NewzIntel.com

Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI USA: FDA Roundup: March 18, 2025

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 3

    For Immediate Release:
    March 18, 2025

    Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is providing an at-a-glance summary of news from around the agency:

    On Tuesday, March 18, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland entered a consent decree of permanent injunction against Totally Cool, Inc., a Maryland-based manufacturer of ice cream and frozen desserts, and its CEO and owner, Michael J. Uhlfelder. On July 8, 2024, the FDA suspended Totally Cool’s food facility registration after an inspection of the firm revealed L. mono in the facility, as well as numerous failures of the firm to adhere to current good manufacturing practice for food safety, including sanitation requirements for employees and equipment. The consent decree prohibits Totally Cool and Mr. Uhlfelder from directly or indirectly receiving, preparing, processing, packing, holding, and/or distributing any article of food unless and until they meet certain requirements.

    On Friday, the FDA issued a Letter to Health Care Providers to notify providers that we are aware that the United States is experiencing interruptions in the supply of hemodialysis bloodlines (also referred to as set, tubing, blood, with and without anti-regurgitation valve) because of recent supplier issues. The FDA has updated the medical device shortage list to include hemodialysis bloodlines (product code FJK). The disruption in availability of this device is expected to impact patient care and may require adjustments to the clinical management of patients requiring acute or chronic hemodialysis. The FDA expects the duration of this shortage to extend through early fall of 2025. The FDA is recommending health care providers experiencing delays in the supply of hemodialysis bloodlines consider strategies to conserve their use. Health care providers should use their clinical judgment in development and implementation of conservation strategies. The Letter to Health Care Providers includes important information about the hemodialysis bloodline shortage including: 

    Additional information about hemodialysis bloodline products affected.
    Recommendations for health care providers. 
    Actions that the FDA is taking to assess and mitigate the risk. 

    Instructions for reporting problems with a device.

    On Friday, the FDA announced the conditional approval of Felycin-CA1 (sirolimus delayed-release tablets) for the management of ventricular hypertrophy in cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). This is the first product approved for use in cats with HCM for any indication. Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle. HCM in cats causes thickening of the heart’s left ventricle. It is the most common heart disease in cats and is one of the most common causes of death in cats. The drug is only available by prescription from a licensed veterinarian.
    On Friday, the FDA issued a safety alert warning consumers not to inhale or recreationally use any flavor of nitrous oxide in any size canister, tank, or charger. When inhaled, these products can result in serious adverse health effects, including death. For some individuals who regularly inhale nitrous oxide, this habit can lead to prolonged neurological effects, including spinal cord or brain damage, even after stopping use.

    Related Information

    Related Information

    ###

    Boilerplate

    The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, radiation-emitting electronic products, and for regulating tobacco products.

    Inquiries

    Consumer:
    888-INFO-FDA

    Content current as of:
    03/18/2025

    Regulated Product(s)

    Follow FDA

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: NVIDIA Blackwell RTX PRO Comes to Workstations and Servers for Designers, Developers, Data Scientists and Creatives to Build and Collaborate With Agentic AI

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GTC — NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA RTX PRO™ Blackwell series — a revolutionary generation of workstation and server GPUs redefining workflows for AI, technical, creative, engineering and design professionals with breakthrough accelerated computing, AI inference, ray tracing and neural rendering technologies.

    For everything from agentic AI, simulation, extended reality, 3D design and complex visual effects to developing physical AI powering autonomous robots, vehicles and smart spaces, the RTX PRO Blackwell series provides professionals across industries the latest and greatest compute power, memory capacity and data throughput right at their fingertips — from their desktop, on the go with mobile workstations or powered by data center GPUs.

    The new lineup includes:

    • Data center GPU: NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition
    • Desktop GPUs: NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition, NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition, NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell
    • Laptop GPUs: NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 3000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell, NVIDIA RTX PRO 1000 Blackwell and NVIDIA RTX PRO 500 Blackwell

    “Software developers, data scientists, artists, designers and engineers need powerful AI and graphics performance to push the boundaries of visual computing and simulation, helping tackle incredible industry challenges,” said Bob Pette, vice president of enterprise platforms at NVIDIA. “Bringing NVIDIA Blackwell to workstations and servers will take productivity, performance and speed to new heights, accelerating AI inference serving, data science, visualization and content creation.”

    NVIDIA Blackwell Technology Comes to Workstations and Data Centers
    RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs unlock the potential of generative, agentic and physical AI by delivering exceptional performance, efficiency and scale.

    NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs feature:

    • NVIDIA Streaming Multiprocessor: Offers up to 1.5x faster throughput and new neural shaders that integrate AI inside of programmable shaders to drive the next decade of AI-augmented graphics innovations.
    • Fourth-Generation RT Cores: Delivers up to 2x the performance of the previous generation to create photoreal, physically accurate scenes and complex 3D designs with optimizations for NVIDIA RTX™ Mega Geometry.
    • Fifth-Generation Tensor Cores: Delivers up to 4,000 AI trillion operations per second and adds support for FP4 precision and NVIDIA DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation, enabling a new era of AI-powered graphics and the ability to run and prototype larger AI models faster.
    • Larger, Faster GDDR7 Memory: Boosts bandwidth and capacity — up to 96GB for workstations and servers and up to 24GB on laptops. This enables applications to run faster and work with larger, more complex datasets for everything from tackling massive 3D and AI projects to exploring large-scale virtual reality environments.
    • Ninth-Generation NVIDIA NVENC: Accelerates video encoding speed and improves quality for professional video applications with added support for 4:2:2 encoding.
    • Sixth-Generation NVIDIA NVDEC: Provides up to double the H.264 decoding throughput and offers support for 4:2:2 H.264 and HEVC decode. Professionals can benefit from high-quality video playback, accelerate video data ingestion and use advanced AI-powered video editing features.
    • Fifth-Generation PCIe: Support for fifth-generation PCI Express provides double the bandwidth over the previous generation, improving data transfer speeds from CPU memory and unlocking faster performance for data-intensive tasks.
    • DisplayPort 2.1: Drives high-resolution displays at up to 4K at 480Hz and 8K at 165Hz. Increased bandwidth enables seamless multi-monitor setups, while high dynamic range and higher color depth support deliver more precise color accuracy for tasks like video editing, 3D design and live broadcasting.
    • Multi-Instance GPU (MIG): The RTX PRO 6000 data center and desktop GPUs and 5000 series desktop GPUs feature MIG technology, enabling secure partitioning of a single GPU into up to four instances (6000 series) or two instances (5000 series). Fault isolation is designed to prevent workload interference for secure, efficient resource allocation for diverse workloads, maximizing performance and flexibility.

    The new laptop GPUs also support the latest NVIDIA Blackwell Max-Q technologies, which intelligently and continually optimize laptop performance and power efficiency with AI.

    With neural rendering and AI-augmented tools, NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs enable the creation of stunning visuals, digital twins of real-world environments and immersive experiences with unprecedented speed and efficiency. The GPUs are built to elevate 3D computer-aided design and building information model workflows, offering designers and engineers exceptional performance for complex modeling, rendering and visualization.

    Designed for enterprise data center deployments, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition features a passively cooled thermal design and can be configured with up to eight GPUs per server. For workloads that require the compute density and scale that data centers offer, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition delivers powerful performance for next-generation AI, scientific and visual computing applications across industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail and media and entertainment.

    In addition, this powerful data center GPU can be combined with NVIDIA vGPU™ software to power AI workloads across virtualized environments and deliver high-performance virtual workstation instances to remote users. NVIDIA vGPU support for the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPU is expected in the latter half of this year.

    “Foster + Partners has tested the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition GPU on Cyclops, our GPU-based ray-tracing product,” said Martha Tsigkari, head of applied research and development and senior partner at Foster + Partners. “The new NVIDIA Blackwell GPU has managed to outperform everything we have tested before. For example, when using it with Cyclops, it has performed at 5x the speed of NVIDIA RTX A6000 GPUs. Rendering speeds also increased 5x, allowing tools like Cyclops to provide feedback on how well our design solutions perform in real time as we design them and resulting in intuitive yet informed decision-making from early conceptual stages.”

    “Early evaluation of the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell technology by GE HealthCare’s engineering team has found the potential for up to 2x GPU processing time improvement on reconstruction algorithms, which could lead to significant benefit to customers,” said Rekha Ranganathan, senior executive and general manager of platforms and digital solutions at GE HealthCare.

    “NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition GPUs enable incredibly sharp and photorealistic graphics,” said Jeff Hammoud, chief design officer at Rivian. “In conjunction with a Varjo XR4 headset and Autodesk VRED, the system delivered the level of crispness necessary for immersive automotive design reviews. With NVIDIA Blackwell support for PCIe Gen 5, we used two powerful 600W GPUs via VR SLI, allowing us to achieve the highest pixel density and the most stunning visuals we have ever experienced in VR.”

    “The 96GB memory and massive AI processing power in the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition GPU has boosted our productivity up to 3x with AI models like Llama 3.3-70B and Mixtral 8x7b, the NVIDIA Omniverse platform and industrial copilots,” said Shaun Greene, director of industry solutions at SoftServe. “We’ve seen immediate performance improvements and, using workstations, can now handle AI workloads that were previously only possible in the cloud or on rack servers — unlocking new possibilities for interactive demos and production workloads in retail, manufacturing and industrial edge applications.”

    RTX PRO GPUs run on the NVIDIA AI platform and feature larger memory capacity and the latest Tensor Cores to accelerate a deep ecosystem of AI-accelerated applications built on NVIDIA CUDA® and RTX technology. With everything from the latest AI-based content creation tools and new reasoning models, such as the NVIDIA Llama Nemotron Reason family of models and NVIDIA NIM™ microservices unveiled today, inferencing is faster than ever. And with over 400 NVIDIA CUDA-X™ libraries, developers can easily build, optimize, deploy and scale new AI applications, from workstations to the data center or cloud.

    Enterprises can fast-track their AI development and deployments by prototyping locally with an NVIDIA RTX PRO GPU and the NVIDIA Omniverse™ and NVIDIA AI Enterprise platforms, NVIDIA Blueprints and NVIDIA NIM, which gives access to easy-to-use inference microservices backed by enterprise-level support. They can also run these applications at scale on the ultimate universal data center GPU for AI and visual computing, delivering breakthrough acceleration for the most demanding compute-intensive enterprise workloads with the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition.

    Availability
    The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition will soon be available in server configurations from leading data center system partners including Cisco, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Supermicro.

    Cloud service providers and GPU cloud providers including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and CoreWeave will be among the first to offer instances powered by the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition later this year. In addition, the server edition GPU will be available in data center platforms from ASUS, GIGABYTE, Ingrasys, Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) and other global system partners.

    The NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition and NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition will be available through global distribution partners such as PNY and TD SYNNEX starting in April, with availability from manufacturers, such as BOXX, Dell, HP Inc., Lambda and Lenovo, starting in May.

    The NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000, RTX PRO 4500 and RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell GPUs will be available in the summer from BOXX, Dell, HP and Lenovo and through global distribution partners.

    NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell laptop GPUs will be available from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Razer starting later this year.

    To learn more about the NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs, watch the GTC keynote and register to attend sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through March 21. Plus, explore extended-reality demos running on RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs at the XR Pavilion at The Tech Interactive museum.

    About NVIDIA
    NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in accelerated computing.

    For further information, contact:
    Pearlina Boc
    NVIDIA Corporation
    +1-562-275-5781
    pboc@nvidia.com

    Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, and performance of NVIDIA’s products, services, and technologies; third parties adopting or offering NVIDIA’s products and technologies; and bringing Blackwell to workstations and servers taking productivity, performance and speed to new heights, accelerating AI inference serving, data science, visualization and content creation are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

    Many of the products and features described herein remain in various stages and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. The statements above are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as a commitment, promise, or legal obligation, and the development, release, and timing of any features or functionalities described for our products is subject to change and remains at the sole discretion of NVIDIA. NVIDIA will have no liability for failure to deliver or delay in the delivery of any of the products, features or functions set forth herein.

    © 2025 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, CUDA, CUDA-X, NVIDIA NIM, NVIDIA Omniverse, NVIDIA RTX, NVIDIA RTX PRO and vGPU are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at:
    https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/155918f9-2121-4220-9f20-6b968e34a460

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: NVIDIA Launches Family of Open Reasoning AI Models for Developers and Enterprises to Build Agentic AI Platforms

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Post-Trained by NVIDIA, New Llama Nemotron Reasoning Models Provide Business-Ready Foundation for Agentic AI
    • Accenture, Amdocs, Atlassian, Box, Cadence, CrowdStrike, Deloitte, IQVIA, Microsoft, SAP and ServiceNow Pioneering Reasoning AI Agents With NVIDIA to Transform Work

    SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GTC — NVIDIA today announced the open Llama Nemotron family of models with reasoning capabilities, designed to provide developers and enterprises a business-ready foundation for creating advanced AI agents that can work independently or as connected teams to solve complex tasks.

    Built on Llama models, the NVIDIA Llama Nemotron reasoning family delivers on-demand AI reasoning capabilities. NVIDIA enhanced the new reasoning model family during post-training to improve multistep math, coding, reasoning and complex decision-making.

    This refinement process boosts accuracy of the models by up to 20% compared with the base model and optimizes inference speed by 5x compared with other leading open reasoning models. The improvements in inference performance mean the models can handle more complex reasoning tasks, enhance decision-making capabilities and reduce operational costs for enterprises.

