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Category: Statistics

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Between 8% to 16% of EU population is ‘energy poor’

    Source: European Union 2

    Amidst the EU’s push for a fair green transition, and further reinforced by the uncertainties of the energy market, the issue of energy poverty has come to the forefront and become a critical policy priority.  Energy poverty can be measured in different ways, but its measurement is a challenge for policy formulation and action to address it. 

    A JRC study investigated four primary energy poverty indicators to understand the EU-wide distribution and socio-economic profiles of “energy poor”. The findings underlined the usefulness to rely on a battery of various indicators to provide a picture of energy poverty.

    The Social Climate Fund regulation and the revised Energy Efficiency Directive define energy poverty as a household’s lack of access to essential energy services, such as heating, hot water, cooling, lighting and energy to power appliances. According to the Commission’ Recommendation on Energy Poverty, it is a multidimensional phenomenon driven by three underlying causes, namely, high-energy expenditures in proportion to household budget, general low levels of income and low energy performance of buildings. 

    What’s the challenge when measuring energy poverty?

    There are numerous papers discussing advantages and disadvantages of different energy poverty indicators used in Europe, but little is known about their overlap and their inter-relationship.  The JRC study addresses this gap, for the first time, by assessing the coverage, overlap, and socio-economic profiles of four primary energy poverty indicators employed in the EU for cross-country comparisons, using harmonised microdata for all 27 EU countries. 

    This study was developed within the Assessing and Monitoring Employment and Distributional Impacts (AMEDI) projects carried out with the Commission’ s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

    The study employs two types of indicators: “expenditure-based” indicators and “consensual approach” indicators. The expenditure-based indicators are calculated using monetary values: the 2M indicator is calculated as the proportion of households whose share of energy expenditure in income is more than twice the national median (2M indicator), i.e. energy costs represent a high share of expenditures. While the M/2 indicator (low absolute energy expenditure) is calculated as the proportion of households whose energy expenditure is below the national median energy consumption. 

    The “consensual approach” indicators are instead based on self-reported assessments of housing conditions: the share of people keeping their house adequately warm (AW indicator), and those who have arrears on utility bills (UB).

    The calculations are based on EU statistics and income living conditions (SILC) data from 2015 matched to Household Budget Survey (HBS) data from the same year and uses EUROMOD for refining estimates of household disposable income and improve comparability across countries. For example, they show that 8.5% of Europeans were unable to keep their house warm in 2015 (indicator AW).

    The analysis finds that there is very little overlap between the four energy poverty indicators examined. This explains why at least 40% of the EU population (around 180 million citizens) would be classified as ‘energy poor’ if one would follow a ‘union approach’, in which someone is energy poor by at least one indicator.

    On the other side, an ‘intersection approach’ – where poor is who satisfies the poverty condition simultaneously for the four indicators – would lead to a very low energy poverty rate of 0.3% of the EU population, i.e. about 330 thousand.

    The results

    The aggregate analysis carried out shows that between about 8% (using consensual indicators) and about 16% (using expenditure-based indicators) of the EU population can be classified as energy poor.

    Education and employment have a significant impact on energy poverty, as a higher rate of adults with jobs or higher education levels can slightly decrease the risk of experiencing energy poverty. Remarkably, about 30% of energy-poor households are also income-poor, falling below the poverty threshold. The study also reveals that middle-income households face a relatively high incidence of energy poverty, so it does not only affect to income-poor individuals.

    Energy poverty among EU Member States

    Energy poverty displays also significant disparities across EU countries, as it is influenced by the very heterogeneous national realities, including geography, natural resources, climate, infrastructure, national public policies, etc. Furthermore, cultural aspects can explain differences in self-reporting energy deprivation conditions. 

    For instance, in Greece and Bulgaria, nearly 30% of the population is energy poor by at least two indicators, while in Western and Northern EU countries, this figure drops below 5%. Moreover, the differences in energy poverty rates across EU countries is much larger when using subjective indicators. For example, AW-poverty rates, which measure the inability to adequately heat one’s home, range between almost zero in Sweden and Luxembourg to about 40% in Bulgaria. 

    A similar trend is observed when analysing arrears on utility bills (UB), while income shares of residential energy expenditure that are above twice the national median (2M) appear to be more similar across countries, indicating that energy poverty rates range between approximately 10% (Netherlands, Hungary) to slightly above 20% (Sweden, Malta, and Latvia). 

    This underscores the importance of tailored policy responses that consider national contexts and differences across countries regarding income levels, energy prices or investments in energy capital (i.e. efficient appliances, insulation, etc.). Moreover, this result points at the need to consider carefully what is the most suited indicator for cross-country comparisons. 

    How to tackle energy poverty across the EU? 

    Energy poverty has far-reaching consequences, from exacerbating health issues to limiting social and economic participation. Monitoring energy poverty is crucial for understanding the diversity of the socio-economic profiles of the energy poor and for improving the design of inclusive policies. 

    Relying on a single indicator may overlook significant portions of the population experiencing energy-related deprivations. 

    To address energy poverty, we need a policy mix 

    Income-support policies are essential to tackle energy poverty situations, especially for households under the poverty line. However, considering that also middle-income households experience a relative high incidence of energy poverty, other type of policies may be warranted to support them.

     This is the case of price caps, which reduce the burden of expenditures on energy goods, or structural interventions that step-up energy efficiency by reducing the need of energy consumption. Further, monetary policies such as subsidies to improve energy efficiencies could also reduce the burden of energy expenditures on households. 

    Finally, behavioural levers, such as assisting consumers in setting goals for reducing energy consumption through apps and educational campaigns to empower individuals to make investments choices that improve energy efficiency, may also be effective in reducing the energy poverty phenomenon. 

    Related links

    Who is “energy poor” in the EU?

    Assessing and Monitoring Employment and Distributional Impacts (AMEDI) projects

    Commission recommendation on energy poverty

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: South African women face exclusion from society due to gender-based violence – how they’re fighting back

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the South African Research Initiative in Gender Politics, Stellenbosch University

    When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, a primary goal was to grant citizenship rights to all its people, in particular, to give the majority black South Africans rights they had been denied during colonialism and apartheid. This included the right to vote.

    Apartheid segregated the population into ethnic groups. All but people classified as white were stripped of their rights. The 1996 constitution conferred upon citizens civil liberties such as the right to vote, movement, association and free speech as well as substantive rights such as access to land, health, education and employment.

    But, as I argue in the Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Citizenship, full citizenship is about more than a legal status that grants rights. Full citizenship also means being able to fully participate in a society.

    Based on my research into South African politics and gender politics over the past three decades I argue in a recent chapter that women in South Africa don’t enjoy full citizenship because they face endemic gender-based violence.

    Sexual violence against women has become normalised in South Africa. Everyday spaces are filled with violence, as indicated by the South African Police Service’s quarterly crime statistics.

    I conclude in the book chapter that people who feel excluded turn to protest to claim their rights as citizens. In doing so they become activist citizens.

    Acts of citizenship can occur in many different places – on streets, in courts, at borders, or even through media. They can happen on different scales, from local community action to international movements. These acts may involve protests, organising campaigns, or using digital media to spread awareness. People engaging in these acts might demand a wide range of rights, including political, social, sexual, ecological, or cultural rights.



    Read more:
    Gender apartheid: oppression of women should be made a crime against humanity – feminist academic explains why

    While legal frameworks to enhance citizenship have changed over the past 30 years in South Africa, deep-seated inequalities and exclusions persist. Law reform cannot address high levels of unemployment (that need to be rectified through economic growth), neither can it address poverty that is endemic because of the legacies of apartheid, such as the exclusion from decent education and health care.

    Acts of citizenship – whether through protest (such as service delivery protest), art, or everyday actions – continue to play a crucial role in expanding the boundaries of who is considered a citizen and what rights citizens can claim.

    By understanding citizenship as something that is actively performed and claimed, rather than simply granted, society can better appreciate the ongoing struggles for equality and recognition.

    Acts of citizenship

    Emotions play a significant role in these citizenship actions, a concept known as “affective citizenship”. Expressions of fear, happiness, loneliness, anger, or grief can all be part of how people assert their rights and demand recognition. These emotional displays can be disruptive or more conventional, but they all focus on exclusions from citizenship.

    Some acts of citizenship involve a “politics of refusal” – rejecting unfair conditions or norms. This refusal can expose hidden issues within citizenship, such as specific forms of gendered violence or discrimination. By disrupting “business as usual”, these acts force society to confront uncomfortable truths.

    It’s important to note that acts of citizenship aren’t always large-scale or dramatic. They can also involve everyday actions that challenge norms or assert rights in smaller ways. What matters is that these acts transform the actors from passive subjects into active citizens claiming their rights.

    Examples include the #EndRapeCulture campaign of 2016, when women protested against pervasive sexual violence on university campuses. At the same time, transgender students also protested against marginalisation.

    Both groups of students used naked protests to show their refusal to be treated as though they were not citizens. Through their campaign, the students rejected behaviour and attitudes that normalise sexual violence on campuses.

    Women students disrupted public spaces by protesting topless or in their underwear, sometimes brandishing sjamboks (plastic whips). These actions expressed anger at university authorities’ failure to address sexual violence. The activists were refusing to be treated as though they were not citizens.

    By using their bodies in these acts of citizenship the protesters made visible the rage many South African women feel about sexual violence committed with seeming impunity. They highlighted how women’s bodies are vulnerable to violence due to neglect by authorities in implementing their own laws, such as the Sexual Offences Act and the Domestic Violence Act.



    Read more:
    Victory for women’s rights in Ghana as affirmative action law is passed – what must happen next

    For its part the Trans Collective, a group of transgender students at the University of Cape Town, used a provocative art intervention to highlight the erasure or the making invisible of transgender experiences within the broader student movement during the same 2016 period.

    They smeared red paint on photographs at an exhibit about student activism and used their naked, paint-covered bodies to block the entrance of the art gallery at the university to force visitors to confront the physical reality of how transgender rights are often “trampled” or ignored, even within progressive movements.

    Impact

    Acts of citizenship – whether through naked protests, art interventions, or other forms of activism – serve multiple purposes:

    • They make visible groups and issues that are overlooked or deliberately ignored.

    • They challenge conventional understandings of how citizens should behave or what citizenship looks like.

    • They create new spaces for political action and discourse.

    • They force society and authorities to confront uncomfortable truths about exclusion and violence.

    • They assert the agency of marginalised groups in defining and claiming their rights.

    Amanda Gouws receives funding from the NRF through her SARChI Chair in Gender Politics.

    – ref. South African women face exclusion from society due to gender-based violence – how they’re fighting back – https://theconversation.com/south-african-women-face-exclusion-from-society-due-to-gender-based-violence-how-theyre-fighting-back-237493

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Humanity needs more rare earth elements. Extinct volcanoes could be a rich new source

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Anenburg, Research Fellow in Earth Sciences, Australian National University

    Phawat/Shutterstock

    Extinct volcanoes are hard to study – we never see them erupt. Using a unique experimental technique, we were able to recreate a certain type of extinct volcano in a lab, learning more about the magma these volcanoes produce.

    We found that some rare magma types are surprisingly efficient at concentrating rare earth elements. This is a group of metals with crucial applications in several high-tech industries, such as magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines.

    Demand for rare earths is soaring as society moves away from fossil fuels and electrifies energy production and transport. Despite the name, rare earths aren’t particularly rare. The biggest challenge is finding rocks in which these metals are concentrated enough to be economically viable to extract.

    Our new research, published in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, shows certain extinct volcanoes are a great place to look.

    Iron-rich magma in extinct volcanoes

    There is an enigmatic type of magma that contains unusually large amounts of iron. It is so rare, no eruptions featuring this type of magma have happened in recorded history.

    Instead, it is only known from extinct volcanoes that were active many millions of years ago.

    The most famous example of such a volcano is El Laco in Chile. Another notable example is Kiruna in Sweden, mined for iron ore for many decades. Last year, its operating company LKAB announced Kiruna as the largest rare earths resource in Europe.

    The discovery at Kiruna made us (and many others) wonder why there would be a rare earth resource at a volcanic iron mine. We already know of many other rock types containing rare earths, and none of them are like Kiruna and other extinct iron-rich volcanoes.

    Was this just a geological serendipity, or is there something inherent to iron-rich magmas that make them rare-earth rich, too? After all, many of those iron-rich extinct volcanoes are known, but no one ever bothered to check whether they have a rare earth resource in them.

    Additionally, iron-rich rocks are often easy to find because of their strong magnetic signal, despite their rarity. Should they be added to the target list of rare earth explorers?

    Recreating volcanism in a bottle

    To test this hypothesis, we used a machine called a piston cylinder. We put synthetic material akin to volcanic rocks and magmas into small capsules or “bottles” made of noble metals such as platinum. We then pressurised them to depths equivalent to 15 kilometres deep in Earth’s crust and heated them up to 1,100°C, melting them into a liquid.

    At these extreme conditions, we found the iron-rich magma exists as bubbles inside a more common magma type known from virtually all modern active volcanoes. The iron-rich magma absorbs rare earths from the surrounding liquid.

    These iron-rich bubbles will have a different density and viscosity, and will separate from their iron-poor environment, similar to how water and oil mixed together will eventually separate into distinct layers.

    Iron-rich magmas absorb the rare earths so efficiently, their rare earth contents are almost 200 times greater than the regular magmas around them.

    This means the discovery at Kiruna wasn’t an accident. It’s something we can expect from most, if not all, iron-rich volcanoes.

    An experimental platinum capsule (4 mm in length) containing round bubbles of iron-rich and iron-poor magma. The capsule also contains abundant iron oxide crystals in light grey and blue, similar to the material making the iron ore in active mines.
    Shengchao Yan

    Why do we need more rare earth deposits?

    Production of rare earth elements is concentrated in just a handful of countries – mostly China, along with the United States, Myanmar and Australia.

    Rare earths are therefore classified as “critical minerals”: they have important uses, but suffer from a supply chain risk due to geopolitical factors.

    As demand for rare earths has surged, this has led to substantial investment in research and exploration for additional deposits. The more deposits are known, the better industry can pick deposits that will yield rare earths at the lowest financial, environmental and societal cost.

    Extinct iron-rich volcanoes are often mined for iron ore. Our results indicate existing mines at such locations can potentially be modified to produce rare earths as well.

    This would be a positive outcome – an existing mining operation can gain additional value. In some cases, mine waste can be reprocessed to extract these critical metals. This would mean new mines for rare earth elements may not even be required, preventing unnecessary disruption of natural environments.

    Michael Anenburg receives funding from the Australian Research Council for an Industry Fellowship co-funded by BHP Olympic Dam.

    – ref. Humanity needs more rare earth elements. Extinct volcanoes could be a rich new source – https://theconversation.com/humanity-needs-more-rare-earth-elements-extinct-volcanoes-could-be-a-rich-new-source-239410

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why do people breach their bail? Our research shows it’s not because they’re committing more crimes

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Gately, Associate Professor, Edith Cowan University

    Shutterstock

    In Australia and most countries, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Because of this, keeping someone in detention before trial comes with serious legal, practical and human-rights consequences, not just for the person accused but also for their family and for society.

    That’s why most people accused of a crime are usually released on bail.

    Bail is essentially a written promise where a person is released, on the agreement they return to court on a set date. It can also be granted to those who have been found or pleaded guilty while they wait for sentencing.

    Bail allows the accused to keep their job, maintain their home, and support their family, while eliminating the costs of imprisonment.

    However, bail comes with conditions that the person must follow, including curfews, regular check-ins, restrictions on whom they can talk to or where they can go, drug or alcohol testing, and staying at a specific address.

    These conditions may seem easy to understand and follow, but breaches of orders were the third most common offence in Australian courts in 2022 and 2023. They made up 10% of adult court appearances, using valuable time and resources.

    There’s a widespread belief that people on bail who breach their conditions commit more crimes – sometimes violent ones – that put others at risk and threaten public safety. This has fuelled demands for stricter bail laws or to stop granting bail altogether.

    Many also think that when someone breaches their bail conditions, it’s because they’re deliberately defying or ignoring the rules. With this in mind, we wanted to look deeper.

    We spoke to 230 police detainees about what led to their bail breaches. The results were surprising: very few (just 11%) breached by committing new offences.

    Instead, most explained their breaches happened because of things beyond their control.

    Homelessness

    A fixed residential address is a fundamental condition for getting bail.

    However, many of our participants shared that becoming homeless or returning to homelessness was common for them. Some said they left the address they provided because of family tensions:

    I’m meant to stay at my sister’s house under my bail conditions, it’s for my curfew […] she kicked me out because we had an argument. Now I’ve breached my conditions and have nowhere to go.

    It’s well known that chronic homelessness makes it tough to comply with bail conditions, and we found the same. A detainee told us:

    It was an honest mistake and a mix-up of the days.

    Another said:

    I was homeless at the time I was meant to go to court and dealing with a lot.

    A third person told us:

    I’m homeless and I’ve got bigger issues than going to court. I’m living in a tent in the park at the moment with no job.

    The mental stress meant people focused on meeting basic needs such as food and shelter, which took priority over following bail conditions.

    Family responsibilities

    Participants also shared their personal responsibilities of caring for sick children, parents or other dependants. This often prevented them from attending court or reporting. One person told us:

    I’m my nan’s carer […] I needed to look after her and my brother wasn’t there. I couldn’t go to court or make it. I’m the one who washes her and does everything for her […]

    Family commitments clashing with reporting requirements led to feelings that the system was stacked against them and they had few options but to breach.

    Work commitments

    Employment often interfered with reporting on time and attending court.

    I have to report Monday, Wednesday and Friday but I’m a truck driver. I have no problems with coming in to report, but I couldn’t make it because I was working. When I went in to report, they arrested me […]

    Keeping a job is crucial for financial and housing stability. Having a stable job also deepens community connections to reduce the chances of getting involved in criminal activity.

    Procedural barriers

    When these kinds of everyday issues derailed compliance, many said they had tried to let the court, police or their lawyer know, either before or right after they missed reporting in or a court date but were faced with an inflexible system.

