NewzIntel.com

Category: Statistics

  • MIL-OSI Security: Online Platform Provides Current Data on Law Enforcement Suicides

    Source: US FBI

    Data includes circumstances surrounding law enforcement suicides and suicide attempts, general locations, demographics, occupations, and the methods used.

    “We aim to provide agencies with the means to understand and mitigate situations which could eventually lead to a death by suicide,” said Lora Klingensmith, a program manager in the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, which manages the Bureau’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

    This year, according to the LESDC, seven law enforcement agencies have reported nine suicides and three attempted suicides. All the suicide victims were males—seven were white, one was Black, and one was Hispanic or Latino. Firearms were used in seven suicides; two were listed as “other.” The collection does not collect information that identifies individuals.

    As with crime statistics, the ideal is to have more agencies report to the LESDC so that a more representative picture emerges. Law enforcement agencies are not required to submit suicide information to the FBI; it’s voluntary. But the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act, passed in 2020, requires the attorney general and the FBI to report the suicide data annually to Congress. The FBI, which has a nearly century-long history of collecting data from law enforcement agencies, began collecting the information from agencies on January 1, 2022.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Jonesboro Man Who Instructed Young Girls to Self-Harm, Drink Toilet Water, and Film Child Pornography Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison

    Source: US FBI

          LITTLE ROCK—Justin Lee Palmer, who “coached” young girls who were anorexic and encouraged them to self-harm and film child pornography, will spend 30 years in federal prison for production of child pornography. Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced the sentence, which was handed down on Thursday by Chief United States District Judge Kristine G. Baker0.

          “A vile, disgusting, reprobate has finally received his due, the maximum sentence under the law,” said Ross. “We are thankful for the tireless work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the bravery of the victims and their families to bring a stop to his crimes. Parents everywhere should heed this case as reason to monitor and engage with your children’s use of social media.”

          An investigation revealed that in March 2020, FBI agents in New Jersey identified a user on KIK messenger who had sexually abused a 9-year-old girl and distributed videos of the abuse to other KIK users. One of the users who received the child pornography was identified by the username “skipdinnergetmethin.” Agents were able to connect the IP addresses associated with that username to Palmer, of Jonesboro, Arkansas. A search of one of Palmer’s cell phones revealed numerous images and videos that contained child pornography.

          The investigation further revealed that Palmer, 44, would pose as a 15-year-old girl, befriend teen and preteen girls, and “coach” them on how to be anorexic. He would instruct the victims to film themselves pulling on their fat areas while nude to make them feel disgusted and motivated to lose weight. Agents discovered that Palmer also directed victims to film themselves performing other humiliating and harmful acts, such as cutting demeaning words into their skin, drinking toilet water and their own urine, and engaging in sexually explicit activities.

          In April 2020, Palmer asked a young female on KIK messenger, “what are your stats?” to which the female responded, “cw [current weight] 93 pounds. Five feet one inch. Female. 13 years old. Goal weight 75.” Palmer instructed the minor female to “suck in your belly so I can see your ribs.” This minor victim appears in 89 photographs and videos sent to Palmer, 71 of which depict her engaging in sexual, humiliating, or self-harming acts.

          “Mr. Palmer’s actions were revolting and deplorable,” said FBI Little Rock Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder. “Today’s sentence showcases FBI Little Rock’s commitment to utilizing all available resources to protect innocent children from predators who seem to harm them.”

          On October 8, 2020, Palmer was indicted by a federal grand jury for two counts of production of child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to production of child pornography on August 4, 2023. Chief Judge Baker also sentenced Palmer to a lifetime of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

          The investigation was conducted by the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Eldridge prosecuted the case.

    # # #

    This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the

    United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is available online at

    https://www.justice.gov/edar

    X (formerly known as Twitter):

    @USAO_EDAR 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Minister Burke and Minister Donohoe welcome latest figures showing further employment growth in first quarter of 2025

    Source: Government of Ireland – Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation

    22nd May 2025

    The Q1 2025 Labour Force Survey and latest Monthly Unemployment Release show:

    • Employment continues to grow, with 90,800 jobs created in the year to Q1 2025
    • Total employment now stands at 2.81 million
    • Employment growth has been widespread throughout the regions – Employment outside of Dublin increased by 65,700 in the year to Q1 2025 (+3.5 percent)
    • Full time employment was up 71,400 (+3.3 percent) year on year in the first quarter, while part time employment was up 20,100 (+3.5 percent) year on year
    • In April 2025, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, down from the revised rate of 4.4 in March 2025 and from a rate of 4.4 percent in April 2024

    Labour Force Survey (LFS) results published today by the Central Statistics Office show continued growth in Ireland’s labour market, with 90,800 jobs created in the year to Q1 2025.

    Employment now stands at 2.81 million, an increase of approximately 3.3 percent over Q1 2024. 

    This is a positive step towards the Programme for Government’s target to create 300,000 extra jobs by 2030, supported by strategic investments, supportive enterprise policies, and a focus on fostering a vibrant economy. This commitment to continued employment growth builds upon the Government’s White Paper on Enterprise, published in December 2022, which sets out the strategic direction for job creation in the years ahead. 

    Commenting on the figures, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke TD, said:

    “The Irish labour market has shown strong resilience and growth, with low unemployment rates and increasing job opportunities across sectors such as technology, healthcare, and finance. Today’s release from the CSO shows an exceptionally strong start to 2025, as the workforce continues to expand, driving the nation’s economic resilience and ensuring a brighter future for job seekers across the regions.

    Female participation rates in the labour market in particular have been trending upwards and reached a new historic high in the first quarter of 2025, with more women now availing of opportunities for employment. My Department will continue to support workers throughout their careers, with initiatives to improve work-life balance and flexible working arrangements which encourages greater participation, resulting in greater diversity and inclusion within the workforce.”

    The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, said:

    “Today’s results highlight the continued strength of the Irish labour market, with around 90,000 jobs added in the year to Q1 2025. On a seasonally adjusted basis, we now have over 2.8 million people employed in our country, while the unemployment rate stood at 4.0 per cent in the first quarter. It is particularly welcome to see the continued rise in female labour force participation – increasing by over 1 percentage point on an annual basis. 

    While I am encouraged by the resilience of the labour market in the face of increased economic uncertainty, it is important to stress that today’s figures are backward looking. It is crucial that the strength of the economy in recent years does not lead to complacency.

    As we begin preparations for Budget 2026 this summer, starting with the National Economic Dialogue in June, it is imperative that we continue to pursue a balanced and sensible budgetary policy as we navigate this period of uncertainty.”

    CSO release here

    Back to Department News

    Back to Top

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Marathon runners rely on family and experts to succeed, while races rely on passionate volunteers

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Julia Yarkoni, Fellow in Global Journalism, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

    This past April, the Boston Marathon attracted more than 32,000 runners and approximately half a million spectators. With such a huge crowd on hand, it’s easy to think that the athletes’ major source of support comes from fans of the sport. More than a million people annually run marathon races, and most of them have a team of people behind them.

    Marathoners rely on the strengths of a community of people. Families, coaches, marathon volunteers, race directors and health professionals dedicate time and energy to the runners’ dreams. And each group protects the health of the athletes in a different way. These unsung heroes make the impossible possible and they do it because the sport of long-distance running is a community endeavour.

    Families lay the foundation; research found that partners are “strikingly co-operative” as the non-running partner often picks up chores and child care uncomplainingly because they believe in the end goal. And a [2023 New York Times] article reported that athletes reciprocate by giving their partner recreational time.

    Running is a lifestyle

    When a family member is training to complete a marathon, families recognize there is safety in sticking together. Registered dietitian Kristy Baumann, owner of Marathon Nutritionist in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., has run 13 marathons. She describes how her mother would accompany her when she trained for hours.

    “My mom would bike with me on my long runs,” she says.

    In a 2015 article for Runner’s World, runner Courtney Crandell described how her family made sure she ate, maintained her health insurance and had a ride home after the race.

    Long-distance running draws people together who are not family. Coaches get to know their runners intimately and can prevent racers from ending up in dangerous situations. For example, Molly Monk, an athlete with unpredictable blood pressure, relied on her coach to help her train so that she avoided passing out during the marathon.

    Preparing physically and mentally

    Andy Jones-Wilkins, an American endurance running coach and writer, takes pride in being able to train marathon racers for four to six months because he values his relationships with runners. Jones-Wilkins, 57, is currently coaching 24 athletes scattered across the U.S.

    “My job as a coach is to give them not just the physical but also the mental and emotional tools to not just prepare for the race but to execute and to finish,” he says.

    Jones-Wilkins stays in contact with his athletes to debrief and to discuss with them the next step forward, particularly if they were disappointed on race day.

    Thirty-four years of long-distance running has taught Jones-Wilkins who the true unsung heroes are: “The people who put on these events (race directors) are the heart and soul of this sport.”

    Supporting runners

    Jones-Wilkins’ admiration for race directors led him to write “The Race Director Chronicles,” an online series profiling different race directors. He says they are often unpaid, deal with thousands of race details and invariably face negative feedback. He particularly admires the talent these individuals have for networking.

    Long-distance running brings together introverts and extroverts. Tim Bradley is one of those extroverts. A volunteer co-ordinator specializing in running events in Los Angeles, he works 11 races a year and also created a volunteer registration platform to help other volunteer co-ordinators: “I can’t think of other sports that recruit so many volunteers and are so dependent on them.”

    He typically starts recruitment four months before a race and registers 4,000 volunteers in preparation for race day. Volunteer responsibilities include raising funds, registering runners, building spectator stands, operating refreshment stations, regulating traffic, offering first aid, tracking and publishing results and cleaning up.

    Volunteers at major races go beyond first aid, and prepare volunteers to treat dehydration, heat stroke, low sodium levels and orthopedic injuries. They also provide a sweep medical bus to pick up runners who cannot finish the race.

    More than the run

    Sometimes the most important role a person can play in a marathon runner’s life is to tell them when there’s a higher priority requiring attention than the marathon itself. As a dietitian, Baumann says she encounters young women who struggle with nutrition issues that come to light when they start to train.

    “My job is twofold: helping people fuel for performance, feel their best and finish their race strong but also a lot that comes with it for many people is healing their relationship with food,” she says.

    Marathons get their name from the Greek legend of the messenger Pheidippides, who ran 40 kilometres from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce Greece’s victory over Persia in a battle on the plain of Marathon.

    Today a marathon runner’s successful finish is celebrated by many people who love the sport of long-distance running because its message is that solidarity wins.

    Julia Yarkoni 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. Marathon runners rely on family and experts to succeed, while races rely on passionate volunteers – https://theconversation.com/marathon-runners-rely-on-family-and-experts-to-succeed-while-races-rely-on-passionate-volunteers-252581

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Law Enforcement Seize Record Amounts of Illegal Drugs, Firearms, and Drug Trafficking Proceeds in International Operation Against Darknet Trafficking of Fentanyl and Opioids; 270 Arrested Across Four Continents

    Source: US State Government of Utah

    WASHINGTON — Today, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, and international law enforcement partners announced the results of Operation RapTor, including the arrests of 270 dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Operation RapTor resulted in the highest number of seizures of any JCODE operation, including more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms.

    Operation RapTor was a global, coordinated effort by law enforcement in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking, as well as the sales of other illicit goods and services, on the darknet, or dark web. Operation RapTor builds on the successes of prior years’ operations and takedowns of marketplaces, which resulted in the seizure of darknet infrastructure from Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets, providing investigators across the world with investigative leads and evidence. JCODE and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) continue to compile intelligence packages to identify entities of interest. These leads allow U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to identify darknet drug vendors and buyers, resulting in a series of coordinated, but separate, law enforcement investigations, reflected in the statistics announced today. In furtherance of Operation RapTor and in its first action as a JCODE member agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) additionally sanctioned Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad for his role as the founder and operator of Nemesis Market following seizure of the market. Parsarad was also indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking charges related to the illegal business he ran on the dark web.

    “This historic international seizure of firearms, deadly drugs, and illegal funds will save lives,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Criminals cannot hide behind computer screens or seek refuge on the dark web – this Justice Department will identify and eliminate threats to the American people regardless of where they originate.”

    “By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods. But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The FBI could not do this work without our partners both at home and abroad, and the staggering success of this year’s record-breaking amount of fentanyl, guns, and drugs seized prove that our efforts are working. Anyone looking to anonymously harm our citizens through illicit darknet trafficking: your days of recklessness are numbered.”

    “These predators who peddled poison on the dark web might have thought they are untouchable — hiding behind screens, pushing fentanyl, fueling overdoses, and cashing in on misery. However, Operation RapTor just proved them wrong,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy. “DEA and our global partners reached across borders, across platforms, and across currencies to rip their networks apart. Let this stand as a warning: no mask, no marketplace, and no digital wallet can hide you from facing justice.”

    “Operation RapTor shows that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement,” said Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris. “Through close cooperation and intelligence sharing, officers across three continents identified and arrested suspects, sending a clear message to those who think they can hide in the shadows. Europol will continue working with our partners to make the internet safer for everyone.”

    “This unprecedented operation is a testament to the power of global partnership and the unwavering dedication of our team,” said Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Working through the JCODE initiative, IRS Criminal Investigation and our international partners led the largest and most impactful takedown to date—seizing over $200 million in assets, removing deadly drugs and weapons from circulation, and holding more than 270 individuals accountable. This critical strike against dark web networks fueling the fentanyl crisis marks a proud moment in our ongoing effort to protect communities worldwide.”

    “This record-breaking operation sends a clear message to every trafficker hiding behind a screen—your anonymity ends where our global reach begins,” said Acting Director Todd Lyons of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Thanks to the unwavering efforts by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Europol and our international partners, we’re cracking the code of the so-called ‘safe spaces’ for cybercriminals—they are in our sights and we’re not backing down.”

    “Operation RapTor shows what’s possible when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and our partners around the world stand united,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale of the United States Postal Inspection Service. “No matter where criminals hide, we will find them, dismantle their operations, and bring them to justice. This operation was about protecting innocent people from predatory criminals who profit from violence, addiction, and fear. Our commitment is unwavering.”

    “The FDA is committed to continuing its work to disrupt and dismantle the illegal sales of drugs on the dark web, where such sales far too often have tragic consequences,” said Deputy Director Chad Menster of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI). “We will continue to monitor, investigate and bring to justice those who misuse the internet in a quest for profits with reckless disregard for the risk to public health and safety.”  

    The impact of Operation RapTor can be attributed to the tireless work of U.S. and international law enforcement partners. For example:

    On Dec. 16, 2024, Rui-Siang Lin pleaded guilty to charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York of narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medication for owning and operating Incognito Market, one of the largest narcotics marketplaces on the internet.

    According to court documents and statements made in court, Incognito Market was an online narcotics bazaar that started on the dark web in October 2020. Until it shut down in March 2024, Incognito Market sold more than $100 million of narcotics—including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine. Incognito Market was available globally to anyone with internet access using the Tor web browser on the “dark web” or “darknet.” Incognito Market was designed to facilitate seamless narcotics transactions, incorporating many features of legitimate e-commerce sites such as branding, advertising, and customer service. Upon visiting the site, users were met by a splash page and graphic interface, which is pictured below:

    Figure 1: Incognito Market homepage

    While concealing their identities with a unique username or “moniker,” users were able to search thousands of listings for narcotics of their choice. Incognito Market sold illegal narcotics including heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA, oxycodone, methamphetamine, ketamine, and alprazolam, as well as misbranded prescription medication. An example of listings on Incognito market is below:

    Figure 2: Listings for various drugs on the Incognito Market.

    Listings included offerings of prescription medication that was falsely advertised as being authentic. For example, in November 2023, while operating in an undercover capacity on Incognito Market, a law enforcement agent purchased and received several tablets purported to be oxycodone. Testing revealed that these tablets were not oxycodone and were, in fact, fentanyl pills.

    The FBI, HSI, DEA, FDA OCI, and the New York Police Department investigated the case.

    In a second example, in January 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California secured a 17-year sentence for Adan Ruiz, of Orange County, and a 15-year sentence for Omar Navia, of Los Angeles, for supplying fentanyl-laced pills to a drug trafficking ring that sold these drugs to more than 1,000 customers nationwide via the darknet. In imposing the sentences, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter called this case “the most sophisticated fentanyl distribution ring that this court has seen.”

    Navia and Ruiz admitted in their plea agreements that, from at least August 2021 to December 2022, they supplied fentanyl-laced pills to Michael Ta, 26, of Westminster, and Rajiv Srinivasan, 38, of Houston, who used the darknet and encrypted messaging applications to sell more than 120,000 fentanyl-laced pills, 20 pounds of methamphetamine, and other drugs directly to more than 1,000 customers in all 50 states, causing several fatal overdoses.

    According to court documents and statements made in court, Srinivasan and Ta used the “redlightlabs” darknet account to advertise and sell counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and other illicit drugs. Srinivasan also used the encrypted messaging application Wickr to communicate with and sell drugs to customers. Srinivasan received virtual currency as payment for the drugs and then routed that virtual currency through cryptocurrency exchanges.

    The court record also shows that Ta communicated with Srinivasan about drug orders, obtained fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine from sources of supply, stored those drugs in his residence, and mailed out packages with drugs to customers who had ordered them from Srinivasan on the “redlightlabs” account.

    Ta and Srinivasan admitted in their plea agreements to causing the fentanyl overdose deaths of three victims. Both defendants further admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two additional victims, both of whom suffered fatal drug overdoses shortly after they received the pills from Ta and Srinivasan. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, “The five victims of defendants’ crimes ranged in age from 19 to 51. They lived across the country, from California to Florida, Colorado to Arkansas. Each of the five victims leaves behind a family that has been forever and fundamentally changed by defendants’ actions. [Ta and Srinivasan] also victimized countless others as part of an epidemic of addiction and despair plaguing our district and our country.”

    The FBI investigated this case, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the DEA’s Fayetteville Resident Office, and the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force.

    In a third example, in February 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia charged Joshua Vasquez, Joseph Vasquez, and Rafael Roman by criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Joshua Vasquez, Joseph Vasquez, and Roman conspired to sell counterfeit Adderall containing methamphetamine on darknet markets such as Bohemia and Tor2Door. The defendants allegedly sold drugs on darknet marketplaces in exchange for cryptocurrency under the monikers “NuveoDelux,” “Mrjohnson,” and “AllStateRx.”