    Leading agent AI platform pioneers — including Accenture, Amdocs, Atlassian, Box, Cadence, CrowdStrike, Deloitte, IQVIA, Microsoft, SAP and ServiceNow — are collaborating with NVIDIA on its new reasoning models and software.

    “Reasoning and agentic AI adoption is incredible,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “NVIDIA’s open reasoning models, software and tools give developers and enterprises everywhere the building blocks to create an accelerated agentic AI workforce.”

    NVIDIA Post-Training Boosts Accuracy and Reliability for Enterprise Reasoning
    Built to deliver production-ready AI reasoning, the Llama Nemotron model family is available as NVIDIA NIM™ microservices in Nano, Super and Ultra sizes — each optimized for different deployment needs.

    The Nano model delivers the highest accuracy on PCs and edge devices, the Super model offers the best accuracy and highest throughput on a single GPU, and the Ultra model will provide maximum agentic accuracy on multi-GPU servers.

    NVIDIA conducted extensive post-training on NVIDIA DGX™ Cloud using high-quality curated synthetic data generated by NVIDIA Nemotron™ and other open models, as well as additional curated datasets cocreated by NVIDIA.

    The tools, datasets and post-training optimization techniques used to develop the models will be openly available, giving enterprises the flexibility to build their own custom reasoning models.

    Agentic Platforms Team With NVIDIA to Enhance Reasoning for Industries
    Agentic AI platform industry leaders are working with the Llama Nemotron reasoning models to deliver advanced reasoning to enterprises.

    Microsoft is integrating Llama Nemotron reasoning models and NIM microservices into Microsoft Azure AI Foundry. This expands the Azure AI Foundry model catalog with options for customers to enhance services like Azure AI Agent Service for Microsoft 365.

    SAP is tapping Llama Nemotron models to advance SAP Business AI solutions and Joule, the AI copilot from SAP. Additionally, it is using NVIDIA NIM and NVIDIA NeMo™ microservices to promote increased code completion accuracy for SAP ABAP programming language models.

    “We are collaborating with NVIDIA to integrate Llama Nemotron reasoning models into Joule to enhance our AI agents, making them more intuitive, accurate and cost effective,” said Walter Sun, global head of AI at SAP. “These advanced reasoning models will refine and rewrite user queries, enabling our AI to better understand inquiries and deliver smarter, more efficient AI-powered experiences that drive business innovation.”

    ServiceNow is harnessing Llama Nemotron models to build AI agents that offer greater performance and accuracy to enhance enterprise productivity across industries.

    Accenture has made NVIDIA Llama Nemotron reasoning models available on its AI Refinery platform — including new industry agent solutions announced today — to enable clients to rapidly develop and deploy custom AI agents tailored to industry-specific challenges, accelerating business transformation.

    Deloitte is planning to incorporate Llama Nemotron reasoning models into its recently announced Zora AI agentic AI platform designed to support and emulate human decision-making and action with agents that include deep functional- and industry-specific business knowledge and built-in transparency.

    NVIDIA AI Enterprise Delivers Essential Tools for Agentic AI
    Developers can deploy NVIDIA Llama Nemotron reasoning models with new NVIDIA agentic AI tools and software to streamline the adoption of advanced reasoning in collaborative AI systems.

    All part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform, the latest agentic AI building blocks include:

    • The NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint, which enables enterprises to connect knowledge to AI agents that can autonomously perceive, reason and act. Built with NVIDIA NIM microservices, the blueprint integrates NVIDIA NeMo Retriever™ for multimodal information retrieval and enables agent and data connections, optimization and transparency using the open-source NVIDIA AgentIQ toolkit.
    • The NVIDIA AI Data Platform, a customizable reference design for a new class of enterprise infrastructure with AI query agents built with the AI-Q Blueprint.
    • New NVIDIA NIM microservices, which optimize inference for complex agentic AI applications and enable continuous learning and real-time adaptation across any environment. The microservices ensure reliable deployment of the latest models from leading model builders including Meta, Microsoft and Mistral AI.
    • NVIDIA NeMo microservices, which provide an efficient, enterprise-grade solution to quickly establish and maintain a robust data flywheel that enables AI agents to continuously learn from human- and AI-generated feedback. The NVIDIA AI Blueprint for building a data flywheel will offer a reference architecture for developers to easily build and optimize data flywheels using NVIDIA microservices.

    Availability
    The NVIDIA Llama Nemotron Nano and Super models and NIM microservices are available as a hosted application programming interface from build.nvidia.com and Hugging Face. Access for development, testing and research is free for members of the NVIDIA Developer Program.

    Enterprises can run Llama Nemotron NIM microservices in production with NVIDIA AI Enterprise on accelerated data center and cloud infrastructure. Developers can sign up to be notified when NVIDIA NeMo microservices are publicly available.

    The NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint is expected to be available in April. The NVIDIA AgentIQ toolkit is available now on GitHub.

    About NVIDIA
    NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in accelerated computing.

    For further information, contact:
    Anna Kiachian
    NVIDIA Corporation
    +1-650-224-9820
    akiachian@nvidia.com

    Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, availability, and performance of NVIDIA’s products, services, and technologies; third parties adopting NVIDIA’s products and technologies and the benefits and impact thereof; NVIDIA’s open reasoning models, software and tools giving developers and enterprises everywhere the building blocks to create an accelerated agentic AI workforce are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

    Many of the products and features described herein remain in various stages and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. The statements above are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as a commitment, promise, or legal obligation, and the development, release, and timing of any features or functionalities described for our products is subject to change and remains at the sole discretion of NVIDIA. NVIDIA will have no liability for failure to deliver or delay in the delivery of any of the products, features or functions set forth herein.

    © 2025 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, DGX, NVIDIA NeMo, NVIDIA Nemotron, NVIDIA NeMo Retriever and NVIDIA NIM are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6b111210-07b7-4296-83fa-8c18c9acfbfc

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Laws governing space are 50 years old. New ones are needed to prevent it becoming a ‘wild west’

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yucong Wang, Lecturer, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle

    In the first few months of 2025, there’s been a flurry of private venture space missions. Some have been successful, such as American company Firefly Aerospace landing its spacecraft Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the Moon. This was the first successful lunar landing of a privately owned spacecraft.

    But there have also been several recent failures. None have been more spectacular than the repeated explosions of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship rockets in January and March.

    In theory, there are a range of international laws governing these activities. However, most were established roughly half a century ago, before space was within reach of private companies eager to explore it and exploit its untapped resources.

    With this development, there is an urgent need to update laws governing what happens in space, in order to prevent it becoming a kind of “wild west” where tech billionaires and the companies they own can do as they please with little to no accountability, consequence or regard for the public good.

    Laws as old as the Cold War

    Space activities are mainly governed by United Nations treaties. These include the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1972 Liability Convention, and the 1979 Moon Agreement.

    But these agreements were created during the Cold War, when space exploration was shaped by military sensitivities and mainly conducted by nation states.

    Yet private companies are now major players in space. They can bring the allure of space to the masses, for a pretty penny. For example, most of the roughly 11,000 active satellites orbiting Earth are privately owned.

    NASA now relies on partnerships with companies to combine expertise and save costs. The European Space Agency does the same, as do many of the 77 countries with space programs

    Elon Musk has expertly tapped into this trend, securing US$22.6 billion in United States government funding for SpaceX.

    Private spacecraft journeys may combine commercial and national goals. For example, the Blue Ghost Mission 1 was contracted by NASA through its Commercial Lunar Payloads initiative. It carried a suite of NASA science and technology instruments.

    Just days later, another company put a spacecraft on the Moon. Yet the Intuitive Machines Athena spacecraft landed awkwardly. It toppled over and was soon declared dead. It too was carrying expensive NASA cargo.

    National space agencies will continue to rely on company partners in more ambitious ventures. But what happens when things go wrong? How can private companies be held accountable if they damage the property of others, or cause environmental harm on celestial bodies?

    Space traffic

    There is an increasing risk of collisions among satellites, spacecrafts and space debris. And while there are some mechanisms for collision warnings, there is no global approach to assess the risk of collisions.

    The 1972 Liability Convention provides guidance about addressing liability after satellite collisions. However, it only directly applies to states, not private companies.

    If a private company’s spacecraft causes damage, the affected party can only initiate a claim via diplomatic channels against the launching state, not the company itself. The claims pathway can be complex, slow and subject to diplomatic negotiations.

    Also, some satellite operators purchase insurance to cover damage from collisions, wisely bypassing the convention. Insurance creates an efficient private mechanism to address damages, avoiding the need to involve states or navigate the diplomatic processes required under the Convention.

    But space insurance is incredibly expensive, so most satellites are not insured.

    The Outer Space Treaty says countries must avoid contamination of space. But it does not specifically address the problem of accumulated space debris.

    The long-term sustainablity of space activities, including the build up of debris, was not the pressing issue for the treaty’s drafters. Moreover, the treaty’s language is vague, requiring states to act with “due regard” for others’ interests and conduct “appropriate” consultation before undertaking potentially harmful activities. However, it does not define what these terms mean.

    Who owns the resources in space?

    The prospect that humans will be able to collect and sell mineral resources from astronomical objects is edging closer to reality. Initial focus is on the Moon. But who owns the resources on the Moon?

    There is no internationally agreed-upon property rights regime beyond Earth. The US is trying to achieve private ownership of space resources through its 2020 “Artemis Accords”.

    This effort is a big boost to the privatisation of space. But it contrasts with the “common heritage of mankind” concept – the cornerstone of the 1979 Moon Agreement.

    So far 53 countries have signed the Artemis Accords. But only 17 countries are parties to the Moon Agreement. Without clear rules applicable to all space players, lunar exploration and mining by private entities may run into trouble.

    There are many worrying scenarios. A private spacecraft might crash into a country’s lunar accommodation facility due to a lack of “rules of the road” on the Moon. Lunar traffic and mining might cause damage to the Moon’s surface.

    Can private entities be held accountable for this damage? The current space law regime does not address such hypothetical problems that may become real in coming years.

    NASA now relies on partnerships with private companies such as SpaceX to combine expertise and save costs.
    SpaceX/Flickr, CC BY-NC

    Safe and sustainable space exploration

    Space law must evolve to ensure safe and sustainable commercial space travel and lunar exploration. This can only be achieved by building international consensus on new rules for space missions.

    This requires many challenging discussions.

    What types of damage to the Moon should be remediated, and by who? What is the most suitable avenue for affected entities to apply for compensation? What rules should be in place to manage the increased traffic volume in outer space? How can countries be incentivised to strengthen their oversight of their private entity partners in joint missions?

    Perhaps the easiest issue to solve is which side of future lunar highways to drive on. With the US and China leading the way at the moment, it would be on the right side.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Laws governing space are 50 years old. New ones are needed to prevent it becoming a ‘wild west’ – https://theconversation.com/laws-governing-space-are-50-years-old-new-ones-are-needed-to-prevent-it-becoming-a-wild-west-252014

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Adolescence is a technical masterpiece that exposes the darkest corners of incel culture and male rage

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Senior Lecturer – Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland

    Netflix

    Filmed in a one-take style, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham’s new crime drama Adolescence is being hailed by critics as a technical masterpiece.

    Out now on Netflix, the four-part series follows the fallout surrounding 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) after he is arrested and later charged for the murder of his classmate, Katie. Co-creator Stephen Graham stars as Jamie’s father, Eddie.

    Adolescence draws inspiration from the United Kingdom’s knife crime epidemic, the rise of incel culture and the brutality of online bullying. These malignant forces combine to create every parent’s worst nightmare.

    However, unlike true crime, where there is often a resolution, there is no escape from the horror.

    The show’s continuous filming style offers no reprieve, and the story itself provides no easy outs – refusing to provide a simple explanation for why an intelligent boy from an “ordinary” loving family would borrow a knife from a friend and, on a casual Sunday evening, stab another child to death.

    While Jamie’s motives remain murky, the show makes one thing clear: today’s teens inhabit an online world that adults, however well-intentioned, are incapable of understanding if they do not listen.

    Anxieties distorted by algorithms

    At the centre of the show’s broken heart is a devastating truth: the most dangerous place in the world for a teenager is alone in their bedroom.

    Trapped in the dark mirror of social media, Jamie – like a growing number of teenage boys – turns to the digital “manosphere” and the grim logic of online misogynists.



    Read more:
    The draw of the ‘manosphere’: understanding Andrew Tate’s appeal to lost men

    He subscribes to the “red pills” of incel culture, so-called truth groups and the 80/20 rule (the theory that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men, and that women only seek out men who are physically and socially desirable).

    While Jamie is, for the most part, an outwardly “normal” and well-adjusted teen, his explosive rage and aggrieved entitlement is revealed in a climatic scene in episode three, when he intimidates and shouts down a female psychologist (Erin Doherty).

    “You do not control what I do!” he yells. “Get that in that fucking little head of yours!”

    Jamie is quick to apologise when a guard intervenes. “I shouted,” he says. “I’m sorry. Can I have another hot chocolate, please?”

    In one particularly unnerving moment, Jamie recalls his decision to ask Katie out after receiving a topless photo of her on Snapchat.

    “I thought she might be weak cause everyone was calling her a slag,” he says. “I just thought that when she was that weak, she might like me. It’s clever, don’t you think?”

    While the sinister child-teen killer trope has been a mainstay of horror, from Child’s Play (1988) to The Exorcist (1973), Adolescence out-scares its predecessors in its unflinching portrayal of a radicalised misogynist-turned murderer.