    For some, even when they did manage to get through, they were told that by not reporting or attending court they had already breached their bail and a warrant would be issued for their arrest. A study participant told us:

    I told them (the police) that I’d been kicked out (of the nominated accommodation) and wasn’t there and they locked me up here. I’ve got an extra charge now because I breached bail and probably won’t get let back out tomorrow. It wasn’t in my control. I was meant to be doing my medical to start work on the mines too tomorrow, so I won’t be working there now.

    We recommend considering of the complexities of bailees’ lives when setting bail. More flexible reporting conditions for when “life happens” will reduce charge pile ups and pressures on the criminal justice.

    Natalie Gately received funding from Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research for this project.

    Suzanne Rock received funding from Western Australian Office of Crime Statistics and Research for this project.

    – ref. Why do people breach their bail? Our research shows it’s not because they’re committing more crimes – https://theconversation.com/why-do-people-breach-their-bail-our-research-shows-its-not-because-theyre-committing-more-crimes-239198

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Experts of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances Commend Ukraine’s Law on Missing Persons in Special Circumstances, Ask Questions on Secret Detentions and the Forced Transfer of Children to the Russian Federation

    Source: United Nations – Geneva

     

    The Committee on Enforced Disappearances today concluded its consideration of the initial report of Ukraine, with Committee Experts commending the State on the adoption of the law on the legal status of persons missing in special circumstances, while asking questions on secret detentions and the forced transfer of children to the Russian Federation.

     

    Several Committee Experts paid tribute to the courage and resilience of the people of Ukraine in the context of the ongoing war on its territory.  Carmen Rosa Villa Quintana, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, said the Committee could not be indifferent to war in any circumstances.  It was essential to bring about peace in line with the United Nations Charter.

    Olivier de Frouville, Committee Chair and Country Rapporteur, congratulated the State party for adopting the law on the legal status of persons missing in special circumstances, and for its 2022 revision, which contributed positively to the search for missing persons.  Could Ukrainian State agents be held accountable under the law?

    Mr. de Frouville said there were allegations of secret detentions in Kharkiv, particularly during the period of 2014 to 2016, and that basements of buildings in Kyiv were being used as unofficial detention sites.  Did the State party have information on these allegations?  There did not seem to be an effective mechanism to prevent these practices from continuing.

    Addressing the forced transfer of children to the Russian Federation and occupied territories, Mr. de Frouville asked how many of the 19,546 children who had been transferred were considered as victims of enforced disappearance.  Was there a specific procedure for reviewing placements of children who had been illegally adopted?

    Introducing the report, Leonid Tymchenko, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and head of the delegation, said that the law on the legal status of persons missing under special circumstances stipulated that the Ukrainian State was obliged to take all possible measures to trace a person missing in special circumstances.  The law also established enforced disappearance as an offence in national criminal law.

    Since September 2015, Mr. Tymchenko reported, law enforcement agencies had registered more than 5,000 criminal offences directly related to enforced disappearances, including the deprivation of liberty of more than 14,000 civilians.

    The delegation said investigations had been carried out that had disproven allegations of incommunicado detentions.  The State party investigated all such allegations.

    Regarding the forced transfer of children, Mr. Tymchenko said several heads of the occupation authorities and two deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation were charged by Ukraine with committing criminal offences in this regard, while the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for President Putin and lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

    The delegation added that the State party was doing everything possible to obtain information on the missing children.  It was negotiating an agreement regarding the return of around 300 children.  Russian officials had not recognised the transfer and illegal adoption of Ukrainian children and had made falsified documents to hide these crimes.

    In concluding remarks, Horacio Ravenna, Committee Vice-Chair and acting Chair for the dialogue, said the Committee and the State party shared a common goal: full implementation of the Convention. Ukraine had shown its commitment to this goal.  He called on the State party to remain in contact with the Committee, which would support its efforts to implement the Convention.  The Committee’s strong hope was that peace would be achieved in Ukraine.

    Mr. Tymchenko, in his concluding remarks, said cooperation with the Committee would help the State party in its efforts to uphold its international obligations. He called on the Committee to keep in mind the current circumstances in Ukraine.  Every day, aerial attacks were being carried out across the State.  The State party was aware that it needed to uphold human rights, even those of its enemies.

      

    The delegation of Ukraine consisted of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances and representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General; Security Service; Ministry of Internal Affairs; National Police; and the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

     

    The Committee will issue its concluding observations on the report of Ukraine at the end of its twenty-seventh session, which concludes on 4 October.  Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.  The programme of work of the Committee’s twenty-seventh session and other documents related to the session can be found here.

     

    The Committee will next meet in public this afternoon, Tuesday 24 September, at 3 p.m. to consider the initial report of Morocco (CED/C/MAR/1).

    Report

    The Committee has before it the initial report of Ukraine (CED/C/UKR/1).

    Presentation of Report

    LEONID TYMCHENKO, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and head of the delegation, said this dialogue was an important event that marked a new chapter in the protection of human rights and freedoms.  In the midst of an unprovoked war with the Russian Federation, Ukraine remained committed to human rights principles and this dialogue was an important part of the collective struggle for justice.  In 2015, Ukraine became a State party to the Convention, and thus undertook to eradicate and prevent enforced disappearances.  Currently, enforced disappearances committed on Ukraine’s sovereign territory were related to the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.  Despite these challenging times, Ukraine continued to comply with its international obligations.

    Ukraine took measures to ensure the uniform application of the Convention within its internationally recognised borders, including in the territories controlled by the aggressor State and its occupation forces, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.  It ensured that all reports of unlawful acts as defined in article two of the Convention deliberately committed by representatives of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation were promptly, thoroughly and impartially recorded and properly investigated, with all perpetrators identified and brought to justice, and, if found guilty by a court, punished in accordance with the gravity of their actions.

    The law on the legal status of persons gone missing under special circumstances stipulated that the Ukrainian State was obliged to take all possible measures to trace a person missing in special circumstances.  The law also established enforced disappearance as an offence in national criminal law.  On 21 August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the ratification of the Rome Statute.  In order to implement the Rome Statute, it adopted in the first reading a draft law that would add articles to the Criminal Code on crimes against humanity, which would include enforced disappearance within the meaning of article five of the Convention.

    Since September 2015, law enforcement agencies had registered more than 5,000 criminal offences directly related to enforced disappearances, including the deprivation of liberty of more than 14,000 civilians.  Special attention should be paid to the results of the investigation conducted by the State into the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine from 2022 to 2024, their deportation to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus and the forced granting of Russian citizenship, and their placement in Russian families and adoption.

    Several heads of the occupation authorities and two deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation were charged with committing criminal offences by Ukraine in this regard, while the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant for President Putin and lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, for the illegal transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children.

    The Prosecutor’s Offices had served 275 persons with notices of suspicion in 137 criminal proceedings, and 119 indictments against 241 persons were sent to bring the perpetrators to justice.  The State party had also established a unified register of persons gone missing under special circumstances, which had been in operation since May 2023.  As of today, it contained information on 48,324 such individuals who were currently being sought to determine their fate.  Around 4,700 people had been confirmed to be in captivity; the actual number could be much higher.  The aggressor State was not fulfilling its international obligations under the Geneva Conventions, denying the Red Cross access to visit places of detention and holding civilian hostages.  This made it impossible to exert influence on the Russian Federation, which was not a State party to the Convention.

    Measures had been taken to release both captured Ukrainian defenders and illegally detained civilians.  In the period before the full-scale invasion, 3,497 people were released; since the invasion, 3,669 people had been released.  More than 90 per cent of persons returned from captivity reported that they were subjected to various forms of violence and torture by representatives of the aggressor State, and in the period before the full-scale invasion, all detainees without exception were subjected to psychological and physical violence.

    The Constitution of Ukraine stipulated that everyone had the right to liberty and personal inviolability.  No one could be arrested or held in detention, except by a reasoned court decision and only in accordance with the conditions and procedures established by law.  Ukraine had established a national preventive mechanism to ensure the effective prevention and elimination of enforced disappearances.  In 109 territorial units of the national police, the “Custody Records” information subsystem was implemented, designed to guarantee the safe stay of detained persons under police control.

    The State ensured the police’s ability to effectively fight crime without violating human rights through the introduction of electronic recording of all actions against persons under police control, as well as a mandatory interview of the detained person and the police officer who carried out the detention.  The State also ensured that there was sufficient infrastructure in the police unit; round-the-clock video surveillance; a human rights inspector; and remote oversight by authorised officials of the central police authority.  In 2018, Ukraine established the State Bureau of Investigation, a State law enforcement agency responsible for preventing and investigating criminal offences committed, in particular, by law enforcement officers.

    During this time of crisis for Ukraine, the country had a special responsibility to take strict measures to prevent and eliminate enforced disappearances in accordance with the requirements of the Convention.  The end of the aggressive war of the Russian Federation would prevent enforced disappearances in Ukraine.  Ukraine’s strategic goal was a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace in the State for the security of the whole world, which it hoped to achieve through the Ukrainian peace formula initiative put forward by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    Questions by Committee Experts

    OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE, Committee Chair and Country Rapporteur, said the Committee acknowledged that Ukraine had a situation of armed conflict in its territory which affected the implementation of the Convention.  This was particularly true in the context of the large-scale invasion conducted since February 2022.  Mr. de Frouville paid tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people.  Despite the difficult situation, Ukraine continued to exert efforts to comply with its international obligations.  It was acting to search for victims of enforced disappearance on its territory and uphold the rights of families.  He expressed hope that the dialogue would help the State party to better apply the Convention.

    The report was drafted by the national Ukrainian police in collaboration with other State agencies.  Were victims’ associations or other civil society organizations involved in drafting the report?  Had the State party made any response to communications sent to it under the urgent actions procedure?  Were there any examples of courts directly invoking the Convention?  The Ukrainian Human Rights Commission had contact with the Russian Human Rights Commission.  Had the sharing of information between these bodies led to the identification of missing persons?  What efforts had been made to increase the financing and human resources of the Human Rights Commission and to implement its recommendations?

    Mr. de Frouville congratulated the State party for adopting the law on the legal status of persons missing in special circumstances, and for its 2022 revision, which contributed positively to the search for missing persons.  The law covered some cases of enforced disappearance, but not cases that did not have a link to the armed conflict or other special circumstances.  The law also potentially excluded enforced disappearance committed by the Ukrainian State.  Could Ukrainian State agents be held accountable under the law?

    The Committee welcomed the unified register of missing persons.  The register was limited to cases of special circumstances leading to disappearances. The clear category of enforced disappearance was not included in the register; would this be done in future? When would DNA data be included in the register, and was the DNA data of relatives of disappeared persons being collected?  The State party had several different databases related to human rights violations; were these connected to the register of missing persons?   The Prosecution Service had identified over 1,000 victims of enforced disappearance.  Could this data be included in the missing persons register?

    What risks had the State party identified related to martial law declared as part of Ukraine’s state of emergency?  Had the State party taken steps to prevent violations in the context of the state of emergency?

    CARMEN ROSA VILLA QUINTANA, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, paid tribute to the courage of the people of Ukraine.  The Committee could not be indifferent to war in any circumstances.  It was essential to bring about peace in line with the United Nations Charter.

    The State party had reported that it had not identified any facts implying that Ukrainian authorities were involved in any cases of enforced disappearance.  However, the Ukrainian Security Service was investigating several cases of violations of the laws and customs of war.  Were there any cases that could fall into the category of enforced disappearance?  Third party information indicated that there were individuals or groups involved in cases of enforced disappearance.  In one case, two police officers had been found to have committed crimes of enforced disappearance and torture in 2021.  There was information about the enforced disappearance of 30 journalists. What investigations had been carried out into these cases?  Had perpetrators been held accountable?  How was the State party implementing the Istanbul Protocol?

    There were cases of Russian officials being prosecuted without being informed of the charges against them. Would the State party make informing accused persons of the charges against them a legal requirement?  Did judges have the ability to define crimes as enforced disappearances?  How did the State party address violations of the Convention in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation?

    What institutions were involved in investigating the disappearance of two members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church? How was the State party investigating cases of enforced disappearance in the context of human trafficking, migration or forced displacement due to armed conflict and working to prevent this phenomenon?  Did the State party intend to define the forced transfer of children to the Russian Federation as acts of enforced disappearance?  Could information be provided on the outcomes of investigations into these cases?

    Ms. Villa Quintana welcomed planned amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.  Did the State party plan to increase the penalty for the crime of enforced disappearance, which was currently not commensurate with the seriousness of the crime?  When would the amendments to the two Codes be adopted?  Was enforced disappearance being considered as a stand-alone crime in these amendments, and were aggravating circumstances being considered?

    Legal provisions on hierarchical responsibility were not in line with international standards. What progress had been made to adopt draft legislation on hierarchical responsibility?  What was the statute of limitations for enforced disappearance? When did it start?  The provisions on the statute of limitations in the Convention had not been incorporated in national law.  Could foreigners responsible for enforced disappearance who were not residing in Ukraine be tried in Ukraine?  Were accused persons given access to a lawyer, and appointed a lawyer if they could not afford them?  What measures were in place to notify accused persons from Russia to guarantee their active participation in trials?  What was the procedure for the appointment and removal of judges and prosecutors, particularly those charged with corruption?

    Which authorities were responsible for searching for missing and disappeared persons?  How did the State party ensure that they cooperated and carried out their mandates effectively?  The Code on Criminal Procedures established that persons charged with a crime could be suspended from their positions.  How rigorously was suspension applied; could the State party provide examples?

    A Committee Expert paid tribute to the courage and resilience of Ukraine.  Were the 5,000 cases of enforced disappearance registered by Ukraine cases of disappearance carried out by State agents against non-State actors?

    Responses by the Delegation

    The delegation said the State party had established a database of persons who went missing in special circumstances to address disappearances related to the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the national police collected biological material and DNA of persons who went missing in all contexts and registered it in relevant databases.  Authorities could also collect the DNA of the relatives of missing persons.  Data in State databases on enforced disappearances was unified.  In future, Ukraine planned to add DNA data collected by the International Commission on Missing Persons to its databases to help identify missing persons.  The Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances and relatives of victims, including those who lived abroad, had access to the information in registries of missing persons.

    Judges could apply the Convention directly and there were examples of cases in which judges had done so.  The State party did not have access to occupied territories and could not conduct investigations there.  However, it had identified two mass graves in liberated regions, in which around 125 bodies were buried, and around 400 bodies buried in other graves in these regions.  It predicted that there were many more such graves in the occupied territories.

    Victims of human rights violations committed by Ukrainian authorities had the right to seek redress.  All persons had the right to a lawyer.  Persons who could not hire a lawyer were provided one by the State.  In cases where authorities were not able to arrest suspects residing in the Russian Federation, trials could be held in absentia.  After the State party had ratified the Rome Statute, it would be required to investigate hierarchical responsibility.  Prosecutors who were suspended for corruption or other violations were no longer able to work on cases; they were replaced immediately.

    There was a clear division between trafficking in persons and enforced disappearance in the Criminal Code.  The State party had registered cases of the trafficking of persons to the occupied territories.  Seven minors had been identified as victims in these cases and four perpetrators had been identified.  All cases of disappearance of children by Russian authorities qualified as war crimes.  Investigations into such crimes were being carried out in cooperation with non-governmental organizations to determine the fate of these children.

    When authorities received allegations that State agents had committed a crime, the State Bureau of Investigation investigated these allegations independently.

    The law on the legal status of persons missing in special circumstances did not define the precise characteristics of the victims of enforced disappearance.  The State party welcomed the Committee’s advice concerning the revision of the law in this regard.

    Questions by Committee Experts

    CARMEN ROSA VILLA QUINTANA, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, asked for information on regions where large numbers of enforced disappearances were reported, and how the State party obtained information on these cases.  Was there a specialised unit within the Security Service for investigating enforced disappearance?  Were there investigations being carried out into disappearances of activists?  What protection mechanisms were in place for persons involved in investigations of enforced disappearances and family members of victims?  Had specialised protection been provided to such persons?

    What conditions were applied regarding extradition agreements?  Had there been applications for extraditions of persons allegedly involved in enforced disappearance?  How did the State party uphold international standards in the investigation of missing persons and exhumations?  Were there any cases of intimidation or reprisals against witnesses of enforced disappearance?  How were prosecutors nominated?

    OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE, Committee Chair and Country Rapporteur, asked about the mandate of the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances.  How was Ukrainian law that addressed hierarchic responsibility adapted to the provisions of the Rome Statute?  What follow-up was carried out regarding urgent actions, particularly when protection measures were requested?  Was cooperation between the Ukrainian Human Rights Commission and the Russian Human Rights Commission effective?  Did the Ukrainian Commission promote the provisions of the Convention?  How did the State party prevent prolonged detention and arbitrary arrests in the context of the state of emergency?

    A Committee Expert asked whether the 5,000 enforced disappearances reported by the delegation included cases carried out against Ukrainian forces.  These should not be considered enforced disappearances.  Did the State party investigate Ukrainian citizens who were accomplices in acts of enforced disappearance?

    Responses by the Delegation

    The delegation said the State party worked together with the Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances and the Ukrainian Human Rights Commission to provide truth for the families and loved ones of victims.

    The State party had qualified 438 war crimes involving enforced disappearance.  At least 14,000 Ukrainian civilians were being detained by the Russian Federation.  The Government had given the Human Rights Commission the power to work on liberating Ukrainian prisoners of war; this had led to cooperation with the Russian Human Rights Commission.  The Prosecution Service had a war crimes department, which conducted investigations into war crimes. 

    Ukraine had ratified bilateral agreements with five countries that addressed extraditions.  The State did not extradite persons unless it received guarantees that the safety and fair trial rights of the person involved would be respected.  Judicial registries were open to the public.