    According to court documents and statements made in court, these three prolific darknet vendors were collectively responsible for fulfilling over 13,000 drug orders shipped throughout the United States, ranging in size from user quantities, e.g., 5 pills, to “reseller” quantities, e.g., 10,000 pills. Joshua and Joseph Vasquez collectively ran the NuveoDeluxe and AllStateRx accounts. A fourth co-conspirator, Gregory Castillo-Rosario, who was arrested in October 2024, ran the Mrjohnson account. Roman assisted his co-conspirators by pressing counterfeit Adderall pills, packaging them, and distributing drug orders into the mail using the U.S. Postal Service. The conspiracy also laundered funds associated with darknet drug proceeds.

    While executing search warrants in New Jersey and New York, federal law enforcement officers seized more than $330,000, close to 80,000 counterfeit Adderall pills, one firearm, and two industrial pill press machines. Additionally, two vehicles and several pieces of property were seized during the search warrants. An additional 30 kilograms of suspected counterfeit Adderall pills were seized on May 2, 2024, in New York. Photographs of some of the seized items are below: 

    Figure 3: Counterfeit Adderall pills laced with methamphetamine stored in 5-gallon buckets

    Figure 4: Bags ready to be shipped to customers nationwide.

    Figure 5: Illegal pill press machines used by drug traffickers to make counterfeit pharmaceutical pills.

    Figure 6: Trash bags full of counterfeit Adderall pills laced with methamphetamine.

    Joshua Vasquez pleaded guilty on April 24, 2024, and was sentenced on July 25, 2024, to 12 years in prison. Joseph Vasquez pleaded guilty on April 15, 2024, and was sentenced on Aug. 8, 2024, to 10 years in prison. Roman pleaded guilty on May 30, 2024, and was sentenced on Nov. 14, 2024, to 10 years in prison. They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to create a counterfeit substance and distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine.

    The FBI, FDA, and USPIS investigated this matter with significant contributions from DEA, HSI, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, the Howell Township Police Department, the Lakewood Township Police Department, the Orlando Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Arlington County Police Department, and the New York Police Department.

    In a fourth example, a San Fernando Valley man, Brian McDonald, 23, was sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison in the Central District of California for using darknet marketplaces to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of fentanyl-laced pills and cocaine to buyers nationwide. He admitted in court documents to causing one fatal fentanyl overdose.

    From at least April 2021 until May 2023, McDonald and others conspired to sell fentanyl and cocaine via multiple darknet marketplaces. McDonald operated under the monikers “Malachai Johnson,” “SouthSideOxy,” and “JefeDeMichoacan.” McDonald created, monitored, and maintained the darknet vendor profiles, including by updating drug listings and shipment options, tracking drug orders, and offloading Monero cryptocurrency received as drug deal payments into cryptocurrency wallets that McDonald controlled.

    McDonald recruited and hired accomplices to help package and ship the narcotics they sold on the darknet. McDonald directed and helped these accomplices package and ship the narcotics. McDonald purchased bulk quantities of fentanyl and cocaine and then directed others to complete hundreds of drug sales involving large quantities of both fentanyl and cocaine.

    The FBI and DEA investigated this matter.

    Operation RapTor involves law enforcement actions taken by JCODE member agencies, including the DEA, FBI, FDA OCI, HSI, IRS-CI, and USPIS. Credible reporting from the referenced agencies, in addition to contributions from ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division, Customs and Border Protection, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and OFAC, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service, enabled domestic law enforcement actions in support of Operation RapTor. State, local, and other federal agencies also contributed to Operation RapTor investigations through task force participation and regional partnerships, as well as the multi-agency Special Operations Division.

    The investigations leading to Operation RapTor were significantly aided by support and coordination from the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, with valuable assistance from the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Fraud Section, and Office of International Affairs.

    Key international partners include Europol; Eurojust; Austria’s Criminal Intelligence Service with various Provincial Criminal Police Departments (Bundeskriminalamt und Landeskriminalämter); Brazil’s Civil Police of the State of Pará (Polícia Civil do Estado do Pará) and Civil Police of the State of São Paulo (Polícia Civil do Estado do São Paulo); France’s French Customs (Douane), National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale); Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), Prosecutor’s Office in Cologne – Central Cybercrime Contact Point (Staatsanwaltschaft Köln, Zentral- und Ansprechstelle Cybercrime), Central Criminal Investigation in Oldenburg (Zentrale Kriminalinspektion Oldenburg) various police departments (Dienststellen der Länderpolizeien), and German Customs Investigation (Zollfahndungsämter); the Netherlands’ Team High Tech Crime (National Investigations and Special Operations (NIS) and Post Interventie Team (PIT), National Intelligence, Expertise and Operational Support (NIEO);  Spain’s National Police (Policía Nacional); South Korea’s Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office – Darknet Investigations Unit; Switzerland’s Zurich Cantonal Police (Kantonspolizei Zürich) and Public Prosecutor’s Office II of the Canton of Zurich (Staatsanwaltschaft II); and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

    Federal investigations spanned the United States, and 26 United States Attorneys’ Offices are prosecuting cases, including the Central District of California, the Northern District of California, the Southern District of California, the District of Colorado, the District of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, the Middle District of Florida, the Southern District of Florida, the Middle District of Georgia, the District of Hawaii, the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern District of Indiana, the Eastern District of Kentucky, the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Michigan, the Western District of Michigan, the Eastern District of Missouri, the District of New Jersey, the Southern District of New York, the District of North Dakota, the Northern District of Ohio, the Southern District of Ohio, the Northern District of Oklahoma, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Western District of Washington.

    The Justice Department established the FBI-led JCODE team to lead and coordinate government efforts to detect, disrupt, and dismantle major criminal enterprises reliant on the darknet for trafficking opioids and other illicit narcotics, along with identifying and dismantling their supply chains.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Law Enforcement Seize Record Amounts of Illegal Drugs, Firearms, and Drug Trafficking Proceeds in International Operation Against Darknet Trafficking of Fentanyl and Opioids; 270 Arrested Across Four Continents

    Source: United States Attorneys General 13

    WASHINGTON — Today, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, and international law enforcement partners announced the results of Operation RapTor, including the arrests of 270 dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Operation RapTor resulted in the highest number of seizures of any JCODE operation, including more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms.

    Operation RapTor was a global, coordinated effort by law enforcement in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking, as well as the sales of other illicit goods and services, on the darknet, or dark web. Operation RapTor builds on the successes of prior years’ operations and takedowns of marketplaces, which resulted in the seizure of darknet infrastructure from Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets, providing investigators across the world with investigative leads and evidence. JCODE and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) continue to compile intelligence packages to identify entities of interest. These leads allow U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to identify darknet drug vendors and buyers, resulting in a series of coordinated, but separate, law enforcement investigations, reflected in the statistics announced today. In furtherance of Operation RapTor and in its first action as a JCODE member agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) additionally sanctioned Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad for his role as the founder and operator of Nemesis Market following seizure of the market. Parsarad was also indicted by a federal grand jury on drug trafficking charges related to the illegal business he ran on the dark web.

    “This historic international seizure of firearms, deadly drugs, and illegal funds will save lives,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Criminals cannot hide behind computer screens or seek refuge on the dark web – this Justice Department will identify and eliminate threats to the American people regardless of where they originate.”

    “By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods. But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The FBI could not do this work without our partners both at home and abroad, and the staggering success of this year’s record-breaking amount of fentanyl, guns, and drugs seized prove that our efforts are working. Anyone looking to anonymously harm our citizens through illicit darknet trafficking: your days of recklessness are numbered.”

    “These predators who peddled poison on the dark web might have thought they are untouchable — hiding behind screens, pushing fentanyl, fueling overdoses, and cashing in on misery. However, Operation RapTor just proved them wrong,” said DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy. “DEA and our global partners reached across borders, across platforms, and across currencies to rip their networks apart. Let this stand as a warning: no mask, no marketplace, and no digital wallet can hide you from facing justice.”

    “Operation RapTor shows that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement,” said Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris. “Through close cooperation and intelligence sharing, officers across three continents identified and arrested suspects, sending a clear message to those who think they can hide in the shadows. Europol will continue working with our partners to make the internet safer for everyone.”

    “This unprecedented operation is a testament to the power of global partnership and the unwavering dedication of our team,” said Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Working through the JCODE initiative, IRS Criminal Investigation and our international partners led the largest and most impactful takedown to date—seizing over $200 million in assets, removing deadly drugs and weapons from circulation, and holding more than 270 individuals accountable. This critical strike against dark web networks fueling the fentanyl crisis marks a proud moment in our ongoing effort to protect communities worldwide.”

    “This record-breaking operation sends a clear message to every trafficker hiding behind a screen—your anonymity ends where our global reach begins,” said Acting Director Todd Lyons of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Thanks to the unwavering efforts by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Europol and our international partners, we’re cracking the code of the so-called ‘safe spaces’ for cybercriminals—they are in our sights and we’re not backing down.”

    “Operation RapTor shows what’s possible when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and our partners around the world stand united,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale of the United States Postal Inspection Service. “No matter where criminals hide, we will find them, dismantle their operations, and bring them to justice. This operation was about protecting innocent people from predatory criminals who profit from violence, addiction, and fear. Our commitment is unwavering.”

    “The FDA is committed to continuing its work to disrupt and dismantle the illegal sales of drugs on the dark web, where such sales far too often have tragic consequences,” said Deputy Director Chad Menster of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI). “We will continue to monitor, investigate and bring to justice those who misuse the internet in a quest for profits with reckless disregard for the risk to public health and safety.”  

    The impact of Operation RapTor can be attributed to the tireless work of U.S. and international law enforcement partners. For example:

    On Dec. 16, 2024, Rui-Siang Lin pleaded guilty to charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York of narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medication for owning and operating Incognito Market, one of the largest narcotics marketplaces on the internet.

    According to court documents and statements made in court, Incognito Market was an online narcotics bazaar that started on the dark web in October 2020. Until it shut down in March 2024, Incognito Market sold more than $100 million of narcotics—including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine. Incognito Market was available globally to anyone with internet access using the Tor web browser on the “dark web” or “darknet.” Incognito Market was designed to facilitate seamless narcotics transactions, incorporating many features of legitimate e-commerce sites such as branding, advertising, and customer service. Upon visiting the site, users were met by a splash page and graphic interface, which is pictured below:

    Figure 1: Incognito Market homepage

    While concealing their identities with a unique username or “moniker,” users were able to search thousands of listings for narcotics of their choice. Incognito Market sold illegal narcotics including heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA, oxycodone, methamphetamine, ketamine, and alprazolam, as well as misbranded prescription medication. An example of listings on Incognito market is below:

    Figure 2: Listings for various drugs on the Incognito Market.

    Listings included offerings of prescription medication that was falsely advertised as being authentic. For example, in November 2023, while operating in an undercover capacity on Incognito Market, a law enforcement agent purchased and received several tablets purported to be oxycodone. Testing revealed that these tablets were not oxycodone and were, in fact, fentanyl pills.

    The FBI, HSI, DEA, FDA OCI, and the New York Police Department investigated the case.

    In a second example, in January 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California secured a 17-year sentence for Adan Ruiz, of Orange County, and a 15-year sentence for Omar Navia, of Los Angeles, for supplying fentanyl-laced pills to a drug trafficking ring that sold these drugs to more than 1,000 customers nationwide via the darknet. In imposing the sentences, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter called this case “the most sophisticated fentanyl distribution ring that this court has seen.”

    Navia and Ruiz admitted in their plea agreements that, from at least August 2021 to December 2022, they supplied fentanyl-laced pills to Michael Ta, 26, of Westminster, and Rajiv Srinivasan, 38, of Houston, who used the darknet and encrypted messaging applications to sell more than 120,000 fentanyl-laced pills, 20 pounds of methamphetamine, and other drugs directly to more than 1,000 customers in all 50 states, causing several fatal overdoses.

    According to court documents and statements made in court, Srinivasan and Ta used the “redlightlabs” darknet account to advertise and sell counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and other illicit drugs. Srinivasan also used the encrypted messaging application Wickr to communicate with and sell drugs to customers. Srinivasan received virtual currency as payment for the drugs and then routed that virtual currency through cryptocurrency exchanges.

    The court record also shows that Ta communicated with Srinivasan about drug orders, obtained fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine from sources of supply, stored those drugs in his residence, and mailed out packages with drugs to customers who had ordered them from Srinivasan on the “redlightlabs” account.

    Ta and Srinivasan admitted in their plea agreements to causing the fentanyl overdose deaths of three victims. Both defendants further admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two additional victims, both of whom suffered fatal drug overdoses shortly after they received the pills from Ta and Srinivasan. Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, “The five victims of defendants’ crimes ranged in age from 19 to 51. They lived across the country, from California to Florida, Colorado to Arkansas. Each of the five victims leaves behind a family that has been forever and fundamentally changed by defendants’ actions. [Ta and Srinivasan] also victimized countless others as part of an epidemic of addiction and despair plaguing our district and our country.”

    The FBI investigated this case, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the DEA’s Fayetteville Resident Office, and the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force.

    In a third example, in February 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia charged Joshua Vasquez, Joseph Vasquez, and Rafael Roman by criminal complaint with conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Joshua Vasquez, Joseph Vasquez, and Roman conspired to sell counterfeit Adderall containing methamphetamine on darknet markets such as Bohemia and Tor2Door. The defendants allegedly sold drugs on darknet marketplaces in exchange for cryptocurrency under the monikers “NuveoDelux,” “Mrjohnson,” and “AllStateRx.”

    According to court documents and statements made in court, these three prolific darknet vendors were collectively responsible for fulfilling over 13,000 drug orders shipped throughout the United States, ranging in size from user quantities, e.g., 5 pills, to “reseller” quantities, e.g., 10,000 pills. Joshua and Joseph Vasquez collectively ran the NuveoDeluxe and AllStateRx accounts. A fourth co-conspirator, Gregory Castillo-Rosario, who was arrested in October 2024, ran the Mrjohnson account. Roman assisted his co-conspirators by pressing counterfeit Adderall pills, packaging them, and distributing drug orders into the mail using the U.S. Postal Service. The conspiracy also laundered funds associated with darknet drug proceeds.

    While executing search warrants in New Jersey and New York, federal law enforcement officers seized more than $330,000, close to 80,000 counterfeit Adderall pills, one firearm, and two industrial pill press machines. Additionally, two vehicles and several pieces of property were seized during the search warrants. An additional 30 kilograms of suspected counterfeit Adderall pills were seized on May 2, 2024, in New York. Photographs of some of the seized items are below: 

    Figure 3: Counterfeit Adderall pills laced with methamphetamine stored in 5-gallon buckets

    Figure 4: Bags ready to be shipped to customers nationwide.

    Figure 5: Illegal pill press machines used by drug traffickers to make counterfeit pharmaceutical pills.

    Figure 6: Trash bags full of counterfeit Adderall pills laced with methamphetamine.

    Joshua Vasquez pleaded guilty on April 24, 2024, and was sentenced on July 25, 2024, to 12 years in prison. Joseph Vasquez pleaded guilty on April 15, 2024, and was sentenced on Aug. 8, 2024, to 10 years in prison. Roman pleaded guilty on May 30, 2024, and was sentenced on Nov. 14, 2024, to 10 years in prison. They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to create a counterfeit substance and distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine.

    The FBI, FDA, and USPIS investigated this matter with significant contributions from DEA, HSI, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office, the Howell Township Police Department, the Lakewood Township Police Department, the Orlando Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Arlington County Police Department, and the New York Police Department.

    In a fourth example, a San Fernando Valley man, Brian McDonald, 23, was sentenced to more than 20 years in federal prison in the Central District of California for using darknet marketplaces to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of fentanyl-laced pills and cocaine to buyers nationwide. He admitted in court documents to causing one fatal fentanyl overdose.

    From at least April 2021 until May 2023, McDonald and others conspired to sell fentanyl and cocaine via multiple darknet marketplaces. McDonald operated under the monikers “Malachai Johnson,” “SouthSideOxy,” and “JefeDeMichoacan.” McDonald created, monitored, and maintained the darknet vendor profiles, including by updating drug listings and shipment options, tracking drug orders, and offloading Monero cryptocurrency received as drug deal payments into cryptocurrency wallets that McDonald controlled.

    McDonald recruited and hired accomplices to help package and ship the narcotics they sold on the darknet. McDonald directed and helped these accomplices package and ship the narcotics. McDonald purchased bulk quantities of fentanyl and cocaine and then directed others to complete hundreds of drug sales involving large quantities of both fentanyl and cocaine.

    The FBI and DEA investigated this matter.

    Operation RapTor involves law enforcement actions taken by JCODE member agencies, including the DEA, FBI, FDA OCI, HSI, IRS-CI, and USPIS. Credible reporting from the referenced agencies, in addition to contributions from ATF, Army Criminal Investigation Division, Customs and Border Protection, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and OFAC, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service, enabled domestic law enforcement actions in support of Operation RapTor. State, local, and other federal agencies also contributed to Operation RapTor investigations through task force participation and regional partnerships, as well as the multi-agency Special Operations Division.

    The investigations leading to Operation RapTor were significantly aided by support and coordination from the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, with valuable assistance from the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Fraud Section, and Office of International Affairs.

    Key international partners include Europol; Eurojust; Austria’s Criminal Intelligence Service with various Provincial Criminal Police Departments (Bundeskriminalamt und Landeskriminalämter); Brazil’s Civil Police of the State of Pará (Polícia Civil do Estado do Pará) and Civil Police of the State of São Paulo (Polícia Civil do Estado do São Paulo); France’s French Customs (Douane), National Gendarmerie (Gendarmerie Nationale); Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), Prosecutor’s Office in Cologne – Central Cybercrime Contact Point (Staatsanwaltschaft Köln, Zentral- und Ansprechstelle Cybercrime), Central Criminal Investigation in Oldenburg (Zentrale Kriminalinspektion Oldenburg) various police departments (Dienststellen der Länderpolizeien), and German Customs Investigation (Zollfahndungsämter); the Netherlands’ Team High Tech Crime (National Investigations and Special Operations (NIS) and Post Interventie Team (PIT), National Intelligence, Expertise and Operational Support (NIEO);  Spain’s National Police (Policía Nacional); South Korea’s Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office – Darknet Investigations Unit; Switzerland’s Zurich Cantonal Police (Kantonspolizei Zürich) and Public Prosecutor’s Office II of the Canton of Zurich (Staatsanwaltschaft II); and the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

    Federal investigations spanned the United States, and 26 United States Attorneys’ Offices are prosecuting cases, including the Central District of California, the Northern District of California, the Southern District of California, the District of Colorado, the District of Connecticut, the District of Columbia, the Middle District of Florida, the Southern District of Florida, the Middle District of Georgia, the District of Hawaii, the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern District of Indiana, the Eastern District of Kentucky, the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern District of Michigan, the Western District of Michigan, the Eastern District of Missouri, the District of New Jersey, the Southern District of New York, the District of North Dakota, the Northern District of Ohio, the Southern District of Ohio, the Northern District of Oklahoma, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Western District of Washington.