    A nightmare with no end

    The show’s most stunning achievement is without a doubt its one-take style. Each hour-long episode is filmed in a single take which, as director Philip Barantini explains, “basically means that we press record on the camera, and we don’t stop until the very end of the hour”.

    Tapping into today’s true crime zeitgeist, the series renders Jamie’s story more real than it actually is by imitating the cinéma vérité style of documentary filmmaking.

    Each episode creates an immersive fly-on-the wall experience that is deeply compelling and uncomfortable. The lack of breaks forces viewers to feel as trapped as the characters, in an unfathomable spiral through confusion, guilt and shame.

    This unease is heightened when the action is shot in claustrophobic spaces, such as inside the family van or a police interrogation room.

    The continuous shooting style makes the viewer feel as trapped as the characters as they spiral through confusion, guilt and shame.
    Netflix

    The soundtrack adds another layer of gritty true crime trauma, with random sirens, slamming doors and thumping discordant notes designed to mirror the inner turmoil of the characters.

    As the story unfolds, it charts the devastating impact of Jamie’s crime on those around him. While Katie’s school friends struggle to process their unfathomable grief, Jamie’s parents must also confront their son’s capacity for cruelty.

    “We made him,” despairs Jamie’s mother (Manda Miller).

    The unbroken style, in this regard, is important for understanding how broken this family is. Because there are no cuts, there is no escape from the nightmare.

    Indeed, Jamie seems to have fallen through the cracks of the social institutions we relied on in the pre-internet age: the schooling system, the judiciary and the family itself.

    Jamie has fallen through the cracks of the schooling system – a social institution that is supposed to help keep him and his peers safe.
    Netflix

    The generational chasm

    The show’s true sympathy lies not with its cast of troubled teens but with the baffled adults around them. Like Jamie’s parents, viewers must surrender to the sorrow and disbelief of never truly understanding what went wrong.

    Adolescence is a convincing portrayal of the widening chasm between parents and their teenage children in a savage, unregulated digital age.

    It is also a social commentary on how little we know about how to communicate with teens effectively.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Adolescence is a technical masterpiece that exposes the darkest corners of incel culture and male rage – https://theconversation.com/adolescence-is-a-technical-masterpiece-that-exposes-the-darkest-corners-of-incel-culture-and-male-rage-252390

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: First Nations Australians are more likely to present to hospital with asthma and allergies – new research

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Desalegn Markos Shifti, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Child Health Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland

    Nils Versemann/Shutterstock

    Australia is often called the allergy capital of the world. Allergic diseases – such as allergic asthma, hay fever, eczema and food allergies – affect almost one in five people. And this figure is expected to rise in the years to come.

    An allergy happens when the body’s immune system mistakenly reacts to certain foods or other substances as if they were dangerous.

    But do allergies affect all Australians equally?

    In a recent study, we looked at emergency department (ED) presentations related to asthma and other allergic diseases in central Queensland. The region has a population of 228,246 according to the most recent Census data, and 7.2% of residents identify as First Nations.

    We found First Nations Australians were almost twice as likely to present to hospital with asthma or other allergy-related illnesses compared to other Australians.

    What we did and found

    We analysed 813,112 ED presentations from 12 public hospitals in central Queensland from 2018 to 2023. The hospitals were spread across regional and remote areas.

    Of the conditions we looked at, asthma was the most likely to bring patients to the ED. This was followed by unspecified allergies, atopic dermatitis (or eczema) and anaphylaxis (a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction). First Nations people were more likely than other Australians to present with each of these conditions.

    Overall, we found First Nations people were almost twice as likely to visit an ED for asthma or allergic diseases compared to other Australians. It should be noted that asthma is not always caused by allergies, and in this study we looked at all presentations for asthma, regardless of the cause.

    Our study also found ED visits for allergic diseases among First Nations people increased over time. They were around 1.5 times more common in 2023 compared to 2018.

    Further, we found a notable peak in asthma-related visits to the ED among First Nations people in 2019. This increase may have been partly due to Australia’s Black Summer bushfires during 2019–20.

    Other research has shown ED visits and hospitalisations for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease increased during the Black Summer bushfires. Exposure to bushfire smoke significantly increases the risk of breathing problems and other health issues.

    The increase in asthma-related ED visits could also be linked to the severe flu season in 2019, as flu is known to trigger asthma attacks.

    We looked at ED presentations for allergic conditions such as eczema and anaphylaxis.
    Ternavskaia Olga Alibec/Shutterstock

    Are these findings surprising?

    National data shows asthma is one of the most commonly reported chronic illnesses for First Nations Australians. More than 16% of First Nations Australians reported they had asthma in 2022–23 compared to 10.8% of the general Australian population.

    So it’s not entirely surprising that hospital presentations for asthma were higher among First Nations people.

    However, we were surprised to find First Nations people visited the ED more often for other allergic diseases. Allergies have not necessarily been recognised as an important concern among First Nations people, particularly in remote areas.

    That said, international studies have reported a higher burden of allergic and atopic diseases (eczema, hay fever and asthma) among the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

    How about food allergies?

    Interestingly, we didn’t find any food allergy cases in our data. But some of the “unspecified” allergies could be linked to food allergies, as could some of the cases of anaphylaxis.

    Australian researchers have found differences in the prevalence of food allergies among different groups, but they lacked specific data on First Nations populations. We know little about how common food allergies are in First Nations Australians.

    In a recent national survey, 12% of First Nations people self-reported an allergy to a food, drug, or other substance (compared to 14% in the overall population). But some cases might go unrecognised or unreported, and these data were not broken down into different types of allergies.

    Allergies have not necessarily been recognised as an important concern among First Nations people.
    Bobbi Lockyer/Refinery29 Australia – We Are Many Image Gallery/Getty Images

    Some limitations

    This is the first comprehensive study, to our knowledge, that looks at asthma and allergic disease-related ED visits among both First Nations people and other Australians in an under-researched part of Australia.

    However, we only looked at asthma and allergic diseases treated in the ED, which doesn’t encompass all cases. For example, some people might visit other health services such as GPs when they’re having a less severe allergic episode.

    Ultimately, we need more research to better understand how common allergies and allergic diseases are among First Nations Australians.

    Why do these gaps exist?

    We don’t know exactly why there are disparities in ED presentations for allergic diseases between First Nations people and other Australians.

    One possibility is that asthma and allergic diseases might be more severe in First Nations people, leading to more hospital visits, even if they’re not more common.

    Another reason could be limited access to specialists, especially in rural and remote First Nations communities. Long wait lists to see allergy doctors and their limited availability in some areas could lead to delays in care and make it harder to get the right treatment. This can worsen asthma and allergic disease symptoms, causing patients to seek ED care instead.

    We want to learn more about how allergies affect First Nations people, especially in regional and remote areas, and whether people have unmet needs. In initial conversations with First Nations Australians living with a food allergy, we’ve heard allergies might not be well understood in rural areas. This could be because they’re rare or because traditional lifestyles offer some protection.

    We’re interested in finding out more, especially whether allergies are a concern for First Nations people, and, if so, how we can support communities to develop targeted and culturally respectful strategies to address them.

    Desalegn Markos Shifti is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded Centre for Food and Allergy Research (CFAR) Postdoctoral Funding.

    Jennifer Koplin receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence (NACE), which is supported by funding from the Australian government.

    Renarta Whitcombe 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. First Nations Australians are more likely to present to hospital with asthma and allergies – new research – https://theconversation.com/first-nations-australians-are-more-likely-to-present-to-hospital-with-asthma-and-allergies-new-research-251720

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India. Cortyn/Shutterstock

    For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils and chocolates shaped into erotic positions. In India, where sex remains a taboo subject, this ancient sex manual has often been reduced to merely a “dirty book”.

    But beneath this narrow view lies a deeper message: the Kamasutra is a treatise on sexual autonomy, one that could be revolutionary for women.

    In Indian society, women’s sexual pleasure is often invisible, buried beneath layers of cultural silence. Women are often taught to suppress their desires, their voices stifled by traditions that prioritise male needs. Yet, it was in this very country that the Kamasutra was written.

    Composed in the ancient Sanskrit language in the 3rd century by the Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, the Kamasutra is more than a book about sexual positions. The word “kama” means love, sex, desire and pleasure, while “sutra” translates to a treatise. The text explores relationships, ethics and social norms. It offers a framework for mutual respect and understanding between partners.

    In her 2016 book Redeeming the Kamasutra, scholar of Indian culture and society Wendy Doniger argues that Vatsyayana was an advocate of women’s pleasure as well as stressing their right to education and the freedom to express desire. Far from reinforcing male dominance, the Kamasutra originally emphasised the importance of mutual enjoyment and consent. It presents sex as a shared experience rather than a male conquest.

    Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890).
    Rischgitz/Stringer/Wikimedia

    The perception of the Kamasutra as a male-centred sex manual can be traced back to its first English translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883.

    Burton, a British soldier and explorer, omitted or altered passages that highlighted women’s autonomy. It shifted their role from active participants to passive recipients of male pleasure.

    In contrast, scholars such as Ganesh Saili have argued that the Kamasutra originally depicted women as equal partners in intimacy. According to the text, women communicated their needs through gestures, emotions and words, ensuring that their pleasure was just as valued as men’s. Importantly, conversation played a central role in intimacy, reinforcing the necessity of a woman’s consent before having sex.

    Despite this rich history, Indian society continues to largely suppress discussions around female sexuality. Indian sex educator and journalist Leeza Mangaldas argues that women’s sexual pleasure remains a taboo topic, policed by cultural expectations that dictate women must remain silent, subservient and sexually inactive before marriage.

    Social scientist, Deepa Narayan, argues that this suppression begins at home. Girls are often taught to deny their own bodies and prioritise male desires.

    The title page of the 1883 edition of Sir Richard Burton’s translation.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    This control extends to patriarchal social norms that uphold virginity as a virtue for women while imposing no such expectation on men. Sex is framed as something women “give” rather than something they experience. Pleasure is seen as a right for males but merely an afterthought for females. Sex is for men but for women, it is only for producing babies.

    Yet the Kamasutra itself tells a different story. In its original form, it described women as active participants in their pleasure and compared their sensuality to the delicacy of flowers – requiring care, attention and respect.

    My own research explores “Kamasutra feminism”. This is the idea that this ancient text is not just about sex but about sexual autonomy. It challenges patriarchal norms by promoting women’s freedom to articulate their desires and take control of their pleasure. The Kamasutra rejects the notion that women’s sexuality should be regulated or repressed. Instead, it advocates for mutual satisfaction and consent.

    Doniger describes the Kamasutra as a feminist text, citing its emphasis on women choosing their partners, expressing their desires freely and engaging in pleasurable sexual relationships. It recognises economic independence as a crucial factor in women’s sexual autonomy. Financial freedom is linked to the ability to make personal choices.

    An original Kamasutra manuscript page preserved in the vaults of the Raghunath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Patriarchy versus sexual liberty

    Ultimately, the Kamasutra represents a clash between patriarchy – where women’s sexuality is controlled – and a vision of sexual liberty. It offers an alternative narrative, one where seduction is about mutual enjoyment rather than male domination. Its teachings encourage open discussions about intimacy, allowing women to reclaim their voices in relationships.

    For more than a century, the Kamasutra has been misinterpreted, its radical message buried beneath layers of censorship and cultural shame. But if we look beyond its erotic reputation, we find a text that speaks to the importance of consent, equality and female agency.

    Reclaiming the Kamasutra as a guide for sexual empowerment could help dismantle deeply ingrained taboos and reshape the conversation around women’s pleasure. In a world where female desire is still widely policed, this ancient manuscript reminds us that women’s pleasure is not a luxury, but a right.

    Sharha Sharha 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. Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story – https://theconversation.com/womens-sexual-pleasure-is-still-taboo-but-the-kamasutra-tells-a-different-story-251987

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Dr. Linda S. Durst Elevated to Fellow of The American College of Psychiatrists

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    New recruit Dr. Linda S. Durst, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UConn School of Medicine and medical director of the Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic at UConn Health, has been named a fellow of The American College of Psychiatrists.

    Durst was prestigiously elevated to the rank of fellow at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Psychiatrists in Hawaii on February 20.

    Durst has been a member of the ACP since 2017. Membership in ACP is limited to psychiatrists who have demonstrated outstanding competence in the field of psychiatry, and who have achieved national recognition. The ACP is a not-for-profit honorary association dedicated to providing continuing education to its members, promoting the latest advances in the specialty, and supporting the highest standards in psychiatry.

    In January Durst joined UConn’s faculty from MaineHealth, where she served as chair of psychiatry. She is a board-certified psychiatrist who practices in general behavioral health and specializes in suicide and violence prevention, grief therapy, quality, and safety.

    She received her medical degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed residency training at The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital.

    “Dr. Durst has an impressive background as a leader in psychiatry, and this important national award from the ACP reflects just that,” shared Dr. David C. Steffens, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at UConn School of Medicine.

    “I am happy to join the UConn Health family and share my knowledge around suicide care, violence screening and quality initiatives with my team,” said Durst. “Returning to the role of Clinician/Educator is very rewarding to me.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Expansion

    Source: US State of New York

    overnor Kathy Hochul today announced a $4 million expansion of the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program to include licensed professionals serving children and adolescents at programs licensed or funded by the state. Administered by the state Office of Mental Health (OMH), in partnership with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), the funding will provide at least 400 awards of up to $30,000 to help mental health professionals serving youth repay education loans and student debt, provided they work a minimum of three years at eligible mental health programs.