    The 5,000 cases of enforced disappearance recorded by Ukraine mainly concerned detained citizens held by Russian authorities.  The State party did not have statistics on journalists and the occupations of detained persons; Russian authorities often classified civilian prisoners as combatants. Prosecutors were faced with a large workload and their work was hindered by ongoing attacks.  Some investigators had been killed while carrying out investigations.

    The Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances was empowered to cooperate with relevant national and international institutions, including the Ombudsman and law enforcement personnel, in investigations.  The Commissioner provided family members and relatives with information on the outcomes of investigations, and determined whether disappearances were committed by military personnel.

    Complaints of enforced disappearance against Ukrainian State agents could be taken to civilian courts, whereas complaints of enforced disappearances carried out by Russian authorities needed to be submitted to the dedicated Commission.  The Government provided protection measures for victims of enforced disappearance such as name changes; however, it did not have a sufficient budget to provide measures such as safehouses.

    In 2023, responsibility for searching for missing persons in special circumstances was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  Special circumstances included armed conflicts and natural or man-made emergencies. In October 2023, a hotline was established within the Commission for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances, which relatives of missing and detained persons could use to file reports. The Commissioner had met with more than 5,000 family members and held meetings with several non-governmental organizations.

    The armed forces participated in searches for missing persons.  They removed bodies and documented deceased persons.  Around 55,000 people had been given “missing” status.  This number included both military personnel and civilians. Around 5,000 cases had been discontinued due to the discovery of the body.

    Questions by Committee Experts

    OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE, Committee Chair and Country Rapporteur, asked whether the State party planned to incorporate the risk of enforced disappearance into its legislation on extraditions?  There was an agreement with Sweden regarding the confidential exchange of information towards locating missing persons.  Could more information be provided about this positive practice?

    There were allegations of secret detentions in Kharkiv, particularly during the period of 2014 to 2016, and that basements of buildings in Kyiv were being used as unofficial detention sites. There were also credible allegations that around 240 prisoners of war were being held in unofficial detention sites after a drone attack on a detention centre.  Did the State party have information on these allegations? Rulings had been made on incommunicado detention conducted by the police, but there did not seem to be an effective mechanism to prevent these practices from continuing.

    The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture had reported that not all persons deprived of liberty were given the right to contact family members and lawyers.  This right needed to be respected.  How was the right to habeas corpus implemented?  Had there been complaints of delays in the registration of deprivation of liberty, or gaps in registration?  What follow-up was made?  There were reports of difficulties in registering the transfer of detainees. This could lead to enforced disappearance.  How was the State addressing this?  What training on enforced disappearance and international human rights law was provided for State agents, judges, prosecutors, civilians and family members?

    It was positive that Ukraine was addressing legal difficulties created by disappearances.  How was the State party working to resolve overlaps between the laws that addressed enforced disappearance?  There was criticism that legislation related to enforced disappearance was complicated and that the compensation it provided was not sufficient. Did the State party plan to expand protection to all civilian victims of enforced disappearance, rather than only civilian prisoners?

    The State party needed to adopt specific legislation to address crimes listed in article 25 of the Convention. How many of the 19,546 children who had been transferred to the Russian Federation were considered as “disappeared”? How were the best interests of the child and the rights of children to express their opinions respected regarding the return of children to their families?  Was there a specific procedure related to the revision and review of a placement of a child who had been illegally adopted?

    CARMEN ROSA VILLA QUINTANA, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, asked whether persons who were not relatives of victims but were under their guardianship could be categorised as victims.  How were the rights established in the Criminal Procedural Code and the Criminal Code regarding truth, reparation and compensation provided to victims?  Could the crime of enforced disappearance be subject to a reconciliation measure? 

    Damages for crimes of enforced disappearance could be obtained through a civil case in some cases, but the State was responsible for reparation in other cases.  In what cases were perpetrators responsible for providing reparations?  What amount was paid by the State?  Did the State party plan to make amendments to legislation in this regard?  Was access to compensation subject to a conviction, and was there a deadline by which compensation needed to be provided? How many victims of enforced disappearance had received reparation?  What was the standard of proof for the granting of reparation?

    What measures were in place related to medical, social and educational support for persons deprived of liberty?  Did the State party adopt a differentiated approach for different categories of victims?

    The Human Rights Commission and the Office of Persons Missing in Special Circumstances, as well as the Ukrainian police and other State and international bodies were involved in searches for disappeared persons.  How did the State party coordinate these efforts and what resources were available in this regard?  What outcomes had these activities achieved; how many disappeared persons had been identified overall?  Were investigations being carried out by sea and water?  Had sentences for enforced disappearance been handed down that were commensurate with the severity of the crime?

    Were the two separate registries on missing persons interconnected and how did they contribute to the identification of deceased persons?  How were places of burial registered?  In how many cases had deceased persons been identified?  There were allegations that State authorities had refused to provide information to relatives of victims regarding the whereabouts of disappeared persons.  How would the State party prevent this?

    In which registry were persons who had been transferred to the Russian Federation registered?  How did the State party conduct searches for such persons?  How many burial sites was the State party aware of that had not been exhumed?  How many exhumed bodies had been returned to relatives?  Had the State party mapped mass burial and common grave sites and taken measures to protect them?

    The inclusion of missing persons in State registers could take around 48 hours.  Did search activities begin before registration had finished?  Did the State party follow the Committee’s guidelines on search practices?  Were tools such as photographs and fingerprints used to identify missing persons?  What organization was responsible for keeping human remains? Did relatives of victims have access to the State registry on human genomic information?  Biological material was taken on a compulsory basis from State agents in cases of martial law.  Was this information included in the registry on human genomic information?  Who could access this information?  In which registries were unidentified bodies registered?

    Responses by the Delegation

    The delegation said the Ministry of Reintegration was responsible for collecting information about persons relocated within the country.  It maintained a registry of reintegrated persons.  To identify persons, the State party used facial recognition systems, tattoos, personal documents and fingerprints.  When these methods were unsuccessful, DNA tests were conducted.  The biological material of military personnel was collected by each military division, which held this material while the person was under their charge.  When military personnel went missing, this data was registered in the missing persons registry.  There was a DNA database that would soon be integrated with the registry of missing persons.

    As of today, Ukraine had registered over 55,000 missing persons, including around 48,000 persons who had gone missing under special circumstances.  The State had located around 2,500 unidentified bodies. Around 4,000 bodies had been identified through cooperation between State bodies and a procedure for identification had been developed. 

    Relatives of persons who went missing in special circumstances had the right to a comprehensive investigation of those persons’ whereabouts.  Their property was subject to protection and marriages were valid until investigations were closed or the missing person was declared dead. Searches were not stopped until the person or their remains were located.

    The family members of persons who went missing in military service were provided with payments by the State in line with the missing person’s salary.  Families had the right to social protection. Guardianship for dependents of persons who went missing was established in accordance with domestic law.  Persons whose family members had died or gone missing were not subject to conscriptions.

    Investigation had been carried out that had disproven allegations of incommunicado detentions. The State party investigated all allegations of incommunicado detentions.

    Training was provided to prosecutors and investigators, including by international experts.  Seven training sessions were held for over 400 prosecutors and investigators on torture and enforced disappearance.  Staff of the national police’s missing persons unit received special training on international humanitarian law.

    There was no statute of limitations currently on the crime of enforced disappearance.  Judges decided on the sum of money granted for compensation to victims by the State in civilian court cases.  The Government was working to make the compensation process easier for civilians.  Debate was ongoing about the amount and source of compensation funds.  Under the Criminal Procedure Code, non-relatives who were close to victims could be recognised as victims.

    A draft law was being prepared that would provide compensation for victims of illegal activities conducted by Russian authorities.  The Register of Damage for Ukraine, which recorded claims and evidence on damage, loss or injury caused by the Russian Federation’s acts in or against Ukraine, had been established in the Netherlands, supported by the Council of Europe.

    The Prosecutor General’s Office coordinated investigations involving a range of State bodies.  It convened roundtables on investigations that included United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations.  It was open to revising its processes.  All identified bodies from mass graves were returned to families and buried in accordance with the family’s religion.

    Ukraine had no bilateral agreement with Sweden.  Its relationship with Sweden was governed by the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine. 

    The Commissioner for Persons Missing in Special Circumstances was appointed and dismissed by the Cabinet of Ministers and the term of their office was not specified by law.

    Questions by Committee Experts

     

    CARMEN ROSA VILLA QUINTANA, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur, asked whether the Register of Damage for Ukraine was a physical register.  Was there a single register of victims that allowed the State to assess the scale of compensation?  Was the State party providing measures promoting non-recurrence? Almost all court cases held in absentia had led to guilty verdicts.  Were the persons subject to trials properly notified?  There were allegations that conscientious objectors had been held in police stations, sometimes in incommunicado detention.  Had investigations identified State agents who had carried out incommunicado detentions?

    A Committee Expert asked about the criteria that judges used to decide whether to provide compensation in criminal proceedings or whether to refer the case to civil proceedings.  Was there a State fund that provided compensation when perpetrators were unable to provide compensation?

    OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE, Committee Chair and Country Rapporteur, asked about measures to improve the monitoring of deprivation of liberty.  Were there cases of the transfer of Ukrainian children that had been classified as cases of enforced disappearance?  Was there legislation that allowed for the review of adoption procedures that had arisen out of enforced disappearance?

    Responses by the Delegation

    The delegation said a specific compensation mechanism was being created for persons who were victims of serious crimes to support these persons to integrate back into society. Many returned Ukrainian soldiers had suffered torture.  If Ukrainian State agents were found to be guilty of enforced disappearance, the State provided compensation to victims.  Judges assessed the nature of the crimes to determine compensation amounts.

    The State party was doing everything possible to obtain information on the missing children. It was negotiating an agreement regarding the return of around 300 children.  Russian officials had not recognised the transfer and illegal adoption of Ukrainian children and had made falsified documents to hide these crimes. There were specific rules regarding investigations of crimes involving children.  Special child-friendly rooms were used for interviews with child victims to prevent traumatisation.

    Closing Remarks

    HORACIO RAVENNA, Committee Vice-Chair and Acting Chairperson for the review of Ukraine, said the Committee and the State party shared a common goal: full implementation of the Convention.  Ukraine had shown its commitment to this goal.  He called on the State party to remain in contact with the Committee, which would support its efforts to implement the Convention.  The Committee praised the efforts exerted by civil society partners and the Ukrainian Human Rights Commission to prevent enforced disappearance.  Its strong hope was that peace would be achieved in Ukraine.  Humanity had been deeply shaken by the horrors that were unfolding in the war.  The Committee was aware that the aid that it could provide the State party in this situation was limited.  It wished for a swift end to the dreadful war.

    LEONID TYMCHENKO, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and head of the delegation, said the dialogue had been fruitful.  The presence of the high-level Ukrainian delegation demonstrated the importance that Ukraine attached to the issue of enforced disappearance.  Cooperation with the Committee would help the State party in its efforts to uphold its international obligations.  Mr. Tymchenko called on the Committee to keep in mind the current circumstances in Ukraine. Every day, bombs could be heard, and aerial attacks were being carried out across the State.  The State party was aware that it needed to uphold human rights, even those of its enemies.  Both State agents and citizens had had very difficult experiences over the past few years.  The war had made the citizens of Ukraine aware of the price of freedom, independence, and the territory of their country.

    ___________

    Produced by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva for use of the media; 
    not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.

     

    CED24.007E

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: FACT SHEET: Leaders’ Summit of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug  Threats

    US Senate News:

    Source: The White House
    Today, President Biden hosted a Summit of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, which the President directed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to launch in June 2023, in order to mobilize international action to tackle the synthetic drug crisis.  In just over a year, the Global Coalition has grown to include 159 countries and 15 international organizations working together to disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs; detect emerging drug threats; and prevent and treat through effective public health interventions. With the Summit as a motivating force, 11 core Coalition countries announced new initiatives that will advance the work of the Coalition, including efforts to disrupt the supply chain of fentanyl and enhance public health interventions.  These international commitments complement intensive work being done domestically, including an increased focus on coordinated disruption of drug trafficking networks and concerted efforts to make the opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone, widely available over-the-counter. As a result of these efforts, we are starting to see the largest drop in overdose deaths in recorded history.  When President Biden and Vice President Harris came into office, the number of drug overdose deaths was increasing by more than 30% year over year.  Now, the latest provisional data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics show an unprecedented decline in overdose deaths of 10% in the 12 months ending April 2024.  These aren’t just numbers – these are lives. Background on the Global Coalition The 159 countries and 15 international organizations that are now part of the Coalition are working together on three key lines of effort:
    Disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs;
    Detect emerging drug threats; and
    Prevent and treat through effective public health interventions. 
    For the past year, three working groups and seven sub-working groups have met monthly to create detailed plans of action.  These working groups have made tangible progress, including implementing new efforts to increase seizures of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals at ports of entry, sharing best practices with respect to the identification of emerging drug threats, and taking actions to schedule an increasing number of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals, thus subjecting these drugs and chemicals to increased controls. 
    New Initiatives Being Announced
    At today’s Summit, 11 core countries announced new initiatives that will move the work of each of the Coalition’s core lines of effort even further:
    Australia, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom will lead new efforts to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.  These efforts include the development of regional coalitions to disrupt the transit routes for illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, and associated equipment, protect against the diversion of chemicals for illicit use, and improve the detection and disruption of production sites.
    Italy and Ghana will lead new initiatives to detect emerging drug trends, to include Italy helping other Coalition countries to develop early warning systems to identify emerging drug patterns.
    Canada and the United Arab Emirates will work to prevent and treat the overdose epidemic, including by expanding public health interventions and making life-saving medications widely available.
    Core Coalition countries also signed a Coalition Pledge agreeing to take additional actions to regulate all relevant drugs and precursor chemicals, take needed steps to fill gaps in their own domestic authorities, expand public-private partnerships to more effectively combat the supply chain for illicit fentanyl, develop mechanisms to monitor real-time data on trends in illicit drug use, and expand access to treatment.  At the Summit, President Biden called on all other Coalition countries to likewise sign this pledge.
    Domestic Actions to Fight Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids
    Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has made disrupting the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs a core priority.  As part of their Unity Agenda for the Nation, President Biden and Vice President Harris have made it a priority to invest in public health and to tackle both the supply and demand for drugs.  And those efforts have paid off:
    Border officials have stopped more illicit fentanyl at ports of entry in the past two fiscal years than in the previous five fiscal years combined.  In the past 11 months, over 974 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at U.S. ports of entry.
    The Biden-Harris Administration deployed cutting-edge drug detection technology across our southwest border, adding dozens of new inspection systems, with dozens more coming online in the next few years.
    The Biden-Harris Administration has made naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication, widely available over the counter, and has invested over $82 billion in treatment – 40 percent more than the previous Administration.
    In 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order targeting foreign persons engaged in the global illicit drug trade, and the Administration has since sanctioned over 300 persons and entities under this authority, thereby cutting them off from the United States’ financial system.
    The Biden-Harris Administration has prosecuted dozens of high-level Mexican cartel leaders, drug traffickers, and money launderers, including Chapitos leader Nestor Isidro “El Nini” Perez Salas, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación’s top chemical brokers—placing dangerous drug traffickers behind bars.  Just last week, the son of a fugitive Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación boss, Ruben “El Menchito” Oseguera, was convicted for his violent acts, including the deadly downing of a military helicopter in Mexico, in support of his father’s drug trafficking organization.
     In July, President Biden issued a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) calling on all relevant Federal departments and agencies to do even more to stop the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in our country.  The NSM directs increased intelligence collection, more intensive coordination and cooperation across departments and agencies, and additional actions to disrupt the production and distribution of illicit fentanyl.  And the Biden-Harris Administration has called on Congress to pass the Administration’s “Detect and Defeat” counter-fentanyl legislative proposal to increase penalties on those who bring deadly drugs into our communities and to close loopholes that drug traffickers exploit. As stated above, these measures are having an effect. Provisional CDC data show a 10% drop in overdose deaths in the 12 months leading up to April 2024 – the largest drop in overdose deaths in recorded history. Other International Engagements Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, the United States has engaged around the world – both as part of the Coalition and in numerous bilateral and multilateral engagements – to spur global action in the fight against synthetic opioids. In early 2023, President Biden, together with the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada, directed the establishment a Trilateral Fentanyl Committee, and the Biden-Harris Administration engages regularly with both countries to tackle the supply chain for fentanyl. In November 2023, President Biden negotiated the resumption of counternarcotics cooperation with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), spurring the creation of a U.S. – PRC Counternarcotics Working Group that has led to increased cooperation on law enforcement actions and ongoing efforts to shut down companies that fuel illicit fentanyl and synthetic drug trafficking and cause deaths in the United States.   The United States and India have worked together to increase counternarcotics cooperation, including by signing a new Memorandum of Understanding and Framework for ongoing work to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs just this past week.  The Biden-Harris Administration has worked extensively with law enforcement partners across the globe to hold drug traffickers to account.  These partnerships pay dividends – including by generating support for extraditions that have enabled the United States to put dozens of cartel leaders, drug traffickers, and money launderers behind bars.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA News: FACT SHEET: Leaders’ Summit of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug  Threats

    Source: The White House

    Today, President Biden hosted a Summit of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, which the President directed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to launch in June 2023, in order to mobilize international action to tackle the synthetic drug crisis.  In just over a year, the Global Coalition has grown to include 159 countries and 15 international organizations working together to disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs; detect emerging drug threats; and prevent and treat through effective public health interventions.
     
    With the Summit as a motivating force, 11 core Coalition countries announced new initiatives that will advance the work of the Coalition, including efforts to disrupt the supply chain of fentanyl and enhance public health interventions.  These international commitments complement intensive work being done domestically, including an increased focus on coordinated disruption of drug trafficking networks and concerted efforts to make the opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone, widely available over-the-counter.
     
    As a result of these efforts, we are starting to see the largest drop in overdose deaths in recorded history.  When President Biden and Vice President Harris came into office, the number of drug overdose deaths was increasing by more than 30% year over year.  Now, the latest provisional data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics show an unprecedented decline in overdose deaths of 10% in the 12 months ending April 2024. 
     
