

(Release ID: 2101306) Visitor Counter : 94

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: India to Inaugurate EFTA Desk to Enhance Trade and Investment under TEPA

Source: Government of India (2)

India to Inaugurate EFTA Desk to Enhance Trade and Investment under TEPA

Business Roundtable to Witness Participation from Over 100 Companies from India and EFTA Nations

Posted On: 10 FEB 2025 10:19AM by PIB Delhi

In a significant step towards deepening economic ties with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal along with the EFTA bloc represented by H.E. Mrs. Helene Budliger Artieda, Swiss State Secretary, H.E. Mr. Tomas Norvoll, State Secretary of Trade and Industry, Norway, H.E. Martin Eyjolfsson, Permanent Secretary of State, Iceland, H.E. Dominique Hasler, Minister of External Affairs, Education, and Sport, Liechtenstein, Mr. Markus Schlagenhof, Deputy Secretary General, EFTA Secretariat and Mr. David Sveinbhornsson, Senior Officer, EFTA Secretariat, will inaugurate the EFTA Desk at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on February 10, 2025.

The initiative, in line with Chapter 7 of the India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), which was signed on March 10, 2024, aims to serve as a dedicated platform to promote trade, investment, and business facilitation between India and the four EFTA nations—Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. The inauguration ceremony will be attended by senior officials from the Government of India and high-ranking dignitaries from EFTA member states.

Senior officials from Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) will also address the gathering, outlining India’s vision for stronger economic engagement with EFTA nations.

The India-EFTA Dedicated Desk will act as a centralized support mechanism for EFTA companies looking to expand in India. It will provide market insights and regulatory guidance, business matchmaking, and assistance in navigating India’s policy and investment landscape.

Post-inauguration, a high-level EFTA-India Business Roundtable will convene, featuring over 100 leading businesses from India and EFTA nations, aimed at fostering collaboration across key sectors, including Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences, Financial Services & Fintech, Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Energy & Sustainability, Seafood & Maritime, Food Processing & Agritech. The roundtable will provide a structured forum for companies to explore joint ventures, investment opportunities, and technology partnerships under the framework of TEPA.

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Abhishek Dayal/Abhijith Narayanan/Asmitabha Manna

(Release ID: 2101215) Visitor Counter : 23

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by CE at Opening Ceremony of Tech Applied Summit (English only) (with video)

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Speech by CE at Opening Ceremony of Tech Applied Summit (English only) (with video)
Speech by CE at Opening Ceremony of Tech Applied Summit (English only) (with video)
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Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at the Opening Ceremony of Tech Applied Summit today (February 10): Ir Sunny Lee (Chairman of Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to speak to you at the inaugural Tech Applied Summit, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of ASTRI – the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute. Twenty-five years ago, ASTRI began its journey with an important mission: to boost Hong Kong’s global competitiveness through applied research. Today, it stands as a leading research and development (R&D) powerhouse, and a key contributor to Hong Kong’s innovation and technology (I&T) sector. Hong Kong, too, is on a mission. We are racing towards the vision of becoming an international innovation and technology centre, with the support of the National 14th Five-Year Plan. Under the unique “one country, two systems” principle, Hong Kong enjoys both the China advantage and the global advantage. We boast an excellent business environment with world-class professional services. Our established common law regime dovetails with the legal system of many global financial centres. We are the only city in Asia with as many as five universities in the world’s top 100. These helped to cultivate our highly talented and versatile workforce. We also continue to attract top scholars and researchers to our institutions. With unparalleled access to both the Mainland market and the global market, our business environment provides a good foundation for the commercialisation, and transformation, of outstanding research outcomes. Last year, Hong Kong once again became the world’s freest economy, and ranked fifth in the World Competitiveness Yearbook. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou science and technology cluster has been ranked the world’s second-most innovative hub for five consecutive years. These aren’t just rankings – they are proof of Hong Kong’s resilience, adaptability and drive. Our dedication to innovation and transformation. The Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) Government has been implementing forward-looking policies to drive our city’s I&T advancement. Our HK$10 billion RAISe+ Scheme (Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme), launched by this term of the Government, is fast-tracking R&D commercialisation. The New Industrialisation Acceleration Scheme is helping industries like life and health technology and advanced manufacturing build cutting-edge, smart production facilities. And we’re just getting started. The new HK$10 billion Innovation and Technology Industry-Oriented Fund will soon launch, to channel more investment in emerging and future industries of strategic importance. All these initiatives are making Hong Kong a launch pad for start-ups, researchers and investors to turn bold ideas into transformative realities. The Northern Metropolis, situated in the north of our city, will become a growth engine and another game changer to our I&T scene. We are developing the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Loop, an area that straddles our boundary with the neighbouring Mainland city of Shenzhen, to create unprecedented opportunities for cross-boundary I&T collaboration. As the Park officially enters into its operational phase this year, I am confident that it will become a hub where ideas radiate beyond boundaries, and where innovation know no limits. Ladies and gentlemen, today’s Tech Applied Summit exemplifies how collaboration can supercharge innovation. We are excited about the opportunities that lie ahead and are committed to continuing our journey of innovation and excellence. I would like to thank ASTRI for organising this remarkable Summit, and for your unwavering commitment to Hong Kong’s I&T development. My best wishes to your continued success in the next quarter century and beyond. I wish you all a prosperous Year of the Snake, and the best of innovation in the years to come. Thank you.