    The Justice Department established the FBI-led JCODE team to lead and coordinate government efforts to detect, disrupt, and dismantle major criminal enterprises reliant on the darknet for trafficking opioids and other illicit narcotics, along with identifying and dismantling their supply chains.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Frank Elderson: Nature’s bell tolls for thee, economy!

    Source: European Central Bank

    Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center

    Leiden, 22 May 2025

    Thank you for inviting me to speak at this annual biodiversity dinner. The wide range of speakers here this evening – on international biodiversity day – is testament to the relevance of biodiversity across disciplines.

    Nature isn’t just the roots and shoots of biologists, macroecologists and natural scientists. Beyond its intrinsic value, nature provides vital services that are relevant for all of us – for entrepreneurs, workers, policymakers and bankers, but also for central bankers and financial supervisors.

    A thriving natural environment provides vital benefits that sustain our well-being and serve as a crucial driving force for the global economy. Think of fertile soils, pollination, timber, fishing stocks, clean water and clean air.

    But we are well aware of the daunting facts that confirm the dire state of ecosystem services. Intensive land use, the climate crisis, pollution, overexploitation and other human pressures are rapidly and severely damaging our natural resources.

    75% of land surface ecosystems and 66% of ocean ecosystems have been damaged, degraded or modified.

    We are using natural resources 1.7 times faster than ecosystems can regenerate them. Consequently, the contribution that nature can make to our economies – and our way of life – is steadily diminishing every day.

    These fateful facts and figures confront us as vividly as Edvard Munch’s iconic scream. Yet, accounting for nature and the services it provides is challenging. What nature provides to the economy is typically not measured directly in statistics like GDP.

    We price portfolios instead of pollinators, we monitor markets instead of mangroves and we watch wages instead of water supplies. However, the reality is that while our economies are heavily reliant on ecosystem services, the economic value of those pollinators, mangroves and water supplies is not sufficiently taken into account.

    Nature is too often still wrongly seen as a free good, readily available and abundant in supply, without opportunity costs. For such a good, there is no market – and therefore no price.

    So, why can’t governments intervene by pricing and creating a market for nature as has been done for emissions?

    Unlike for the climate crisis – which can be quantified through carbon emissions and their direct links to rising temperatures – there is no single metric that can be used to quantify the wide range of ecosystem services.

    What is the common denominator of clean air, fertile soils and coasts protected by mangrove forests? Nature is beautifully complex, but this complexity makes it harder to establish a market for nature than a market for climate, such as the carbon markets created through emissions trading systems.

    For central banks to effectively fulfil their mandates, we need to enhance our capacity to measure the vital services that nature provides to our economy and identify the financial risks caused by the degradation of these services. And while this is admittedly not an easy task, it is encouraging that multiple stakeholders are making progress, including academia, firms and also the ECB. We are enhancing our tools, methodologies and data to assess the economic implications of ecosystems and their degradation. And I am pleased to be able to share some of our latest insights this evening.

    I will argue that while nature services may appear to be freely available, they are in fact not abundant at all and there are substantial costs to using and losing them. Costs that we currently overlook when headlines report on GDP growth.

    Accounting for nature in monetary policy and banking supervision

    Nature being of vital importance for the economy and the financial system is hardly a novel insight. Besides scientists, a number of central banks and prudential supervisors have also been highlighting their interlinkages for several years now.[1] And while the climate crisis has received most of the attention, it is encouraging that work on nature-related risks has also significantly evolved.

    Moreover, the ECB has taken significant steps to account for nature-related risks in the pursuit of its mandate. For instance, we take into account the effects nature degradation can have on banks’ balance sheets. The degradation of nature could damage companies’ production processes and consequently weaken their creditworthiness, which might in turn impair loans granted by banks. In our role as the supervisor of Europe’s largest banks, we therefore aim to ensure that the banks we supervise adequately manage both climate-related and nature-related risks.[2] Encouragingly, we are seeing a growing set of good practices among the banks we supervise in terms of identifying, quantifying and managing nature-related risks.

    But are we fully aware of – and sufficiently alert to – how nature degradation could eventually hit balance sheets?

    Advancing our understanding does not mean that economists and supervisors should start studying ants in Aragon, ladybirds in Lombardy or honeybees in Holland (although it is very important that entomologists do!).

    Instead, central banks and supervisors need to gain a better understanding of just how vulnerable the economy and the financial system are to nature degradation.[3]

    Capturing the risks related to ecosystem degradation

    An ECB study in 2023 found that nearly 75% of banks’ corporate lending goes to firms that are highly dependent on at least one ecosystem service.[4] This finding underscores just how interconnected nature, the economy and the financial system really are.[5] But that study does not tell us exactly how much of our economic activity is at risk, or which economic sectors and regions will be most affected.

    To better understand this impact, the ECB has teamed up with the Resilient Planet Finance Lab at the University of Oxford.

    The interdisciplinary team has developed systemic risk indicators that move beyond dependency analysis to a comprehensive assessment of nature-related financial risks. In essence, this indicator assesses the economic implications of the deteriorating state of ecosystems. It shows how much of the economic value added by a particular industry– what economists call “gross value added” – is at risk when ecosystem services degrade. Tomorrow we will publish a blog post showing some of the preliminary results of our work, but I can already share some findings with you this evening.

    Water – the natural currency underwriting purchases, investments and trades

    Our preliminary findings indicate two things. First, water – too little, too much or too dirty water that is –has been identified as posing the most significant risk to the euro area economy. Losses related to water scarcity, poor water quality and flood protection emerge as the most critical from a value added perspective. Concretely, surface water scarcity alone puts almost 15% of the euro area’s economic output at risk. This is not surprising because water is not just any resource – it is one of the most essential natural resources we possess. Second, agriculture is the most exposed sector, as it would suffer the largest proportional output losses due to a decline in surface water. But other sectors are also likely to be significantly affected.

    Chart 1

    Proportion of national gross value added (GVA) at risk due to surface water scarcity in Europe and globally (supply chain risks)

    Water is, for instance, an indispensable resource in industry. In the Netherlands, industry alone uses over 2.6 trillion litres of fresh water a year.[6] This water usage is more than three times the total annual water consumption of all households in the Netherlands. Water is also essential for energy production, not only in hydropower plants but also in thermal power plants – including nuclear – where it is used for cooling and steam generation. It is consumed in vast quantities for mining and mineral processing, which are crucial for the energy transition, as well as in the construction sector for producing concrete, to name just a few examples.

    The risk posed by water scarcity is not hypothetical, we are already experiencing the impact today. I am sure that many of you remember when the summers of 2018, 2019 and 2020 brought severe droughts and heatwaves even to the Netherlands. In 2018 alone, economic losses in the Netherlands were up to €1.9 billion for agriculture and €155 million for shipping, with widespread but hard-to-quantify damage to ecosystems. This year’s drought is especially alarming: spring 2025 is on track to become the driest ever recorded in the Netherlands, likely surpassing the previous record set nearly 50 years ago. And droughts are only projected to increase further as the climate crisis continues to develop. Worryingly, in the driest scenario an average summer in the 2040s will be about as dry as an extremely dry summer now.

    Effective water management will thus be crucial for sustaining production. However, the risk persists that during periods of drought, production might need to be scaled down. Some industrial processes may become economically unviable and might need to relocate.

    For example, some have even gone as far as to point at a risk that more frequent droughts could render traditional tulip-growing regions such as the Bollenstreek unsuitable for bulb cultivation.[7] This may compel growers to explore better-positioned locations where water is more reliably available to safeguard the iconic Dutch tulip industry.

    Hence, as a consequence of water scarcity, our economies could produce less, and production costs are likely to rise during any inevitable transition phase.

    Let me also point out that biodiversity is a critical – and often underestimated – factor in ensuring the availability and quality of fresh water. Ecosystems such as forests and wetlands regulate the quantity, timing and purity of water flows by stabilising soils and filtering pollutants. Maintaining healthy and diverse ecosystems will be crucial for resilient water provisioning as climate change intensifies, particularly in regions facing growing water stress.

    Beyond these macroeconomic impacts, ecosystem degradation can significantly affect financial stability, for example through the loans that banks grant to households and firms. In essence, the greater the impact on firms, the higher the risk of defaults and the higher the risk on banks’ balance sheets.

    For example, in our research with the University of Oxford we found that more than 34% of banks’ total outstanding nominal amount – over €1.3 trillion – is currently extended to sectors exposed to high water scarcity risk.

    As the next step in our research, we will examine changes in the probability of default in the sectors most affected by dwindling ecosystems. Think about it as stress-testing the resilience of banks’ credit portfolios to nature degradation. We plan to publish these results later this year, complete with a more in-depth analysis on the topic, so stay tuned.

    Multiple stakeholders are taking action

    Encouragingly, our work with the University of Oxford is not an isolated case. We are in fact seeing a wide range of stakeholders taking action to better account for ecosystem services.

    For instance, I hear that our host this evening – the Naturalis Biodiversity Center – has teamed up with banks to combine insights from science and finance to further develop indicators quantifying ecosystem services.

    We are also seeing a growing set of good practices among the banks we supervise in terms of identifying, quantifying and managing nature-related risks. Banks typically conduct materiality assessments to understand where they are most affected. And banks also grapple with the challenge that nature-related risks are difficult to express in a single metric. Once they know where they are exposed, they then typically conduct deep dives on specific topics.

    One bank, for example, has conducted a quantitative scenario analysis to understand how the profitability of its customers could be affected if a water pollution tax were to be implemented.

    Other banks design customer scorecards and engage with the most vulnerable counterparties, sometimes offering small discounts or other incentives when customers meet key performance indicators that increase their resilience.

    It is also encouraging that progress is being made at the international level. The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) – a network of 145 central banks and supervisors from around the world – has developed a conceptual framework offering central banks and supervisors a common understanding of nature-related financial risks and a principle-based risk assessment approach.[8][9] And the Financial Stability Board recently took stock of supervisory and regulatory initiatives among its members, finding that a growing number of financial authorities are considering the potential implications of nature-related risks for the financial sector.[10]

    So scientists, banks, policymakers and supervisors are in fact taking action. That’s good news. Given the high level of uncertainty regarding impacts, non-linearities, tipping points and irreversibility, continuous scientific input and engagement are essential to determine the transmission channels from nature to our economies.

    Reliable and comparable data are key to managing risks and identifying opportunities

    Before I conclude, let me stress a vital enabler to better measure ecosystem services: data. Closer cooperation with natural scientists can help us better understand the data they have available on the status of nature and the ecosystem services it provides. The National Hub for Biodiversity Information provided by our host tonight is an excellent example.[11]

    Moreover, continuous engagement with the scientific community can also help improve our understanding of non-linearities, tipping points and the irreversibility of the biodiversity crisis.

    Similarly, the availability of reliable and comparable data from companies is essential for us to know where the risks are hiding and where opportunities can be found. Such data can, for example, provide insights into companies’ reliance on fresh water for their production processes. In this context, the reporting requirements in the EU’s sustainable finance framework are not merely a “nice to have”, they are providing indispensable information about financial risks and are a solution to the patchwork of different reporting criteria.

    Does that mean that there is no room for simplification? Does it mean that there is no room to ease the reporting burden on smaller firms?

    Of course not.

    As the ECB noted in its recent opinion[12] on the Commission’s omnibus package, striking the right balance is crucial – the balance between how much data firms report and how many firms are required to do so. Excluding too many firms from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive may reduce the availability of vital data needed to assess climate-and nature related financial risks.

    So when carefully calibrating a balanced degree of simplification, one should look at what data points we need most and make sure that sufficient companies report on precisely those data. Not only because reliable and comparable data are important for identifying economic impacts and managing financial risks, but also because such data helps identify investment opportunities to unlock a clean, green and competitive European economy.

    Conclusion

    Let me conclude.

    Encouragingly, multiple stakeholders are making progress in better accounting for ecosystem services. That’s good news, and this work must continue. Because dwindling ecosystems are no longer peripheral – they are central to financial stability, the economy and, ultimately, our daily lives.

    When you saw the title of my remarks this evening, some of you might have recognised a reference to John Donne’s poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Donne beautifully expresses that we are all part of a bigger whole: “No man is an island, Entire of itself.”

    Nor is our economy an island – it is not “entire of itself”, it depends on nature.

    If nature’s services suffer,
    And they do!
    Send not to know
    For whom the bell tolls.
    It tolls for thee, ECOnomy!

    Thank you for your attention.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: UConn Medical Students Nationally Present ENT Research Findings

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    UConn School of Medicine medical students had a strong showing at a national otolaryngology conference to present their research findings.

    The Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings took place in New Orleans on May 14-18 with several rising fourth-year UConn medical students participating.

    “Research experience is important for our UConn medical students because it helps with refinement of their problem-solving skills and understanding how medicine advances,” says ENT Professor Dr. Kourosh Parham, program director for the Division of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at UConn School of Medicine. “Our students recognize the need for hard work and the necessity to engage in a large range of extracurricular activities from volunteerism/community service to research and leadership.  Consequently, our students get involved early ‐ most in their first year of medical school. What is impressive is that each of our students takes on multiple research projects, some of which they are the lead on. Many publish their results in leading journals.”

    For the second year in a row, UConn medical students had a big presence at the national ENT conference.

    UConn medical student Patrick Adamczyk presenting.

    Patrick Adamczyk delivered a well-received podium presentation on a clinical investigation of tinnitus biomarkers.

    Heather McClure of the UConn SOM Class of 2026.

    Heather McClure presented the results of her multi-institutional (UConn, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Johns Hopkins) collaborative research on workplace accommodation for workers with hearing loss.

    Rising fourth-year UConn medical student Mohsin Mirza.

    Mohsin Mirza presented the results of his original research defining newly discovered symptoms of hyperparathyroidism.

    Class of 2026′ Fleur Kabala of UConn.

    Fleur Kabala presented the surgical management protocol for primary hyperparathyroidism.

    UConn SOM student Gabrielle Caron presenting her poster.

    Gabrielle Caron presented the surgical management of a nasal dermoid.

    SOM Class of 2026 medical student Rohit Makol.

    Rohit Makol presented the results from one of the studies he conducted during his research fellowship at NYU.  This study focused on AI-powered speech recognition models in evaluating cochlear implant users.

    In addition, Tyler Pion, DO, a third-year otolaryngology resident at UConn, presented the results of an investigation led by Uma Mehta, a rising fourth-year medical student.

    Tyler Pion, DO, a PGY3 otolaryngology resident at UConn.

    These medical students entering their last year of medical school are all interested in pursuing ENT residency and plan on participating in the 2026 National Match Day.

    UConn medical student Patrick Adamczyk with Dr. Parham.

    “Matching for a competitive field such as ENT demands that the applicants have a solid research background,” says Parham who shared how the national statistics show the average number of research projects an applicant to ENT residency participated in at the 2025 match was more than a dozen.

    Parham adds, “The mentorship by ENT faculty have been very fruitful as demonstrated by the number of presentations by our medical students at national meetings and the successful results of the 2025 match with five students successfully matching to ENT.  That was the largest number of students from a UConn medical school class to match to ENT.”

    He concludes, “We hope that the presence of our students on the national stage this year will be a predictor of another successful match in 2026.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Strengthen powers to bring empty homes back into use

    Source: Scottish Greens

    22 May 2025 Housing

    Scottish Greens demand action on empty homes

    More in Housing

    The Scottish Greens have called on the Scottish Government to adopt stronger measures to tackle Scotland’s housing crisis by backing powers that would allow local authorities to bring long-term empty and derelict homes back into productive use.

    The Greens’ proposal has been tabled as an amendment to the Housing Bill, which is currently progressing through the Scottish Parliament.
    Scottish Government statistics show that 31,596 homes in Scotland were classified as long-term empty, out of a total of 43,538 properties empty for more than 6 months. This represents 73% of the total number of empty homes.

    Speaking in today’s Ministerial Statement on the Government’s response to the Housing Emergency, Maggie Chapman MSP asked the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Shirley Anne Sommerville, whether she would support proposals to bring vacant or derelict properties back into use for housing.

    The Cabinet Secretary said she would consider Ms Chapman’s proposals given the seriousness of the issue.

    This latest push builds on the Scottish Greens’ longstanding commitment to land and housing reform after they were previously successful in the implementation of Compulsory Purchase Orders.

    Commenting, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman said:

    “The Scottish Parliament accepts that we are in the midst of a housing emergency, it’s now time they started acting like it. Thousands of homes and plots of land are sitting empty or derelict. These amendments are about making significant changes the housing inequality which blights Scotland and puts homes back into the hands of people who need them.

    “It would be a vital step toward a fairer, more sustainable housing system. It is a long-overdue reform that can help alleviate housing pressures and support community regeneration. The amendments will build on Compulsory Purchase Orders, crucially allowing for greater flexibility in who the final buyer or tenant might be.

    “These proposals are rooted in recommendations from the Scottish Land Commission and are backed by homelessness charities and housing justice organisations. They would play a vital role in taking power back from the negligent super-rich who are hoarding properties and contributing to the significant struggles we are seeing for many to find safe and affordable accommodation.

    “If the SNP don’t act now by strengthening our hand in tackling housing inequality, then prior progress will stall. It is not the time for half-measures, it is time to make real change to people’s lives.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI: CSGO Betting Sites: Thunderpick Named the Top U.S. Sportsbook for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York City, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Thunderpick has redefined the CSGO betting experience for players across the U.S., offering everything a serious bettor could want in one streamlined platform. With competitive odds, real-time match coverage, and a robust selection of betting markets, it caters to casual fans and seasoned esports gamblers alike.

    JOIN THE TOP CSGO BETTING SITE: THUNDERPICK

    Why Thunderpick Stands Out Among U.S. CSGO Betting Sites

    Thunderpick offers a tailor-made experience for CSGO bettors who value reliability, diversity, and a professional-grade user interface. Its betting markets cover everything from major tournaments like ESL and BLAST to daily matchups, offering a constant stream of opportunities to win. Whether you want to bet on map winners, pistol rounds, or total kills, the platform supports it all with up-to-the-minute odds.

    The 100% bonus up to $600 gives new users a competitive edge from the get-go, while reload offers and loyalty perks keep returning players well-rewarded. Thunderpick’s unique points system allows players to earn extra rewards simply by placing bets, which can later be exchanged for additional bonuses.