    These aren’t just numbers – these are lives.
     
    Background on the Global Coalition
     
    The 159 countries and 15 international organizations that are now part of the Coalition are working together on three key lines of effort:

    1. Disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs;
    2. Detect emerging drug threats; and
    3. Prevent and treat through effective public health interventions. 

    For the past year, three working groups and seven sub-working groups have met monthly to create detailed plans of action.  These working groups have made tangible progress, including implementing new efforts to increase seizures of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals at ports of entry, sharing best practices with respect to the identification of emerging drug threats, and taking actions to schedule an increasing number of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals, thus subjecting these drugs and chemicals to increased controls. 

    New Initiatives Being Announced

    At today’s Summit, 11 core countries announced new initiatives that will move the work of each of the Coalition’s core lines of effort even further:

    1. Australia, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom will lead new efforts to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.  These efforts include the development of regional coalitions to disrupt the transit routes for illicit drugs, precursor chemicals, and associated equipment, protect against the diversion of chemicals for illicit use, and improve the detection and disruption of production sites.
    2. Italy and Ghana will lead new initiatives to detect emerging drug trends, to include Italy helping other Coalition countries to develop early warning systems to identify emerging drug patterns.
    3. Canada and the United Arab Emirates will work to prevent and treat the overdose epidemic, including by expanding public health interventions and making life-saving medications widely available.

    Core Coalition countries also signed a Coalition Pledge agreeing to take additional actions to regulate all relevant drugs and precursor chemicals, take needed steps to fill gaps in their own domestic authorities, expand public-private partnerships to more effectively combat the supply chain for illicit fentanyl, develop mechanisms to monitor real-time data on trends in illicit drug use, and expand access to treatment.  At the Summit, President Biden called on all other Coalition countries to likewise sign this pledge.

    Domestic Actions to Fight Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids

    Since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has made disrupting the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs a core priority.  As part of their Unity Agenda for the Nation, President Biden and Vice President Harris have made it a priority to invest in public health and to tackle both the supply and demand for drugs.  And those efforts have paid off:

    1. Border officials have stopped more illicit fentanyl at ports of entry in the past two fiscal years than in the previous five fiscal years combined.  In the past 11 months, over 974 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at U.S. ports of entry.
    2. The Biden-Harris Administration deployed cutting-edge drug detection technology across our southwest border, adding dozens of new inspection systems, with dozens more coming online in the next few years.
    3. The Biden-Harris Administration has made naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication, widely available over the counter, and has invested over $82 billion in treatment – 40 percent more than the previous Administration.
    4. In 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order targeting foreign persons engaged in the global illicit drug trade, and the Administration has since sanctioned over 300 persons and entities under this authority, thereby cutting them off from the United States’ financial system.
    5. The Biden-Harris Administration has prosecuted dozens of high-level Mexican cartel leaders, drug traffickers, and money launderers, including Chapitos leader Nestor Isidro “El Nini” Perez Salas, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación’s top chemical brokers—placing dangerous drug traffickers behind bars.  Just last week, the son of a fugitive Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación boss, Ruben “El Menchito” Oseguera, was convicted for his violent acts, including the deadly downing of a military helicopter in Mexico, in support of his father’s drug trafficking organization.

     
    In July, President Biden issued a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) calling on all relevant Federal departments and agencies to do even more to stop the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in our country.  The NSM directs increased intelligence collection, more intensive coordination and cooperation across departments and agencies, and additional actions to disrupt the production and distribution of illicit fentanyl.  And the Biden-Harris Administration has called on Congress to pass the Administration’s “Detect and Defeat” counter-fentanyl legislative proposal to increase penalties on those who bring deadly drugs into our communities and to close loopholes that drug traffickers exploit.
     
    As stated above, these measures are having an effect.
     
    Provisional CDC data show a 10% drop in overdose deaths in the 12 months leading up to April 2024 – the largest drop in overdose deaths in recorded history.
     
    Other International Engagements
     
    Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, the United States has engaged around the world – both as part of the Coalition and in numerous bilateral and multilateral engagements – to spur global action in the fight against synthetic opioids.
     
    In early 2023, President Biden, together with the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada, directed the establishment a Trilateral Fentanyl Committee, and the Biden-Harris Administration engages regularly with both countries to tackle the supply chain for fentanyl.
     
    In November 2023, President Biden negotiated the resumption of counternarcotics cooperation with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), spurring the creation of a U.S. – PRC Counternarcotics Working Group that has led to increased cooperation on law enforcement actions and ongoing efforts to shut down companies that fuel illicit fentanyl and synthetic drug trafficking and cause deaths in the United States.  
     
    The United States and India have worked together to increase counternarcotics cooperation, including by signing a new Memorandum of Understanding and Framework for ongoing work to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs just this past week. 
     
    The Biden-Harris Administration has worked extensively with law enforcement partners across the globe to hold drug traffickers to account.  These partnerships pay dividends – including by generating support for extraditions that have enabled the United States to put dozens of cartel leaders, drug traffickers, and money launderers behind bars.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Miller Speaks on the Need to Reform Temporary Assistance for Needy Families During Ways and Means Hearing

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV)

    Washington D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) participated in a Ways and Means hearing that focused on the misuse of welfare funds and the need to reform Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) non-assistance funds to ensure the money goes to families in need, connects people to work, and improves accountability. 

    Congresswoman Miller began her remarks by highlighting how TANF fraud has been committed within different states including West Virginia. She asked former professional football player, Brett Favre, to share his concerns about the misuse of these funds spreading throughout the country. 

    “I was reviewing the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) statement for the record highlighting the forthcoming report Chairman Smith and Chairman LaHood requested investigating TANF non-assistance spending. One thing that disturbed me was how widespread and repetitive TANF waste, fraud, and abuse is in the country and how weak our accounting systems are to catch and correct it. According to the GAO, 99 of the 155 audit findings have repeated for at least 1 year. West Virginia has had the same internal control deficiency finding reported for 15 years and nothing has been done to correct it. Mr. Favre, do you believe more scandals like the one you found yourself involved in is possible across the country if we don’t act now to reform and bring more transparency and accountability to the TANF program?” asked Congresswoman Miller. 

    “100% absolutely. If it can happen in my state, it can happen in any state. You just spoke on the statistics and it’s kind of frightening to be honest with you what is being wasted,” responded Brett Favre.

    Congresswoman Miller asked Sam Adolphsen, the Policy Director for the Foundation for Government Accountability, about what necessary steps the Federal Government should take to ensure that TANF non-assistance funds are going to the right places. 

    “TANF is our nation’s primary welfare program, but it’s my understanding that there are no federal guidelines about eligibility and that there are issues with how funding is allocated to states. Based on your testimony, we know that you believe TANF could be better utilized if that were the case. For example, West Virginia has historically had a higher poverty rate compared to the rest of the country. That would mean that my home state would need more funds to address the unique challenges and demographic of my rural community. What can we do at the federal level to make sure TANF money is actually getting to families in poverty and to states with the highest rates of poverty?” asked Congresswoman Miller. 

    “One of the things we could do to stop this from happening is to actually enforce some of the rules we do have. California has been out of compliance for 15 years with their work participation rate. [The Department of Health and Human Services] HHS has said that there’s $1 billion in fines, essentially that they should levy, but they’ve written that down to $60 million. We have these audits, that you mentioned, that the GAO is looking at. The first and easy step is just to act on those basic oversight measures that we can already take. I think just the question of the funding is exactly the right question. How do we make sure there’s money in these programs, right? There are unobligated funds, there are carryover funds, there is a large outlay of funding to the states. We need to make sure it gets targeted down to the folks who need it the most. We need to get into the rural areas of each state with the highest levels of poverty where they need some assistance to help get back on their feet. The way that can be done is by making sure states use most of that funding to meet the core objectives because those are going to target those in poverty directly,” responded Mr. Adolphsen. 

    Congresswoman Miller proceeded to ask Mr. Adolphsen to identify what other possible factors to consider when deciding who is eligible for TANF funds. 

    “Is there any criteria other than ‘poverty rates’ that you believe could be prioritized when determining which families receive TANF funds, so we ensure that the neediest families [are adequately supported]?” asked Congresswoman Miller. 

    “It should be. There should be some income thresholds associated with this support and not just the cash support in the states, but also these other job assistance programs, education attainment. Again, California spends $1 billion a year on tuition for a higher education, for college. That is not directly for the purpose of the program when that has no income threshold on it and you have families well above the poverty line, 6 figures getting those tuition grants they’re working in the system. That has to stop in order to make sure we can target the funds to those who are truly in need,” responded Mr. Adolphsen.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Education and Training Amendment Bill — Third Reading – 001411

    Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

    TUESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2024

    (continued on Wednesday, 25 September 2024)

    EDUCATION AND TRAINING AMENDMENT BILL

    Third Reading

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: The House is resumed. Good morning, members. Yesterday when we finished, the Education and Training Amendment Bill had been set down for third reading. I call the Hon David Seymour.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Education): I present a legislative statement on the Education and Training Amendment Bill.

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliamentary website.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: I move, That the Education and Training Amendment Bill be now read a third time.

    I want to thank all of the people who have contributed to this legislation. I want to thank my colleague, the Hon Erica Stanford, Minister of Education—and I see Katie Nimon, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, along with other members of that committee, who shepherded the bill through the committee stage faster than usual but with no less care and attention, and made valuable improvements to this legislation. It has been a very good example of what Parliament can do when people are committed to a cause.

    I don’t believe that there’s any greater cause for this country’s long-term future than the simple equation of how much knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next. Because a knowledgeable and educated population can overcome whatever challenges we may face with the economy or foreign affairs or climate change or public health. An educated population will be able to solve those problems, but an uneducated population that hasn’t learnt the best knowledge from generations before them will be able to squander even great prosperity that this country currently has. That’s why it matters so much and that’s why I think we saw so much commitment from those people involved in this legislation, and perhaps more than any for the enormous detail that has been meticulously put together. I thank the employees at the Ministry of Education, the policy team, particularly Andy and Jen and all those who support them; they have done an absolutely outstanding job.

    What is the cause in this bill? Well, this bill has three parts; two of them, relatively simple, and one of them, more complex and, I would argue, ultimately more important. The first is that we are removing the network management requirement for early childhood education centres. This comes from many complaints from early childhood educators that it is absolutely insane that in order to open up a business that people in your community want, you have to go and ask the Government if the people in your community want it as much as you know they want it because you’re risking your money to do it. And yet somehow the people at the Government are supposed to have a better idea than you do.

    Members on the other side, we’re going to have a bit of a history lesson later in this speech, so don’t worry, that’s coming. But actually there’s a country called Russia where they tried this approach to economic management for about 70 years; it didn’t work. Even they’ve abandoned it. It’s only the Labour Party and the Greens that persist with trying to centrally plan economies with these kinds of decisions.

    So now you don’t have to do network management. If you want to expand or open a new early childhood education (ECE) centre, then you can just do it. But the real judge is the parents. And do you know what the parents say to me? When I go and visit ECE centres and I ask the parents, they say I want my child to be happy, I want them to be safe—

    Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Will they be?

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: I want them to be growing. I think parents of New Zealand are better—the Opposition is asking: is that what the parents say? Yes. And if the member would like to visit some of these centres or, you know, venture out of academia or out of this House, he might find that is what the parents say. And actually, I think the parents are better to judge it than the Government.

    The second thing we’re doing is we’re updating the attendance records. It’s interesting, Madam Speaker. The attendance records actually are set under 1951 regulation, which was made under 1914 legislation. So you could almost argue—not quite, but almost—that our attendance regulations predate World War I, and this is a Government of the future. So we are going to update the way that attendance regulations are made. Every day from next year, every school student management system will be pushing rich data about student attendance into the Ministry of Education’s data warehouse so we can understand who’s not attending and we can start to dig into why, and we can start to work out if the things the Government and schools are doing to improve attendance—and parents, for that matter—are working so that we can do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t. It sounds simple. To most New Zealanders, to most people in business or running a farm or their household, it is simple; it’s how you do business every day. And it’s actually how this Government is going to start getting stuck into the business of getting children back to school.

    But coming to charter schools, we’re introducing the simple idea that not every insight into how to engage children in learning and pass that knowledge from one generation to the next can be found in the Ministry of Education or Wellington, or even amongst the wise members of Parliament in this House. Sometimes the best knowledge exists out in the community.

    Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: Most times.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Sometimes those—”most times”, the Māori party say, and I actually for once think Te Pāti Māori are right. You’ll notice when I talked about communist adherence, I talked about Labour and the Greens, not the free-market Te Pāti Māori for whom I have great hope. If they could just get over themselves, I think they could contribute a lot to this House and life in New Zealand.

    It’s not surprising, because the iwi leaders forum have written to me in strong support of charter schools, because they know that communities know more about how to engage their children than the people in Wellington most of the time. So we’re going to invite people in communities to start up schools and they’re going to get the money the State would have spent on the same child at a State school. It’s going to go to the school they choose to go to if—and this is important—high standards are met. If high standards of attendance are contracted in, if high standards of achievement are contracted in, if they show that they’re using their money wisely with financial probity, then they will continue to get their money and they will be able to use that money for the best effect, to get those children at school engaged, achieving, and learning, so that they can actually learn skills that turn into qualifications, that turn into jobs, that turn into careers, that turn into a sense of achievement and feeling good about yourself. That’s why we’re doing it.

    I heard last night from the Labour Party that they would like to shut these schools down. Now, their bark’s worse than their bite. They didn’t do it last time. All the schools carried on, but with one change; that they don’t want them to operate without union contracts. You see, that’s the thing about these charter schools; teachers get paid, like most New Zealanders, on individual employment agreements, and if they’re good they can get paid more, and if they’re not good they can get fired.

    Here’s why that matters. We run education for the children. You see, the thing is—I was looking at some statistics the other day—we spent $20 billion a year on education; 60,000 kids are born in this country every year. If you do the maths—it can be challenging on the other side, but that is $330,000 per citizen, lifetime education spending. And yet what do we get for that? I look at the UE, the university entrance achievement, and for the most prosperous, wealthy and advantaged students, 82 percent get UE, but for the most disadvantaged students 30 percent get UE.

    Now, I said there was a lecture coming. There’s an old book called The God That Failed, and the God that fails is the stories of former adherents of the Communist Party who realised it didn’t work and left. They wrote this book and it’s a wonderful set of essays. Now, I would put it to the Labour Party that when you spend $330,000 per citizen and the most disadvantaged students are nearly three times less likely to get university entrance than the most advantaged students, your God has failed. Sorry Labour, your God has failed, because you spent all the money but the wealthy kids from the good backgrounds are still doing pretty good and the poor kids you were supposed to help are still failing.

    That’s why I’m proud to be here in this Government, standing as an ACT MP, setting up schools that allow people to choose their own destiny. Tino rangatiratanga, we might call it—the ability of people to use the knowledge in their society, in their community, to take the funding that the Government would have funded and use it—you’d have provided for those children—for better effect: to make sure that children have that opportunity to feel good about themselves, to learn, to engage, to have it done their way, not to feel unsafe or bullied, but to actually go along and build their own future, not only for themselves, each in their own way, but for the future of this great country of ours. That is what this policy of charter schools really means for the future of our country.

    I challenge the Opposition. Where are your ideas other than more money for our union mates? Not for teachers but for the unions, because that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day. Charter schools don’t have to use the unions’ contracts. That is what we are here to end, to give freedom and choice to New Zealanders to make their own future. I’m sorry, Labour, your God’s failed.

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Tuesday, 24 September 2024 (continued on Wednesday, 25 September 2024) – Volume 778 – 001412

    Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

    TUESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2024

    (continued on Wednesday, 25 September 2024)

    EDUCATION AND TRAINING AMENDMENT BILL

    Third Reading

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: The House is resumed. Good morning, members. Yesterday when we finished, the Education and Training Amendment Bill had been set down for third reading. I call the Hon David Seymour.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Education): I present a legislative statement on the Education and Training Amendment Bill.

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliamentary website.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: I move, That the Education and Training Amendment Bill be now read a third time.

    I want to thank all of the people who have contributed to this legislation. I want to thank my colleague, the Hon Erica Stanford, Minister of Education—and I see Katie Nimon, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, along with other members of that committee, who shepherded the bill through the committee stage faster than usual but with no less care and attention, and made valuable improvements to this legislation. It has been a very good example of what Parliament can do when people are committed to a cause.

    I don’t believe that there’s any greater cause for this country’s long-term future than the simple equation of how much knowledge is transferred from one generation to the next. Because a knowledgeable and educated population can overcome whatever challenges we may face with the economy or foreign affairs or climate change or public health. An educated population will be able to solve those problems, but an uneducated population that hasn’t learnt the best knowledge from generations before them will be able to squander even great prosperity that this country currently has. That’s why it matters so much and that’s why I think we saw so much commitment from those people involved in this legislation, and perhaps more than any for the enormous detail that has been meticulously put together. I thank the employees at the Ministry of Education, the policy team, particularly Andy and Jen and all those who support them; they have done an absolutely outstanding job.

    What is the cause in this bill? Well, this bill has three parts; two of them, relatively simple, and one of them, more complex and, I would argue, ultimately more important. The first is that we are removing the network management requirement for early childhood education centres. This comes from many complaints from early childhood educators that it is absolutely insane that in order to open up a business that people in your community want, you have to go and ask the Government if the people in your community want it as much as you know they want it because you’re risking your money to do it. And yet somehow the people at the Government are supposed to have a better idea than you do.

    Members on the other side, we’re going to have a bit of a history lesson later in this speech, so don’t worry, that’s coming. But actually there’s a country called Russia where they tried this approach to economic management for about 70 years; it didn’t work. Even they’ve abandoned it. It’s only the Labour Party and the Greens that persist with trying to centrally plan economies with these kinds of decisions.

    So now you don’t have to do network management. If you want to expand or open a new early childhood education (ECE) centre, then you can just do it. But the real judge is the parents. And do you know what the parents say to me? When I go and visit ECE centres and I ask the parents, they say I want my child to be happy, I want them to be safe—

    Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan: Will they be?