    “The effectiveness of New York State’s mental health care system relies on our ability to attract top professionals to do this critical work,” Governor Hochul said. “By expanding the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment program to programs and facilities serving youth, we can help our state retain existing staff and recruit new professionals and avoid experiencing the shortages seen in many other areas of our nation.”

    The Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program provides up to $120,000 for psychiatrists and $30,000 for other mental health professionals to repay qualified education loans and student debt, provided they remain employed by licensed community mental health programs for three years. Program eligibility includes many licensed mental health professionals, including master and clinical social workers; mental health counselors; marriage and family therapists; creative arts therapists, psychoanalysts, and psychologists.

    A high priority for workforce capacity is in the child and youth behavioral health workforce, due to the youth mental health crisis and the need for mental health professionals to address the national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. The expansion will further focus on eligible licensed professionals serving children and adolescents at community programs licensed, designated, or funded by OMH or OCFS to increase access and availability of mental health services for children and youth.

    The latest expansion of the loan repayment program will extend at least 400 awards to OMH and OCFS providers offering direct care mental health services to children or adolescents. This includes children’s day treatment programs, Home Based Crisis Intervention programs, community residence for eating disorder integrated treatment programs, and voluntary foster care agencies, limited secure programs approved under New York City’s ‘Close to Home’ initiative, and runaway and homeless youth programs.

    New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said, “Growing our youth mental health workforce is critical in expanding access to mental health services for our young New Yorkers. This expansion of the loan repayment program will help us build a mental health care workforce that is truly responsive to our needs today and long into the future. I applaud Governor Hochul’s continued focus on strengthening our mental health care system and ensuring all New Yorkers have the support they need to live and thrive.”

    New York State Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden said, “The tremendous investments that Governor Hochul has made in the mental health system is responsive to the growing needs for supports, services, and opportunities for those who require intervention, as well as individuals who are critical to the system’s workforce. With one in five people in the U.S. suffering from mental health disorders – and alarming rates of youth and children with high-acuity needs – it is necessary to build the career pipeline to support the mental health system. Our mental health professionals are a critical part of supporting the comprehensive well-being of children and youth. OCFS supports the aims of the governor and the Office of Mental Health to bolster the mental health workforce by extending the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program to licensed professionals serving children and adolescents in OCFS licensed programs.”

    An additional $3 million is available for eligible professionals employed by OMH-licensed providers, including comprehensive psychiatric emergency programs, residential treatment facilities, assertive community treatment teams, children’s day treatment, mental health outpatient treatment and rehabilitative services and crisis stabilization centers. This funding is remaining from previous rounds of the program and will support at least 120 awards, including 60 psychiatrists and 60 psychiatric nurse practitioners or psychiatric physician assistants.

    So far, the program has provided roughly $9.6 million annual loan repayment on behalf of 909 community mental health program employees. This includes 77 psychiatrists, 164 psychiatric nurse practitioners and physician assistants and 668 licensed mental health practitioners.

    Governor Hochul established the loan repayment program in 2022 with $9 million in state funding to help community mental health agencies recruit and retain psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners. The program was expanded in 2023 with an additional $5 million, allowing licensed mental health professionals to apply for awards.

    Nationally, rising rates of mental illness and substance use disorder have created heightened demand for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, a need that is expected to outpace growth of this area of the workforce. Based on findings from the Center for Health Workforce Studies, New York State is projected to have a shortfall of between roughly 1,180 and 2,650 psychiatrists by 2030.

    The expansion of the loan repayment program reflects Governor Hochul’s steadfast commitment to addressing and improving youth mental health statewide. Her FY 2026 Executive Budget will expand Teen Mental Health First Aid training for high school students to help them respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges; and will add four Youth Safe Spaces across the state to provide a place for young people to access behavioral health wellness resources.

    As part of her landmark $1 billion mental health initiative, Governor Hochul has also significantly expanded access to mental health care and resources for young people and their families –investments that were increased again in the FY25 Enacted Budget. These investments include $20 million in start-up funding and a rolling application process for school-based mental health clinics; and providing $9.6 million to add 12 new Youth Assertive Community Treatment to ensure resources and support are available for more families.

    State Senator Samra G. Brouk said, “As Chair of the Senate Committee on Mental Health, I have actively worked to address the statewide youth mental health crisis while supporting the mental health workforce. I have been fighting to increase support for individuals providing lifesaving care with my legislation to establish a school-based mental health loan repayment program that aids youth mental health practitioners. I applaud Governor Hochul for expanding the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program to help our mental health workers continue to deliver high-quality, compassionate services for our young New Yorkers.”

    Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi said, “I’m grateful to Governor Hochul for expanding the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program. This loan forgiveness program helps ensure we have enough qualified professionals to meet the mental health crisis facing our state, particularly impacting our children.”

    Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon said, “Addressing the youth mental health crisis starts with investing in the professionals who are on the front lines, providing essential care and support. Expanding loan forgiveness is a critical investment in our future, strengthening the pipeline of diverse mental health professionals. This will help ensure that young people across New York get the targeted and timely care they need and deserve.”

    Governor Hochul also established the Youth Mental Health Advisory Board, a 30-member advisory board which includes youth between the ages of 11 and 17. The advisory board convenes quarterly and is designed to ensure that youth-informed best practices continue to be incorporated in developing behavioral health programs and policies.

    New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare Executive Director Lauri Cole said, “The 165 members of the New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare applaud Governor Hochul and our tireless colleagues at the Office of Mental Health for having the vision to deliver this important expansion of a critical loan repayment program that focuses on the mental health needs of children, youth and families so we can recruit and retain the workforce needed to serve them. Few things could be more important than ensuring these New Yorkers have quick access to services at a level of care best suited to meet their needs. That can only happen if we incentivize psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, licensed mental health practitioners and others who want to make a difference in the lives of these New Yorkers, but who are often saddled with unmanageable debt.”

    New York State Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies President and CEO Kathleen Brady-Stepien said, “We thank the Governor for prioritizing the mental health needs of youth in the state, and for recognizing the critical importance of the role of our child welfare workforce in the behavioral health spectrum. We are thrilled to see this investment to support staff in achieving their higher education and career goals, as a stable and well-trained workforce is crucial for ensuring quality services, positive outcomes for our children and families, and reduced lengths of stay in foster care.”

    New York State Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health President and CEO Kayleigh Zaloga said, “We greatly appreciate the prioritization of child-serving practitioners, and the inclusion of providers licensed by OCFS in this expansion of the Community Mental Health Loan Repayment Program. It is a welcome step toward strengthening the children’s behavioral health workforce by investing in the practitioners that youth and families rely on. Easing the financial burden of student loan debt is a meaningful benefit that will enable more licensed practitioners to remain in the programs that need them, at a time when community need for behavioral health services continues to rise. As a field largely composed of women, we also want to highlight the value of investing in the children’s behavioral health workforce as a strategy for supporting women’s economic stability at the same time as improving children and families’ access to care.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: CASSIDY, COLLEAGUES INTRODUCE BILL TO CRACK DOWN ON PBM PRICING SCHEMES IN MEDICAID

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Louisiana Bill Cassidy

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Peter Welch (D-VT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act to put an end to harmful pricing schemes used by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The bill targets ‘spread pricing,’ a practice where PBMs overcharge Medicaid while underpaying pharmacies, ultimately driving up costs and putting independent pharmacies at risk of closing. This legislation is expected to save Medicaid $2 billion over the next decade.
    “My goal as a doctor in the exam room was to provide the best care at the most affordable price for the patient. The same principle should apply to Medicaid,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Taxpayers should not be cheated by those looking to take advantage of Medicaid.”
    “Pharmacies are essential to the care and wellbeing of our rural communities. But spread pricing by pharmacy benefit managers is making it harder than ever for community pharmacies to stay in business and lining the pockets of middlemen,” said Senator Welch. “This bill takes an important step to limit PBMs’ abusive pricing practices, protect our pharmacies, and support our rural communities. I’m grateful to have Senators Marshall, Warner, and Cassidy’s partnership on this bipartisan legislation to protect the health of Vermonters and Americans across the country.”“Pharmaceutical industry middlemen use a variety of tricks to line their own pockets at the expense of small, independent pharmacies and senior citizens,” said Senator Marshall.“Prohibiting PBM spread pricing will cut costs for prescription drugs relied upon by Medicaid enrollees while simultaneously preserving access to local pharmacies that have financially struggled in recent years due to PBMs cutting them out of their share of payments. I’m grateful to partner with Senator Welch on this important legislation that is pro-consumer, pro-small business, and pro-taxpayer.”  
    “Independent pharmacies deliver critical health care, including providing life-saving prescriptions, to patients all across the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, for too long, PBMs have engaged in shady tactics to line their own pockets at the expense of these small businesses and sick seniors. That’s why I’m proud to introduce the Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act, legislation that will put an end to the abusive practice of spread pricing and bring down costs for patients and our local pharmacies,” said Senator Warner. 
    The spread pricing model has contributed to the decline of independent pharmacies, which serve as a vital resource for rural communities. From 2018 to 2021, more pharmacies shuttered than opened nationwide, leaving millions with fewer options for accessing their medications. In Louisiana, where more than a quarter of residents live in rural areas, these closures hit especially hard.
    Under the Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act, PBMs would be required to pass Medicaid payments directly to pharmacies instead of skimming off the top. It also requires pharmacies participating in state Medicaid programs to report National Average Drug Acquisition Costs (NADAC) to improve transparency in drug pricing and ensure fair reimbursement.
    The bill is endorsed by the Food Industry Association (FMI), National Community Pharmacists Association, and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
    “These are among the PBM reforms needed right away by Americans and their pharmacies,”said Steven C. Anderson, President and CEO of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. “These also are among the reforms backed overwhelmingly in the Congress on a bipartisan basis. Every day that PBM reform is delayed is another day that Americans pay inflated drug prices, that care gets more remote for people and for communities, and that pharmacies are forced out of business. NACDS thanks Senators Peter Welch, Roger Marshall, Mark Warner, and Bill Cassidy and the cosponsors for their continued leadership, and urges swift action by the Congress to right these wrongs of the middlemen’s pharmaceutical benefit manipulation,”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: IMF Executive Board Concludes 2025 Article IV Consultation, Third Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility with Morocco

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    March 18, 2025

    • The IMF Executive Board concluded the 2025 Article IV Consultation and approved the Third Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement with Morocco, allowing for the immediate disbursement of SDR 375 million (about US$ 496 million).
    • The Moroccan economy continued to show resilience despite another year of drought, with real GDP growth projected to slow modestly to 3.2 percent in 2024 amid strong domestic demand. Growth is expected to accelerate over the medium term, driven by stronger investment and the continued structural reforms.
    • Saving part of the revenue windfall from tax reforms would help strengthen fiscal buffers and protect against future shocks; while a new strategy to sustainably boost jobs and improve market competition would help address the increased unemployment linked to job displacement in the agricultural sector.

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded on March 17 the 2025 Article IV consultation[1] with Morocco and completed the Third Review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement, which was approved in September 2023 (see PR 23/327). The completion of the Third Review allows the authorities to draw SDR 375 million (about US$ 496 million), bringing total disbursement under the RSF arrangement to SDR 937.5 million (about US$ 1.24 billion). 

    In 2024, the Moroccan economy was resilient to yet another year of drought. Robust domestic demand helped offset weak agricultural output and economic activity is expected to have slowed only modestly to 3.2 percent in 2024. The current account deficit widened somewhat, whereas unemployment remained elevated at about 13 percent, mainly reflecting the impact of job losses in the agricultural sector. GDP growth is expected to accelerate to about 3.7 percent over the next few years, supported by a new series of infrastructure projects and the continued implementation of the structural reform agenda.

    Inflation decelerated further in 2024, mainly as the impact of supply shocks faded. This prompted Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) to lower the policy rate twice in June and December. The dirham continued to move within the fluctuation band of ±5 percent.

    The central government fiscal deficit improved more than envisaged in the 2024 Budget. The 2024 overall deficit closed at 4.1 percent of GDP, about 0.2 percent of GDP less than projected in the 2024 Budget. This reflects better-than-expected tax revenues that more than offset higher spending. The reform of the Organic Budget Law envisages the introduction of a new fiscal rule based on a medium-term debt anchor.  

    The implementation of the announced structural reform agenda has continued. Further steps were taken to restructure SOEs, operationalize the Mohammed VI Investment Fund, and implement the new Charter of Investment.

    Morocco continued to make progress in bolstering its resilience to climate change under the RSF arrangement. Measures implemented under the third and final review of the RSF arrangement aim to better protect underground water resources, prepare the ground for a change in tariffication of water, improve the regulatory setting of the electricity market to encourage private sector’s production of renewable energy, and reinforce fiscal and financial systems’ resilience to climate change-related risks.   

    Following the Executive Board’s discussion on Morocco, Mr. Kenji Okamura, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, issued the following statement:

    “The Moroccan economy continued to show resilience to negative shocks, a testament to the country’s very strong economic policies and frameworks. Despite renewed drought conditions, economic activity slowed only modestly to an estimated 3.2 percent in 2024, down from 3.4 percent in 2023, thanks to robust domestic demand. GDP growth is expected to accelerate to about 3.7 percent over the next few years, driven by a new cycle of infrastructure projects and the continued implementation of the structural reform agenda. These reforms are essential to making growth stronger, more resilient, job-rich, and more inclusive.