    Its design is optimized for both desktop and mobile users, making it seamless to place bets from anywhere. Real-time score updates and betting slips that adjust instantly ensure that live betting is both fast and fun. Compared to other platforms, Thunderpick consistently offers better odds and quicker bet confirmation.

    Overall, Thunderpick isn’t just another sportsbook—it’s a full-service CSGO betting hub designed to deliver a premium experience from first bet to final payout.

    GET A 100% BONUS UP TO $600

    How to Sign Up for the Best CSGO Betting Site, Thunderpick

    Getting into CSGO betting with Thunderpick is quick, intuitive, and designed for new users who want to dive straight into the action. Here’s how to get started:

    1. Visit Thunderpick and click the “Join Now” button.
    2. Register your account with a valid email, secure password, and preferred currency.
    3. Verify your email to unlock deposit and withdrawal features.
    4. Make your first deposit—you can choose from a variety of payment options, including credit cards.
    5. Claim your 100% bonus up to $600 automatically after your first deposit.
    6. Explore upcoming CSGO matches in the esports section of the site.
    7. Place your bets on your chosen matches, maps, or rounds.

    Once you’re in, you’ll find Thunderpick’s layout easy to navigate. Betting markets are clearly labeled, and live matches are highlighted with dynamic odds updates. You can favorite teams, track ongoing wagers, and even set notifications for match outcomes.

    The mobile site is just as smooth, giving you the full Thunderpick experience on Android and iOS devices. No lag, no clutter—just fast, focused betting wherever you are.

    New users can start small, learning the ropes with low-stakes bets and live odds tracking. Tutorials and FAQs are readily available for anyone needing guidance. Thunderpick makes sure you’re never more than a few clicks away from your next winning wager.

    Important Factors When Selecting the Best CSGO Betting Site

    Choosing the right CSGO betting site is essential for a safe, enjoyable, and profitable experience. At Thunderpick, every key criterion is covered, making it the clear leader among esports sportsbooks. Here’s what to look for and how Thunderpick excels:

    Range of Betting Markets: A top-tier platform offers more than just match winners. Thunderpick supports dozens of betting options, including first kills, map totals, and clutch rounds. This depth gives players more control and engagement.

    Live Betting Support: In-play wagering is vital for esports, where momentum shifts quickly. Thunderpick provides real-time odds and rapid bet placement so users can respond to live gameplay.

    User Interface and Experience: Navigation, loading speed, and betting layout should be seamless. Thunderpick’s modern, mobile-friendly interface makes it easy for both beginners and veterans to find what they need.

    Competitive Odds: Winning more starts with better odds. Thunderpick consistently offers strong value compared to industry averages, especially on marquee CSGO events.

    Bonuses and Promotions: A generous welcome bonus, like Thunderpick’s 100% up to $600, sets the tone. Regular offers, VIP rewards, and loyalty points further enhance the value.

    Banking Options: Players should have access to fast, flexible deposits and withdrawals. Thunderpick supports ewallets, allowing for instant, secure transactions with low fees.

    Security and Licensing: Always choose a site with proper encryption and verified licensing. Thunderpick uses SSL protection and maintains strict anti-fraud protocols to ensure player safety.

    Customer Support: A responsive support team can make all the difference. Thunderpick’s 24/7 live chat is staffed by agents who understand esports and betting.

    Reputation and Reviews: User feedback and industry recognition help validate a platform. Thunderpick has earned top marks from players and experts alike.

    When these factors align, you know you’ve found a site you can trust—and that’s exactly what Thunderpick delivers.

    Best CSGO Matches to Bet on Right Now at Thunderpick

    CSGO betting is at its most thrilling during major tournaments and regional qualifiers, and Thunderpick makes it easy to access the hottest matchups in real time. Whether you’re backing tier-one giants like FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, or Team Vitality, or exploring underdog value in up-and-coming rosters, there’s always a game to follow.

    Thunderpick currently features action from high-stakes events like the BLAST Premier, ESL Pro League, and CCT Championships. These tournaments not only draw elite teams but also offer varied betting opportunities, from outright winner markets to detailed in-play props.

    For casual fans, betting on outright winners is a great way to stay engaged. But experienced bettors will appreciate markets such as first blood, total rounds played, or the outcome of pistol rounds. These micro-bets allow for precision predictions and higher-risk, higher-reward wagering.

    Live betting is another major draw. Thunderpick’s real-time odds adjust instantly based on in-game developments, allowing bettors to capitalize on momentum swings, surprise upsets, and clutch plays. This creates a dynamic betting experience that mirrors the pace of competitive CSGO.

    If you’re looking to spot value, matches featuring evenly matched teams or fresh roster changes often present favorable odds. Thunderpick provides pre-match analysis and team stats to help guide your picks. You can also view historical performance and head-to-head records for deeper insights.

    Understanding CSGO Odds and Betting Markets at Thunderpick

    Betting on CSGO requires more than just picking a winner—it’s about understanding the odds and choosing the right markets to match your risk appetite. At Thunderpick, the odds are displayed in both decimal and American formats, allowing players to bet in the way that suits them best.

    The most common market is the match-winner, where you predict which team will emerge victorious. But Thunderpick offers far more. You can wager on map winners, total maps, correct score, and even whether a match will go to overtime.

    Live betting markets are also robust. As a match unfolds, Thunderpick updates its odds in real time, giving you the chance to bet on things like the next map’s outcome or the winner of the current round. This feature keeps bettors engaged from start to finish.

    Understanding the odds helps you evaluate risk. For example, betting on a favorite with low odds yields smaller returns, but higher certainty. Underdogs offer bigger payouts, but come with greater risk. Thunderpick’s platform helps visualize these dynamics with a clean, responsive design and instant bet confirmation.

    For strategy-minded bettors, prop markets are a goldmine. Betting on whether a team wins both pistol rounds or if a player secures 30+ kills adds depth to the experience. Thunderpick’s wide selection lets users create customized bets based on individual game scenarios.

    CSGO Betting Sites: Conclusion

    Thunderpick delivers an elite CSGO betting experience that combines functionality, variety, and innovation. From its massive betting market coverage to its dynamic live odds and peer-to-peer systems, it offers something far beyond the standard sportsbook.

    New users can jump in quickly thanks to a sleek interface and generous 100% bonus up to $600. The platform’s commitment to secure payments, 24/7 support, and payment flexibility further enhances its reputation as the best in the game.

    Whether you’re betting on major tournaments or casual clashes, Thunderpick offers top-tier value and a truly immersive environment. For any CSGO fan looking to elevate their betting experience, Thunderpick is the smart, reliable choice.

    Editorial Note

    This article is provided solely for informational and entertainment purposes. Nothing within should be interpreted as legal, financial, or professional advice. Readers should carry out their own research before participating in any gambling activities or signing up with any online casinos mentioned. 

    Gambling Caution

    Online gambling comes with financial risks and may lead to addictive behavior or monetary loss. We urge all readers to gamble responsibly. If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling, professional help is available. The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) can be contacted at 1-800-522-4700 or visited online at www.ncpgambling.org.

    21+ only. It is up to each individual to verify whether online gambling is permitted under their local, state, or federal laws. Neither the publisher, the authors, nor any syndication partners condone or support unlawful gambling. Participation in online gambling is done at the reader’s own discretion and risk.

    Affiliate Transparency

    This article may include affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase or register, a commission may be earned, at no extra cost to you.

    Syndication and Liability Disclaimer

    Any third-party publishers, media platforms, or syndication partners that republish this content do so understanding that it is meant for informational purposes only. These entities are not responsible for the legality, accuracy, or interpretation of the material.

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “Eternal Deposits”: Development of Endowments in Russia Discussed at Polytechnic University

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

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

    The Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted the Eternal Deposits Assembly and the Endowment EXPO exhibition, organized by the National Endowment Association with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

    The plenary session was opened by the Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies of SPbPU Maxim Pasholikov.

    “The topic of endowments is in demand now, in recent years we have seen its rebirth, and the issues that the National Endowment Association raises, initiating various sessions and events, certainly influence the development and promotion of endowments,” Maxim Aleksandrovich noted in his welcoming speech. “These issues are related to motivational co-financing, and to the attraction of state corporations, and to the involvement of society as a whole in charity. I think many of you will agree that there is romance in the topic of endowments, because we are talking about eternal capital, about the fact that the result may appear not in a year or two, but in fifty or a hundred years, and our descendants will receive it. That is why our business seems so romantic and especially valuable to me.”

    Svetlana Lavrova, Chairperson of the Board of the National Endowment Association, agreed that there is a certain romanticism in the fact that an endowment, on the one hand, is important for the financial market, and on the other hand, it supports the non-profit sector, ensuring its sustainability and independence.

    “The financial sector is interested in finances, and the beneficiaries of all this are simply people,” Svetlana Nikolaevna explained. “The development of endowments balances the interests of business and society.”

    Director of NAE Alexey Anisin presented statistics on the endowment industry for 2024 and the dynamics of its development since 2011. Targeted capital is created to support universities, schools, sports associations, and cultural institutions. Today, there are already 407 of them, 360 are registered, and the volume of funds in endowments, according to management companies, amounted to 155.5 billion rubles.

    Alexey Anisin noted that this year the number of Assembly participants and partners has increased significantly: We held the First Assembly “Eternal Deposits” in 2023. Last year we decided to make exhibition “Endowment EXPO”. We invited not only endowment funds, but also management companies, universities, schools, museums. We realized that those people who, especially in the regions, are engaged in this topic, lack a community, communication, because if in Moscow, in St. Petersburg there are many endowments, there is a certain professional circle where people communicate, then in the regions it is much more difficult. The industry itself is not yet sufficiently represented in the media field. An important function of such an exhibition is to tell the widest possible circle of people, including donors, about the endowment.

    The plenary session was also attended by the co-founder and president of the Rybakov Foundation Ekaterina Rybakova, the general director of the Potanin Foundation Oksana Oracheva, the director of the Federal Center for Cultural Heritage Our Norilsk, and a member of the board of the National Association of Ecologists Anna Makukha.

    On the first day of the assembly, discussions were held on the tracks “Basics and Reviews”, “Consultations and Special Events” and “Special Sessions”, where participants discussed issues of investing and developing endowments in various fields.

    Maxim Pasholikov, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies at SPbPU, gave a presentation at the “University Endowment Review” track. He shared his experience of attracting funds to the Polytechnic’s endowment funds (there are currently six of them), and then the audience exchanged examples and ideas for filling their endowments. Maxim Pasholikov separately said that since this year, the monitoring system of the Ministry of Education and Science’s “Priority-2030” program has included an indicator of the effectiveness of attracting funds to endowment funds, so the universities participating in the program have an additional incentive to develop alumni communities, partnerships and other mechanisms for increasing endowment funds.

    At the end of the first day of the Assembly, the winners and prize winners of the Eternal Contribution Prize were awarded. The ceremony was hosted by Associate Professor of the Higher School of Law and Forensic Science of the Humanitarian Institute of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, winner of the competition and recipient of the Eternal Contribution-2022 Prize Artem Klinitsky.

    In 2025, the special prize of the organizing committee of the award was received by a team of authors, which included Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Higher School of International Relations and the Higher School of Social Sciences of the Humanities Institute of SPbPU Ilya Sidorchuk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of St. Petersburg State University Evgeny Rostovtsev and a student of the Humanities Institute of the Polytechnic University Svetlana Danilova.

    The study by the co-authors is dedicated to the Society for Assistance to Students of the Imperial St. Petersburg University and the importance of endowment capital in its activities.

    “The society was founded in 1873 and up until the revolution it successfully coped with its tasks,” said Ilya Viktorovich. “We came to the conclusion that there were many ways to support the society and raise funds, for example, membership fees, charity concerts. But, as practice has shown, the most effective was the use of perpetual deposits. It was thanks to them that it became possible to implement such projects as the construction of a sanatorium in Yevpatoria and the organization of a student canteen, which fed many needy young people for free.”

    “As they said today on one of the tracks, time goes by, but many students are still forced to look for money for clothing, food, housing, education, especially in the humanities, where there are fewer and fewer budget places every year,” added Svetlana Danilova. “That is why our work is relevant, and this historical experience can be useful.”

    Photo archive

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI: TransUnion Analysis Uncovers Surprising Truth: Inflation-Adjusted Debt Growth Much Smaller Over the Last Five Years

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    CHICAGO, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As consumers grapple with rising costs and high interest rates, recent studies have revealed an increased reliance on credit products to help make ends meet. Despite the seemingly rapid growth in balances, a new analysis by TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) uncovers a more complex reality.

    According to TransUnion’s newly released Q1 2025 Credit Industry Insights Report (CIIR) total consumer balances have steadily increased over recent years. Total balances in nominal dollar terms (before adjusting for inflation) across all consumer credit products rose from $14.1 trillion in Q1 2020 to $18.0 trillion in Q1 2025, approximately 28%. The cumulative Consumer Price Index increase over that same time period, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, was nearly 24%. When adjusted for inflation, total balance growth in real dollar terms is more modest, amounting to $0.5 trillion over the five-year period, an increase of closer to 3%.

    The analysis also revealed that inflation-adjusted balances for consumers actually declined in real dollar terms across the majority of credit risk tiers from 2020 to 2025. This decrease was most pronounced in the prime risk tier, which saw a 14% drop in balances after adjusting for inflation. In contrast, super prime consumers experienced an 18% growth in balances over the same period. Much of the increase for super prime borrowers was attributed to higher mortgage balances. The only other risk tier to see an inflation-adjusted increase over the period was subprime at 1.9%.

    “Our latest analysis reveals a picture of credit usage that goes beyond simply an increase in total balances,” said Jason Laky, executive vice president and head of financial services at TransUnion. “When we account for the recent period of higher inflation, the rise in balances suggests that consumers in most risk tiers are not over-extended. In fact, many consumers experienced significant income gains since 2019, which have enabled most borrowers to effectively manage their debt levels.”

    Total Inflation-Adjusted Balances Across All Accounts Have Declined Across The Majority of Risk Tiers Since 2019
      % nominal dollar change 2020 to 2025 % real dollar change for 2020 to 2025 –
    inflation adjusted
    Super prime 46.5% 18.2%
    Prime plus 9.4% -11.7%
    Prime 7.2% -13.5%
    Near prime 11.6% -9.9%
    Subprime 26.2% 1.9%


    Source: TransUnion U.S. Consumer Credit Database

    “These findings challenge the idea that consumers are simply accumulating credit card debt. Instead, they highlight how balances reflect the current economic reality,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion. “It’s understandable that only subprime consumers have experienced an inflation-adjusted increase in real credit card average balances, as this demographic has likely felt the impact of higher costs most acutely. But for other risk tiers of borrowers, their card balance growth has been less than the rate of inflation, indicating that many consumers may have further borrowing capacity.”

    To learn more about the latest consumer credit trends, register for the Q1 2025 Quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report webinar. Read on for more specific insights about credit cards, personal loans, auto loans and mortgages.

    Serious consumer-level credit card delinquencies decline YoY for second consecutive quarter

    Q1 2025 CIIR Credit Card Summary

    The first quarter of 2025 reflected credit card trends indicating a return to equilibrium, similar to those observed towards the end of 2024. Notably, consumer-level delinquencies of 90+ days past due decreased for the second consecutive quarter, dropping by 12 basis points year-over-year (YoY) to 2.43%. This marks the first consecutive quarters of YoY delinquency decline since 2020, during the height of the pandemic. In Q4 2024, total originations volume experienced a slight YoY increase of 0.1%. Although modest, this represents the first YoY growth in six quarters. Subprime originations saw a YoY growth of 2.9% in Q4 2024, the first in eight quarters, while super prime originations grew by 5.3% for the second consecutive quarter. Despite the uptick in originations, credit line amounts on new cards continue to trend downward. The average credit line on new accounts decreased slightly by 0.3% YoY in Q4 2024, with growth in super prime lines offsetting smaller lines in prime and below.

    Instant Analysis

    “We continue to observe signs that serious delinquencies may have peaked, with consumers managing their credit card usage more effectively. The year-over-year decline in 90+ days past due delinquencies, along with slower balance growth and stable utilization rates, indicates emerging market stability. We anticipate further declines in serious delinquencies in the coming quarters, primarily due to lenders’ intentional management of credit lines and cardholder risk profiles.”

    – Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and credit card business leader at TransUnion

    Q1 2025 Credit Card Trends

    Credit Card Lending Metric
    (Bankcard)    		 Q1 2025 Q1 2024 Q1 2023 Q1 2022

    Number of Credit Cards
    (Bankcards)    		 563.0 million 543.1 million 523.2 million 490.0 million
    Borrower-Level Delinquency
    Rate (90+ DPD)    		 2.43% 2.55% 2.26% 1.62%
    Total Credit Card Balances $1.07 Trillion $1.02 Trillion $917 billion $769 billion

    Average Debt Per Borrower    		 $6,371 $6,218 $5,733 $5,026
    Number of Consumers
    Carrying a Balance    		 172.0 million 169.0 million 165.3 million 158.9 million
    Prior Quarter Originations* 19.4 million 19.3 million 20.6 million 21.2 million
    Average New Account Credit
    Lines*    		 $5,612 $5,628 $5,421 $4,634


    *Note: Originations are viewed one quarter in arrears to account for reporting lag.
    Click here for a Q1 2025 credit card industry infographic. For more credit card industry information, click here for episodes of Extra Credit: A Card and Banking Podcast by TransUnion.

    Shift to less risky borrowers drives decline in unsecured personal loan delinquency in Q1 2025

    Q1 2025 CIIR Unsecured Personal Loan Summary

    In Q4 2024, unsecured personal loan originations hit a new high of 6.3 million, a 26% increase over Q4 2023, driven by all risk tiers, especially super prime, with 29% growth YoY. This led to a 17% YoY growth in total new account balances to $34 billion. Total balances for Q1 2025 only grew for above prime tiers, reaching $253 billion, a 3% increase over the prior year. A record 24.6 million consumers had balances, a 5% increase YoY, but average balances per consumer only grew for above prime tiers. Lenders expanded their borrower base but maintained cautious exposure, leading to a 7% decrease in average new account balances for Q4 2024, the fifth consecutive quarter of decline. Subprime delinquencies fell to 14.0% in Q1 2025 from 15.6% last year, while other risk tiers saw increases. The overall borrower-level delinquency rate declined to 3.49% in Q1 2025 from 3.75% last year, thanks to a balanced lending mix.