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: I want them to be growing. I think parents of New Zealand are better—the Opposition is asking: is that what the parents say? Yes. And if the member would like to visit some of these centres or, you know, venture out of academia or out of this House, he might find that is what the parents say. And actually, I think the parents are better to judge it than the Government.

    The second thing we’re doing is we’re updating the attendance records. It’s interesting, Madam Speaker. The attendance records actually are set under 1951 regulation, which was made under 1914 legislation. So you could almost argue—not quite, but almost—that our attendance regulations predate World War I, and this is a Government of the future. So we are going to update the way that attendance regulations are made. Every day from next year, every school student management system will be pushing rich data about student attendance into the Ministry of Education’s data warehouse so we can understand who’s not attending and we can start to dig into why, and we can start to work out if the things the Government and schools are doing to improve attendance—and parents, for that matter—are working so that we can do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t. It sounds simple. To most New Zealanders, to most people in business or running a farm or their household, it is simple; it’s how you do business every day. And it’s actually how this Government is going to start getting stuck into the business of getting children back to school.

    But coming to charter schools, we’re introducing the simple idea that not every insight into how to engage children in learning and pass that knowledge from one generation to the next can be found in the Ministry of Education or Wellington, or even amongst the wise members of Parliament in this House. Sometimes the best knowledge exists out in the community.

    Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: Most times.

    Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Sometimes those—”most times”, the Māori party say, and I actually for once think Te Pāti Māori are right. You’ll notice when I talked about communist adherence, I talked about Labour and the Greens, not the free-market Te Pāti Māori for whom I have great hope. If they could just get over themselves, I think they could contribute a lot to this House and life in New Zealand.

    It’s not surprising, because the iwi leaders forum have written to me in strong support of charter schools, because they know that communities know more about how to engage their children than the people in Wellington most of the time. So we’re going to invite people in communities to start up schools and they’re going to get the money the State would have spent on the same child at a State school. It’s going to go to the school they choose to go to if—and this is important—high standards are met. If high standards of attendance are contracted in, if high standards of achievement are contracted in, if they show that they’re using their money wisely with financial probity, then they will continue to get their money and they will be able to use that money for the best effect, to get those children at school engaged, achieving, and learning, so that they can actually learn skills that turn into qualifications, that turn into jobs, that turn into careers, that turn into a sense of achievement and feeling good about yourself. That’s why we’re doing it.

    I heard last night from the Labour Party that they would like to shut these schools down. Now, their bark’s worse than their bite. They didn’t do it last time. All the schools carried on, but with one change; that they don’t want them to operate without union contracts. You see, that’s the thing about these charter schools; teachers get paid, like most New Zealanders, on individual employment agreements, and if they’re good they can get paid more, and if they’re not good they can get fired.

    Here’s why that matters. We run education for the children. You see, the thing is—I was looking at some statistics the other day—we spent $20 billion a year on education; 60,000 kids are born in this country every year. If you do the maths—it can be challenging on the other side, but that is $330,000 per citizen, lifetime education spending. And yet what do we get for that? I look at the UE, the university entrance achievement, and for the most prosperous, wealthy and advantaged students, 82 percent get UE, but for the most disadvantaged students 30 percent get UE.

    Now, I said there was a lecture coming. There’s an old book called The God That Failed, and the God that fails is the stories of former adherents of the Communist Party who realised it didn’t work and left. They wrote this book and it’s a wonderful set of essays. Now, I would put it to the Labour Party that when you spend $330,000 per citizen and the most disadvantaged students are nearly three times less likely to get university entrance than the most advantaged students, your God has failed. Sorry Labour, your God has failed, because you spent all the money but the wealthy kids from the good backgrounds are still doing pretty good and the poor kids you were supposed to help are still failing.

    That’s why I’m proud to be here in this Government, standing as an ACT MP, setting up schools that allow people to choose their own destiny. Tino rangatiratanga, we might call it—the ability of people to use the knowledge in their society, in their community, to take the funding that the Government would have funded and use it—you’d have provided for those children—for better effect: to make sure that children have that opportunity to feel good about themselves, to learn, to engage, to have it done their way, not to feel unsafe or bullied, but to actually go along and build their own future, not only for themselves, each in their own way, but for the future of this great country of ours. That is what this policy of charter schools really means for the future of our country.

    I challenge the Opposition. Where are your ideas other than more money for our union mates? Not for teachers but for the unions, because that’s what it comes down to at the end of the day. Charter schools don’t have to use the unions’ contracts. That is what we are here to end, to give freedom and choice to New Zealanders to make their own future. I’m sorry, Labour, your God’s failed.

    DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to WHO data on adolescent social media use and gaming

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Data published by the World Health Organisation looks at adolescent social media use and gaming.

    Prof Ben Carter, Professor of Medical Statistics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, said:

    “The authors provide a useful snapshot of the evidence and whilst again the study includes cross sectional data- it is large and has collected very pertinent data throughout Europe. 

    “However, they offer an unvalidated tool for problematic social media use. Whilst better than merely ‘screentime’, it isn’t entirely based on the DSM-V criteria for defining a behavioural addiction. Again, this is a useful starting point for measuring potential harm.

    “Their findings suggest approximately 1 in 10 are at risk of problematic use and are consistent with other studies (Carter et al, 2024) which state problematic smartphone usage slightly higher, but when focusing on social media alone offer utility in understanding the problem. 

    “Including Social media and gaming together is not a convincing argument as they are not the only forms of harm adolescents are at risk from- but the findings showing the difference between genders are well established. However, this is a very new and emerging field. 

    “The authors draw distinctions to the long periods of time spent gaming and the risk of harm is at odds with the incredibly helpful quote from the boy highlighting that the time spent isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The boy clearly shows insight highlighting the need to understand the underlying use (e.g. when and what) rather than just the time. This is consistent with the literature 

    “I welcome these finding and thank the authors for the valid contribution to the evidence base.”

    ‘A focus on adolescent social media use and gaming in Europe, central Asia and Canada’ by the World Health Organisation was published at 00:01 UK time on Wednesday 25th September.

    Declared interests

    Prof Ben Carter: No declarations.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: New Zealanders’ trust in key institutions declines – Stats NZ media and information release: Wellbeing statistics: 2023

    Source: Statistics New Zealand

    New Zealanders’ trust in key institutions declines – 25 September 2024 – Data from the 2023 General Social Survey (GSS) found that trust held by New Zealanders in institutions like the health system, education system, parliament, media, police, and courts has declined since 2021, according to wellbeing statistics released by Stats NZ today.

    People in Aotearoa New Zealand remained satisfied with their lives as a whole in 2023, with an overall satisfaction rating of 7.6 out of 10, which is similar to the 7.7 rating in 2021.

    “As a result of recent global events such as COVID-19, our society has faced a number of challenges. Institutional trust, trust in other people, sense of belonging, and a sense of safety are all important measures of people feeling part of society,” wellbeing and housing statistics manager Sarah Drake said.

    Some key measures of trust and social wellbeing have declined since 2021. These areas included trust in institutions, trust in most people in New Zealand, sense of belonging to New Zealand, and a sense of safety.

    Visit Statistics NZ’s website to read this news story and information release and to download CSV files:

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: New Zealanders’ trust in key institutions declines – Stats NZ media and information release: Wellbeing statistics: 2023

    Source: Statistics New Zealand

    New Zealanders’ trust in key institutions declines – 25 September 2024 – Data from the 2023 General Social Survey (GSS) found that trust held by New Zealanders in institutions like the health system, education system, parliament, media, police, and courts has declined since 2021, according to wellbeing statistics released by Stats NZ today.

    People in Aotearoa New Zealand remained satisfied with their lives as a whole in 2023, with an overall satisfaction rating of 7.6 out of 10, which is similar to the 7.7 rating in 2021.

    “As a result of recent global events such as COVID-19, our society has faced a number of challenges. Institutional trust, trust in other people, sense of belonging, and a sense of safety are all important measures of people feeling part of society,” wellbeing and housing statistics manager Sarah Drake said.

    Some key measures of trust and social wellbeing have declined since 2021. These areas included trust in institutions, trust in most people in New Zealand, sense of belonging to New Zealand, and a sense of safety.

    Visit our website to read this news story and information release and to download CSV files:

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China unveils fresh stimulus to boost high-quality economic development

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    This photo taken with a mobile phone shows people watching a sand table model of a real estate project in east China’s Shanghai, May 28, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    China’s central bank, top securities regulator and financial regulator on Tuesday announced at a press conference a raft of monetary stimulus, property market support and capital market strengthening measures to boost the country’s high-quality economic development.

    Monetary stimulus

    Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, said China would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage points in the near future, providing about 1 trillion yuan (about 141.82 billion U.S. dollars) in long-term liquidity to the financial market.

    Depending on the liquidity situation in the market, RRR may be further lowered by 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points within the year, Pan said.

    He said that the central bank will reduce the interest rate of seven-day reverse repurchases from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent.

    The reduction was aimed at guiding the loan prime rate and deposit rate to move downward and maintaining stability in the net interest margin of commercial banks, said Pan.

    Pan said the central bank would keep monetary policy accommodative, strengthen monetary policy regulation, make monetary policy regulation more precise, and create a sound monetary and financial environment for stable economic growth and high-quality development.

    China targets economic growth of around 5 percent in 2024.

    The country’s economy maintained stable expansion in the first half of the year despite rising challenges from home and abroad.

    Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5 percent year on year in the period to 61.68 trillion yuan. In the second quarter, China’s GDP expanded 4.7 percent year on year.

    Mortgage rate cuts

    Pan added that China will lower mortgage rates on existing home loans to a level similar to those of newly issued housing loans.

    The average reduction in mortgage rates for existing home loans is expected to be around 0.5 percentage points, he said.

    “The new policy, which is conducive to further reducing borrowers’ mortgage interest expenses, is expected to benefit 50 million households, or a population of 150 million,” said Pan.

    This move is expected to reduce the total interest expenses for households by approximately 150 billion yuan per year on average, which will help boost consumption and investment, he added.

    The minimum down payment ratio for both first and second homes will be unified, with the nationwide minimum down payment ratio for second homes to be reduced from 25 percent to 15 percent, Pan said.

    On May 17, China announced the establishment of a 300-billion-yuan re-lending facility that supports local state-owned enterprises to buy commercial homes for affordable housing.

    Pan said the central bank will increase its funding proportion in the affordable housing re-lending policy from the original 60 percent to 100 percent.

    “This adjustment will help accelerate the reduction of inventory in the commercial housing market,” Pan said.

    China’s large and medium-sized cities saw month-on-month declines in both new and second-hand home prices in August, NBS data showed.

    Financial market support

    Moreover, the central bank will create new monetary policy tools to support the stable development of the stock market, said Pan.

    The central bank will establish a swap program for securities, funds and insurance companies to obtain liquidity from the central bank through asset collateralization. The program will significantly enhance companies’ ability to acquire funds and increase their stock holdings, Pan said.

    The central bank will also create a special re-lending facility to guide banks to provide loans to listed companies and their major shareholders for buybacks and increasing shareholdings, he said.

    Experts consider the release of the new batch of policies a positive signal of strengthening policy coordination and efforts to achieve the annual economic growth target.

    The central bank’s policies, which exceed market expectations, will boost market confidence, stimulate the vitality of business entities, stabilize credit levels, and enhance the sustainability of financial support for the real economy, said Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank.

    To better channel funds into the capital market, China will issue a guideline that seeks to improve the entry supporting system of various types of medium and long-term funds into the capital market, according to Wu Qing, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

    The commission will also release six measures to promote mergers and acquisitions, and work with various parties to facilitate the circulation of private equity and venture capital funds in the process of fundraising, investment, management and withdrawal, Wu said.

    More efforts will be made to protect the legitimate rights and interests of small and medium-sized investors, and firm actions will be taken to crack down on illegal activities such as financial fraud and market manipulation, according to Wu.

    Li Yunze, head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, said China plans to increase the tier-1 capital of six major commercial banks.

    The capital will be injected in an orderly manner, with coordinated advancement, phased implementation and tailored policies, said Li.

    Tier-1 capital refers to the core capital held in a bank’s reserves, including common stock and disclosed reserves.

    China’s major stock indices surged following the release of the policies and measures, with the Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Component Index both closing with an increase of more than 4 percent. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: What are ‘rent tech’ platforms? Action on reining in these exploitative tools is long overdue

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Przhedetsky, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney

    Bernard Hermant/Unsplash

    This week the New South Wales government announced it would introduce legislation that ensures renters are offered convenient, fee-free options to pay their rent.

    The announcement is just one of many state and territory reforms that aim to address issues arising from the use of rental technology platforms.

    In recent years these platforms and the landlords who use them have come under fire for intruding on renters’ privacy and charging additional fees. While practices such as “rent bidding” have already been outlawed around Australia, governments are now starting to turn their attention to other harmful practices facilitated by new technologies.

    Action on these issues is long overdue, and there’s much more that needs to be done to ensure rental technology platforms actually benefit consumers.

    An expanding industry

    A wide range of digital technology platforms are used to facilitate the use, trading, operation and management of real estate assets. A well-known example is AirBnb, a technology platform that facilitates short-term rentals by connecting hosts with guests.

    The property technology industry in Australia is rapidly expanding. In 2023, there were more than 478 products, start-ups and established companies ranging from marketing tools to data analytics platforms. This was up from 188 in 2019.

    A portion of these companies make services typically designed to be used by renters, real estate agents or landlords.

    A major selling point of rental technology platforms is that they promise to streamline a range of processes. To renters, these technologies are billed as quick, easy and effective ways to submit property applications, request maintenance or pay rent.

    If designed well, these platforms can certainly offer convenience. But many have expressed dissatisfaction with rental technology businesses that pressure renters to pay for costly background checks, collect too much personal data, or use opaque algorithms to “score” applicants.

    People who struggle to access or use technologies may also find these platforms difficult to use. This makes it harder for them to access an essential service.

    Some 41% of renters report feeling pressured to use a third-party rental technology platform to apply for a property. And 29% say they have opted not to apply for particular rentals because they do not trust rental technology platforms. This suggests that the use of these technologies may sometimes deter, rather than attract, applicants.

    Additional fees

    Over 30% of Australians rent their homes, a figure that continues to grow as people find themselves priced out of home ownership. Rising rents and the overall increase in the cost of living have put many renters under substantial financial pressure.

    With this in mind, it’s concerning that some renters have found themselves with little choice but to use rental technology platforms that charge fees to process rental payments.

    For example, renters using a popular platform called Alio are typically charged between 0.25% to 1.50% to make automated rental payments, depending on the method of payment they use. A rough estimate shows that a household paying the median weekly rent (A$627 per week) on a fortnightly basis might see themselves paying between $81.51 and $489.06 in additional fees each year.

    As required by law, Alio does offer a fee-free option to pay rent. But this option is highly inconvenient: it requires renters to enter their bank details anew every month.

    The fee-free options offered by some other rental technology platforms are equally inconvenient. They include paying rent in cash at the local post office.

    For renters who have been asked to use a rental payment platform, this may mean spending additional time and effort every time they pay their rent to avoid paying additional fees.

    The NSW government already requires lessors to offer fee-free ways to pay rent (similar protections are legislated in other states and territories). However, the key element of this week’s announcement is a commitment to making sure these fee-free methods are actually convenient. This should hopefully close the legislative loophole that is enabling these rental technologies to unfairly profit at renters’ expense.

    While the draft legislation is yet to be seen, these reforms might see renters reverting to tried and tested payment methods such as bank transfers and bypassing rental technology payment platforms altogether.

    Effective enforcement

    Introducing laws that ensure renters have access to convenient, fee-free ways to make rental payments is a no-brainer. The next step is ensuring these laws are enforced effectively.

    To achieve this, the regulator must be well resourced to carry out compliance and enforcement activities that ensure lessors and rental technology businesses comply with these protections.

    Beyond these reforms, there is more work to be done to ensure renters are effectively protected from a range of harms that are created or exacerbated by rental technology platforms.

    Issues such as discrimination and unfair treatment through rental technology platforms warrant further attention.

    The key challenge for governments and regulators is to keep up with technological developments so they can identify and address issues as they arise.

    Linda Przhedetsky is a Board Member at the NSW Tenants’ Union, and is a member of the NSW Fair Trading’s Industry Reference Group on Protecting Renter Information. She receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

    – ref. What are ‘rent tech’ platforms? Action on reining in these exploitative tools is long overdue – https://theconversation.com/what-are-rent-tech-platforms-action-on-reining-in-these-exploitative-tools-is-long-overdue-239602

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Governments and Philanthropies Commit Approximately US$350 Million, Giving Urgent Boost to Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health Supplies and Services Worldwide

    Source: United Nations Population Fund

    During the UN General Assembly, countries and donors rally critical investments to save women and girls’ lives and drive sustainable development.

    As part of the global effort to secure sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all, governments and philanthropies have committed approximately US$350 million in new investments to expand access to family planning and sexual and reproductive health services. 

    Healthy women are the foundation of healthy families, vibrant communities, and prosperous economies and demand for SRH services is growing globally. Between 2023 and 2035, the number of people in low- and middle-income countries using modern contraceptives is predicted to increase by 95.4 million and annual births will increase by 3.29 million. Yet, a significant financing gap for contraceptives and lifesaving maternal health medicines – reaching at least US$1.5 billion in the world’s poorest countries alone by 2030 – threatens to derail hard-earned progress. Today, only 57 per cent of women are able to make their own decisions about their SRHR—a lack of autonomy that can put women’s lives at risk, rob them of opportunities, and foster an intergenerational cycle of poverty. 

    Together, the landmark commitments announced today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly — ranging from countries committing domestic resources for reproductive health supplies to donor governments pledging funds to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership and new commitments from private sector and foundation partners — will help transform the lives of women and girls in 54 countries.