    “The RSF arrangement concluded with the implementation of six of the seven measures scheduled for the third and final review. These measures will help improve the management of scarce water resources, further liberalize the electricity sector, and address the climate risks on the stability of the fiscal position and the financial system. The gradual introduction of the carbon tax was not implemented as the authorities needed to undertake further analysis of its impact and deeper consultations with public and private stakeholders.” 

    Morocco: Selected Economic Indicators, 2020–30

    Population: 36.8 million; 2024

    		    

    Per capita GDP: $3,817; 2023

    		        

    Quota: SDR 894.4 million

    		    

    Poverty rate: 4.8 percent; 2013

    		        

    Main exports: automobiles, phosphate and derivatives; 2023

    		                

    Key export markets: France and Spain (42% of total trade); 2023

    		          
     

    2020

    2021

    2022

    2023

    2024

    2025

    2026

    2027

    2028

    2029

    2030
             

    Proj.

    Output (annual percent change)

    		                      

    Real GDP growth

    -7.2

    8.2

    1.5

    3.4

    3.2

    3.9

    3.7

    3.6

    3.6

    3.6

    3.6

    Real nonagricultural GDP growth

    -7.2

    7.0

    3.2

    3.6

    4.1

    3.7

    3.7

    3.7

    3.7

    3.7

    3.7
                           

    Employment (percent)

    		                      

    Unemployment

    11.9

    12.3

    11.8

    13.0

    13.3

    13.2

    12.9

    12.4

    12.1

    11.9

    11.8
                           

    Prices

    		                      

    Inflation (end of period)

    -0.3

    3.2

    8.3

    3.4

    0.7

    2.1

    2.2

    2.2

    2.1

    2.0

    2.0

    Inflation (period average)

    0.7

    1.4

    6.6

    6.1

    0.9

    2.2

    2.3

    2.2

    2.1

    2.0

    2.0
                           

    Central government finances (percent of GDP) 1/

    		                      

    Revenue

    27.0

    25.1

    28.4

    27.9

    30.1

    30.4

    29.4

    28.1

    28.1

    28.1

    28.1

    Expenditure

    34.1

    31.0

    33.8

    32.3

    34.2

    34.3

    32.8

    31.4

    31.3

    31.2

    31.2

    Fiscal balance

    -7.1

    -5.9

    -5.4

    -4.5

    -4.1

    -3.9

    -3.4

    -3.3

    -3.2

    -3.1

    -3.1

    Public debt

    72.2

    69.4

    71.5

    69.5

    70.0

    68.9

    67.7

    66.8

    66.2

    65.6

    65.1
                           

    Money and credit (annual percent change)

    		                      

    Broad money

    8.4

    5.1

    8.0

    4.0

    7.9

    4.6

    4.6

    4.6

    4.6

    4.6

    4.6

    Claims to the economy 2/

    4.9

    3.8

    7.1

    5.3

    6.9

    4.5

    4.1

    4.2

    4.2

    4.2

    4.2

    Balance of payments

    		                      

    Current account (percent of GDP)

    -1.2

    -2.3

    -3.5

    -0.6

    -1.5

    -2.0

    -2.2

    -2.6

    -2.9

    -3.1

    -3.3

    Exports of goods (in U.S. dollars, annual percent change)

    -4.4

    34.4

    15.1

    -0.5

    8.6

    6.6

    7.3

    6.9

    6.8

    6.7

    6.7

    Imports of goods (in U.S. dollars, annual percent change)

    -12.0

    32.1

    21.9

    -2.6

    8.0

    8.1

    7.5

    7.4

    7.3

    6.4

    6.2

    Merchandise trade balance (percent of GDP)

    -12.8

    -14.0

    -20.2

    -17.3

    -17.3

    -17.8

    -18.0

    -18.3

    -18.6

    -18.6

    -18.5

    FDI (percent of GDP)

    0.8

    1.1

    1.2

    0.2

    0.7

    1.4

    1.5

    1.6

    1.6

    1.7

    1.7

    Gross reserves (months of imports)

    7.2

    5.8

    5.3

    5.4

    5.2

    5.2

    5.2

    5.2

    5.1

    5.1

    5.2

    External Debt (percent of GDP)

    54.2

    45.5

    46.9

    50.2

    47.8

    49.2

    50.0

    50.9

    50.2

    54.0

    57.3

    Exchange rate

    		                      

    REER (annual average, percent change)

    1.4

    1.6

    -3.2

    0.9

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    Memorandum Items:

    		                      

    Nominal GDP (in billions of U.S. dollars)

    121

    142

    131

    144

    155

    166

    177

    188

    199

    212

    225

    Net imports of energy products (in billions of U.S. dollars)

    -5.3

    -8.4

    -15.1

    -12.0

    -11.5

    -12.1

    -12.3

    -12.8

    -13.2

    -13.7

    -14.1

    Local currency per U.S. dollar (period average)

    9.5

    9.0

    10.2

    10.1

    9.9

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    Sources: Moroccan authorities; and Fund staff estimates.

    –––––––––––

    1/ Include grants.

    2/ Includes credit to public enterprises.

    [1] Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country’s economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Wafa Amr

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

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2025/03/18/pr-2568-morocco-imf-concludes-2025-art-iv-consult-3rd-review-under-rsf

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: 18 March 2025 One man’s dream of a hepatitis-free Tanzania

    Source: World Health Organisation

    “I never showed any symptoms,” Shaibu said. “Even now I’m looking healthy, but I live with this disease. That’s why we call hepatitis a silent killer.”  

    After being diagnosed, isolation and grief set in. Shaibu and Latifu were separated from classmates. Due to inadequate awareness and knowledge about the disease, health workers refused to touch them due to fears of contracting the disease and their community shunned them.  

    Recounting the pain he experienced, Shaibu said, “Viral hepatitis changed my entire life, because from there I started to face stigma. That’s when I started to understand the importance of how people should be treated.” 

    Credit: WHO / Vicky Markolefa  

    Caption: Shaibu Issa looks at an old photograph of his brother Latifu Dini, who passed away due to liver cancer resulting from chronic hepatitis B. 

    Beyond stigma, Shaibu and his brother faced another hurdle. The cost of treatment was more than their family could afford, and it required travelling to Dar es Salaam from their rural home near Mtwara in southern Tanzania.  

    The family sold everything and fundraised but it wasn’t enough to cover the brothers’ ongoing treatment, in addition to their university fees. Later, Shaibu and Latifu would overcome all odds and finish university, but Latifu would lose his life to liver cancer. 

    “After losing my brother, it was very bad because I believed I was next,” recalls Shaibu. “But I came to realize many people globally are suffering with this disease and face stigma and discrimination. My brother inspired me to take responsibility to represent these people.  

    I can’t let many people die out there while I can speak,” he says. 

    Using social media to inspire change 

    An estimated 254 million people globally are living with chronic hepatitis B infection, and roughly 1.1 million people die each year from the infection, mostly resulting from cirrhosis or liver cancer.  In Tanzania, there are roughly 1.9 million people living with chronic hepatitis B, and most of the tests and treatments for the infection are either unavailable or unaffordable. 

    Despite many people living the disease in Tanzania, few people are aware of how the disease is transmitted, its symptoms or how it can be prevented. This lack of awareness and resulting misinformation is a key reason people like Shaibu face stigma and discrimination.

    For Shaibu, this presented an opportunity. When Shaibu was first diagnosed, “nobody talked about viral hepatitis,” he said. “The only information that prevailed was false information. I thought that if I needed to raise awareness to people, it’s very easy to meet many people on social media.  
    Today, Shaibu uses multiple digital platforms and also speaks at conferences, schools and universities to raise awareness about the importance of getting vaccinated against the disease as well as getting tested and treated. 

    Credit: WHO / Vicky Markolefa  

    Caption: Shaibu Issa looks at an old photograph of his brother Latifu Dini, who passed away due to liver cancer resulting from chronic hepatitis B. 

    Since Shaibu was not vaccinated as a child against hepatitis B due to the vaccine not being available where he lived, he also works to educate parents about the importance of vaccinating infants at birth, as recommended by WHO.  

    A national plan to tackle hepatitis  

    To respond to the hepatitis burden in Tanzania, the Ministry of Health with support from WHO, developed the Integrated Health Sector HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections National Strategic Plan, which aligns to the WHO Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs strategies 2022-2030.  In 2023, the country also launched a new integrated HIV and hepatitis programme known as the National AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Hepatitis Control Program. This programme now plans, budgets and implements activities for each of the diseases in unison. 

    “We recognize the immense dedication of advocates like Shaibu, who are at the forefront of this battle against hepatitis in Tanzania,” said Dr Charles Sagoe-Moses, WHO Representative in Tanzania. “The ongoing collaboration between the Ministry of Health, WHO, and local advocates is critical to reducing the burden of hepatitis and achieving a world where no one suffers in silence.” 

    In addition, the Ministry of Health has updated integrated HIV and hepatitis guidelines and is continuing to increase awareness about viral hepatitis through mass, print and social media engagement, including through World Hepatitis Day activities.  

    The Ministry of Health is also providing hepatitis vaccination and treatment for at risk populations, such as, people who inject drugs, people with multiple sexual partners, healthcare workers, people living with chronic liver and kidney disease and diabetes, and immunosuppressed individuals, including people living with HIV. 

    With support from advocates like Shaibu, as well as efforts by the Ministry of Health, in partnership with WHO, the country is committed to fighting hepatitis. For Shaibu, this would be his dream.  

    “My main goal is to make Tanzania, Africa and the world free of hepatitis by encouraging people to get tested and to be vaccinated, but also those who are already infected to access timely treatment,” he said. 

    ———–

    Do you want to receive the latest news on vaccines and immunization? Click here to subscribe to the Global Immunization Newsletter.

    “,”datePublished”:”2025-03-18T17:50:53.0000000+00:00″,”image”:”https://www.who.int/images/default-source/departments/immunization-ivb/feature-stories/tanzania/hepatitisb–advocate-tanzania-who.jpg?sfvrsn=eeffaad4_3″,”publisher”:{“@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”World Health Organization: WHO”,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”url”:”https://www.who.int/Images/SchemaOrg/schemaOrgLogo.jpg”,”width”:250,”height”:60}},”dateModified”:”2025-03-18T17:50:53.0000000+00:00″,”mainEntityOfPage”:”https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/one-man-s-dream-of-a-hepatitis-free-tanzania”,”@context”:”http://schema.org”,”@type”:”Article”};
    ]]>

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Man convicted over Notting Hill drive-by shooting

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    A man has been convicted following a drive-by shooting in Notting Hill.

    Nathan Tokosi, 25 (10.11.99), of Grove Street, Lewisham, was convicted of attempting to murder a 27-year-old man on Monday, 20 November, 2023.

    He was also found guilty of two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life. A jury at the Old Bailey returned their verdict on Tuesday, 18 March.

    Detective Constable Hannah Forrest, from the Met’s Specialist Crime South team, said: “This was a savage attack, with the victim requiring emergency surgery after being shot in the body, mouth and head. The verdict in this case shows that this violent criminality will not be tolerated on London’s streets.

    “Tokosi is a highly dangerous individual, who had – at the time of the shooting – only just been released from prison after serving time for a separate offence.

    “I would like to pay tribute to the investigation team in this case, who were able to build a compelling forensic case against Tokosi. This proved indispensable at trial.”

    At 02:05hrs on Monday, 20 November 2023, police responded to reports of a drive-by shooting in Clydesdale Road, Notting Hill.

    A car had pulled up to another car, with one of the passengers discharging a firearm. Officers attended and subsequently found the victim – who was severely injured – at his home address.

    A stolen car was found abandoned in Allington Road, Queen’s Park. Nearby, police located a black bag containing a handgun and ammunition. Forensics officers attended, and found Tokosi’s DNA inside the vehicle.

    Tokosi was arrested in Lewisham on Friday, 16 February, 2024, after his car was stopped by police. Following this, his address was searched and a further firearm plus ammunition was found.

    Having been remanded in custody, he was charged with attempted murder, two counts of possession of a firearm and two counts of possession of ammunition.

    Tokosi will be sentenced at the Old Bailey at a later date, which is yet to be set.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: NVIDIA Dynamo Open-Source Library Accelerates and Scales AI Reasoning Models

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GTC — NVIDIA today unveiled NVIDIA Dynamo, an open-source inference software for accelerating and scaling AI reasoning models in AI factories at the lowest cost and with the highest efficiency.

    Efficiently orchestrating and coordinating AI inference requests across a large fleet of GPUs is crucial to ensuring that AI factories run at the lowest possible cost to maximize token revenue generation.

    As AI reasoning goes mainstream, every AI model will generate tens of thousands of tokens used to “think” with every prompt. Increasing inference performance while continually lowering the cost of inference accelerates growth and boosts revenue opportunities for service providers.

    NVIDIA Dynamo, the successor to NVIDIA Triton Inference Server™, is new AI inference-serving software designed to maximize token revenue generation for AI factories deploying reasoning AI models. It orchestrates and accelerates inference communication across thousands of GPUs, and uses disaggregated serving to separate the processing and generation phases of large language models (LLMs) on different GPUs. This allows each phase to be optimized independently for its specific needs and ensures maximum GPU resource utilization.

    “Industries around the world are training AI models to think and learn in different ways, making them more sophisticated over time,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “To enable a future of custom reasoning AI, NVIDIA Dynamo helps serve these models at scale, driving cost savings and efficiencies across AI factories.”