Ends/Monday, February 10, 2025Issued at HKT 11:50

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MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by SITI at Tech Applied Summit organised by ASTRI (English only) (with photo)

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

Following is the speech by the Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, at the Tech Applied Summit organised by the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) today (February 10):Sunny (Board Chairman of ASTRI, Mr Sunny Lee), 劉副市長 (Deputy Mayor of the Suzhou Municipal People’s Government, Professor Liu Bo), 葉部長 (Deputy Director-General of the Department of Educational, Scientific and Technological Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Ye Shuiqiu), distinguished speakers and guests, ladies and gentlemen, Good morning. It’s my pleasure to stand before you today at the Tech Applied Summit, a truly remarkable convergence of talents, ideas, and innovation. First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to ASTRI for organising this event, bringing together more than 40 visionary speakers and 1 000 attendees from across the globe. To our distinguished speakers who have travelled from afar, a very warm welcome to Hong Kong. We are thrilled to have you here, and look forward to the insights you’ll share, which will no doubt inspire us all. Innovation and technology, I&T in short, are not merely buzzwords – they are the lifeblood of Hong Kong’s future. As outlined in the Chief Executive’s latest Policy Address, we are investing ambitiously to ensure I&T serves as the engine for high-quality development in Hong Kong. New initiatives, such as the HK$10 billion Innovation and Technology Industry-Oriented Fund, the HK$180 million I&T Accelerator Pilot Scheme and the new round of HK$1.5 billion Research Matching Grant Scheme, are empowering start-ups, researchers, and businesses to transform bold ideas into transformative realities. These efforts are cementing Hong Kong’s position as a leading innovation powerhouse in the region. Our investments extend beyond funding. We invest in talent, infrastructure, and partnerships. We are opening doors for the world’s brightest minds to call Hong Kong home, while nurturing local talent to lead in fields like AI, robotics, life and health technology, and advance manufacturing. Today, as we gather under the banner of I&T, we are reminded of the power of collaboration. In Hong Kong, the close partnership among government, industry, academia, research and investment sectors forms the cornerstone of our strategy to unlock new opportunities and drive progress, and our partnerships extend far beyond our borders. The potential for Hong Kong-Mainland collaboration is indeed immense. ASTRI has played a pivotal role in fostering this collaboration. With the opening of its office in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone last year, ASTRI has been instrumental in transforming ideas into impactful solutions that benefit businesses, society, and the economy. This year is particularly special as ASTRI celebrates its silver jubilee – 25 years of excellence, dedication, and leadership in I&T. Well done to everyone at ASTRI who has been part of this incredible journey. The Government earlier proposed the merger of ASTRI and NAMI (the Nano and Advanced Materials Institute), a combination of two strong public R&D (research and development) centres with complementary advantages and shared values, thereby enhancing our capability and capacity for high value-added applied R&D work. We are eager to unleash the integrated power of the new entity and jointly accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. As we usher in the Year of the Snake, a year symbolising wisdom, transformation, and resilience, I wish you all an auspicious and prosperous year ahead. Let us work towards a smarter, more connected and innovative world. Thank you.

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 11, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: How geology and climate control vegetation composition and distribution in the Yellowstone Geoecosystem

Source: US Geological Survey

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Cathy Whitlock, Regents Professor with the Department of Earth Science and the Paleoecology Lab at Montana State University.

In Yellowstone, geology and ecology go hand in hand. In fact, the geology of Yellowstone can be mapped by its vegetation! For example, the glacial clays in the Lamar and Hayden valleys are rich in nutrients, like calcium and magnesium, and have high water-holding capacity; these qualities favor growth of grassland and sagebrush steppe. These landscapes are called the “Serengeti of North America”— lush grasslands that support large populations of bison and elk, not to mention coyotes, wolves, and grizzlies. Thinner soils with intermediate fertility form on the eastern side of Yellowstone National Park in the Absaroka volcanic province, where andesitic compositions are common. They support forests of Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and whitebark and lodgepole pine, like those found in much of the northern Rockies. In contrast, the plateaus of central Yellowstone National Park, created from explosive and lava-flow eruptions with rhyolite compositions, are overlain by thin, infertile soils. Their lack of critical nutrients and low water-holding capacity limit most conifers, with the notable exception of lodgepole pine. Lodgepole’s seeds are released when the cones are heated, enabling rapid establishment after fire and further ensuring the conifer’s dominance in central Yellowstone.