    “Investing in reproductive health supplies is a ‘best buy’ for development, empowering women, improving maternal and newborn health outcomes, and uplifting economies,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. “The significant new resources that governments and philanthropies are committing to are a lifeline for millions of women, who can now enjoy reproductive freedom and the power of choice. Together, we must close the funding gap for reproductive health commodities so that every woman, everywhere, can exercise her fundamental rights.” 

    The contributions to UNFPA alone have the potential to reach more than 28 million people with reproductive health care, prevent more than 8 million unintended pregnancies, avert more than 2 million unsafe abortions, and save the lives of up to 9,000 women and girls.

    Domestic financing commitments include:

    • The Kyrgyz Republic announced US$119,000 to domestic resources for family planning commodities. 
    • The Republic of Madagascar announced a US$15 million government contribution to procure quality-assured contraceptives and maternal health medicines through UNFPA.
    • Nepal announced a US$600,000 government contribution to purchase quality-assured contraceptives.

    Financing commitments from international donors include: 

    • The Government of Canada announced US$84 million commitment to SRHR projects.
    • The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) announced a US$100 million commitment to co-fund the WISH/Step-Up (Women’s Integrated Sexual Health) platform, strengthening donor coordination on funding access to SRH choices for communities in the Sahel and Democratic Republic of Congo.
    • The Kingdom of the Netherlands committed to a multi-annual partnership.
    • Norway announced a US$12.3 million commitment to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership over 2 years.
    • The Government of Spain announced a US$18 million commitment to UNFPA. 

    Other commitments include:

    • The European Union and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a partnership to design new innovative financing mechanisms to expand contraceptive and SRH access for women in low- and middle-income countries.
    • As a catalytic in-kind investment, HELP Logistics (Kühne Foundation) committed to bringing their expertise to UNFPA’s supply chain strengthening activities to help ensure SRH services reach those who need them most.

    A Smart Investment for Health, Prosperity, and Sustainable Development

    “When we invest in healthy women, we invest in a healthy world,” said Dr. Anita Zaidi, President of the Gender Equality Division at the Gates Foundation. “Family planning is a proven, high-impact intervention that not only saves lives but also fuels economic growth, makes societies more resilient, and advances gender equality. Investing in family planning can help unlock a brighter, more sustainable future for us all.”

    Increasing sexual and reproductive health financing pays off.  Globally, every US$1 invested in family planning yields more than US$8 in benefits for families and societies. Addressing the women’s health gap – in which they currently spend 25 per cent more of their lives in poor health compared to men – will boost the global economy by US$1 trillion by 2040. That amounts to an increase in per capita GDP of nearly 2 per cent every year. 

    A World Made Possible by Family Planning 

    Furthering the impact of today’s domestic financing announcements, the governments of the Kyrgyz Republic, Madagascar, and Nepal have ongoing commitments under FP2030 to expand access to family planning. FP2030 – a global partnership dedicated to putting family planning at the centre of global health, development, and gender equality – premiered a new video at the UN General Assembly featuring Nigerian football star Asisat Oshoala and former US Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star and American business owner Renee Montgomery speaking to all that has been made possible by continued investments in family planning and SRH.

    “So much of our world has been made possible by family planning. By enabling more women to shape their lives and futures, family planning has helped women to finish their education, join the workforce, ascend to leadership positions, and achieve their dreams,” said Dr. Samukeliso Dube, Executive Director of FP2030. “The commitments made to family planning and sexual and reproductive health today will create limitless possibilities for women, for families, and for our collective future.”

    Investing in Family Planning and Sexual and Reproductive Health is Investing in the Future

    Today’s commitments represent a critical step towards ensuring universal access to SRH services. While the work is far from over, these commitments get us closer to closing the current and expanding financing gap.

    “There is no escaping the reality: even with the important pledges today, we still need to do more to ensure all women and girls have access to life-saving family planning when they want it,” said Sir Chris Hohn, Founder and Chair of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. “The shameful gap in funding for commodities and services must be met by strong domestic leadership – and sustained donor funding in service to country priorities. CIFF’s US$100 million investment in the WISH platform, on top of our US$100 million investment last year to end the commodity financing gap, is a demonstration of our commitment to prioritizing country-led solutions to ensure more women and girls can choose their futures.” 

    By unlocking sustainable financing and recharging political will for SRH, we can secure a healthier, more equitable world for future generations.

    Media contact:

     

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: At 2.7%, Australian inflation is back within the RBA zone. Here’s why that matters

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

    Jeremy Ng/Shutterstock

    A closely watched measure of Australian inflation dived in the month of August, plunging from 3.5% in July to just 2.7%.

    The dip below 3% puts the monthly measure of annual inflation back within the Reserve Bank’s target band of 2-3% for the first time since August 2021.

    The longer-running quarterly measure of annual inflation is also likely to be back within the 2-3% band when the September-quarter figure is released next month.

    The dramatically lower inflation rate puts Australia in the same league as the United States, whose inflation rate is 2.5%, and the United Kingdom, whose inflation rate is 2.2%.

    The US and the UK have inflation targets of 2%, meaning their inflation rates are still somewhat above target. Australia’s monthly measure of inflation is on target, close to the middle of the band.

    Electricity prices down 17.9%

    Inflation has been trending down since late 2022, as shown on the graphs, but the sharp drops in the past two months are largely due to electricity rebates offered by the federal and state governments.

    The rebates will be applied automatically to electricity bills in this and each of the next three quarters. A staged rollout means they hit bills in only Queensland and Western Australia in July and hit other states in August.

    The Bureau of Statistics says these rebates took 6.4% off the average national power price in July and a further 14.6% off in August.

    Household electricity prices were down 17.9% over the year to August. The Bureau of Statistics describes this as the largest annual fall on record.

    Also helping bring down inflation were lower petrol prices and cheaper public transport, aided by Brisbane’s pre-election six-month trial of 50 cent fares.

    The jump in the monthly measure to 4% in May, which had excited some commentators, now looks like a misleading blip.

    A takeaway is to be cautious in interpreting the less-comprehensive monthly indicator, as is the Reserve Bank, which puts it in small print at the top of its website under the quarterly index, which it headlines in big print.

    For what it’s worth, I am expecting the quarterly index to show annual inflation of 2.8% in the year to September, down from 3.8% for the June quarter.

    Governor Bullock isn’t impressed

    Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock says that at the moment she is paying more attention to the “underlying” rate of inflation, which looks through temporary measures such as subsidies.

    But the Reserve Bank’s preferred measure of underlying inflation, the so-called trimmed mean, also fell in August, to 3.4%, down from 3.8% in July.

    Australia’s weak economy – right now it’s the weakest outside of a recession – means the underlying measure of inflation is likely to continue to fall, unless the tax cuts that started in July have a big effect.

    Why do we target 2-3% anyway?

    Reserve Bank set its target of 2-3% inflation in the early 1990s without a lot of science. It was about where inflation was, close to the targets adopted by other countries, and was a range rather than a specific number in order to give the authorities some flexibility.

    But it happens to be a sensible target, as last year’s independent review of the Reserve Bank confirmed.

    The bank wants to target an inflation rate low enough to not be noticed much and to not much distort decisions.

    Evidence from Google searches suggests that when inflation is around the 2-3% range, people don’t much notice it, but when it climbs up to 4% or 5%, they notice it a lot and search for the word a lot.

    Although zero is (literally) a round number, zero inflation would be too low a target. It would mean deflation (prices falling) as often as not to balance out the prices that were climbing. Deflation is associated with recessions and poor economic performance.

    An inflation rate of 2-3% also allows some real wages to fall (because they can increase by less than the inflation rate), which can be useful in encouraging workers out of declining industries into ones that are expanding.

    In particularly bad times, the Reserve Bank might want to push interest rates down below the inflation rate. This is hard to do if the inflation rate is zero.

    In theory, there is a case for increasing Australia’s inflation target to about where inflation is at the moment, but if that happened, Australia’s inflation target and future inflation targets would have less credibility.

    And in any event, we are moving quickly back towards the target, and on Wednesday’s measure have already hit it.



    Read more:
    No RBA rate cut yet, but Governor Bullock is about to find the pressure overwhelming

    John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist and forecaster in the Reserve Bank and the Australian Treasury.

    – ref. At 2.7%, Australian inflation is back within the RBA zone. Here’s why that matters – https://theconversation.com/at-2-7-australian-inflation-is-back-within-the-rba-zone-heres-why-that-matters-237650

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI: Shipsi Acquired by Rainmakers in Bid to Redefine Shipping Speeds and Disrupt Traditional E-Commerce Logistics

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    MIAMI, Sept. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rainmakers today announced it had acquired the on-demand delivery and logistics technology, Shipsi, from Auctane. Shipsi is the technology leveling the “instant shipping” playing field in retail. Shipsi believes this acquisition will usher in a new era of AI-driven, ultra-fast delivery solutions for retailers of all sizes and looks forward to continuing to enhance its ability to transform retail logistics through ongoing innovation and support from trusted partners, ensuring a seamless and improved experience for both retailers and consumers.

    Shipsi’s technology gives retailers the power to offer same-day shipping by mobilizing last-mile networks to deliver goods. To date, Shipsi has given thousands of retailers the power to deliver in under two hours—prior to Shipsi, this has been a massive advantage for only a few select retail giants. Shipsi’s technology seamlessly integrates with a retailer’s existing website and supply chain, often without requiring a single change to the existing process. Brands, retailers and platforms such as Shopify and CommerceCloud, are already leveraging Shipsi’s technology to provide an efficient and hassle-free delivery experience for consumers.

    Rye Akervik, the CEO of Shipsi, shared his views about the acquisition: “Final mile instant delivery is one of the most interesting and largely untapped areas in e-commerce and retail today. We’ve seen our partner retailers boost their sales by an average of 18% – a clear indicator that consumers are hungry for the kind of instant gratification that, until now, only a few retailers could provide. With Rainmakers’ AI expertise, we’re not just leveling the playing field; we’re changing the game entirely.”

    Rainmakers, known for their groundbreaking work in AI, plan to supercharge Shipsi’s already impressive capabilities. By combining advanced artificial intelligence with innovative dark warehousing strategies, the new management team aims to dramatically expand Shipsi’s geographic reach and further reduce delivery times, even in areas outside major metropolitan centers.

    The implications of this acquisition extend far beyond faster deliveries. As part of the deal, Shipsi will remain integrated with Auctane products and services, a global logistics giant that processes $200 billion worth of transactions across 3 billion shipments annually. This continued relationship ensures that Shipsi will have the scale and resources to rapidly deploy its enhanced AI-driven delivery solutions.

    The acquisition also comes at a crucial time for the retail industry, which has seen an unprecedented shift towards online shopping in recent years. With consumers increasingly expecting faster delivery times, the Shipsi acquisition could provide a vital lifeline for retailers struggling to meet these evolving demands. “The stats speak for themselves,” Rye Akervik shares, “Consumers want things now, 88% of people are willing to pay more for same-day delivery1, and over 25% of shopping cart abandonment is because shipping is ‘too slow.2” Retailers of any size can either take action, meet today’s consumer demands and thrive or continue to face mounting pressures from increased consumer demand on faster shipping speeds.”

    For more information about Shipsi’s services visit www.shipsi.com

    About Shipsi
    Founded in 2016 with the mission to democratize ultra-fast delivery, Shipsi Inc. has quickly become the go-to solution for retailers looking to offer instant, same-day, and next day delivery speeds without the need for complex integrations or massive infrastructure investments. It was acquired by Stamps.com in 2020

    About Rainmakers
    The Rainmakers is at the forefront of AI development, creating intelligent solutions that transform industries. With a focus on practical applications of cutting-edge AI technology, The Rainmakers has a track record of turning advanced concepts into business realities. Rainmakers has grown and exited over 30 companies in its 20 years in business.

    Media and Investment Contacts:

    For further information, please contact:
    Simon Pearce
    inquiries@shipsi.com

    For investment information, please contact:
    Rye Akervik
    rye.akervik@shipsi.com

    1Lopienski, K. (2024, September 9). Best Same-Day Shipping & Delivery Options [Fastest Shipping]. ShipBob. https://www.shipbob.com/blog/same-day-shipping-delivery/
    249 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2024 – Cart & Checkout – Baymard Institute. (n.d.). Baymard Institute. https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Statement by UNFPA Deputy Executive Director Diene Keita at the Summit of the Future Plenary

    Source: United Nations Population Fund

    Mr. President of the General Assembly,
    Excellencies,
    Distinguished Delegates,

    I greet you in peace, so desperately needed in our turbulent world.

    The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, stands with you to forge the path to a better, more sustainable future of peace and prosperity for all. 

    Demographic shifts – population growth, ageing, migration – are reshaping our world and our future. 

    In an ever-changing world of over 8 billion, our focus must be on people. 

    This means ensuring that population dynamics are factored into development plans, with an emphasis on rights, choices, dignity and equality.

    It means investing in human capital – in health, education, and the empowerment of women and young people. We know this yields significant returns with ripple effects across generations. 

    Our commitment to individual dignity, rights, and choices is the foundation for a resilient and sustainable future.

    Our 1.9 billion young people have the power to transform our world. Let’s invest in their potential and support their leadership. 

    I participated in the Action Days preceding this Summit, where young people brought forward their unique perspectives, experiences, and innovative approaches to policies, programmes, and decision-making. 

    The energy was palpable. Our investments in the social and economic development of young people must be palpable as well. They have a fundamental right to participate in sustainable development, humanitarian action, and in sustaining peace.

    By leveraging science, data, and statistics, combined with strategic foresight, we can ensure that we are thinking about the present – and preparing for the future. 

    Let’s embrace and shape the technology that is transforming our world and our work.

    The digital gender divide is driven not just by a lack of technological availability and affordability, but also by harmful social and gender norms that restrict women’s and girls’ autonomy. 

    Technology-facilitated gender-based violence disproportionately affects women, girls, and young people, and occurs both online and off. 

    As we work to bridge the digital divide, our task is to ensure technology fosters empowerment and gender equality rather than perpetuating violence. 

    Excellencies,

    Three decades on from the groundbreaking International Conference on Population and Development and as the end of our ICPD30 review process draws near, UNFPA remains laser focused on the future of every 10-year-old girl today. As she stands on the cusp of adolescence, how can we ensure that she is prepared to navigate that adolescence with anticipation, and without fear? 

    This requires rallying new allies and partners, harnessing innovation, exploring new forms of financing and embracing the power of technology to advance rights and choices for her and for everyone, in line with the objectives of this Summit.

    We congratulate Member States for their consensus on the Pact of the Future, the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact. 

    These important outcomes offer some solutions. Yet, we know much more remains to be done to translate commitments into action.

    By focusing our efforts and strengthening our partnerships and investments, we can overcome our common challenges and build a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable future for all.

    Thank you.

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud a Growing Problem in Maryland

    Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)

    FBI highlights tips to identify investment fraud, prevent losses, and report these crimes

    Cryptocurrency investment fraud, commonly described as “pig butchering,” is one of the most prevalent and damaging fraud schemes today, impacting hundreds of Marylanders each year.

    Scammers, through various means of manipulation, convince victims to deposit more and more money into financial “investments” using cryptocurrency. In truth, these investments are fake; all victim money is under the control of – and ultimately stolen by – criminal actors, usually overseas. As a result, victims typically lose all money they invested.

    According to the FBI’s latest Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) data, there have been almost $54.5 million in losses to cryptocurrency investment scams in Maryland from January to August 2024 with 482 Marylanders reporting these crimes.

    In 2023, 668 Marylanders reported losing $69.1 million dollars to IC3.

    “Bottom line: never trust someone you haven’t met who claims to be an expert and can help you make money through a can’t-miss investment opportunity,” says FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno. “We are seeing victims in their 20s and 30s all the way up to our senior citizens who are absolutely devastated by these schemes.”

    Tips to recognize and avoid this scam:

    • If an unknown individual contacts you, do not release any financial or personal identifying information and do not send any money.
    • Do not invest per the advice of someone you meet solely online.
    • Verify the validity of any investment opportunity from strangers or long-lost contacts on social media websites.
    • Be on the lookout for domain names that impersonate legitimate financial institutions, especially cryptocurrency exchanges.
    • Misspelled URLs, often with a slight deviation from the actual financial institutions’ website, may be fake.
    • Do not download or use suspicious looking apps as a tool for investing unless you can verify the legitimacy of the app.
    • If an investment opportunity sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Be cautious of get rich quick schemes.
    • Confirm the validity of any investment opportunity or cryptocurrency investment website or app.
    • If you already invested funds and believe you are a victim of a scheme, do not pay any additional fees or taxes to withdraw your money.
    • Do not pay for services that claim to be able to recover lost funds.

    If you or someone you know may be a victim of a cryptocurrency investment scam, immediately submit a report to ic3.gov or contact the FBI Baltimore field office and provide as much transaction information as possible. Transaction details include cryptocurrency addresses, amount and type of cryptocurrency, date and time, and transaction ID (hash)

    For more information, visit https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/victim-services/national-crimes-and-victim-resources/cryptocurrency-investment-fraud.

    To view the latest cryptocurrency fraud stats and trends, read the 2023 IC3 Cryptocurrency Fraud Report.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Saskatchewan Exports to France, UK and Netherlands Nearly $1.2 Billion in 2023

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on September 24, 2024

    Exports to the Three Countries Increased by 34.4 Per Cent Compared to 2022 

    Saskatchewan’s trade relationship with the United Kingdom (UK), France and the Netherlands continued to strengthen in 2023. Data from Statistics Canada shows that the combined total value of exports for these three major nations totaled nearly $1.2 billion.

    The main driver of these exports was uranium, which accounted for 87.3 per cent of exports to the Netherlands, 70.8 per cent of exports to the UK, and 47.3 per cent of exports to France. Another 25.6 per cent of exports to France came from uranium ore and concentrates.

    From January to July 2024, Saskatchewan’s total exports to the Netherlands were $567.6 million, a 119.6 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023. This increase is primarily due to a 143.5 per cent increase in the value of Saskatchewan uranium exports to the Netherlands.