    Using the same number of GPUs, Dynamo doubles the performance and revenue of AI factories serving Llama models on today’s NVIDIA Hopper™ platform. When running the DeepSeek-R1 model on a large cluster of GB200 NVL72 racks, NVIDIA Dynamo’s intelligent inference optimizations also boost the number of tokens generated by over 30x per GPU.

    To achieve these inference performance improvements, NVIDIA Dynamo incorporates features that enable it to increase throughput and reduce costs. It can dynamically add, remove and reallocate GPUs in response to fluctuating request volumes and types, as well as pinpoint specific GPUs in large clusters that can minimize response computations and route queries. It can also offload inference data to more affordable memory and storage devices and quickly retrieve them when needed, minimizing inference costs.

    NVIDIA Dynamo is fully open source and supports PyTorch, SGLang, NVIDIA TensorRT™-LLM and vLLM to allow enterprises, startups and researchers to develop and optimize ways to serve AI models across disaggregated inference. It will enable users to accelerate the adoption of AI inference, including at AWS, Cohere, CoreWeave, Dell, Fireworks, Google Cloud, Lambda, Meta, Microsoft Azure, Nebius, NetApp, OCI, Perplexity, Together AI and VAST. 

    Inference Supercharged
    NVIDIA Dynamo maps the knowledge that inference systems hold in memory from serving prior requests — known as KV cache — across potentially thousands of GPUs.

    It then routes new inference requests to the GPUs that have the best knowledge match, avoiding costly recomputations and freeing up GPUs to respond to new incoming requests.

    “To handle hundreds of millions of requests monthly, we rely on NVIDIA GPUs and inference software to deliver the performance, reliability and scale our business and users demand,” said Denis Yarats, chief technology officer of Perplexity AI. “We look forward to leveraging Dynamo, with its enhanced distributed serving capabilities, to drive even more inference-serving efficiencies and meet the compute demands of new AI reasoning models.”

    Agentic AI
    AI provider Cohere is planning to power agentic AI capabilities in its Command series of models using NVIDIA Dynamo.

    “Scaling advanced AI models requires sophisticated multi-GPU scheduling, seamless coordination and low-latency communication libraries that transfer reasoning contexts seamlessly across memory and storage,” said Saurabh Baji, senior vice president of engineering at Cohere. “We expect NVIDIA Dynamo will help us deliver a premier user experience to our enterprise customers.”

    Disaggregated Serving
    The NVIDIA Dynamo inference platform also supports disaggregated serving, which assigns the different computational phases of LLMs — including building an understanding of the user query and then generating the best response — to different GPUs. This approach is ideal for reasoning models like the new NVIDIA Llama Nemotron model family, which uses advanced inference techniques for improved contextual understanding and response generation. Disaggregated serving allows each phase to be fine-tuned and resourced independently, improving throughput and delivering faster responses to users.

    Together AI, the AI Acceleration Cloud, is looking to integrate its proprietary Together Inference Engine with NVIDIA Dynamo to enable seamless scaling of inference workloads across GPU nodes. This also lets Together AI dynamically address traffic bottlenecks at various stages of the model pipeline.

    “Scaling reasoning models cost effectively requires new advanced inference techniques, including disaggregated serving and context-aware routing,” said Ce Zhang, chief technology officer of Together AI. “Together AI provides industry-leading performance using our proprietary inference engine. The openness and modularity of NVIDIA Dynamo will allow us to seamlessly plug its components into our engine to serve more requests while optimizing resource utilization — maximizing our accelerated computing investment. We’re excited to leverage the platform’s breakthrough capabilities to cost-effectively bring open-source reasoning models to our users.”

    NVIDIA Dynamo Unpacked
    NVIDIA Dynamo includes four key innovations that reduce inference serving costs and improve user experience:

    • GPU Planner: A planning engine that dynamically adds and removes GPUs to adjust to fluctuating user demand, avoiding GPU over- or under-provisioning.
    • Smart Router: An LLM-aware router that directs requests across large GPU fleets to minimize costly GPU recomputations of repeat or overlapping requests — freeing up GPUs to respond to new incoming requests.
    • Low-Latency Communication Library: An inference-optimized library that supports state-of-the-art GPU-to-GPU communication and abstracts complexity of data exchange across heterogenous devices, accelerating data transfer.
    • Memory Manager: An engine that intelligently offloads and reloads inference data to and from lower-cost memory and storage devices without impacting user experience. 

    NVIDIA Dynamo will be made available in NVIDIA NIM™ microservices and supported in a future release by the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform with production-grade security, support and stability.

    Learn more by watching the NVIDIA GTC keynote, reading this blog on Dynamo and registering for sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through March 21.

    About NVIDIA
     NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in accelerated computing.

    For further information, contact:
    Cliff Edwards
    NVIDIA Corporation
    +1-415-699-2755
    cliffe@nvidia.com

    Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, availability, and performance of NVIDIA’s products, services, and technologies; third parties adopting NVIDIA’s products and technologies and the benefits and impact thereof; industries around the world training AI models to think and learn in different ways, making them more sophisticated over time; and to enable a future of custom reasoning AI, NVIDIA Dynamo helping serve these models at scale, driving cost savings and efficiencies across AI factories are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

    Many of the products and features described herein remain in various stages and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. The statements above are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as a commitment, promise, or legal obligation, and the development, release, and timing of any features or functionalities described for our products is subject to change and remains at the sole discretion of NVIDIA. NVIDIA will have no liability for failure to deliver or delay in the delivery of any of the products, features or functions set forth herein.

    © 2025 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, NVIDIA Hopper, NVIDIA NIM, NVIDIA Triton Inference Server and TensorRT are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e82546dd-6224-4ebb-8d5a-3476d18e97d0

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra AI Factory Platform Paves Way for Age of AI Reasoning

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Top Computer Makers, Cloud Service Providers and GPU Cloud Providers to Boost Training and Test-Time Scaling Inference, From Reasoning to Agentic and Physical AI
    • New Open-Source NVIDIA Dynamo Inference Software to Scale Up Reasoning AI Services With Leaps in Throughput, Faster Response Time and Reduced Total Cost of Ownership
    • NVIDIA Spectrum-X Enhanced 800G Ethernet Networking for AI Infrastructure Significantly Reduces Latency and Jitter

    SAN JOSE, Calif., March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NVIDIA today announced the next evolution of the NVIDIA Blackwell AI factory platform, NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra — paving the way for the age of AI reasoning.

    NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra boosts training and test-time scaling inference — the art of applying more compute during inference to improve accuracy — to enable organizations everywhere to accelerate applications such as AI reasoning, agentic AI and physical AI.

    Built on the groundbreaking Blackwell architecture introduced a year ago, Blackwell Ultra includes the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 rack-scale solution and the NVIDIA HGX™ B300 NVL16 system. The GB300 NVL72 delivers 1.5x more AI performance than the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, as well as increases Blackwell’s revenue opportunity by 50x for AI factories, compared with those built with NVIDIA Hopper™.

    “AI has made a giant leap — reasoning and agentic AI demand orders of magnitude more computing performance,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “We designed Blackwell Ultra for this moment — it’s a single versatile platform that can easily and efficiently do pretraining, post-training and reasoning AI inference.”

    NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra Enables AI Reasoning
    The NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 connects 72 Blackwell Ultra GPUs and 36 Arm
    Neoverse-based NVIDIA Grace™ CPUs in a rack-scale design, acting as a single massive GPU built for test-time scaling. With the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72, AI models can access the platform’s increased compute capacity to explore different solutions to problems and break down complex requests into multiple steps, resulting in higher-quality responses.

    GB300 NVL72 is also expected to be available on NVIDIA DGX™ Cloud, an end-to-end, fully managed AI platform on leading clouds that optimizes performance with software, services and AI expertise for evolving workloads. NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD™ with DGX GB300 systems uses the GB300 NVL72 rack design to provide customers with a turnkey AI factory.

    The NVIDIA HGX B300 NVL16 features 11x faster inference on large language models, 7x more compute and 4x larger memory compared with the Hopper generation to deliver breakthrough performance for the most complex workloads, such as AI reasoning.

    In addition, the Blackwell Ultra platform is ideal for applications including:

    • Agentic AI, which uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multistep problems. AI agent systems go beyond instruction-following. They can reason, plan and take actions to achieve specific goals.
    • Physical AI, enabling companies to generate synthetic, photorealistic videos in real time for the training of applications such as robots and autonomous vehicles at scale.

    NVIDIA Scale-Out Infrastructure for Optimal Performance
    Advanced scale-out networking is a critical component of AI infrastructure that can deliver top performance while reducing latency and jitter.

    Blackwell Ultra systems seamlessly integrate with the NVIDIA Spectrum-X™ Ethernet and NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand platforms, with 800 Gb/s of data throughput available for each GPU in the system, through an NVIDIA ConnectX®-8 SuperNIC. This delivers best-in-class remote direct memory access capabilities to enable AI factories and cloud data centers to handle AI reasoning models without bottlenecks.

    NVIDIA BlueField®-3 DPUs, also featured in Blackwell Ultra systems, enable multi-tenant networking, GPU compute elasticity, accelerated data access and real-time cybersecurity threat detection.

    Global Technology Leaders Embrace Blackwell Ultra
    Blackwell Ultra-based products are expected to be available from partners starting from the second half of 2025.

    Cisco, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo and Supermicro are expected to deliver a wide range of servers based on Blackwell Ultra products, in addition to Aivres, ASRock Rack, ASUS, Eviden, Foxconn, GIGABYTE, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT), Wistron and Wiwynn.

    Cloud service providers Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and GPU cloud providers CoreWeave, Crusoe, Lambda, Nebius, Nscale, Yotta and YTL will be among the first to offer Blackwell Ultra-powered instances.

    NVIDIA Software Innovations Reduce AI Bottlenecks
    The entire NVIDIA Blackwell product portfolio is supported by the full-stack NVIDIA AI platform. The NVIDIA Dynamo open-source inference framework — also announced today — scales up reasoning AI services, delivering leaps in throughput while reducing response times and model serving costs by providing the most efficient solution for scaling test-time compute.

    NVIDIA Dynamo is new AI inference-serving software designed to maximize token revenue generation for AI factories deploying reasoning AI models. It orchestrates and accelerates inference communication across thousands of GPUs, and uses disaggregated serving to separate the processing and generation phases of large language models on different GPUs. This allows each phase to be optimized independently for its specific needs and ensures maximum GPU resource utilization.

    Blackwell systems are ideal for running new NVIDIA Llama Nemotron Reason models and the NVIDIA AI-Q Blueprint, supported in the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform for production-grade AI. NVIDIA AI Enterprise includes NVIDIA NIM™ microservices, as well as AI frameworks, libraries and tools that enterprises can deploy on NVIDIA-accelerated clouds, data centers and workstations.

    The Blackwell platform builds on NVIDIA’s ecosystem of powerful development tools, NVIDIA CUDA-X™ libraries, over 6 million developers and 4,000+ applications scaling performance across thousands of GPUs.

    Learn more by watching the NVIDIA GTC keynote and register for sessions from NVIDIA and industry leaders at the show, which runs through March 21.

    About NVIDIA
    NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in accelerated computing.

    For further information, contact:
    Kristin Uchiyama
    NVIDIA Corporation
    +1-408-313-0448
    kuchiyama@nvidia.com

    Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, availability, and performance of NVIDIA’s products, services, and technologies; third parties adopting or offering NVIDIA’s products and technologies; Blackwell Ultra being able to easily and efficiently do pretraining, post-training and reasoning AI inference; and advanced networking being a critical component of AI infrastructure that can deliver top performance while reducing latency and jitter are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

    Many of the products and features described herein remain in various stages and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. The statements above are not intended to be, and should not be interpreted as a commitment, promise, or legal obligation, and the development, release, and timing of any features or functionalities described for our products is subject to change and remains at the sole discretion of NVIDIA. NVIDIA will have no liability for failure to deliver or delay in the delivery of any of the products, features or functions set forth herein

    © 2025 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, BlueField, Connect-X, CUDA-X, NVIDIA DGX, NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD, NVIDIA Grace, NVIDIA HGX, NVIDIA Hopper, NVIDIA NIM and NVIDIA Spectrum-X are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7bb5b0bf-daad-41dc-8d0f-d1706984d616

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI United Nations: Human Rights Council focuses on Iran, Syria, Venezuela

    Source: United Nations 2

    Human Rights

    Top independent experts reported to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, putting the records of Iran, Syria and Venezuela under the spotlight during the 47-member body’s latest session.

    Council-appointed experts pointed to grave violations of fundamental rights in Iran, linked to popular protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

    Sara Hossein, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, said that during peaceful protests, “children were killed and severely injured after being fired at with ammunition containing metal pellets”.

    The youngsters then faced extremely violent treatment in detention – including torture and rape, according to the investigators’ latest report.

    No acknowledgement

    “For two years, Iran has refused to adequately acknowledge the demands for equality and justice that fuelled the protests in 2022. The criminalisation, surveillance and continued repression of protesters, families of victims and survivors – in particular women and girls – is deeply worrying,” she said.

    Today in Iran, State-led repression of basic freedoms continues, Ms. Hossain maintained, with victims, survivors and their families “harassed, intimidated and threatened”.

    Shaheen Ali, who also serves on the Fact-Finding Mission, said that although it was the Iranian Government’s “primary duty to provide redress to victims, we have heard from countless victims and survivors that they have neither confidence nor trust in Iran’s judicial and legal system, to provide meaningful truth, justice and reparations.”