    Instant Analysis

    “The unsecured personal loan market has not only rebounded but also expanded, setting new records in loan volumes and balances. Growth is evident across all credit risk tiers, with super prime borrowers leading in year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter. Lenders appear to be limiting loan amounts for individual consumers, even as the aggregate borrower-level delinquency rate continues to decline. Increased competition and demand in the lowest risk credit tiers, along with advances in risk management practices, are now resulting in lower delinquency rates. These factors should support sustained growth, even in a challenging macroeconomic environment.“

    – Josh Turnbull, senior vice president and consumer lending business leader at TransUnion

    Q1 2025 Unsecured Personal Loan Trends
    Personal Loan Metric Q1 2025 Q1 2024 Q1 2023 Q1 2022
    Total Balances $253 billion $245 billion $225 billion $178 billion
    Number of Unsecured
    Personal Loans    		 29.8 million 28.1 million 26.9 million 23.9 million
    Number of Consumers with
    Unsecured Personal Loans    		 24.6 million 23.5 million 22.4 million 20.4 million
    Borrower-Level Delinquency
    Rate (60+ DPD)    		 3.49% 3.75% 3.91% 3.25%
    Average Debt Per Borrower $11,631 $11,829 $11,281 $9,896
    Average Account Balance $8,496 $8,737 $8,356 $7,448
    Prior Quarter Originations* 6.3 million 5.0 million 5.2 million 5.7 million


    *Note: Originations are viewed one quarter in arrears to account for reporting lag.
    Click here for additional unsecured personal loan industry metrics. Click here for a Q1 2025 unsecured personal loan industry infographic.

    Mortgage originations see YoY growth as delinquencies tick up

    Q1 2025 CIIR Mortgage Loan Summary

    Another sign that the previously sluggish mortgage originations market is beginning to rebound is that mortgage originations saw a YoY increase of 30.2% in Q4 2024, reaching 1.2 million, with 78% of those being purchase originations. The 15.4% YoY growth in purchase originations marks its first annual increase since Q2 2021. Origination volumes remain low compared to historical norms. Home equity originations rose 11% YoY, marking the third consecutive quarter of YoY increases. Meanwhile, 60+ days past due (DPD) account-level delinquencies ticked up YoY in Q1 2025 for the 12th consecutive quarter, reaching 1.44%. This represents a growth of 21 basis points YoY in Q1 2025, though the rate remains relatively low compared to historical levels. As home prices continue to climb, the average amount of new mortgage loans has followed suit, increasing by nearly $40,000 YoY to $366,443 in Q4 2024.

    Instant Analysis

    “Due to the anticipated impacts of announced tariffs on near-term inflation, mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated above 6% in the next quarter. Without a significant decrease in mortgage rates, origination activity for both purchases and refinances is likely to remain subdued. Although the upward trend in mortgage delinquencies continues, the levels remain below long-term averages, and far below historical highs during the Great Financial Crisis, but still warrant close monitoring.”

    – Satyan Merchant, senior vice president, automotive and mortgage business leader at TransUnion

    Q1 2025 Mortgage Trends
    Mortgage Lending
    Metric    		 Q1 2025 Q1 2024 Q1 2023 Q1 2022
    Number of Mortgage
    Loans

    53.6 million

    53.2 million

    52.9 million

    51.5 million
    Consumer-Level
    Delinquency Rate
    (60+ DPD)    		 1.36% 1.14% 0.90% 0.80%
    Prior Quarter
    Originations*    		 1.2 million 0.9 million 1.0 million 2.9 million
    Average Loan
    Amounts
    of New Mortgage
    Loans*    		 $366,443 $327,102 $327,050 $315,661
    Average Balance per
    Consumer    		 $266,843 $260,745 $253,514 $241,203
    Total Balances of All
    Mortgage Loans    		 $12.5 trillion $12.1 trillion $11.8 trillion $10.9 trillion


    * O    riginations are viewed one quarter in arrears to account for reporting lag.
    Click here for additional mortgage industry metrics. Click here for a Q1 2025 mortgage industry infographic.

    Auto originations trend up ahead of tariffs

    Q1 2025 CIIR Auto Loan Summary

    Auto loan originations in Q4 2024 reached 6.2 million, representing an 8% YoY growth. This growth was observed across all risk tiers, with super prime leading at 15.7% YoY growth. The increase was largely driven by Federal Reserve interest rate cuts in late 2024, rising inventories, and the return of incentives. New vehicles made up 47% of those financed in Q4 2024, as compared to 53% used, the highest Q4 share for new vehicles since pre-pandemic times. Leasing share continued to approach pre-pandemic levels, rising to 26% in Q1 2025. The 60+ DPD delinquency rate increased by 5 basis points YoY in Q1 2025 to 1.38%. This rate exceeds the peak delinquency rate of 1.33% observed in Q1 2009, although the rate of growth has recently slowed. Overall, new vehicle loan vintages continue to show consistent performance compared to pre-pandemic periods (2018/2019). However, when broken down by risk tiers, recent new vehicle vintages have elevated delinquency levels, particularly for prime and below tiers.

    Instant Analysis

    “There have been positive signs of recovery and momentum across all tiers, not just super prime. The return of incentives has provided a tailwind to vehicle sales and financing. Nevertheless, some of this progress may reverse if the recently announced trade policies are implemented long-term, as they could further impact affordability. Despite this, we expect Q1 2025 originations to increase, as many consumers likely tried to secure a new vehicle before the tariffs were implemented.”

    – Satyan Merchant, senior vice president, automotive and mortgage business leader at TransUnion

    Q1 2025 Auto Loan Trends

    Auto Lending Metric    		 Q1 2025 Q1 2024 Q1 2023 Q1 2022

    Total Auto Loan Accounts    		 80.0 million 80.1 million 80.1 million 80.5 million

    Prior Quarter Originations    1    		 6.2 million 5.8 million 5.8 million 6.5 million
    Average Monthly Payment
    NEW    2    		 $759 $746 $741 $657
    Average Monthly Payment
    USED    2    		 $526 $521 $521 $509
    Average Balance per
    Consumer    		 $24,413 $24,035 $23,214 $21,606
    Average Amount Financed on
    New Auto Loans    2    		 $42,877 $41,222 $41,539 $40,184
    Average Amount Financed on
    Used Auto Loans    2    		 $26,494 $25,655 $26,260 $27,995
    Consumer-Level Delinquency
    Rate (60+ DPD)    		 1.56% 1.50% 1.34% 1.09%


    1    Note: Originations are viewed one quarter in arrears to account for reporting lag.
    2Data from S&P Global Mobility AutoCreditInsight, Q1 2025 data only for January and February.
    Click here for additional auto industry metrics. Click here for a Q1 2025 auto industry infographic.

    For more information about the report, please register for the Q1 2025 Credit Industry Insight Report webinar.

    About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)

    TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world.

    http://www.transunion.com/business

    Contact Dave Blumberg
      TransUnion
    E-mail dblumberg@transunion.com
    Telephone 312-972-6646

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Country Development Strategy and the Role of Statistics: GUU and Mosstat Held a Joint Forum

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –

    On May 22, 2025, the Information Technology Center of the State University of Management hosted the forum “Statistics of Modernity: Challenges and Opportunities”, organized jointly with the Office of the Federal State Statistics Service for Moscow and the Moscow Region (Mosstat).

    The Vice-Rector of the State University of Management Dmitry Bryukhanov addressed the audience with a welcoming speech.

    “It is nice that such a large-scale and significant event is taking place on the territory of our university. The data provided by statistics is the basis for management decisions, and the State University of Management trains personnel for the Russian economy. Our interaction with partners today is not limited to the event, we will also continue to plant an alley of famous statisticians in order to popularize this area in such an informal way,” Dmitry Yuryevich noted.

    The head of Mosstat, Leonid Kalimullin, expressed gratitude to the rector of the State University of Management for the provided venue and organizational assistance in holding the forum, as well as the lilac alley as a tribute to the memory of statisticians. In his speech at the plenary session, he also recalled the historical date that the organization is celebrating this year.

    “This June will mark 190 years of statistics in Moscow and the Moscow Region. For almost two centuries, we have been collecting and preserving the history of our country in figures and facts that help leaders make important management decisions aimed at improving the lives of citizens. This is our main role. I would like to note the close cooperation with the State University of Management in terms of recruiting young specialists. As part of project-based learning at the university, of which we have been participating for the second year, many interesting and high-quality projects have been implemented together with students, for which we are also grateful,” admitted the head of Mosstat.

    Deputy Head of the Federal State Statistics Service Sergei Egorenko spoke about the main indicators of the Development Strategy of Russia and the role of statistical agencies in its implementation.

    “The topic of our meeting is more relevant than ever. In December 2024, the development strategy of Russia was approved, and less than a month ago, the plan for its implementation. One of the points talks about creating a digital platform to ensure the quality and completeness of data analysis. This is what we have been talking about in recent years, that statistics should be made convenient for citizens and widely used, and also to improve statistical literacy in the country,” emphasized Sergey Egorenko.

    Also taking part in the plenary session were Pavel Smelov, Director General of the Center for Strategic Research, Dmitry Faikov, Head of the Analytics and Internal Communications Department of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center – All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, Anna Vedernikova, Deputy Director General of the Center for Strategic Research, and Elena Pryakhina, Head of the Department of Information Statistical Resources and Technologies of the Interstate Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

    After the speeches, the guests went to plant trees on the Alley of Statisticians, which was laid out at the State University of Management in 2024, where they were met by the rector of the State University of Management Vladimir Stroyev.

    “Last year we started a good tradition – planting an alley of statisticians on the territory of our university – and today we will continue it. The oldest department in Russia and the USSR for training young specialists and managers in the field of statistics for a variety of fields operates at the State University of Management. This is our profile. And the choice of the State University of Management for planting the alley by the heads and specialists of federal and regional statistical bodies once again confirms the high role of our university in this field,” Vladimir Stroyev noted.

    The final part of the forum was the work of the participants in three thematic sections dedicated to the digital transformation of the statistical system, data quality standards and the human resources potential of the industry.

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

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Young food entrepreneurs are changing the face of rural America

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Dawn Thilmany, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Colorado State University

    Many rural food businesses, like Daily Loaf Bakery in Hamburg, Pa., rely on farmers markets to reach customers. Susan L. Angstadt/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images

    Visit just about any downtown on a weekend and you will likely happen upon a farmers market. Or, you might grab lunch from a food truck outside a local brewpub or winery.

    Very likely, there is a community-shared kitchen or food entrepreneur incubator initiative behind the scenes to support this growing foodie ecosystem.

    As rural America gains younger residents, and grows more diverse and increasingly digitally connected, these dynamics are driving a renaissance in craft foods.

    One food entrepreneur incubator, Hope & Main Kitchen, operates out of a school that sat vacant for over 10 years in the small Rhode Island town of Warren. Its business incubation program, with over 300 graduates to date, gives food and beverage entrepreneurs a way to test, scale and develop their products before investing in their own facilities. Its markets also give entrepreneurs a place to test their products on the public and buyers for stores, while providing the community with local goods.

    Food has been central to culture, community and social connections for millennia. But food channels, social media food influencers and craft brews have paved the way for a renaissance of regional beverage and food industry startups across America.

    In my work in agriculture economics, I see connections between this boom in food and agriculture innovation and the inflow of young residents who are helping revitalize rural America and reinvigorate its Main Streets.

    Why entrepreneurs are embracing rural life

    An analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data found that more people have been moving to small towns and rural counties in recent years, and that the bulk of that population growth is driven by 25- to 44-year-olds.

    This represents a stark contrast to the 2000s, when 90% of the growth for younger demographics was concentrated in the largest metro areas.

    The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work options it created, along with rising housing prices, were catalysts for the change, but other interesting dynamics may also be at play.

    One is social connectedness. Sociologists have long believed that the community fabric of rural America contributes to economic efficiency, productive business activity, growth of communities and population health.

    Maps show that rural areas of the U.S. with higher social capital – those with strong networks and relationships among residents – are some of the strongest draws for younger households today.

    Another important dynamic for both rural communities and their new young residents is entrepreneurship, including food entrepreneurship.

    Rural food startups may be leveraging the social capital aligned with the legacy of agriculture in rural America, resulting in a renewed interest in craft and local foods. This includes a renaissance in foods made with local ingredients or linked to regional cultures and tastes.

    According to data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. local sales of edible farm products increased 33% from 2017 to 2022, reaching $14.2 billion.

    The new ‘AgriCulture’

    A 2020 study I was involved in, led by agriculture economist Sarah Low, found a positive relationship between the availability of farm-based local and organic foods and complementary food startups. The study termed this new dynamic “AgriCulture.”

    We found a tendency for these dynamics to occur in areas with higher natural amenities, such as hiking trails and streams, along with transportation and broadband infrastructure attractive to digital natives.

    The same dynamic drawing young people to the outdoors offers digital natives a way to experience far-reaching regions of the country and, in some cases, move there.

    A thriving food and beverage scene can be a pull for those who want to live in a vibrant community, or the new settlers and their diverse tastes may be what get food entrepreneurs started. Many urban necessities, such as shopping, can be done online, but eating and food shopping are local daily necessities.

    Governments can help rural food havens thrive

    When my colleagues and I talk to community leaders interested in attracting new industries and young families, or who seek to build community through revitalized downtowns and public spaces, the topic of food commonly arises.

    We encourage them to think about ways they can help draw food entrepreneurs: Can they increase local growers’ and producers’ access to food markets? Would creating shared kitchens help support food trucks and small businesses? Does their area have a local advantage, such as a seashore, hiking trails or cultural heritage, that they can market in connection with local food?

    The farm store at Harley Farm Goat Dairy in Pescadero, Calif., draws people headed for hiking trails or the coast in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
    Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

    Several federal, state and local economic development programs are framing strategies to bolster any momentum occurring at the crossroads of rural, social connections, resiliency, food and entrepreneurship.

    For example, a recent study from a collaboration of shared kitchen experts found that there were over 600 shared-use food facilities across the U.S. in 2020, and over 20% were in rural areas. In a survey of owners, the report found that 50% of respondents identified assisting early-growth businesses as their primary goal.

    The USDA Regional Food Business Centers, one of which I am fortunate to co-lead, have been bolstering the networking and technical assistance to support these types of rural food economy efforts.

    Many rural counties are still facing shrinking workforces, commonly because of lagging legacy industries with declining employment, such as mining. However, recent data and studies suggest that in rural areas with strong social capital, community support and outdoor opportunities, younger populations are growing, and their food interests are helping boost rural economies.

    Dawn Thilmany receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Development Administration, and Colorado state agencies focused on agriculture, economic development and food systems.

    – ref. Young food entrepreneurs are changing the face of rural America – https://theconversation.com/young-food-entrepreneurs-are-changing-the-face-of-rural-america-245531

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: FDA will approve COVID-19 vaccine only for older adults and high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Libby Richards, Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

    Older adults will continue to receive yearly COVID-19 shots, but lower-risk groups will not, says the FDA. dusanpetkovic via iStock / Getty Images Plus

    On May 20, 2025, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new stance on who should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

    The agency said it would approve new versions of the vaccine only for adults 65 years of age and older as well as for people with one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. These risk factors include medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes.

    However, healthy younger adults and children who fall outside of these groups may not be eligible to receive the COVID-19 shot this fall. Vaccine manufacturers will have to conduct clinical trials to demonstrate that the vaccine benefits low-risk groups.

    FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, described the new framework in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and in a public webcast.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Libby Richards, a nursing professor involved in public health promotion, to explain why the changes were made and what they mean for the general public.

    Why did the FDA diverge from past practice?

    Until the May 20 announcement, getting a yearly COVID-19 vaccine was recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, regardless of their health risk.

    According to Makary and Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration is moving away from these universal recommendations and instead taking a risk-based approach based on its interpretation of public health trends – specifically, the declining COVID-19 booster uptake, a lack of strong evidence that repeated boosters improve health outcomes for healthy people and the fact that natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections is widespread.

    The FDA states it wants to ensure the vaccine is backed by solid clinical trial data, especially for low-risk groups.

    Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?

    The FDA’s decision to adopt a risk-based framework for the COVID-19 vaccine aligns with the expected recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an advisory group of vaccine experts offering expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, which is scheduled to meet in June 2025. But while this advisory committee was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to, the FDA’s policy will likely make that difficult.

    Although the FDA states that its new policy aims to promote greater transparency and evidenced-based decision-making, the change is controversial – in part because it circumvents the usual process for evaluating vaccine recommendations. The FDA is enacting this policy change by limiting its approval of the vaccine to high-risk groups, and it is doing so without any new data supporting its decision. Usually, however, the FDA broadly approves a vaccine based on whether it is safe and effective, and decisions on who should be eligible to receive it are left to the CDC, which receives research-based guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

    Change is coming to COVID-19 vaccine policy.
    Rock Obst, CC BY-SA

    Additionally, FDA officials point to Canada, Australia and some European countries that limit vaccine recommendations to older adults and other high-risk people as a model for its revised framework. But vaccine strategies vary widely, and this more conservative approach has not necessarily proven superior. Also, those countries have universal health care systems and have a track record of more equitable access to COVID-19 care and better COVID-19 outcomes.

    Another question is how health officials’ positions on COVID-19 vaccines affect public perception. Makary and Prasad noted that COVID-19 vaccination campaigns may have actually eroded public trust in vaccination. But some vaccine experts have expressed concerns that limiting COVID-19 vaccine access might further fuel vaccine hesitancy because any barrier to vaccine access can reduce uptake and hinder efforts to achieve widespread immunity.

    What conditions count as risk factors?

    The New England Journal of Medicine article includes a lengthy list of conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine.

    Pregnancy is included. Some items on the list, however, are unclear. For example, the list includes asthma, but the data that asthma is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 is scant.

    Also on the list is physical inactivity, which likely applies to a vast swath of Americans and is difficult to define. Studies have found links between regular physical activity and reduced risk of severe COVID-19 infection, but it’s unclear how health care providers will define and measure physical inactivity when assessing a patient’s eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines.

    Most importantly, the list leaves out an important group – caregivers and household members of people at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. This omission leaves high-risk people more vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 from healthy people they regularly interact with. Multiple countries the new framework refers to do include this group.

    Why is the FDA requiring new clinical trials?

    According to the FDA, the benefits of multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy adults are currently unproven. It’s true that studies beyond the fourth vaccine dose are scarce. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that the vaccine is effective at preventing the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in low-risk adults and children. Receiving multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines has also been shown to reduce the risk of long COVID.