    “Saskatchewan’s trade and investment offices in London and Germany have made tremendous progress forging new trade relationships in Europe, and we are seeing that work paying off with increased bi-lateral collaboration and record export numbers,” Trade and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison said. “Our government will continue working alongside our producers to promote Saskatchewan products to the world, while growing our economy and creating new jobs for our strong and vibrant communities.” 

    All three of these countries saw significant export gains in 2023 compared to 2022. Last year, Saskatchewan exported about $220.5 million of goods to France, which is a 68.7 per cent increase compared to 2022. Exports to the UK totaled $557.2 million in 2023, which is a 43.5 per cent increase from 2022, and exports to the Netherlands totaled $414.1 million, a 12.6 per cent increase from 2022.

    Agri-food also saw strong growth in these countries. In 2023, Saskatchewan was France’s largest supplier of lentils, with the total value of lentil exports reaching $24.2 million, a 44.3 per cent increase from 2022. Saskatchewan was also one of the Netherland’s top suppliers of mustard seeds, exporting about $7.9 million which is a 66.5 per cent increase from 2022. In the UK, Saskatchewan exported around $96.5 million worth of non-durum wheat, an increase of 5.3 per cent from 2022. Other top exports to these countries included chickpeas, canola seed, flaxseed and potash.

    In April of this year, Minister Harrison and French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness, Francophonie, and French Nationals Abroad Franck Riester signed a new Letter of Intent (LOI) to explore, develop and cooperate on new projects related to strategic mineral resources. The LOI will focus on the regions’ shared goals of improving supply chain security and sustainability, and research and development for critical minerals. 

    The Government of Saskatchewan recently unveiled its new Securing the Next Decade of Growth – Saskatchewan’s Investment Attraction Strategy. This strategy combined with Saskatchewan’s trade and investment website, InvestSK.ca, contains helpful information for potential markets and solidifies the province as the best place to do business in Canada. 

    For more information visit investSK.ca.

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Ehealth Saskatchewan and SGEU Local 1579 Ratify Memorandum of Agreement

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    Released on September 24, 2024

    A Memorandum of Agreement between eHealth Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) Local 1579 has been ratified by both parties.

    The agreement provides annual wage increases of 3 per cent, 3 per cent and 1.67 per cent. The renewed collective agreement is effective from Oct. 1, 2022 – Sept. 30, 2025. 

    “I am pleased with the level of commitment and efficiency demonstrated by both parties to reach an agreement after only seven months of bargaining, followed by a quick ratification process,” Health Minister Everett Hindley said. “The end result is an agreement that is fair and beneficial to both the employees and eHealth Saskatchewan.”

    SGEU Local 1579 represents about 650 employees of eHealth Saskatchewan. The majority provide IT and related support to the health system province-wide; others provide health cards and Vital Statistics services, or work in administrative and other organizational support roles.

    The last agreement expired Sept. 30, 2022. 

    -30-

    For more information, contact:

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: The Government of Canada launches Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    OTTAWA, September 24, 2024

    Canada, like elsewhere around the world, has seen a rise in hate both on the streets and online in recent years. The federal government is committed to doing whatever it takes to protect everyone living in Canada as well as the resilient and diverse communities across the country to ensure that all can thrive while being their authentic self.

    The rise in hate incidents has disproportionately affected Indigenous Peoples; Black, racialized, religious minorities, and 2SLGBTQI+ communities; women; and persons with disabilities. Hate not only harms those directly targeted but also impacts the broader Canadian society, undermining social cohesion and posing a threat to national security.

    That’s why today, the Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, unveiled Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Action Plan represents Canada’s first-ever comprehensive cross-government effort to combat hate. It brings together 20 key federal initiatives grounded on three pillars:

    • Empower communities to identify and prevent hate;
    • Support victims and survivors, and protect communities; and
    • Build community trust, partnerships and institutional readiness.

    The Action Plan invests $273.6 million over six years, and $29.3 million ongoing, to tackle hatred from multiple angles. It includes increasing support to victims and survivors, helping communities prevent, address and protect people from hate; enhancing research and data collection; providing greater resources for law enforcement; and raising public awareness.

    Everyone has a right to be safe and treated with dignity. We will collaborate with provincial, territorial and international governments, as well as First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners, and cities and communities across Canada to make this happen. Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate will help us continue building a safer and more inclusive Canada where everyone can succeed, regardless of who they are, who they love or what they believe in.

    Quotes

    “Everyone has the right to feel safe, regardless of who they are, what they look like or what they believe in. We have all been alarmed to witness the tragic consequences of hate, both at home and abroad. Hate has no place in Canada – whether in person or online, in our schools, or in our places of worship. Our government is committed to keeping communities across the country safe. Because when someone becomes a victim of hate, it affects all of us. Canada’s first-ever Action Plan on Combatting Hate represents an unprecedented cross-government effort to combat hate while providing more support to victims of hate and at-risk communities. As we face difficult and challenging times, we must stand up for who are as a country – a country where diversity is our strength and where everyone can be who they are and achieve their dreams without fear.”

    —The Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities

    “Hate, in all its forms, has no place in Canada – everyone has a right to feel and be safe in their homes and in their communities. We all have a role to play in fighting discrimination and fostering a fairer, safer and more inclusive Canada. The Changing Narratives Fund, as part of Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate, will break down systemic barriers and empower diverse voices in the arts, culture and media. The fund ensures their experiences and perspectives are better represented, and advances anti-racism, equity, and diversity and inclusion within the cultural and media sectors.”

    —The Honourable Pascale St‑Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage

    “In the face of an increase in hate crimes, our government is stepping up to ensure at-risk communities can access financial support to protect their institutions. The new Canada Community Security Program is designed to be simpler, more flexible and more generous, in direct response to what we’ve heard from community organizations across the country.”

    —The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs

    “No one should live in fear of being who they are, but we know that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression continues to be a reality in Canada. This is wrong and must be eliminated. Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate complements actions we have taken to protect and support Canadians since 2015, including the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, all of which were developed by listening to the voices and lived experiences of individuals and communities across Canada. As always, we continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with all communities experiencing hate and we will not hesitate to use all federal tools to protect and support them.”

    —The Honourable Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth

    “We all expect to be safe in our homes, in our neighbourhoods and in our communities. This is why we introduced Bill C-63, a key component of Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate. We know that online harms can have real world impacts with tragic and sometimes fatal consequences. This legislation is about keeping everyone safer in an online world that can feel more dangerous and unfortunately more toxic each and every day so that women, racialized persons, 2SLGBTQI+ people, and people of diverse faiths and backgrounds can go to their places of worship, community centres, schools or work without fearing that online threats might turn into real world danger.”

    —The Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

    “Canada is as innovative as it is diverse, and it is far more successful when everyone is given a fair chance to develop their full potential, free from hate and discrimination. With Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate, we are standing up to confront hate and protect Canadians, and Statistics Canada will be key in researching and gathering the data needed to build a safer and more resilient society.”

    —The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

    “Canada is a country rich in diversity, where every person deserves to feel safe and be respected. This is why today we’re launching Canada’s first-ever Action Plan on Combatting Hate, a commitment of $273 million to help build a safe Canada for everyone.”

    —Sameer Zuberi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities

    Quick facts

    • Budget 2022 provided $85 million over four years, starting in 2022–23, to the Department of Canadian Heritage to launch and implement the new Anti-Racism Strategy and a national action plan on combatting hate. Budget 2024 provides an additional $273.6 million over six years, starting in 2024–25, and $29.3 million ongoing to support Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Action Plan brings together key initiatives led by federal departments and organizations, including Canadian Heritage, Public Safety Canada, Justice Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Women and Gender Equality Canada, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. 

    • According to the July 2024 Statistics Canada data release, the number of police-reported hate crimes increased from 3,612 incidents in 2022 to 4,777 in 2023 (+32%), even though some victims might not report a hate crime they experienced. This followed an 8-percent increase in 2022 and a 72-percent increase from 2019 to 2021. Overall, the number of police-reported hate crimes (+145%) has more than doubled since 2019.

    • Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate is complemented by the work of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia.

    • Public Safety Canada’s enhanced Canada Community Security Program (CCSP) (previously the Security Infrastructure Program) is also part of Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The CCSP is making it easier and more efficient for organizations and communities at risk of hate-motivated crime to access security support when they need it.

    • The Action Plan aligns with ongoing efforts to further mitigate the risk of exposure to harmful content online through Bill C-63, which proposes to create a new Online Harms Act to create stronger protections for the most vulnerable groups online. The Government of Canada has tabled Bill C-63, An Act to enact the Online Harms Act, to amend the Criminal Code, the Canadian Human Rights Act and An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts, in the House of Commons.

    • Canada is signatory to the Christchurch Call to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, which is a global pledge by 56 governments, including Canada, as well as online service providers and civil society organizations to coordinate and collaborate on efforts to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. The Government of Canada reiterates its engagement to advance the Christchurch Call to Action in Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate.

    • Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate complements Changing Systems, Transforming Lives: Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024–2028. Both initiatives take a comprehensive and intersectional approach to confronting hate, racism and discrimination.

    Related products

    Associated links

    Contacts

    For more information (media only), please contact:

    Waleed Saleem
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities
     waleed.saleem@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Canadian Heritage
    819-994-9101
    1-866-569-6155
    media@pch.gc.ca

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: CBSA Pacific Region investigation leads to seizure of firearms and prohibited devices in Vancouver

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    September 24, 2024                 Vancouver, British Columbia            Canada Border Services Agency

    The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is committed to protecting Canadians by intercepting and investigating smuggling attempts at our borders.

    Between August 2023 and January 2024, Border Services Officers at Vancouver International Airport Air Cargo Operations and Mail Center intercepted two firearm suppressors and two replica firearms in two related incidents. As these are prohibited devices, the Pacific Region Criminal Investigations Section launched an investigation into the importer of these devices. On August 28, 2024, CBSA criminal investigators, with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department, executed search warrants on the suspect’s residence in Vancouver. A number of items were seized, including:

    • two firearms;
    • two completed 3D printed firearms;
    • two 3D printed lower receivers;
    • eighteen replica firearms;
    • various other firearm parts and accessories;
    • suspected drugs.

    The suspect was arrested and the investigation is ongoing.

    Quotes

    “The safety and security of Canadians is our top priority. By stopping the smuggling of illegal firearms and drugs, we’re keeping communities safe. This seizure is a great example of the ongoing cooperation between the CBSA and local law enforcement agencies.”

    – The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety

    “The Canada Border Services Agency works hard to intercept undeclared firearms and firearm parts at our borders and investigates those who break Canada’s laws. The efforts of our officers and investigators, with support from the Vancouver Police Department, have removed dangerous firearms and prohibited devices from this community.”

    – Nina Patel, Regional Director General, Canada Border Services Agency, Pacific Region

    “Violent offenders, organized criminals, and crime groups have no respect for local or international boundaries. Law enforcement and national security agencies must work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons and drugs that threaten public safety within our communities. We are grateful to have assisted Canada Border Services Agency during this important investigation.”

    – Don Chapman, Superintendent, Operations Support Command, Vancouver Police Department

    Quick facts

    • Smuggling and other Customs Act and Criminal Code contraventions may lead to arrest, criminal charges and prosecution in a court of law.

    • The CBSA screens goods, including international mail and courier items, coming into Canada and examines more closely those that may pose a threat to the safety of Canadians.

    • For the latest enforcement statistics, visit Canada Border Services Agency seizures.

    • If you have information about suspicious cross-border activity, please contact the CBSA Border Watch Line toll-free at 1-888-502-9060.

    Contacts

    Media Relations

    Canada Border Services Agency

    media@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca

    1-877-761-5945

    @CanBorderPAC

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Backgrounder: Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate

    Source: Government of Canada News

    Far too many people’s lives are impacted by hate and its devastating consequences. Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate is informed by individuals and communities with lived experience of hate.

    OTTAWA, September 24, 2024

    Far too many people’s lives are impacted by hate and its devastating consequences. Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate is informed by individuals and communities with lived experience of hate. It is grounded in consultation activities organized by the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, which included:

    • 15 town halls
    • 2 national summits on antisemitism and Islamophobia;
    • 1 national youth forum on anti-Black racism;
    • 21 roundtables; and
    • an online questionnaire open to everyone in Canada.

    Additionally, the Action Plan builds on community engagement conducted by the 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat for the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, three roundtables led by Public Safety Canada on the Security Infrastructure Program (now known as the Canada Community Security Program), and research and recommendations from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. 

    The Action Plan lays the foundation for the Government of Canada’s robust response to the growing threat of hate while ensuring every person’s right to be safe and treated with dignity. To achieve this goal, priority areas for action are organized under three pillars:

    • Empower communities to identify and prevent hate;
    • Support victims and survivors, and protect communities; and
    • Build community trust, partnerships and institutional readiness.

    To drive real change across the country, the Action Plan brings new and existing initiatives together to foster greater coordination and collaboration among federal organizations. Working in collaboration with their provincial, territorial, international, Indigenous and municipal counterparts, it includes federal initiatives led by:

    • Canadian Heritage;
    • Canadian Race Relations Foundation;
    • Justice Canada;
    • Public Safety Canada;
    • Royal Canadian Mounted Police;
    • Statistics Canada; and
    • Women and Gender Equality Canada.

    Everyone has multiple and diverse factors of identity that intersect. This impacts how individuals understand and experience hate and the government’s response to hate crimes and hate incidents. This Action Plan was developed using Gender-Based Analysis Plus in an effort to develop responsive measures that take into account the diversity of needs and realities.

    For more information, consult the Action Plan web page at https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/combatting-hate.html.

    Related Products

    Waleed Saleem
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities
    waleed.saleem@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI: HP Workforce Solutions Advances Strategy to Deliver Exceptional Employee Experiences

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    News Highlights

    • Supercharges HP Workforce Experience Platform with expanded access and capabilities
    • Introduces managed services that reduce downtime and keep employees productive
    • Announces the industry’s most advanced remote remediation technology
    • Launches HOPE Recycling Futures to give PCs a second life while accelerating digital equity

    PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today at HP Imagine, HP Inc.’s (NYSE: HPQ) Workforce Solutions division (HPWS) today announced a series of significant advancements designed to enable companies to achieve growth by delivering more personalized, fulfilling experiences.

    As part of this, HP is expanding access to HP Workforce Experience Platform, giving CIOs access to enhanced tools, data and insights to ensure their employees are connected and productive. For customers wanting HP to manage their IT environment, HP is announcing advanced monitoring solutions and global availability of HP Managed Collaboration Services that proactively remediate incidents before employees are impacted. And when technology does fail, HP is launching a new service that helps get employees back up and running quickly. HP is also introducing a new service to help companies harness the power of AI to drive further productivity in the workforce and expanded refurbishment programs to drive a more circular economy.

    “We are at the intersection of two major trends – AI and Flexible Work – and both are having a profound impact on our lives,” said Dave Shull, President of HP Workforce Solutions. “At the same time, employees want greater fulfillment and companies want improved productivity. Our Future-Ready portfolio of software and solutions helps guide companies through this shift.”

    Keeping Employees Engaged and Productive

    HP Workforce Experience Platform Expands Beta Access and Introduces New Features
    HP Workforce Experience Platform – a platform that intelligently anticipates and resolves digital friction across every employee endpoint from a single dashboard – has been in private beta for three months with more than 270K devices enrolled.[1]

    HP is now expanding access by making the Workforce Experience Platform Beta available to new or renewing HP Proactive Insights customers in the United States at no extra cost.

    As part of the new release, HP is rolling out new features that enable customers to monitor, secure, and manage printer performance at scale, in addition to PCs. New capabilities in AI-powered fleet management and employee sentiment analysis will help reduce IT support tickets and employee downtime through proactive anomaly detection and smart recommendations.

    Additionally, HP Workforce Experience Platform supports integrations with Microsoft Power BI, Power Automate and Tableau (available now) and plans to support Microsoft Intune and ServiceNow in a future release, enabling IT to leverage Workforce Experience Platform data easily and securely within their existing workflows. This means IT has a more holistic view of their device fleet, better data accuracy, and more tailored IT operations that help drive down expenses and improve return on investment.[2]

    New Global Command Centers for Advanced Monitoring Capabilities
    As companies look to shift their IT support from a reactive to a proactive approach, HP is announcing advanced Monitoring and Management capabilities – enabled by new global command centers – to help customers monitor and manage both HP and non-HP devices across the world, including detecting and remediating incidents.

    Leveraging telemetry,[3] HP monitors thousands of data points in conference room equipment, printers, and PCs. This enables HP Service Experts to detect and identify issues and take remote actions to proactively remediate incidents before employees are impacted. These HP Managed Services are available globally for HP’s managed solutions customers and sold through direct channels.

    Industry’s First Out-of-band Diagnostics and Remediation Capability
    Data shows that 90% of employees prefer flexible or hybrid work.[4] Employees have also come to expect the same level of support remotely that they would receive in an office. But existing remote support tools can’t always address the problem, like when a PC crashes and won’t reboot.

    To help reduce the time and frustration involved in restoring productivity for both hybrid employees and IT, HP is introducing a new HP out-of-band remediation service,[5] the industry’s most advanced remote remediation technology,[6] that enables more PC issues to be fixed remotely than ever before – even if the PC won’t boot. HP is the first PC manufacturer to use out-of-band technology to securely connect to remote PCs below the OS, using an encrypted cloud connection. This allows HP support agents full keyboard, video and mouse (KVM) control to diagnose and fix more complex issues like boot failures, imaging and BIOS issues — with virtually no assistance from the end user.

    This industry-first remediation service is expected to be available later this year in North America and the EU as an add-on to an HP Essential, Premium or Premium+ Support package with the purchase of any new Intel vPro enabled PC direct from HP or an authorized reseller. HP plans to expand the service feature availability across other commercial PCs in the coming months.