    “It is therefore imperative that comprehensive accountability measures also continue to be pursued outside the country.”

    The Iranian delegation strongly opposed the probe’s findings.

    Truth must emerge: Syria

    The Syria crisis also featured at the Human Rights Council, where head of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro urged greater efforts to uncover the truth about the fate of tens of thousands of disappeared people, victims of the Assad regime.

    Mr. Pinheiro welcomed the new caretaker authorities’ willingness to work with his investigators on several human rights issues, while warning that Syria’s economic and humanitarian situation “remains catastrophic”.

    At the same time, humanitarian funding is dwindling, the veteran rights investigator said, warning that economic despair is known to fuel violence, calling for an end to all sanctions “and the removal of other barriers to recovery and reconstruction”.

    Meeting families

    He said his team of investigators had met many families whose missing loved ones were not among the prisoners released in December following the immediate overthrow of the old regime.

    “They now want the truth about their fate, and they want justice,” he said.

    “The clarification of the fates of the tens of thousands who remain disappeared will require a large-scale effort led by the caretaker authorities along with technical support from human rights and humanitarian entities, including Syrian civil society,” he added.

    “We stand ready to assist those efforts, including by sharing the relevant data we have gathered since 2011, and reiterate the importance of preserving all related evidence and information that can aid in this regard.”

    Political Repression in Venezuela

    In her presentation to the Council, Marta Valiñas, chair of the Independent International Fact-finding Mission on Venezuela, highlighted ongoing severe human rights violations, including political repression, arbitrary detentions, and persecution.

    The 2024 presidential election results were contested but ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court of Justice without thorough examination.

    The National Electoral Council failed to release the total vote count or polling station tally sheets, raising concerns about electoral transparency. Ms. Valiñas stated.

    “Credible testimonies indicated that council members received political instructions to announce a predetermined result – deviating from the result obtained at the polling booths.”

    Before the presidential inauguration on 10 January 2025, there was a surge in arbitrary detentions of opposition figures and perceived dissidents. Security forces and civilian groups, known as “colectivos”, suppressed anti-government protests, leading to numerous rights violations, she said.

    The mission also investigated fatalities during post-election protests. One significant incident involved the death of seven people during a protest near the San Jacinto Obelisk in Maracay, Aragua state, last July.

    After analysing over 80 videos and 100 photographs, the mission confirmed that members of the Army and the Bolivarian National Guard had used firearms against protesters.

    Deaths due to ‘health complications’

    Ms. Valiñas expressed concern over the deaths of multiple detainees in state custody, attributed to “health complications”.

    Investigations revealed that many detainees were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. She cited one case where an individual was believed to have suffered beatings with wooden and metal rods under interrogation.

    In response, the Venezuelan Government rejected the findings, calling them politically motivated and biased.

    The Venezuelan representative stated, “this mission produces its propaganda based on invented or politically motivated sources, without scientific rigour and with malicious premeditation.”

    MIL OSI United Nations News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Investing in supporting vibrant communities | Investissements pour stimuler le dynamisme communautaire

    [. This includes investing in initiatives like Alberta’s Crowdfunding platform, capital grant funding, and funding for community grant programs.If passed, Budget 2025 will continue to build strong and vibrant communities by supporting community grant programs, including $64 million for the Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP) and Community Initiative Program (CIP) grants that stimulate economic growth, enhance gathering places and provide opportunities for Albertans to build community and connect with one another.
     

    “I am proud that Budget 2025 reinforces Alberta’s commitment to communities by investing in programs like the Community Facility Enhancement Program and the Community Initiatives Program. These programs allow us to continue supporting non-profits and volunteers and help strengthen communities by expanding the spaces, services and programs available to everyday Albertans.”

    Tanya Fir, Minister of Arts, Culture and Status of Women

    The CFEP grant helps fund both building new facilities and renovating existing spaces such as heritage facilities, community halls and theatres, festival spaces and many others. Additionally, the CIP grant supports programs, initiatives and events that contribute to and create opportunities for Albertans to engage with their communities.

    Last year, the Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance received a CFEP grant to assist with the construction of Edmonton’s first dedicated mountain biking facility. The facility will be accessible for bikers of all skill levels and will include dirt jumps, wooden drops, skills structures and an asphalt pump track, spanning almost ten acres within Queen Elizabeth Park.

    “This investment in the Edmonton Bike Park is a game-changer for our community, providing a dedicated space for riders of all ages and skill levels to develop their abilities and enjoy the outdoors. With mountain biking growing rapidly in Edmonton, this park will serve as a hub for skill progression, youth engagement and active recreation. We’re excited to see this long-awaited project come to life and grateful for the support that will make it happen.”

    Joe Yurkovich, president, Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance

    To continue bringing educational programming to the big screen and around the province, The TELUS World of Science – Edmonton received a CFEP grant to help with costs in upgrading its IMAX system. This exciting upgrade will make educational content more accessible for communities across Alberta, increasing access to virtual field trips and virtual events, and allow for rental opportunities for groups in need of this unique technology. Once the upgrade is complete, the IMAX theatre at TELUS World of Science – Edmonton will be the only one of its kind in Canada to feature this updated technology.

    “We are sincerely grateful to the Government of Alberta for investing in non-profit organizations such as ours to amplify impact and build thriving communities. With support from funding programs like CFEP and CIP, we are leveraging new technologies that break down barriers to science education, expanding access for underserved communities, and investing in the next generation of science innovators and entrepreneurs. We know that an investment in curiosity is an investment in our collective future.”

    Constance Scarlett, president and CEO, TELUS World of Science – Edmonton

    Community grants are invested in organizations in all corners of the province. Recently, the Street Sisters Society in Calgary received a grant to strengthen its capacity to provide programs, services and training, improving the quality of life for vulnerable Albertans. As well, Foothills Search and Rescue Society in Diamond Valley received a grant to help with purchasing two side-by-side off-road vehicles and a trailer to allow more trained volunteers to respond to search locations quicker and increase capacity to transport Albertans in areas threatened by fire or flood.

    Alberta’s government is meeting the challenges faced by family and communities, staying focused on ensuring our province is the best place to live, work and raise a family.

    Quick facts

    • Budget 2025 maintains the Community Facility Enhancement Program’s record-level funding at $50 million, an increase that was announced in 2023 as part of a three-year strategic investment.
    • Every government dollar invested through CFEP results in an additional $3 worth of investment from other sources directly into our communities.

    Related information

    • Community Facility Enhancement Program
    • Community Initiatives Program: Project-Based
    • Community Initiatives Program: Operating
    • Previous Grants Recipients Database
    • Crowdfunding Alberta
    • Other Initiatives Program
    • Grants, funding and supports for non-profits

    Multimedia

    • Watch the news conference

    Le gouvernement de l’Alberta accorde près de 85 millions de dollars de subventions pour renforcer et dynamiser les collectivités de la province. 

    Chaque année, le gouvernement de l’Alberta soutient des centaines de projets et de programmes sans but lucratif pour fournir des services essentiels aux communautés de la province. Cet appui comprend l’investissement dans des initiatives telles que la plateforme Crowdfunding Alberta, le financement de subventions en capital et le financement de programmes de subventions communautaires.

    S’il est adopté, le budget 2025 continuera à stimuler la force et le dynamisme des communautés en soutenant des programmes de subventions communautaires, notamment en investissant 64 millions de dollars dans le Programme d’amélioration des installations communautaires (Community Facility Enhancement Program [CFEP]) et le Programme d’appui aux initiatives communautaires (Community Initiative Program [CIP]), qui stimulent la croissance économique, améliorent les lieux de rassemblement et offrent aux Albertaines et aux Albertains la possibilité de renforcer leur communauté et de se rapprocher les uns des autres.

    « Je suis fière que le budget 2025 renforce l’engagement de l’Alberta envers ses communautés en investissant dans des programmes tels que le Programme d’amélioration des installations communautaires et le Programme d’appui aux initiatives communautaires. Ces programmes nous permettent de continuer à soutenir les organismes sans but lucratif et bénévoles, et d’aider à renforcer les communautés grâce à des projets d’amélioration des installations, des services et des programmes offerts à toute la population albertaine. »

    Tanya Fir, ministre des Arts, de la Culture et de la Condition féminine

    La subvention du CFEP aide à financer à la fois la construction et la rénovation d’installations, comme celles de lieux patrimoniaux, de salles et théâtres communautaires, de sites de festivals, etc. De son côté, la subvention du CIP soutient des programmes, des initiatives et des événements qui offrent des occasions aux Albertaines et aux Albertains d’enrichir leur vie communautaire.

    L’an dernier, l’Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance a reçu une subvention du CFEP pour l’aider à construire le premier parc de vélo de montagne d’Edmonton. Accessible aux cyclistes de tous niveaux, le site comprendra des sauts en terre, des descentes en bois, des structures d’habileté et une piste de vitesse en asphalte, et il occupera près de dix acres dans le parc Queen Elizabeth.

    « En offrant un espace aux cyclistes de tous âges et niveaux pour développer leurs compétences et profiter du plein air, cet investissement dans le parc de vélo d’Edmonton transformera complètement notre communauté. L’intérêt pour le vélo de montagne croît rapidement à Edmonton. Ce parc deviendra ainsi un centre névralgique pour l’entraînement, l’engagement des jeunes et la pratique de l’activité physique. Nous avons hâte de voir ce projet tant attendu se réaliser et nous sommes reconnaissants du soutien reçu pour lui donner vie. »

    Joe Yurkovich, président de l’Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance

    Pour continuer à offrir des programmes éducatifs sur grand écran et dans toute la province, le TELUS World of Science – Edmonton a reçu une subvention du CFEP qui l’aidera à payer les coûts de mise à niveau de son système IMAX. Cette superbe version augmentée améliorera l’accès au contenu éducatif dans toutes les communautés de l’Alberta, grâce à des excursions et événements virtuels, et elle permettra la location des lieux aux groupes qui auront besoin des caractéristiques uniques de cette technologie. Une fois la mise à niveau terminée, le cinéma IMAX du TELUS World of Science – Edmonton sera le seul au Canada à offrir cette nouvelle technologie.

    « Nous sommes sincèrement reconnaissants au gouvernement de l’Alberta d’investir dans des organismes sans but lucratif comme le nôtre pour maximiser les bienfaits et bâtir des communautés florissantes. Grâce au soutien de programmes de financement tels que le CFEP et le CIP, nous tirons parti de nouvelles technologies qui éliminent les obstacles à l’enseignement des sciences, élargissent l’accès aux communautés mal desservies et nous permettent d’investir dans la prochaine génération d’innovateurs et d’entrepreneurs scientifiques. Nous savons qu’en stimulant la curiosité, nous investissons dans notre avenir collectif. »

    Constance Scarlett, présidente et directrice générale, TELUS World of Science – Edmonton

    Des organismes de partout dans la province bénéficient de subventions communautaires. Récemment, la Street Sisters Society de Calgary a reçu une subvention pour renforcer sa capacité à fournir des programmes, des services et de la formation, et améliorer ainsi la qualité de vie de personnes vulnérables. De même, la Foothills Search and Rescue Society de Diamond Valley a reçu une subvention pour l’aider à acheter deux véhicules tout-terrain côte à côte et une remorque qui permettront à un plus grand nombre de bénévoles formés de se rendre plus rapidement sur les lieux de recherche, en plus d’augmenter la capacité de transport des Albertaines et Albertains hors des zones menacées par les incendies ou les inondations.

    Le gouvernement de l’Alberta relève les défis auxquels sont confrontées les familles et les communautés en veillant à ce que la province reste le meilleur endroit où vivre, travailler et élever une famille.

    En bref

    • Le budget 2025 maintient le financement record du Programme d’amélioration des installations communautaires à 50 millions de dollars, une augmentation annoncée en 2023 dans le cadre d’un investissement stratégique sur trois ans.
    • Chaque dollar investi par le gouvernement dans le cadre du CFEP se traduit par un investissement supplémentaire d’une valeur de trois dollars provenant d’autres sources, directement dans nos communautés.

    Renseignements connexes

    • Programme d’amélioration des installations communautaires
    • Subvention axée sur les projets du CIP
    • Subvention de fonctionnement du CIP
    • Base de données des bénéficiaires de subventions antérieures (en anglais seulement)
    • Crowdfunding Alberta (en anglais seulement)
    • Programmes de subvention d’autres initiatives
    • Subventions, financement et appui aux organismes sans but lucratif (en anglais seulement)

    Multimédia (en anglais seulement)

    • Regarder la conférence de presse

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Highway 1 will close in Fraser Canyon for construction at Tank Hill

    Drivers are advised that Highway 1 at Tank Hill, 14 kilometres east of Lytton, will be closed overnight on Friday, March 21, 2025, and in the afternoon from March 24 until March 26, 2025.

    The closure is necessary for the installation of steel girders that will span the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) rail line as part of the new overpass.

    Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon will be closed in both directions overnight from midnight until 4 a.m. on Friday, March 21, 2025, and during the day from 12:30-5:30 p.m. from Monday, March 24 until Wednesday, March 26, 2025. 

    Closures must be co-ordinated with CPKC and specific closure times may be adjusted based on rail operations.

    The Ministry of Transportation and Transit is working with emergency services so they have access through the site.  