Modern vegetation on different geological substrates in Yellowstone. Left: steppe/grassland on glacial clay found in places like Lamar and Hayden Valleys. Center: Mixed conifer forest in the Absaroka andesite volcanic field in the eastern part of Yellowstone National Park. Right: Lodgepole pine forest on Central Plateau rhyolite (hydrothermal grassland is present in the geyser basin in the middle of the photo). Figure by Cathy Whitlock, Montana State University.

Yellowstone didn’t always look like it does today, though. The vegetation has varied over time along with climate. One way to investigate the vegetation and climate conditions of the past is to collect and analyze sediment cores from lakes in the area. Sediment layers in lakes preserve millions of pollen grains that can be used to study changes in vegetation and climate through time.

Comparing pollen records from three lakes in different geological substrates highlights the influence of geology and climate on long-term vegetation development. Radiocarbon dating of sediment cores indicates that these lakes formed 14,000–15,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. A pollen record from Slough Creek Pond, near the confluence of Slough Creek and the Lamar River in the northeast part of Yellowstone National Park, describes the history of the fertile grassland regions. Following ice recession, when the climate was cool and wet, the clay-rich areas were covered by shrub tundra. As temperatures rose, Engelmann spruce moved into northern Yellowstone to form a subalpine parkland. As more trees arrived with further warming, a parkland of spruce, fir, and whitebark pine developed. After 11,000 years ago, during the early-Holocene warm period, Slough Creek supported a forest dominated by lodgepole pine and juniper. The present Douglas-fir parkland was established about 7,000 years ago, when the climate of northern Yellowstone became drier and fire activity increased.

A pollen record from Cub Creek Pond in the Absaroka region shows that the initial vegetation was similar to that of Slough Creek Pond. Following an early period of shrub tundra, a subalpine parkland of Engelmann spruce formed about 12,500 years ago and became more diverse about 11,700 years ago. On andesitic substrates, the early-Holocene warm period supported abundant lodgepole pine, some Douglas-fir, and aspen. In the last 5,000 years, this region became cooler and wetter, and present-day mixed forest of spruce, fir, and pine developed.

Compare these histories with that of the rhyolitic Central Plateau. A record from Cygnet Lake shows that shrub tundra or steppe was present before 11,000 years ago. While other parts of the park were colonized by spruce, fir, and whitebark pine, the infertile soils limited their establishment in the Central Plateau. It wasn’t until lodgepole pine arrived 11,000 years ago that rhyolite regions became forested, and despite shifts in climate and fire activity, central Yellowstone has been covered by lodgepole pine forest ever since.

Vegetation history based on pollen records from three small lakes on different geological substrates in Yellowstone National Park. Blue is open vegetation, light green is parkland, dark green is forest. Top plot is from Slough Creek Pond, in a present grassland area dominated by glacial and lake sediment in the northeast part of Yellowstone National Park. Middle plot is from Cub Creek Pond in the Absaroka volcanics on the east side of Yellowstone National Park. Bottom plot is from Cygnet Lake in the Central Plateau rhyolites in the center of Yellowstone National Park. Figure by Cathy Whitlock, Montana State University.

So, what do we learn from this? First is that Yellowstone is a geoecosystem in which the geologic template as well as changes in climate and fire shape vegetation development. Imagine how this geo-connection played out through time. If Yellowstone did not overlie a hotspot, we would not have had caldera and post-caldera rhyolitic eruptions. No rhyolite, no lodgepole pine forest. If the hotspot hadn’t created what Ken Pierce and Lisa Morgan call the “Yellowstone crescent of high terrain,” (which is essentially an area of the Rockies that has been uplifted by the hotspot’s interaction with the North American plate) we wouldn’t have had the high elevations necessary for ice to form during glacial periods. No hotspot, no glaciers, no clay-rich soils, no fertile steppe. In short, Yellowstone would have looked like the rest of the northern Rockies. But to our good fortune, all of these events did transpire and created the Yellowstone geoecosystem that we see today. Geology matters!

Additional reading:

Despain, DG. 1990. Yellowstone vegetation; consequences of environment and history in a natural setting. Roberts Rine- hart, New York, New York, USA.

Iglesias, V, Whitlock, C, Krause, TR, Baker, RG. 2018. Past vegetation dynamics in the Yellowstone region highlight the vulnerability of mountain systems to climate change. Journal of Biogeography 45: 1768-1780.

Pierce, KL, Morgan LA. 1992. The track of the Yellowstone hot spot: Volcanism, faulting and uplift. Geological Society Memoir 179, Chapter 1.

Whitlock, C. 1993. Postglacial vegetation and climate of Grand Teton and southern Yellowstone National Parks. Ecological Monographs 63: 173-198.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 11, 2025