    New AI Advisory Services Help Customers Tap into the Potential of Microsoft Copilot
    HP is also announcing a new AI advisory service to help customers tap into the full potential of Microsoft 365 Copilot. This new AI advisory service will evaluate a company’s current setup and readiness for AI, conduct interactive workshops to help companies maximize the benefits of AI, and help companies plan for rolling out new AI tools. This new AI Advisory Service is expected to be available in November 2024 in the US, UK, France, Spain, Ireland, and Germany.

    Creating Collaborative Team Experiences

    Managed Collaboration Services Now Available to Customers Worldwide
    In today’s flexible working world, video collaboration connects more employees than ever before. To help customers modernize and maintain their conference rooms, HP is announcing the global availability of HP Managed Collaboration Services. HP Managed Collaboration Services uses Poly and HP gear to deliver exceptional meeting experiences with flexible, reliable, managed room solutions that ensure every space is video-enabled, and ready to be used. Learn more here.

    Driving Societal Impact

    HP is committed to accelerating equitable access to education, healthcare, and economic opportunity for those who are systemically excluded so they can participate and thrive in a digital economy. HP’s new services and programs help give technology a second life while delivering hope around the world.

    Expanded Portfolio of HP Certified Refurbished Hardware
    With growing customer demand for high-quality, reliable second-life devices, HP is announcing expansion of its HP Certified Refurbished hardware portfolio to now include LaserJet Multi-Function Printers, available for Managed Print Solutions customers in the United States.

    Each HP Certified Refurbished device undergoes rigorous refurbishment and inspection processes, utilizes approved HP parts, and comes backed by HP Support for added peace of mind. The LaserJet offerings are the latest addition to the HP Certified Refurbished hardware portfolio, which also includes availability of HP EliteBook 800 G6 and G7 series notebooks in the United States and France.

    Delivering HOPE Around the World
    HP is expanding HOPE Recycling Futures – HP’s signature program that helps companies connect and uplift children. HOPE Recycling Futures receives devices from organizations who would otherwise dispose of them, works with its partners to erase existing data and refurbish the devices. HP then coordinates with vetted non-governmental organizations to deliver the devices to schools serving vulnerable and marginalized youth — all at no cost to the company or receiving organization.

    HOPE Recycling Futures is already partnering with companies across the EU, UK, Switzerland, India, Singapore, and Brazil, and will now extend this partnership to include Mexico. More than 16,000 children in 22 countries have benefited from the program through 72 donation projects to date.

    By giving their PCs a second life for kids in need through HOPE Recycling Futures, businesses can play a crucial role in reducing e-waste and empowering the next generation with the tools they need to thrive in a digital world.

    For more information on today’s news at HP Imagine, visit https://www.hp.com/us-en/newsroom/press-kits/2024/hp-imagine.html.

    About HP Workforce Solutions
    Workforce Solutions is a global business unit of HP Inc. Given HP’s innovative and comprehensive portfolio of PCs, printers, and collaboration gear, HP Workforce Solutions (HPWS) is used by millions worldwide to solve customer problems, often proactively, through AI-enabled software and services. HP can help partners and customers from start to finish of their technology journey.

    About HP
    HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) is a global technology leader and creator of solutions that enable people to bring their ideas to life and connect to the things that matter most. Operating in more than 170 countries, HP delivers a wide range of innovative and sustainable devices, services and subscriptions for personal computing, printing, 3D printing, hybrid work, gaming, and more. For more information, please visit: http://www.hp.com. 

    [1] The Workforce Experience platform is for commercial customers and requires registration. At launch, some features will require a subscription. To register for access, visit https://admin.hp.com/. Some features and capabilities may require additional purchase of HP services and/or commercial hardware capable of supporting the HP Insights agent for Windows, Mac, & Android. Activation and restrictions may apply.
    Select HP Workforce Solutions require an HP Insights agent for Windows, Mac, & Android, available for download at https://admin.hp.com/software. For full system requirements and services that require the agent, please visit https://admin.hp.com/requirements. The agent collects telemetry and analytics around devices and applications that integrate into the Workforce Experience platform and is not sold as a standalone service. Internet access with connection to the Workforce Experience platform is required. HP follows stringent GDPR privacy regulations, and the platform is ISO27001, ISO27701, ISO27017 and SOC2 Type2 certified for Information Security.
    [2] Third party licenses required.
    [3] HP Services Scan is preinstalled and/or provided thru Windows Update and checks for service entitlement on each hardware device and downloads the applicable software agent automatically. To disable this feature, please follow the instructions at http://www.hpdaas.com/requirements. The HP Insights agent is a telemetry and analytics platform that provides critical data around devices and applications and is not sold as a standalone service. HP follows stringent GDPR privacy regulations and is ISO27001, ISO27701, ISO27017 and SOC2 Type2 certified for Information Security. Internet access with connection to the HP Insights agent is required. For full system requirements, please visit http://www.hpdaas.com/requirements. Not available in China.
    [4]Remote Work Statistics & Trends In (2024) – Forbes Advisor, Pew Research
    [5] Out-of-band diagnostics and remediation is available in North America (which includes the US and Canada), and the EU as an HP Care Pack for select HP commercial platforms that are Intel® vPro® and Intel® AMT enabled and are entitled to HP Premium Support or HP Premium+ Support. Service levels and response times for HP Care Packs may vary depending on your geographic location. Service starts on date of hardware purchase. Restrictions and limitations apply. For details, visit www.hp.com/go/cpc. HP Services are governed by the applicable HP terms and conditions of service provided or indicated to Customer at the time of purchase. Customer may have additional statutory rights according to applicable local laws, and such rights are not in any way affected by the HP terms and conditions of service or the HP Limited Warranty provided with your HP Product. Check with your HP authorized sales rep for availability.
    [6] Based on HP’s internal analysis of PC manufacturers with power cycle control, non-OS control, BIOS control and reimaging control as of 9/24/2024.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: The rise of the ‘megapub’: is bigger really better?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachael. E. Rees-Jones, Lecturer in Strategy, University of South Wales

    shutterstock niksdope/Shutterstock

    Wetherspoons has unveiled its latest venture at London’s Waterloo Station – a vast new pub called The Lion & The Unicorn. This so-called “Superspoons” is part of a growing trend in the UK’s hospitality industry, where ever-larger venues are reshaping traditional experiences.

    With its prime location and expansive layout of 5,000 sq ft and almost 600 seats, the venue’s opening marks what some business commentators are describing as the dawn of the “megapub” era, where bigger seems to mean better for chains like Wetherspoons.

    Megapubs are designed to offer more than just a quick pint. These vast, multi-purpose venues aim to cater to a variety of needs throughout the day, from morning coffee and business lunches to evening meals and live entertainment. The inclusion of extensive seating, diverse menus and designated zones for different activities – such as socialising or working on a laptop – aim to attract a broad range of customers.

    By offering an all-in-one experience, they are deliberately designed to stand apart from the traditional pub model. And they are positioning themselves as destinations rather than typical pubs.

    True to Wetherspoons’ business model, the new megapub promises competitive prices on food and drink, which may make it an attractive option for budget-conscious customers. By offering a variety of experiences under one roof, megapubs are attempting to tempt customers inside with convenience, variety and affordability all in one package, while also feeling part of a community.

    What could it mean for the hospitality sector?

    One major concern over the onset of the megapub is the potential impact on smaller, independent pubs and restaurants. Over the last ten years, pubs have been closing at an alarming rate, as publicans struggle with rising supply costs and overheads. A growing number of young people are also choosing to abstain from alcohol. Such factors have reduced the demand for traditional pubs.

    Megapubs, with their size and pricing power, could exacerbate these challenges by drawing customers away from independent venues that struggle to compete on price or scale. This may be especially true of those relying on niche markets or unique experiences.

    While it is still early days, and the effects of the megapub are yet to unfold, experts are already questioning whether this could change the way we socialise. By combining affordability with a range of amenities, megapubs like the new “Superspoons” may set new expectations for what a pub experience should be. Instead of visiting multiple locations for different activities, people may prefer to spend their leisure time in a single, multi-functional venue where they can socialise, dine and work.

    Wetherspoons is not the only company experimenting with this new model. Across the hospitality and retail sectors, businesses are increasingly seeking to create more versatile spaces to attract a broader customer base.



    Read more:
    Youth drinking is declining – myths about the trend, busted

    So, could we see more companies following Wetherspoons’ lead? Given the current economic conditions, where many consumers are tightening their belts, it seems probable. This could be the beginning of a long-term shift towards larger, multi-functional venues. Of course, it may just be a temporary response to the challenges of the present market.

    Economically, this concept appears to be well-suited to the financial challenges and uncertainty of our current times, as increasingly isolated people look for cost-effective ways to dine and socialise. Offering both affordability and a wide range of options, these venues could thrive during economic downturns by drawing in budget-conscious consumers.

    Whether you’re a fan of the traditional pub or intrigued by new concepts like the “Superspoons”, it’s clear that the way we socialise is evolving. As hospitality businesses continue to push boundaries, we may see a significant change in how we spend our leisure time and money.

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

    – ref. The rise of the ‘megapub’: is bigger really better? – https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-megapub-is-bigger-really-better-238629

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Exploding pagers and walkie-talkies are a reminder of how easily your devices can be hacked – here’s how to make sure they are safe

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nick Hajli, AI Strategist and Professor of Digital Strategy, Loughborough University

    Quality Stock Arts/Shutterstock

    The recent attacks on walkie-talkies and pagers in Lebanon have highlighted the hidden vulnerabilities in everyday technology. These incidents underscore the need for individuals to understand the potential risks associated with their devices and to take proactive steps to protect themselves in an increasingly digital world where safety can be compromised.

    Research shows that many people have significant concerns about security and privacy as technology advances. Statistics reveal an alarming rise in cyber threats and privacy breaches, underscoring the urgency of addressing these issues. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach worldwide reached US$4.88 million (£3.65 million) in 2024, demonstrating the severe consequences of technological vulnerabilities.

    So, are our smartphones and devices truly safe? With numerous reports of data breaches and privacy violations linked to technological development – especially concerning artificial intelligence (AI) – the recent attacks in Lebanon raise new concerns about the security of technology in an era where AI introduces complex challenges.

    The pressing question for consumers is whether any of our devices can genuinely be deemed safe. If Israel can launch such an attack (and it has not confirmed it was behind the device attacks – but neither has it denied widespread reports insisting it was) other states may very well follow suit.

    The Lebanon device attacks should serve as a crucial wake-up call regarding the vulnerabilities in devices we often take for granted. Part of the challenge lies in the less discussed impact of AI, which can track, analyse, and act on information in ways that pose risks to privacy and security. While AI brings substantial benefits to society, it also creates complex challenges, particularly in terms of democratic integrity and personal safety.

    As technology increasingly becomes an indispensable part of our everyday lives – through smartphones, tablets, and smart home devices – it’s really important to understand the risks associated with our dependency on this tech. There are some practical steps that we can all take to enhance our security and take control of our digital lives.

    What you can do

    1. Be careful who you buy from: One critical lesson is to be mindful of where you purchase your products. As technology advances, consumers often turn to price comparison apps to find cheaper options. But these less expensive products frequently originate from distant countries with complex supply chains. For example, in 2020, it was revealed that some Huawei and ZTE devices used in telecom infrastructure contained back doors, which led to allegations of espionage and resulted in some countries banning or limiting their use.

    It’s worth thoroughly researching the manufacturer before making a purchase. Before buying, check reviews and security certifications, and find out if the company has a history of security breaches or privacy concerns. Ensuring the manufacturer is reputable adds an extra layer of protection.

    It’s vital to ensure the security of your mobile device is not compromised.
    OLE.cnx/Shutterstock

    2. Understand potential risks: Older devices, such as pagers, often lack modern security features such as regular updates, making them more vulnerable to interception. Additionally, recent advances in AI raise concerns about the security of newer devices. For instance, AI algorithms used in smart home devices can learn user patterns and behaviours.

    If these devices are compromised, hackers could use this information to orchestrate targeted attacks or gain unauthorised access to homes. It’s crucial to assess the risks associated with both old and new technologies – and if you think them unsafe, it’s best to just not use them.

    3. Update devices regularly: Ensure you regularly update your software and firmware to benefit from the latest security patches. Stick to devices that are still supported by their manufacturers, as unsupported devices may stop receiving vital security updates, leaving them vulnerable.

    4. Keep your eyes on your tech: Anyone who is able to gain physical access to your device could tamper with it. Always store your devices securely when not in use, minimising the risk of unauthorised access.

    5. Stay informed on cybersecurity issues: Keep yourself updated on the latest cybersecurity threats and learn how attackers exploit various technologies. Familiarise yourself with basic defensive practices, such as using strong, unique passwords and enabling two-factor authentication. Remember that many modern devices are interconnected, making them potential gateways for attacks. For example, a compromised smartphone could potentially infect your laptop or other devices on the same network.

    Exercise caution with smart devices such as speakers, cameras, and wearables by ensuring they are properly configured, using encrypted connections, and limiting unnecessary data sharing.

    By taking these steps, you can enhance your security and navigate the complexities of our technology-driven world with greater confidence.

    Nick Hajli 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. Exploding pagers and walkie-talkies are a reminder of how easily your devices can be hacked – here’s how to make sure they are safe – https://theconversation.com/exploding-pagers-and-walkie-talkies-are-a-reminder-of-how-easily-your-devices-can-be-hacked-heres-how-to-make-sure-they-are-safe-239657

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Translation: CBSA investigation in Pacific Region leads to seizure of firearms and prohibited devices in Vancouver

    MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –

    Source: Government of Canada – in French 1

    Press release

    September 24, 2024 Vancouver, BC Canada Border Services Agency

    The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is committed to protecting Canadians by intercepting and investigating smuggling attempts at our borders.

    Between August 2023 and January 2024, border services officers from the Air Cargo Operations Centre and the Customs Mail Centre at Vancouver International Airport intercepted two firearm silencers and two replica firearms in two related incidents. As these are prohibited devices, the Pacific Region Criminal Investigation Section launched an investigation into the importer of these devices. On August 28, 2024, CBSA criminal investigators, with assistance from the Vancouver Police Department, executed search warrants at the suspect’s residence in Vancouver. A number of items were seized, including:

    two firearms; two 3D printed firearms; two 3D printed lower receivers; eighteen replica firearms; various other firearm parts and accessories; suspected drugs.

    The suspect has been arrested and the investigation is continuing.

    Quotes

    “The safety and security of Canadians is our top priority. By stopping the smuggling of firearms and illegal drugs, we are keeping communities safe. This seizure is a great example of the continued cooperation between the CBSA and local law enforcement agencies.”

    – The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety

    “The Canada Border Services Agency works hard to intercept undeclared firearms and firearm parts at our borders and to investigate those who break Canada’s laws. The efforts of our officers and investigators, with the support of the Vancouver Police Department, have resulted in the removal of dangerous firearms and prohibited devices from this community.”

    – Nina Patel, Regional Director General, Canada Border Services Agency, Pacific Region

    “Violent offenders, criminal organizations and criminal groups do not respect local or international borders. Law enforcement and national security agencies must work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons and drugs that threaten public safety in our communities. We are grateful for the assistance of the Canada Border Services Agency during this important investigation.”

    – Don Chapman, Superintendent, Enforcement Services, Vancouver Police Department

    Quick Facts

    Smuggling and other offences under the Customs Act and the Criminal Code may result in arrest, criminal charges and prosecution in court.

    The CBSA screens goods, including international mail and courier items, entering Canada and takes a closer look at those that may pose a threat to the safety and security of Canadians.

    For the latest enforcement statistics, visit Canada Border Services Agency Seizures.

    If you have any information about suspicious cross-border activities, please contact the border surveillance line CBSA toll-free at 1-888-502-9060.

    Contact persons

    Media Relations

    Canada Border Services Agency

    media@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca

    1-877-761-5945

    @CanPACBorder

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI

  • MIL-OSI Translation: Backgrounder: Canada’s Action Plan to Combat Hate

    MIL OSI Translation. Canadian French to English –

    Source: Government of Canada – in French 1

    Hate and its devastating consequences impact the lives of too many people. Canada’s Action Plan to Combat Hate draws on the experiences of individuals and communities who have experienced hate.

    OTTAWA, September 24, 2024

    Hate and its devastating consequences impact the lives of too many people. Canada’s Action Plan to Combat Hate draws on the experiences of individuals and communities who have experienced hate. It builds on consultation activities organized by the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, including the following.

    Fifteen open discussion sessions Two national summits on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia A national youth forum on anti-Black racism Twenty-one roundtable discussions An online questionnaire open to anyone in Canada

    In addition, the Action Plan builds on community engagement led by the 2SLGBTQI Secretariat for the Federal 2SLGBTQI Action Plan; three roundtables led by Public Safety Canada on the Communities at Risk Infrastructure Funding Program (now the Community Safety Program of Canada); and research and recommendations from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

    The Action Plan lays the foundation for a robust Government of Canada response to the growing threat of hate, while ensuring that every person has the right to be safe and treated with dignity. To this end, the priorities for action are organized around three pillars.

    Empowering communities to detect and prevent hate. Supporting victims, survivors and protecting communities. Building community trust, partnerships and institutional capacity.

    To drive real change across the country, the Action Plan brings together new and existing programs to foster greater coordination and collaboration among federal agencies, working in partnership with their provincial, territorial, international, Indigenous and municipal counterparts. The Action Plan includes federal programs from the following departments and agencies.

    Canadian Heritage Canadian Race Relations Foundation Justice Canada Public Safety Canada Royal Canadian Mounted Police Statistics Canada Women and Gender Equality Canada

    Each person has multiple intersecting identity factors that impact how they understand and experience hate and the government’s response to hate crimes or incidents. This action plan was designed using Gender-Based Analysis Plus to develop tailored responses that take into account diverse needs and realities.

    For further information, please visit the Action Plan webpage by clicking on this link: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/fight-against-hate.html.

    Related product

    For further information (media only), please contact:

    Waleed Saleem Press SecretaryOffice of the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilitieswaleed.saleem@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca

    Media RelationsCanadian Heritage819-994-91011-866-569-6155media@pch.gc.ca

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL Translation OSI