    The FDA is moving to risk-based access for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA is requiring vaccine manufactures to conduct additional large randomized clinical trials to further evaluate the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters for healthy adults and children. These trials will primarily test whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic infections, and secondarily whether they prevent hospitalization and death. Such trials are more complex, costly and time-consuming than the more common approach of testing for immunological response.

    This requirement will likely delay both the timeliness and the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boosters and slow public health decision-making.

    Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?

    Not automatically. Under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines “off-label”, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA’s focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

    What about vaccines for children?

    High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine under the new framework. As of now, healthy children age 6 months and older without underlying medical conditions will not have routine access to COVID-19 vaccines until further clinical trial data is available.

    Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change will affect childhood vaccination overall.

    Libby Richards has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Nurses Foundation, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

    – ref. FDA will approve COVID-19 vaccine only for older adults and high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules – https://theconversation.com/fda-will-approve-covid-19-vaccine-only-for-older-adults-and-high-risk-groups-a-public-health-expert-explains-the-new-rules-257226

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: U.S. retail gasoline prices heading into Memorial Day weekend are at a four-year low

    Source: US Energy Information Administration

    In-brief analysis

    May 22, 2025

    Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
    Note: Real prices are adjusted to May 2025 dollars.

    The retail price for regular-grade gasoline in the United States on May 19, the Monday before Memorial Day weekend, averaged $3.17 per gallon (gal), 11% (or 41 cents/gal) lower than the price a year ago. After adjusting for inflation (real terms), average U.S. retail gasoline prices going into Memorial Day weekend are 14% lower than last year, largely because crude oil prices have fallen.

    Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest travel weekends of the year, and many of those travelers will go by car. The American Automobile Association (AAA) expects 39.4 million people will travel by car over Memorial Day weekend this year, an increase of 3% compared with last year.

    Substantially lower crude oil prices—which are the main component of retail gasoline prices—have kept retail gasoline prices lower than usual going into spring. From May 1 to May 19, Brent crude oil prices averaged $64 per barrel (b), 20% less in real terms than in January and 26% less than in May 2024. Concerns about future economic growth, record-high U.S. crude oil production, and, more recently, announcements that OPEC+ will accelerate crude oil production increases have contributed to falling crude oil prices.

    Data source: Bloomberg L.P. and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
    Note: Real prices are adjusted to May 2025 dollars.

    Retail gasoline prices on the Monday before Memorial Day weekend are only 4% (or 13 cents/gal) higher than on the first Monday of January. Retail gasoline prices typically increase much more than that as gasoline demand increases going into the summer driving season and retailers are required to start selling more expensive summer-grade gasoline. Over the last 10 years and excluding 2020, retail gasoline prices increased 19% (or 49 cents/gal) on average from January to May.

    U.S. gasoline prices vary regionally, reflecting local supply and demand conditions, state fuel specifications, and state taxes. Retail gasoline prices are usually the highest on the West Coast because of:

    • The region’s limited connections with other major refining centers
    • Tight local supply and demand conditions
    • Higher-than-average state taxes in several West Coast states
    • Gasoline specifications for California that make gasoline more costly to manufacture

    On May 19, West Coast prices averaged $4.29/gal, down 10% in real terms from this time last year.

    Gasoline prices on the Gulf Coast are usually the lowest of any U.S. region. Gulf Coast states are home to more than half of U.S. refining capacity, and more gasoline is produced than is consumed in the region. Gulf Coast states also have lower gasoline taxes than the national average. Gulf Coast prices on May 19 averaged $2.79/gal, down 13% from this time last year.

    On the East Coast, which has the most gasoline demand of the five regions, retail gasoline prices averaged $2.99/gal, down 17% from 2024.

    Prices are also down in the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains compared with last year. Midwest prices averaged $3.03/gal, down 15% from the previous year, and Rocky Mountains prices averaged $3.13/gal, down 12% from 2024 after adjusting for inflation.

    Principal contributor: Alexander de Keyserling

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Govt should defuse NZ’s social timebomb – but won’t

    We have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity. Budget 2025 signals more of the same, writes Susan St John.

    ANALYSIS: By Susan St John

    With the coalition government’s second Budget being unveiled, we should question where New Zealand is heading.

    The 2024 Budget laid out the strategy. Tax cuts and landlord subsidies were prioritised with a focus on cuts to social and infrastructure spending. Most of the tax package went to the well-off, while many low-income households got nothing, or very little.

    Even the tiny bit of the tax package directed to low-income people fell flat. Family Boost has significantly helped only a handful of families, while the increase of $25 per week (In Work Tax Credit) was denied all families on benefits, affecting about 200,000 of the very poorest children.

    In the recession, families that lost paid work also lost access to full Working for Families, an income cut for their children of about $100 per week.

    No one worked out how the many spending cuts would be distributed, but they have hurt the poor the most. These changes are too numerous to itemise but include increased transport costs; the reintroduction of prescription charges; a disastrous school lunch system; rising rents, rates and insurance; fewer budget advisory services; cuts to foodbank funding and hardship grants; stripping away support programmes for the disabled; inadequately adjusted benefits and minimum wage; and reduced support for pay equity and the living wage.

    The objective is to save money while ignoring the human cost. For example, a scathing report of the Auditor General confirms that Oranga Tamariki took a bulldozer to obeying the call for a 6.5 percent cut in existing social services with no regard to the extreme hurt caused to children and struggling parents.

    Budget 2025 has already indicated that Working for Families will continue to go backwards with not even inflation adjustments. The 2025 child and youth strategy report shows that over the year to June 2024 the number of children in material poverty continued to increase, there were more avoidable hospitalisations, immunisation rates for babies declined, and there was more food insecurity.

    Human costs all around us
    We can see the human costs all around us in homelessness, food insecurity, and ill health. Already we know we rank at the bottom among developed countries for child wellbeing and suicide rates.

    Abject distress existing alongside where homes sell for $20 million-$40 million is no longer uncommon, and neither are $6 million helicopters of the very rich.

    Changes in suicide rates (three-year average), ages 15 to 19 from 2018 to 2022 (or most recent four-year period available). Source: WHO mortality database

    At the start of the year, Helen Robinson, CEO of the Auckland City Mission, had a clear warning: “I am pleading with government for more support, otherwise what we and other food relief agencies in Auckland can provide, will dramatically decrease.

    “This leaves more of Auckland hungry and those already there become more desperate. It is the total antithesis of a thriving city.”

    The theory held by this government is that by reducing the role of government and taxes, the private sector will flourish, and secure well-paid jobs will be created. Instead, as basic economic theory would predict, we have been handed a long and protracted recession with few signs of growth and prosperity.

    Budget 2025 signals more of the same.

    It would be a mistake to wait for simplistic official inequality statistics before we act. Our current destination is a sharply divided country of extreme wealth and extreme poverty with an insecure middle class.

    Underfunded social agencies
    Underfunded and swamped social agencies cannot remove the relentless stress on the people who are invisible in the ‘fiscally responsible’ economic narrative. The fabricated bogeyman of outsized net government debt is at the core, as the government pursues balanced budgets and small government-size targets.

    A stage one economics student would know the deficit increases automatically in a recession to cushion the decline and stop the economy spiralling into something that looks more like a depression. But our safety nets of social welfare are performing very badly.

    Rising unemployment has exposed the inadequacy of social protections. Working for Families, for instance, provides a very poor cushion for children. Many “working” families do not have enough hours of work and face crippling poverty traps.

    Future security is undermined as more KiwiSavers cash in for hardship reasons. A record number of the talented young we need to drive the recovery and repair the frayed social fabric have already fled the country.

    The government is fond of comparing its Budget to that of a household. But what prudent household would deliberately undermine the earning capacity of family members?

    The primary task for the Budget should be to look after people first, to allow them to meet their food, dental and health needs, education, housing and travel costs, to have a buffer of savings to cushion unexpected shocks and to prepare for old age.

    A sore thumb standing
    In the social security part of the Budget, NZ Super for all at 65, no matter how rich or whether still in full-time well-paid work, dominates (gross $25 billion). It’s a sore thumb standing out alongside much less generous, highly targeted benefits and working for families, paid parental leave, family boost, hardship provisions, accommodation supplement, winter energy and other payments and subsidies.

    Given the political will, research shows we can easily redirect at least $3 billion from very wealthy superannuitants to fixing other payments to greatly improve the wellbeing of the young. This will not be enough but it could be a first step to the wide rebalancing needed.

    New Zealand has become a country of two halves whose paths rarely cross: a social time bomb with unimaginable consequences. It is a country beguiled by an egalitarian past that is no more.

    Susan St John is an associate professor in the Pensions and Intergenerational Equity hub and Economic Policy Centre, Business School, University of Auckland. This article was first published by Newsroom before the 2025 Budget and is republished with permission.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Anti-environmentalism is on the rise but it’s full of contradictions

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Alastair Bonnett, Professor of Geography, Newcastle University

    Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock

    Anti-environmentalism is gaining ground. Attacks on the net zero goal and hostility to conservation measures and anti-pollution targets are becoming more common. And, as recent election results have shown, these tactics are reshaping politics in Britain and across the west.

    Anti-environmentalism is a rejection of both environmental initiatives and activism. But despite its sudden rise and bold rhetoric, it is built on shaky foundations. The messages it offers are often contradictory and row against the tide of everyday experience.

    Take the US president, Donald Trump. He dismantled many environmental protections in his last term of office, and is now removing those that are left – including support for research that even mentions the word climate. Yet he told a rally in Wisconsin in 2024: “I’m an environmentalist. I want clean air and clean water. Really clean water. Really clean air.”

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Some of the contradictions of anti-environmentalism reflect its departure from traditional conservatism. Although routinely identified as “conservative”, the populist anti-green politics of Republicans in the US and Reform in the UK, along with the AfD in Germany and National Rally in France, represent a radical challenge to the ideals of continuity and conservation that were once at the heart of conservatism.

    The Conservative Environment Network is an organisation which pitches itself as an “independent forum for conservatives in the UK and around the world who support net zero, nature restoration and resource security”. Much of this network’s work involves reminding people that important environmental protections, from America’s national parks to controls on pollution and climate change in Britain and elsewhere, were introduced by conservatives.

    But few on the right appear to be listening. A populist tide is washing this conservative tradition away, despite the fact that support for environmental protection remains very popular.

    Polling indicates that 80% of people in the UK worry about climate change. Public backing for the work of the US Environmental Protection Agency is also overwhelming, including among Republican voters.

    In part, this support reflects the fact that environmental damage is an everyday reality: unpredictable weather, the collapse of animal and insect populations, and a range of other challenges are not just on the TV, they are outside the window.

    In my research for a forthcoming book on environmental nostalgia across the world, I keep bumping into an irony. In western nations, voices from the right say they want their country back, yet appear hostile to environmental policies that would protect their country and ensure its survival.

    There are many reasons for this disconnect, including resentment against initiatives that require lifestyle and livelihood changes. However, the enmity and disengagement is more complicated than a simple rejection of nature.

    Many people – including Trump himself – claim they are environmentalists even when the evidence suggests otherwise. The signs and symbols of environmental care are knitted into every aspect of our commercial and cultural life: if wildlife could sue for copyright, there would a lot of rich bears.

    I argue that a distinction can be made between what I call “cold” and “hot” forms of environmentalism. The former values and mourns the loss of nature, but as a spectacle to be observed – a set of appealing images of flora and fauna – while the latter feels implicated and anxious.

    The former position allows people to claim they love nature yet be indifferent or even hostile to initiatives to save it. However, the line between cold and hot, or between anti- and pro-environmentalist, is neither fixed nor hard.

    Another quality of anti-environmentalism is that its beliefs are changeable, even quixotic. Climate change is an example.

    Reform’s leaders have long flirted with climate change denial. “Climate change has happened for millions of years,” explained former Reform UK leader Richard Tice in 2024, adding that “the idea that you can stop the power of the Sun or volcanoes is simply ludicrous”. Tice has not changed his views but later the same year, the party’s new leader, Nigel Farage, told the BBC that he was “not arguing the science”.

    Like other populist parties, Reform adopts a mobile position on the environment, moving between denying that climate change is happening or that humans are causing it, and the very different contention that anthropogenic climate change is real but that environmental targets are unreachable and unfair, given that other nations (China is often mentioned) supposedly do so little.

    A post-western paradox

    Researchers are only just starting to think about anti-environmentalism. One key analysis is environmental politics researcher John Hultgren’s The Smoke and the Spoils: Anti-Environmentalism and Class Struggle in the United States. This new book explains how Republicans managed to convince working-class voters that there is “zero-sum dichotomy between jobs and environmental protection, workers and environmentalists”.

    This kind of binary has also been found by contributors to The Handbook of Anti-Environmentalism, who identify and critique the stereotyping of environmentalism as middle-class and elite in several western countries.

    Yet the geographical focus of these pioneering works misses yet another of the paradoxes of anti-environmentalism: that although its rhetoric often accuses China and other non-western countries of doing little, there has been a significant environmental turn in both policy and public attitudes beyond Europe and the US.

    Environmentalism is becoming post-western. This is partly because the realities of environmental damage are so stark across much of Asia and Africa.

    Extreme temperatures and unpredictable rainfall are leading to food insecurity and community displacement. Environmentalism in the African Sahel and south Asia might better be called “survivalism”.

    And despite its continuing reliance on fossil fuels, China’s state-led vision of a transition to a conservationist and decarbonised “ecological civilisation” is positioning it as a global environmental leader.

    Stereotypes of environmentalism being primarily a western concern are crumbling. Because of this, along with the many contradictions that beset it, the rise of anti-environmentalism appears not only complex, but curious and unsustainable.

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

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

    Alastair Bonnett 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. Anti-environmentalism is on the rise but it’s full of contradictions – https://theconversation.com/anti-environmentalism-is-on-the-rise-but-its-full-of-contradictions-256911

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sign-up to new Statistics Jersey alerts22 May 2025 ​Islanders are being encouraged to sign-up to receive email notifications about key statistics on Jersey’s economy and population as soon as they’re released. The email notification service is part of… Read more

    Source: Channel Islands – Jersey

    22 May 2025

    ​Islanders are being encouraged to sign-up to receive email notifications about key statistics on Jersey’s economy and population as soon as they’re released. 

    The email notification service is part of Statistics Jersey’s new website, www.stats.je , launched earlier this month.  

    Until recently, Statistics Jersey published its reports and data on www.gov.je. Following amendments to the Statistics and Census (Jersey) Law, this information has been moved to www.stats.je.  

    Islanders who previously received email notifications about Statistics Jersey publications from www.gov.je will no longer receive these and will need to sign-up for notifications from www.stats.je . 

    The new website www.stats.je offers user-friendly statistical data compiled by Statistics Jersey as well as improved interactivity for policy makers, businesses and the general public.  Users can now see Jersey’s key indicators, such as the RPI and the House Price Index, at a glance as well as being able to explore interactive charts and download reports. ​

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Apr inflation up 2%

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    Overall consumer prices rose 2% year-on-year in April, larger than the corresponding increase in March, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.
     
    Netting out the effects of the Government’s one-off relief measures, underlying inflation was 1.3%, also larger than that in March.
     
    Compared with a year before, price increases were recorded in April in the following categories: electricity, gas and water; transport; housing; miscellaneous services; meals out and takeaway food; miscellaneous goods; and alcoholic drinks and tobacco.
     
    Meanwhile, year-on-year decreases were logged in clothing and footwear; durable goods; and basic food.
     
    The Government said that inflation pressure remained largely moderate in recent months, with price pressures on various major components staying contained in general.
     
    Travel-related charges climbed amid the Easter holidays which started in April, resulting in an increased underlying consumer price inflation rate in the month, it explained.
     
    The Government expects that overall inflation should remain modest in the near term, while pressures from domestic costs and external prices should stay broadly in check.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI: Best Live Casinos: JACKBIT Rated As Top Live Dealer Casino With Extensive Games And Instant Withdrawal

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark., May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The world of online gambling has been transformed by live casinos, which blend the excitement of real-time gaming with the convenience of digital platforms.

    Among the best live casinos, JACKBIT has emerged as the premier destination for 2025. With over 200 live dealer games, cutting-edge streaming technology, and a player-focused approach, JACKBIT delivers an unmatched live casino experience. This guide explores why JACKBIT is the top choice for enthusiasts seeking the best live casino sites, highlighting its game variety, bonuses, and innovative features.

    Why Choose Live Casinos

    Live casinos have redefined online gambling by offering an authentic casino experience from anywhere. Players can engage with professional dealers and fellow participants in real-time, creating a social and immersive atmosphere that traditional online games often lack. This interactivity builds trust, as players can witness every shuffle and spin, ensuring fairness.

    Technological advancements have elevated live casinos to new heights. High-definition streaming delivers crisp visuals, while multiple camera angles provide dynamic views of the action. Features like live chat enhance engagement, making players feel part of a vibrant casino floor.

    For those searching for the best live online casinos, platforms like JACKBIT stand out by combining variety, reliability, and innovation, making them ideal for both casual and seasoned players.

    ✅CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR 100 FREE SPINS!

    Overview of JACKBIT Live Casino

    JACKBIT’s live casino, accessible at JACKBIT Live Casino, is a cornerstone of its reputation as a leading live dealer online casino. Boasting over 200 games from top providers like Evolution Gaming, Pragmatic Play Live, and Ezugi, JACKBIT offers a diverse selection that caters to all tastes.

    From classic table games like live roulette online and live blackjack to innovative game shows, the platform ensures endless entertainment. Available 24/7 in multiple languages, JACKBIT’s live casino is designed for global accessibility and seamless play.

    Feature Details
    Number of Games Over 200 live dealer games
    Providers Evolution Gaming, Pragmatic Play Live, Ezugi
    Game Types Blackjack, roulette, baccarat, poker, game shows
    Accessibility 24/7, multi-language support, mobile-optimized

    How to Join JACKBIT Live Casino? Step By Step

    Getting started with JACKBIT’s live casino is quick and user-friendly:

    1. Visit the Website: Click here to navigate to JACKBIT using a secure browser.
    2. Register: Click “Sign Up” and enter your email, username, and a strong password.
    3. Verify Email: Check your inbox for a verification link and activate your account.
    4. Deposit Funds: Select a payment method, deposit funds, and claim any live casino bonuses.
    5. Access Live Casino: Go to the live casino section via the main menu.
    6. Choose a Game: Browse games like live dealer roulette or blackjack and join a table.
    7. Start Playing: Enjoy real-time gaming with professional dealers.

    This streamlined process ensures players can dive into the best live casino experience effortlessly.

    Pros and Cons of JACKBIT Live Casino

    Pros Cons
    Over 200 live dealer games from top providers Requires stable internet for optimal streaming
    High-definition streaming with multiple camera angles Focus on live games may not suit players preferring slots
    No KYC policy for anonymous play  
    Specific bonuses for live casino players  
    Mobile-optimized for seamless play  
    24/7 professional customer support  

    JACKBIT’s strengths make it a leader among the best live casinos, though a stable internet connection is essential for the best experience.

    Why JACKBIT Shines Among the Best Live Casinos

    JACKBIT distinguishes itself among the best live casino websites through a combination of variety, technology, and player-centric features. Here’s why it leads the pack:

    Extensive Game Selection

    JACKBIT offers a vast array of live dealer games, including multiple variants of live dealer roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and poker. Unique offerings like game shows—such as Crazy Time and Monopoly Live—add excitement, appealing to players seeking the best live dealer online casino.

    Professional Dealers

    The dealers at JACKBIT are highly trained, ensuring smooth gameplay and a welcoming atmosphere. Their professionalism and friendliness enhance the social aspect, making JACKBIT a top choice for those seeking the best live casino experience.

    Advanced Streaming Technology

    JACKBIT employs state-of-the-art streaming for crystal-clear visuals and minimal lag. Multiple camera angles provide immersive perspectives, whether you’re playing live baccarat online or online live roulette, ensuring a premium experience.

    Interactive Gameplay

    Live chat and real-time game statistics allow players to engage with dealers and others, replicating the camaraderie of a physical casino. This interactivity sets JACKBIT apart among the best live online casinos.

    Mobile Optimization

    Fully optimized for smartphones and tablets, JACKBIT ensures seamless access to live games on the go, reinforcing its position as a leader among the best live casino sites.

    Bonuses & Promotions

    JACKBIT offers promotions specifically for live casino players, such as cashback and tournament entries, adding value to every session. These incentives make it a standout casino with live dealers.

    ✅CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR 30% RAKEBACK BONUS AND 100 FREE SPINS!

    JACKBIT’s promotions play a major role in its reputation as one of the best live casinos with instant withdrawal features. Its welcome offer—30% rakeback plus 100 wager-free spins—delivers immediate value without complicated terms or heavy wagering requirements.

    Additional exciting promotions include:

    • Drops & Wins: Compete monthly for a share of €2,000,000 across popular slots and live casino games, making it a top choice among best live casino sites.
    • Weekly Giveaways: Win from $10,000 in cash prizes and 10,000 free spins, adding extra rewards for loyal players.
    • Daily and Weekly Tournaments: Climb leaderboards to earn free spins, cash prizes, and exclusive bonuses, enhancing the thrill for those who enjoy live dealer online casino competitions.
    • 3+1 Free Bet: Place three sports bets and receive a free bet to use on your favorite sporting markets, perfect for players who enjoy combining casino and sportsbook action.
    • VIP Rakeback Club: Earn loyalty points with every wager, moving through levels from Rookie to Legend. VIP members enjoy up to 30% rakeback along with personalized offers and priority customer support.

    Unlike many sites burdened with high wagering demands, JACKBIT offers bonuses with fair and transparent terms. This approach, combined with its instant withdrawal and no-verification options, solidifies JACKBIT’s status as a top same-day withdrawal casino and a trusted destination for players seeking one of the best live casinos available.

    Latest Bonuses and Promotions for Live Casino

    JACKBIT enhances the live casino experience with targeted promotions, ensuring players get maximum value. Key offers include:

    • Live Casino Welcome Bonus: New players can claim a match bonus for live casino games, boosting their initial deposits.
    • Cashback Offers: Regular cashback on live game losses extends playtime and reduces risk, a hallmark of the best online live casino.
    • Live Tournaments: Compete in live dealer tournaments with prize pools, adding excitement and rewards.
    • VIP Club: Loyal players enjoy exclusive perks like higher cashback, faster withdrawals, and personalized offers, tailored for live casino enthusiasts.

    These promotions make JACKBIT a top choice for players seeking the best live casinos with rewarding incentives.

    Payment Methods

    JACKBIT supports a variety of payment options, catering to both crypto and fiat users. Cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tether, and Tron, ensuring fast and secure transactions. Fiat options like Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, and Paysafecard provide flexibility. An integrated crypto exchange simplifies purchases, making JACKBIT a top casino with live dealers for modern players.

    Payment Type Options
    Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tether, Tron
    Fiat Currencies Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, Paysafecard

    ✅CLICK HERE TO PLAY WITH JACKBIT’S CRYPTO PAYMENTS!

    Live Game Selection

    JACKBIT offers one of the best live casino experiences, featuring a diverse and exciting range of live dealer games that cater to all types of players. Recognized as one of the best live casino sites, JACKBIT combines high-quality streaming with a seamless interface, making it a top choice for players seeking authentic real-time action.

    • Live Blackjack: Live Blackjack enthusiasts can enjoy multiple tables, including classic versions and innovative side bets like Perfect Pairs and 21+3. These options make JACKBIT a leader among the best live dealer online casinos for blackjack, providing strategic gameplay and thrilling competition.
    • Live Roulette Online: Fans of live roulette online have plenty of choices, including European Roulette, American Roulette, and the electrifying Lightning Roulette. These variants offer fast-paced and engaging gameplay, positioning JACKBIT as one of the best live online casinos for live dealer roulette and online live roulette experiences.
    • Live Baccarat Online: For those who prefer live baccarat online, JACKBIT features popular versions such as Classic Baccarat, Speed Baccarat, and No Commission Baccarat. These games provide quick rounds and intense excitement, making JACKBIT one of the best live casinos for baccarat lovers.
    • Live Poker: Poker players can dive into live versions of Casino Hold’em, Three Card Poker, and Caribbean Stud Poker, combining skill and luck in a vibrant live online casino environment. JACKBIT stands out as a best online live casino for poker with professional dealers and smooth gameplay.
    • Game Shows: Beyond traditional table games, JACKBIT offers a variety of engaging live game shows like Deal or No Deal, Mega Ball, and Sweet Bonanza CandyLand. These interactive games add a unique flair to the platform, enhancing its reputation as one of the best live casino websites for innovative live entertainment.

    ✅CLICK HERE TO DIVE INTO JACKBIT’S THRILLING LIVE CASINO GAMES NOW!

    Powered by top-tier providers, all live games at JACKBIT feature crisp HD visuals, real-time streaming, and professional dealers, creating an immersive atmosphere. This dedication to quality makes JACKBIT a trusted casino with live dealers and one of the best live online casinos available.

    Whether you’re seeking the best online casino live dealer experience or the thrill of online casino live dealer roulette, JACKBIT offers a secure and exciting platform that meets the highest standards in live gambling.

    User Experience in Live Casino

    JACKBIT’s live casino interface is sleek and intuitive, with clear categorization and a robust search function for easy navigation. The platform’s dark theme is visually appealing, and fast load times ensure uninterrupted play.

    Interactive features like live chat and real-time statistics enhance engagement, while mobile optimization allows seamless access to live dealer roulette and other games on smartphones. Customizable settings, such as language and display options, further personalize the experience, solidifying JACKBIT’s status as a top online casino live dealer platform.

    Legitimacy and Safety

    JACKBIT operates under a Curacao eGaming license, ensuring compliance with industry standards. SSL encryption safeguards player data, while partnerships with reputable providers like Evolution Gaming guarantee fair play in live games.

    Regular audits and transparent policies reinforce JACKBIT’s credibility as a trusted casino with live dealers, providing peace of mind for players.

    Responsible Gambling

    JACKBIT prioritizes player welfare with robust responsible gambling tools:

    • Deposit Limits: Set daily, weekly, or monthly caps to manage spending.
    • Self-Exclusion: Opt for temporary or permanent breaks from gaming.
    • Reality Checks: Receive session duration reminders to stay mindful.
    • Support Resources: Access organizations like GamCare for professional help.

    These measures align with the standards of the best live online casinos, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience.

    Conclusion: JACKBIT – The Best Live Casino

    JACKBIT has solidified its position as the top live casino of 2025, offering an exceptional blend of game variety, advanced technology, and player-focused features. Its extensive selection of live dealer games, from live roulette online to interactive game shows, caters to all preferences.

    Coupled with generous bonuses, seamless mobile access, and a commitment to safety, JACKBIT is the ultimate destination for live casino enthusiasts. Join JACKBIT today to experience why it leads the best live casinos and enjoy a thrilling, authentic gaming adventure.

    ✅CLICK HERE TO EXPERIENCE LIVE CASINO GAMEPLAY AT JACKBIT!

    FAQs

    What makes JACKBIT the best live casino in 2025?

    JACKBIT’s 200+ live dealer games, HD streaming, professional dealers, and interactive features make it a leader among the best live casino sites.

    Are there bonuses for live casino players at JACKBIT?

    Yes, JACKBIT offers live casino-specific bonuses, including welcome bonuses, cashback, and tournaments, enhancing the best live online casino experience.

    Can I play live casino games on mobile?

    Absolutely, JACKBIT’s live casino is fully optimized for mobile devices, ensuring seamless access to live dealer roulette and more.

    Is JACKBIT a secure live casino platform?

    Licensed by Curacao eGaming and using SSL encryption, JACKBIT ensures a safe and fair gaming environment for live baccarat online and other games.

    What live dealer games does JACKBIT offer?

    JACKBIT provides live blackjack, online live roulette, baccarat, poker, and game shows, catering to diverse preferences.

    Does JACKBIT require KYC verification?

    No, JACKBIT’s no KYC policy allows anonymous play, a key feature of the best live casinos.

    Email: support@JACKBIT.com

    Disclaimer

    This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Online gambling laws vary by jurisdiction, and players must ensure compliance with local regulations. Gamble responsibly and be aware of the risks involved. 18+ only.

    The information in this article is for informational and promotional purposes only and is not legal, financial, or professional advice. While we strive for accuracy, no warranties are made regarding completeness or timeliness. Readers should verify information independently. The publisher, affiliates, and contributors are not liable for errors, omissions, or losses from using this content.

    This article may contain affiliate links. Clicking these links and making a deposit may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. These relationships do not affect our editorial integrity, and all evaluations are based on independent research.

    Online gambling is for those of legal age (19+ in Australia). Gambling carries financial risks and may lead to addiction. Play responsibly and seek help if needed. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This content is not endorsed by any brands unless stated.

    Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

    https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e547a51d-bf96-4c18-a169-767ef02d0e7e

    https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/059ff342-f28c-4152-b65b-d5ef32dcb6cf

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: 80 arrests and more than 37,700 cultural goods seized in major art trafficking bust

    Source: Interpol (news and events)

    22 May 2025

    Europol, INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization (WCO) supported investigators from 23 countries in the fight against criminals who exploit humanity’s cultural heritage

    LYON, France – The ninth edition of Operation Pandora, an international operation targeting the trafficking of cultural goods, has led to 80 arrests and the seizure of 37,727 items including archaeological pieces, artworks, coins and musical instruments.

    Codenamed Pandora IX and carried out throughout 2024, the operation involved law enforcement and customs authorities from 23 countries. It was coordinated by Spain (Guardia Civil), with operational support from Europol, INTERPOL and the WCO through its Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe. 

    Authorities also confiscated 69 metal detectors and 23 tools commonly used for illegal excavations, underlining the persistent threat of looting to cultural sites.

    In total, 258 cases were reported by the participating countries. Many investigations are still ongoing, with further arrests and seizures expected.

    Operational highlights

    The Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) in coordination with the Italian Customs and Monopolies agency (ADM) seized a painting attributed to renowned artist Jannis Kounellis during a joint border operation. Upon inspection, it was determined to be inauthentic. Had it been genuine, its estimated value would have been around EUR 100,000. In a separate investigation, the Carabinieri TPC seized more than 300 items, including coins, metal and ceramic fragments such as arrowheads and spearheads dating back to the Roman and Punic periods. These artifacts were being offered for sale on e-commerce platforms and were discovered in a private apartment.

    Two icons of Saint Seraphim of Sarov were discovered by Ukraine Customs.

    Both icons of Saint Seraphim were found in the luggage of a passenger travelling by bus during a control at the border with Poland.

    One of 36 coins found by Ukraine Customs while controlling a private vehicle at the border with Poland.

    The Spanish Guardia Civil dismantled a criminal group involved in archaeological looting

    Spanish Guardia Civil: During the operation authorities recovered 2,500 archaeological items, primarily Roman coins

    Italian Customs and Monopolies agency (ADM) seized a painting attributed to artist Jannis Kounellis, which turned out to be inauthentic.

    The Carabinieri TPC seized more than 300 items, including coins, metal and ceramic fragments.

    Since its launch in 2016, Operation Pandora has become a key global initiative to protect cultural heritage from illicit trafficking.

    The Spanish Guardia Civil dismantled a criminal group involved in archaeological looting in the province of Cáceres. Six individuals were arrested, and three others are under investigation. During the operation authorities recovered 2,500 archaeological items, primarily Roman coins minted in the Celtiberian city of Tamusia. These artifacts had been looted from protected archaeological sites in the province of Caceres using metal detectors and were being sold illegally through social media platforms.

    Also in Spain, the Guardia Civil intercepted a passenger attempting to fly from Palma de Mallorca to Germany carrying 55 ancient coins and a ring. A subsequent investigation led to an indictment for crimes against cultural heritage and plundering underwater wrecks and archaeological sites. In total, 64 objects of historical value and 1,576 ancient coins were confiscated.

    In Greece, the Department of Cultural Heritage and Antiquities of Athens recovered five Byzantine icons. Acting on intelligence and using special investigative techniques, including an undercover officer, three individuals were arrested while attempting to sell the icons for EUR 70,000.

    Ukrainian customs authorities seized 87 cultural goods that were being illegally transported out of the country to Poland, Moldova and Romania.

    Cyber patrols uncover additional cases

    In addition to on-the-ground actions, dedicated cyber patrols were carried out during the operation to identify potential illicit online sales of cultural property. These virtual investigations led to the opening of new cases, demonstrating how digital platforms are quickly becoming a channel of choice by traffickers to market and sell looted artefacts. A total of 4,298 cultural goods were seized as a result of the cyber patrols.

    Built on international cooperation

    Operation Pandora IX was carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT). Europol facilitated the exchange of information and provided analytical and operational support to the national investigations. Furthermore, one cyber patrol week was hosted by Europol.

    INTERPOL coordinated cross-border actions and offered tools such as its Stolen Works of Art database and on the ground ID-Art mobile application.

    The WCO’s secure communication tool, CENcomm, was made available to all participants while its Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe compiled, refined and shared information provided by Customs administrations

    Since its launch in 2016, Operation Pandora has become a key global initiative to protect cultural heritage from illicit trafficking.

    Participating countries in Pandora IX (2024):

    Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, United States.

    Participating agencies:

    Europol, INTERPOL, World Customs Organization

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Consumer Price Indices for April 2025

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (May 22) the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures for April 2025. According to the Composite CPI, overall consumer prices rose by 2.0% in April 2025 over the same month a year earlier, larger than the corresponding increase (1.4%) in March 2025. The larger increase was mainly attributable to the lower ceiling of rates concession in April 2025 when compared with the same month last year. Netting out the effects of all Government’s one-off relief measures, the year-on-year rate of increase in the Composite CPI (i.e. the underlying inflation rate) in April 2025 was 1.3%, also larger than that in March 2025 (1.0%). The larger increase was mainly due to the increases in the charges for package tours as well as inbound and outbound transport fares.  

         On a seasonally adjusted basis, the average monthly rate of change in the Composite CPI for the 3-month period ending April 2025 was -0.1%, and that for the 3-month period ending March 2025 was 0.0%. Netting out the effects of all Government’s one-off relief measures, the corresponding rates of change were both 0.0%.   

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Identity fraud: BaFin warns consumers about the website wealth-partnersamtegernsee.com

    Source: Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – In English

    You have the option below to allow a unique web analytics cookie to be stored on your browser, enabling the operator of the website to collect and analyse various types of statistical data. If you tick “Statistics”, the Matomo web analytics application can collect anonymous data about your visit. This will help us understand how our website is used.

    Further information is available under Data protection or Contact information and legal notice.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Global: FDA limits access to COVID-19 vaccine to older adults and other high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Libby Richards, Professor of Nursing, Purdue University

    Older adults will continue to receive yearly COVID-19 shots, but lower-risk groups will not, says the FDA. dusanpetkovic via iStock / Getty Images Plus

    On May 20, 2025, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new stance on who should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

    The agency said it would approve new versions of the vaccine only for adults 65 years of age and older as well as for people with one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. These risk factors include medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes.

    However, healthy younger adults and children who fall outside of these groups may not be eligible to receive the COVID-19 shot this fall. Vaccine manufacturers will have to conduct clinical trials to demonstrate that the vaccine benefits low-risk groups.

    FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agency’s head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, described the new framework in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and in a public webcast.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Libby Richards, a nursing professor involved in public health promotion, to explain why the changes were made and what they mean for the general public.

    Why did the FDA diverge from past practice?

    Until the May 20 announcement, getting a yearly COVID-19 vaccine was recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, regardless of their health risk.

    According to Makary and Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration is moving away from these universal recommendations and instead taking a risk-based approach based on its interpretation of public health trends – specifically, the declining COVID-19 booster uptake, a lack of strong evidence that repeated boosters improve health outcomes for healthy people and the fact that natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections is widespread.

    The FDA states it wants to ensure the vaccine is backed by solid clinical trial data, especially for low-risk groups.

    Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?

    The FDA’s decision to adopt a risk-based framework for the COVID-19 vaccine aligns with the expected recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an advisory group of vaccine experts offering expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, which is scheduled to meet in June 2025. But while this advisory committee was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to, the FDA’s policy will likely make that difficult.

    Although the FDA states that its new policy aims to promote greater transparency and evidenced-based decision-making, the change is controversial – in part because it circumvents the usual process for evaluating vaccine recommendations. The FDA is enacting this policy change by limiting its approval of the vaccine to high-risk groups, and it is doing so without any new data supporting its decision. Usually, however, the FDA broadly approves a vaccine based on whether it is safe and effective, and decisions on who should be eligible to receive it are left to the CDC, which receives research-based guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

    Change is coming to COVID-19 vaccine policy.
    Rock Obst, CC BY-SA

    Additionally, FDA officials point to Canada, Australia and some European countries that limit vaccine recommendations to older adults and other high-risk people as a model for its revised framework. But vaccine strategies vary widely, and this more conservative approach has not necessarily proven superior. Also, those countries have universal health care systems and have a track record of more equitable access to COVID-19 care and better COVID-19 outcomes.

    Another question is how health officials’ positions on COVID-19 vaccines affect public perception. Makary and Prasad noted that COVID-19 vaccination campaigns may have actually eroded public trust in vaccination. But some vaccine experts have expressed concerns that limiting COVID-19 vaccine access might further fuel vaccine hesitancy because any barrier to vaccine access can reduce uptake and hinder efforts to achieve widespread immunity.

    What conditions count as risk factors?

    The New England Journal of Medicine article includes a lengthy list of conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine.

    Pregnancy is included. Some items on the list, however, are unclear. For example, the list includes asthma, but the data that asthma is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 is scant.

    Also on the list is physical inactivity, which likely applies to a vast swath of Americans and is difficult to define. Studies have found links between regular physical activity and reduced risk of severe COVID-19 infection, but it’s unclear how health care providers will define and measure physical inactivity when assessing a patient’s eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines.

    Most importantly, the list leaves out an important group – caregivers and household members of people at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. This omission leaves high-risk people more vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 from healthy people they regularly interact with. Multiple countries the new framework refers to do include this group.

    Why is the FDA requiring new clinical trials?

    According to the FDA, the benefits of multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy adults are currently unproven. It’s true that studies beyond the fourth vaccine dose are scarce. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that the vaccine is effective at preventing the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in low-risk adults and children. Receiving multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines has also been shown to reduce the risk of long COVID.

    The FDA is moving to risk-based access for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA is requiring vaccine manufactures to conduct additional large randomized clinical trials to further evaluate the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters for healthy adults and children. These trials will primarily test whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic infections, and secondarily whether they prevent hospitalization and death. Such trials are more complex, costly and time-consuming than the more common approach of testing for immunological response.

    This requirement will likely delay both the timeliness and the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boosters and slow public health decision-making.

    Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?

    Not automatically. Under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines “off-label”, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.

    The FDA’s focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

    What about vaccines for children?

    High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine under the new framework. As of now, healthy children age 6 months and older without underlying medical conditions will not have routine access to COVID-19 vaccines until further clinical trial data is available.

    Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change will affect childhood vaccination overall.

    Libby Richards has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the American Nurses Foundation, and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute

    – ref. FDA limits access to COVID-19 vaccine to older adults and other high-risk groups – a public health expert explains the new rules – https://theconversation.com/fda-limits-access-to-covid-19-vaccine-to-older-adults-and-other-high-risk-groups-a-public-health-expert-explains-the-new-rules-257226

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor now has the political clout to reset Australia’s refugee policy. Here’s where to start

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University

    Australia’s policy towards refugees and asylum seekers stands at a critical juncture.

    Global displacement is at record highs and many countries are retreating from their responsibilities. At this moment, Australia can lead by example.

    As Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said on election night:

    We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not need to seek our inspiration overseas. We find it right here in our values – and in our people.

    Those values should guide a principled and evidence-based response to the global refugee crisis. This response should be grounded in fairness, humanity and respect for Australia’s international human rights obligations.

    A principled reset

    Australia is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which defines a refugee as a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution based on:

    • race
    • religion
    • nationality
    • membership of a particular social group
    • political opinion.

    However, aspects of Australia’s current approach to refugees have drawn criticism from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.

    The new Labor government could use its strength in parliament to initiate a principled and evidence-based reset. This could include:

    • creating a new emergency visa for humanitarian crises to assist people fleeing conflict

    • improving the efficiency and fairness of the asylum seeker process

    • ending offshore processing of refugees

    • streamlining the family reunification process

    • making immigration detention an option that could be used at the discretion of the Department of Home Affairs, instead of being mandatory

    • giving people access to independent review of their detention

    • improving systems for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers (many of whom face heightened risks, are not always believed about their sexuality, and lack culturally sensitive support).

    There are four key areas in particular need of reform.

    1. Ending the legal limbo

    A crucial priority is resolving the status of some 7,000 people who are part of what’s known as the “legacy caseload”.

    These people were refused refugee status under a problematic and now-defunct process known as the “fast track assessment”. They are now on bridging visas and in legal limbo.

    A solution is also needed for the roughly 1,000 people who were detained in offshore processing centres in Manus Island and Nauru but are now living in Australia. They are also on bridging visas, also in a state of legal uncertainty.

    People in both these groups have endured 13 years in legal and policy limbo. Reform is long overdue.

    One option is to allow people in both groups who were previously refused protection to apply for a permanent visa without requiring yet another drawn-out assessment of their protection claims.

    Community organisations, legal experts and mental health professionals could help the government develop clear, trauma-informed and evidence-based processes for reviewing their cases.

    2. Expanding the numbers

    Australia’s main way of accepting refugees is via what’s known as the humanitarian program. But the number of refugees accepted under this program doesn’t currently reflect the scale of global displacement.

    Labor has proposed expanding the number of refugees Australia takes.

    It has suggested Australia take 27,000 through the core Refugee and Humanitarian Program and an additional 10,000 through two pathways:

    At the UN’s 2023 Global Refugee Forum, the Australian government committed to gradually implementing this increase, beginning in 2023–24.

    A dedicated advisory and coordination body could help with planning and implementation.

    It’s also worth noting current policy prohibits asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Indonesia after June 2014 from being resettled to Australia.

    The new government could also consider lifting this arbitrary restriction to give these vulnerable refugees access to durable solutions.

    3. Strengthening the rights of children and young people

    Immigration systems are largely designed around adults. Children and young people are too often overlooked.

    As a result, children have been:

    Children (including those born in Australia) can’t sponsor their parents via family sponsorship processes. They’re denied a say in decisions that deeply affect their lives.

    The Migration Act should be amended to require that all decisions affecting children give primary consideration to the best interests and views of the child. This would be in line with Australia’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

    Similar principles are already embedded in Australian family law and child protection policy, providing a clear model for reform.

    4. Reviewing Australia’s boat turnback policy

    Since 2013, Australia has intercepted boats under Operation Sovereign Borders, using turnbacks and takebacks with little independent oversight.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has raised concerns about this policy.

    Sometimes during these interactions Australian officials detain and interview people on boats about their reason for trying to enter Australia, but details about what happens during such encounters are kept largely secret. Most of these encounters end with the boat and people on it being returned to the country from which they came.

    A recent document published by the Commonwealth Ombudsman reported on conditions aboard vessels used for maritime detention.

    It found serious problems, including no private spaces for sensitive interviews and no interpreters on board.

    The Department of Home Affairs responded by saying formal interviews use accredited interpreters. However, the report highlights many crucial interactions do not.

    There is also no time limit on detention at sea, and no independent monitoring of how protection claims are assessed.

    A more comprehensive review is urgently needed.

    Mary Anne Kenny is a member of the Migration Institute of Australia and the Law Council of Australia and an affiliate of the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. She was on the Ministerial Council on Asylum Seekers and Detention (an independent advisory body) between 2012 and 2018.

    – ref. Labor now has the political clout to reset Australia’s refugee policy. Here’s where to start – https://theconversation.com/labor-now-has-the-political-clout-to-reset-australias-refugee-policy-heres-where-to-start-255971

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 21 May 2025 Note for Media Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly – Daily update: 21 May 2025

    Source: World Health Organisation

    A “health financing emergency” must drive country-led, data-driven solutions

    Ministers from multiple countries hit by the abrupt cuts in external funding for health agreed on the urgent need for country-owned and implemented strategies – and a laser-sharp focus on health data – at a ministerial dialogue co-hosted by WHO and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation at the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly.

    Opening remarks by Professor Senait Fisseha, Vice President of Global Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, set the tone by noting that the crisis presents an opportunity for a turnaround in how health financing policies and health data systems are built and operated.

    Specifically, this is a time for countries to reduce their reliance on external health information systems and external financing; build out their domestic data infrastructure, from vital statistics to downstream impact and return-on-investment; and establish resilient systems designed to withstand shocks, so that access to essential services is protected.

    Professor Fisseha called on countries “to use this moment to rethink data and financing in a way that best meets your needs and the needs of your people […] For countries to truly lead and for funders and development partners to start to learn how to follow. Data and financing are a natural place to start because that is where ministers are telling us to start.”

    Dr Tedros said, “From expanding domestic financing to pioneering real-time data systems, many of you are advancing solutions that are scalable, sustainable and rooted in equity. Data and sustainable financing are not just technical matters. They are political choices. They shape who is reached, how quickly, and with what quality of care. And they determine whether we progress or fall behind.”

    Ministers from Barbados, Central African Republic, Egypt, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, and representatives from the African Union and the World Bank, among others, shared experiences and advice on concrete actions to strengthen data systems, health financing and planning – urging intensified collaboration in the future. They also spoke of the need to leverage the digital transformation and thereby increase transparency and accountability.

    Also discussed: strategies to improve domestic financing capacity while maximizing impact include: strengthening tax administration; exploring revenue sources such as taxes on such items as food, alcohol and tobacco; setting up population-wide mandatory health coverage schemes, coupled with subsidies for low-income households and vulnerable population groups; promoting strategic purchasing of health supplies; prioritizing health in public spending; and integrating externally-funded programmes into domestic financing systems and priorities. 

    Later this week the Assembly will take up the proposed WHA Health Financing Resolution. 

    Related links

    WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the Strategic Roundtable: Data and Sustainable Financing: Twin Foundations to Accelerate UHC – 21 May 2025

    Report on the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan

    On 21 May 2025, the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly noted a report from the Director-General, outlining WHO’s humanitarian and emergency health response in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, from January 2024 to February 2025.

    A report on the health conditions in the occupied Syrian Golan couldn’t be provided this year again due to the ongoing situation and the lack of disaggregated health data on the Syrian population. Member States were invited to provide guidance on how to support WHO and partners to restore essential health services across Syria and enable a WHO field-assessment mission to the occupied Syrian Golan.   

    Member States expressed grave concerns over the deterioration of the health system in Gaza, including forced displacement, overcrowding and deteriorating sanitation, and attacks on health, stressing the need for concerted action to address the dire health needs.

    A number of Member States presented draft decisions asking the Director-General to continue reporting on the health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, and more specifically on food insecurity and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, and to continue supporting the Palestinian and Syrian health systems. The decision was adopted.

    Related documents

    A78/16: Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan

    A78/B/CONF./1: Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan

    A78/B/CONF./1 Add.1: Financial and administrative implications for the Secretariat of decisions proposed for adoption by the Health Assembly

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: DBEDT NEWS RELEASE: HAWAI‘I APRIL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE REMAINS AT 2.9 PERCENT

    Source: US State of Hawaii

    DBEDT NEWS RELEASE: HAWAI‘I APRIL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE REMAINS AT 2.9 PERCENT

    Posted on May 20, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom

     

     

    STATE OF HAWAIʻI

    KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI

    JOSH GREEN, M.D.
    GOVERNOR

    KE KIAʻĀINA

    DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM

    KA ʻOIHANA HOʻOMOHALA PĀʻOIHANA, ʻIMI WAIWAI A HOʻOMĀKAʻIKAʻI

     

    RESEARCH AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS DIVISION

     

    JAMES KUNANE TOKIOKA

    DIRECTOR

    KA LUNA HOʻOKELE

     

    1. EUGENE TIAN

    CHIEF STATE ECONOMIST

    HAWAI‘I APRIL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE REMAINS AT 2.9 PERCENT 

    Jobs Increased by 17,000 Year-Over-Year

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    May 20, 2025

    HONOLULU — The Hawai‘i State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) today announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 2.9 percent, the same as in March. In April, 668,650 persons were employed and 19,650 were unemployed, for a total seasonally adjusted labor force of 688,300 statewide. Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in April, the same as in March.

    The unemployment rate figures for the state of Hawai‘i and the U.S. in this release are seasonally adjusted in accordance with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) methodology. The not-seasonally adjusted rate for the state was 2.5 percent in April, compared to 2.4 percent in March.

    Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey)

    In a separate measure of employment, total nonagricultural jobs increased by 1,500 month-over-month, from March 2025 to April 2025. Job gains were experienced in Leisure & Hospitality (+1,900); Private Education & Health Services (+1,100); Trade, Transportation & Utilities (+500); Professional & Business Services (+400); Construction (+300); and Information (+100). Within Leisure & Hospitality, the rise in employment primarily occurred in Food Services & Drinking Places. Within Private Education & Health Services, the bulk of job gains were spread out over the subsectors of Health Care & Social Assistance. Employment in Manufacturing remained unchanged. Job losses occurred in Financial Activities (-200); and Other Services (-200). Government employment went down by 2,400 jobs, primarily due to below average over-the-month change in staffing at both the Department of Education and the University of Hawai‘i system. Year-over-year, nonfarm jobs have gone up by 17,000, or 2.7 percent.

     

    Technical Notes:

    Labor Force Components

    The concepts and definitions used by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program are the same as those used in the Current Population Survey for the national labor force data:

    • Civilian labor force. Included are all persons in the civilian noninstitutional population ages 16 and older classified as either employed or unemployed. (See the definitions below.)
    • Employed persons. These are all persons who, during the reference week (the week including the twelfth day of the month), (a) did any work as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of their family, or (b) were not working but who had jobs from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, bad weather, childcare problems, maternity or paternity leave, labor-management dispute, job training, or other family or personal reasons, whether or not they were paid for the time off or were seeking other jobs. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job.
    • Unemployed persons. Included are all persons who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the four-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.
    • Unemployment rate. The unemployed percent of the civilian labor force [i.e., 100 times (unemployed/civilian labor force)].

    Seasonal Adjustment

    The seasonal fluctuations in the number of employed and unemployed persons reflect hiring and layoff patterns that accompany regular events such as the winter holiday season and the summer vacation season. These variations make it difficult to tell whether month-to-month changes in employment and unemployment are due to normal seasonal patterns or to changing economic conditions. Therefore, the BLS uses a statistical technique called seasonal adjustment to address these issues. This technique uses the history of the labor force data and the job count data to identify the seasonal movements and to calculate the size and direction of these movements. A seasonal adjustment factor is then developed and applied to the estimates to eliminate the effects of regular seasonal fluctuations on the data. Seasonally adjusted statistical series enable more meaningful data comparisons between months or with an annual average.

    Current Population (Household) Survey (CPS)

    A survey conducted for employment status in the week that includes the twelfth day of each month generates the unemployment rate statistics, which is a separate survey from the Establishment Survey that yields the industry job counts. The CPS survey contacts approximately 1,000 households in Hawai‘i to determine an individual’s current employment status. Employed persons consist of 1) all persons who did any work for pay or profit during the survey reference week, 2) all persons who did at least 15 hours of unpaid work in a family owned enterprise operated by someone in their household and 3) all persons who were temporarily absent from their regular jobs, whether they were paid or not. Persons considered unemployed are those that do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks and are available for work. Temporarily laid-off workers are counted as unemployed, whether or not they have engaged in a specific job-seeking activity. Persons not in the labor force are those who are not classified as employed or unemployed during the survey reference week.

    Benchmark Changes to Local Area Unemployment Statistics Data

    Statewide and sub-state data for 2019 to 2024 have revised inputs and data for 1990 to 2024 have been re-estimated to reflect revised population controls and model re-estimation.

    Change to Monthly Employment Estimates

    This release incorporates revised job count figures for the seasonally adjusted series. The revised data reflects historical corrections applied to unadjusted super sector or sector-level series dating back from 2018 through 2024. For years, analysts with the state of Hawai‘i Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Research and Statistics Office have developed monthly employment estimates for Hawai‘i and its metropolitan areas. These estimates were based on a monthly survey of Hawai‘i businesses and analysts’ knowledge about our local economies. Beginning with the production of preliminary estimates for March 2011, responsibility for the production of state and metropolitan area (MSA) estimates were transitioned from individual state agencies to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

    For Hawai‘i, this means the transition of statewide, Honolulu and Kahului-Wailuku MSA estimates for both the seasonally adjusted and not-seasonally adjusted areas are produced by BLS. State agencies will continue to provide the BLS with information on local events that may affect the estimates, such as strikes or large layoffs/hiring at businesses not covered by the survey and to disseminate and analyze the Current Employment Statistics (CES) estimates for local data users. BLS feels this change is designed to improve the cost efficiency of the CES program and to reduce the potential bias in state and area estimates. A portion of the cost savings generated by this change is slated to be directed toward raising survey response rates in future years, which will decrease the level of statistical error in the CES estimates. Until then, state analysts feel this change could result in increased month-to-month variability for the industry employment numbers, particularly for Hawai‘i’s counties and islands. BLS can be reached at 202-691-6555 for any questions about these estimates.

    The not-seasonally adjusted job estimates for Hawai‘i County, Kaua‘i County, Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i are produced by the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

    Labor Force Estimates for Small Areas

    Labor Force estimates for the islands within Maui County (Maui, Moloka‘i and Lānai) are produced by the state of Hawai‘i Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

    Seasonally Adjusted Labor Force and Unemployment Estimates for Honolulu and Maui County

    BLS publishes smoothed seasonally adjusted civilian labor force and unemployment estimates for all metropolitan areas, which includes the City and County of Honolulu and Maui County.

    BLS releases this data each month in the Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release. The schedule is available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/metro.toc.htm.

    Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization

     

    Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States, Second Quarter of 2024 through First Quarter of 2025 Averages  
    Area Measure  
    U-1 U-2 U-3 U-4 U-5 U-6
                 
    United States 1.5 2.0 4.1 4.3 5.0 7.7
                 
    Hawai‘i 0.7 1.2 3.0 3.1 3.9 6.2

     

    The six alternative labor underutilization state measures based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) and compiled on a four-quarter moving-average basis defined as:

    U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force;

    U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force;

    U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);

    U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers;

    U-5, total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers*, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers; and

    U-6, total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part-time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.

    *Individuals who want and are available for work, and who have looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they had one within the past 12 months) but were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey, for such reasons as childcare or transportation problems, for example. Discouraged workers are a subset of the marginally attached.

    Please note that the state unemployment rates (U-3) that are shown are derived directly from the CPS. As a result, these U-3 measures may differ from the official state unemployment rates for the latest four-quarter period. The latter are estimates developed from statistical models that incorporate CPS estimates, as well as input data from other sources, such as state unemployment claims data.

    # # #

    Media contacts:

     

    Dr. Eugene Tian

    Chief State Economist

    Research and Economic Analysis Division

    Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, State of Hawai‘i

    Phone: 808-586-2470

    Email: [email protected]

    Laci Goshi

    Communications Officer

    Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, State of Hawai‘i

    Cell: 808-518-5480

    Email: [email protected]

    MIL OSI USA News –