    Drivers travelling between the Interior and Lower Mainland can take highways 3 or 5 as alternative routes. Up-to-date information about this closure and road conditions on alternative routes can be found at: www.drivebc.ca

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Attorney General Bonta Issues Warning Amid Increased Reports of Fake ICE Officers and Other Immigration Scams

    Source: US State of California

    Tuesday, March 18, 2025

    Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

    OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today reminded Californians to take steps to protect themselves amid new reports of individuals impersonating U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers and other immigration scams. In recent months, the Attorney General has released guidance to help California immigrants better understand their rights and protections under the law and assist law enforcement, prosecutors, and public institutions in complying with state law. As scammers and other bad actors seek to capitalize on the fear and uncertainty created by the Trump Administration’s racist rhetoric and destructive immigration policies, the Attorney General reminds Californians that it is a crime to impersonate a federal officer and encourages everyone to know their rights under the law and take steps to protect themselves from scams. The full set of guidance, many available in multiple languages, can be accessed at oag.ca.gov/immigrant/resources.

    “We have received reports of individuals looking to take advantage of the fear and uncertainty created by President Trump’s inhumane mass deportation policies,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Let me be clear: If you seek to scam or otherwise take advantage of California’s immigrant communities, you will be held accountable. My office will continue to ensure our laws are fully enforced and the rights of California’s immigrants are respected and protected. I encourage anyone who is the witness to or victim of an immigration scam to report it.”

    If you are approached by an individual claiming to be an immigration officer, know your rights and avoid being scammed: 

    Protect Yourself from Scams

    • Ask for identification. Immigration authorities should carry identifying badges and credentials. 
    • Do not give money or personal information to anyone who calls, texts, or emails you claiming that there is a problem with your immigration matter. Immigration officers will not ask for money or financial information. Immigration officers will not typically call to warn immigrants that they are going to be detained or arrested. 
    • Do not sign anything until you understand what you are signing. Do not agree to anything that is not put in writing and in a language you understand.
    • Do not hire an immigration consultant or a notary. Only lawyers, accredited representatives, and recognized organizations can give you legal advice or represent you in immigration court. Immigration consultants – who may call themselves immigration experts, notarios, notaries public, or paralegals – cannot do so.
    • Do not sign an immigration form that includes incorrect information or blanks. Before you sign any immigration forms, be sure that the forms are fully and accurately filled out. Don’t let anyone convince you to lie on a form or sign a blank form.
    • Beware of “.com” or “.net” websites. Information on these websites may be untrustworthy.  Instead, access information from “.gov” websites. These are government affiliated. 
    • Go to a legitimate legal aid organization for free legal help. Many nonprofit organizations provide free immigration help to low-income individuals, such as those found through the resources below. To find a legal aid organization near you, go to lawhelpca.org.

    Know the Law 

    Impersonating a federal officer is a crime under 18 USC § 912 and impersonating a police officer is a misdemeanor under California Penal Code § 538d. 

    File a Complaint 

    If you have been the victim of an immigration scam or have information about an individual impersonating an ICE officer, report it to local law enforcement. 

    If you believe your rights have been violated, you can report it to the California Department of Justice at immigration@doj.ca.gov.

    If you believe you were subject to discrimination, harassment or retaliation, report it to the California Civil Rights Department at calcivilrights.ca.gov/complaintprocess/.

    # # #

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Police struggle to identify the riskiest domestic abuse perpetrators – here’s how they can do better

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barry Godfrey, Professor of Social Justice, University of Liverpool

    Shutterstock

    The government cannot achieve its target to halve violence against women and girls if it doesn’t address the most serious perpetrators – and it isn’t anywhere near knowing how to identify them. Our new research shows where they are going wrong, and how they can do better.

    The most recent statistics show that violence against women and girls affects one in 12 women in England and Wales. A quarter of domestic abuse incidents reported to police involve known, repeat perpetrators. But despite being told by government to identify and control the most serious perpetrators, police do not currently have systems good enough to do that.

    Currently, police forces use an algorithm to determine which offenders pose the greatest risk to women and girls. This is known as the RFGV algorithm – perpetrators are propelled up or down a list based on the recency, frequency, gravity (seriousness) of reported incidents, and the vulnerability of the victim.

    The gap in this approach is that it largely treats incidents as isolated, when they should be looked at as a whole. Research has also found it is used inconsistently between forces.

    Most police perpetrator lists contain hundreds or even thousands of people, making them difficult tools to use. They also do not seem to be able to distinguish who the most serious offenders are, with men with very similar profiles near the top, middle and bottom of the lists.

    We propose an alternative method, which would assess the whole of a perpetrator’s record of incidents. This would allow police to identify not only the most dangerous perpetrators, but also opportunities to better address their offending earlier on. This might be with diversion to programmes designed to support better choices and rehabilitation, or arrest and incarceration to prevent them harming other people.

    By joining together incidents recorded by police for individual perpetrators, we constructed detailed case studies using police officer’s notes. Here is a summary of two people who appear in one force’s perpetrator list.

    1. Male born mid 1980s, involved in 340 incidents over 20 years

    His offending begins with an indecent assault on a young teenage girl when he is 19. He is increasingly involved in drug-related offending in his 20s. He is later sentenced to six years in jail for arson endangering life. Released on conditional licence, he is re-convicted of the harassment of his ex-partner and recalled to prison.

    Release is followed by further offences until the mid-2010s when he is imprisoned again. When released, his offending is erratic (low-level public order, violence, threats, drug-related offending).

    Throughout his 30s, he frequently victimises partners and ex-partners. He has no settled address and is homeless at various points of his life. He is still subject to frequent mental health episodes.

    2. Male born early 1980s, involved in 396 incidents over 25 years

    In his teens he was involved in low-level thefts, criminal damage and breaches of an antisocial behaviour order. He was also suspected of selling drugs to schoolchildren, and imprisoned, aged 18, for drug-related violence.

    In his 20s he “associates with” children and is found with a missing vulnerable schoolgirl hiding in his house. He continues to commit offences of criminal damage, drug dealing, and stealing vehicles. Another missing teenage girl is found to be living with him.

    In his early 20s he very violently assaults and harasses much younger partners. He continues to commit public order offences and to threaten, harass, and assault current and ex-partners, kicking his pregnant partner in the stomach.

    In the early 2020s, police attend his ex-partner’s house following abandoned 999 calls – they find him with his hand over her mouth to stop her calling out to the police. He continues to be violent to ex-partners and his involvement in drug-related offending deepens. He is currently in prison for a violent offence.

    Who is the danger?

    Both men pose a real and severe threat of violence to women and girls as well as the public. But the RFGV algorithm places the first man more than a thousand places higher than the second. Clearly treating the offences they commit in isolation is not sufficient to distinguish which man poses the greatest risk.

    A life-course approach, which takes into account the type and pattern of offending as it develops over time, is less susceptible to fluctuations which move an offender rapidly up or down the priority lists. Therefore, it more reliably reflects who poses the greatest risk.

    The current system looks at incidents in isolation.
    Vadim Kulikov/Shutterstock

    A better ranking system is clearly required. The RFGV algorithm provides a “score”, but a more sophisticated system would also evaluate the direction of offending of individuals – is it escalating, more frequent, more serious?

    A life-course approach could be used separately or together with RFGV to allow police analysts to identify the most serious perpetrators. It may also be possible to use artificial intelligence to identify trends in offending and escalation of risk through analysis of thousands of police incident reports in real time.

    The system could then identify opportunities for early intervention which have been shown to be effective in reducing re-offending against current and future victims. It could also automatically trigger warnings to neighbourhood officers, specialist domestic abuse-trained officers, mental health services and so on.

    We won’t really know the full capability until new systems are tried, and evaluated. This also means including the voices of survivors and focusing on the lives of persistent perpetrators – often substance use, homelessness, estrangement, imprisonment and mental health problems are at play. The possibilities of learning from artificial intelligence or other technology should not be privileged over the very sources of the data such intelligence relies upon: victims’ experiences.

    David Gadd currenty receives research grant funding, via the University of Manchester from the ESRC, NIHR, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

    Barry Godfrey 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. Police struggle to identify the riskiest domestic abuse perpetrators – here’s how they can do better – https://theconversation.com/police-struggle-to-identify-the-riskiest-domestic-abuse-perpetrators-heres-how-they-can-do-better-247734

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: New report calls for return of human remains – but UK museums lack the resources to act

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By William Carruthers, Lecturer, School of Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Essex

    Shutterstock/David Herraez Calzada

    The display of human remains in museums has long been a contentious issue. Last week, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations (APPG-AR) published a report on the African human remains collected by British museums during, and due to, colonialism and the slave trade.

    Introduced by the MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy (the APPG-AR’s chair), and produced by Afford (The African Foundation for Development), the publication of the report, Laying Ancestors to Rest, is another high-profile and meaningful intervention in an area where developments now seem inevitable.

    The report makes a number of recommendations. First, that the sale of human remains should be made illegal in the UK. It also suggests that the Human Tissue Act of 2004 should be amended to make stipulations about remains older than 100 years.

    This would include banning their public display without consent from the Human Tissue Authority and ensuring that museums obtain a licence from the authority for their storage. It’s further recommended that the UK parliament’s culture, media and sport committee should launch an inquiry into restitution.

    Laying Ancestors to Rest should be welcomed. It seems likely to be successful in achieving at least one of its recommendations. Calling for a ban on the trade in human remains in Britain, as the report does, is not particularly controversial.

    However, the report’s blanket approach towards banning the display of human remains without consent is, in the present environment, unlikely to succeed.

    This article is part of our State of the Arts series. These articles tackle the challenges of the arts and heritage industry – and celebrate the wins, too.

    The report itself hints at the reasons for this. The success of its recommendations rests on the financial health of the UK’s museum landscape. Resources matter, not least in terms of the relationships which those resources allow museums to build.

    Instead of a blanket response, developments in this area are likely to be piecemeal – both due to the significant effort required to carry out the task effectively and the limited resources many museums have to do so. In that sense, it is unclear whether calling for a blanket ban now is all that useful, other than as a wake-up call.

    This point is not to absolve museums for their historical part in this situation. It is though, to argue that work in understanding the collections of human remains held by British museums – where they come from, who they might belong to – has, at times (and certainly not in all circumstances), been happening. It is also to clarify what the often slow-paced norms of effective understanding and restitution are.

    In 2020, for example, the University of Oxford’s Pitt-Rivers Museum removed its well-known collection of tsantsa (shrunken heads) from display. The removal happened with a view to working with Shuar and Achuar delegates to decide on the best way forward with regard to the care and display of the human remains. That work continues.

    In 2020 the Pitt-Rivers Museum removed its well-known collection of shrunken heads from display.
    Shutterstock/John Wreford

    A few years earlier, Laura Peers, then curator of the Americas collections at the museum, wrote about the slow, quiet and bureaucratic process of returning a single femur “collected by a missionary as a medical curiosity, from an Indigenous nation with whom I have longstanding professional and personal relationships”.

    Such work is, when it happens, painstaking and careful. Even with the best of intentions, it is not a fast process

    Funding restitution

    The often-halting nature of that work is likely to continue. Museum professionals – particularly newer museum professionals – know that this work has to happen and are, I would argue, in large part invested in doing it.

    In a contemporary funding environment marked by almost continuous cuts, even the most dedicated staff will find their actions curtailed. They may, in some cases, be able to remove remains from display, as the report recommends (and as the Pitt Rivers Museum has done).

    However, securing consent for the limited display of mummified Egyptian bodies, for instance, will be challenging. Without funding, it is difficult to build the relationships necessary for conversations about consent, ownership and restitution.

    In his afterword to the report, Dan Hicks of the University of Oxford writes that “this is a time of immense hope and optimism for British museums”. The problem is that that hope in part rests on the funding that he also admits has been subject to “austerity and swingeing cuts”.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    The contradiction is not difficult to see – particularly when the report’s recommendations are similar to the 2018 one written for French collections by cultural researchers Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy.

    The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage: Toward a New Relational Ethics, which was commissioned by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been widely read. It has catalysed thinking beyond current international legal norms when it comes to restitution.

    Yet progress on the goal of restitution even in France has been slow, at least in part due to the time involved in building the new relationships that the report calls for. There is also the question of whether attitudes regarding restitution within African countries are consistent. By February 2024, France had returned only 26 objects to Benin and one (a sword) to Senegal.

    Worse still, the legislative picture across British collections remains complex. Collections such as the Pitt Rivers Museum have been able to move on restitution because they are university collections. As such, they are subject to different legislation than “national” collections such as the British Museum or the V&A, which were established by acts of parliament and are funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

    As the V&A’s director, Tristram Hunt, recently wrote, the UK’s national museums remain in “debilitating stasis” on restitution. Hunt argues that this is the case because these collections are hampered by the proscriptions of the 1983 National Heritage Act. That act – by rule or by choice, dependent on your view – effectively forbids such collections from disposing of objects, including human remains.

    As Laying Ancestors to Rest recommends, this situation needs to change. The likelihood is, however, that any change will come more slowly and with more deliberation even than the report itself acknowledges is necessary.

    Progress on this issue is by no means impossible. But without real political will and without the money to back it up, a blanket approach to the display and restitution of human remains in British museums remains difficult to enforce.

    William Carruthers works for the University of Essex as Lecturer in Heritage.

    – ref. New report calls for return of human remains – but UK museums lack the resources to act – https://theconversation.com/new-report-calls-for-return-of-human-remains-but-uk-museums-lack-the-resources-to-act-252547

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why I’m training Colombian Amazonians to become archaeology tourist guides

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By José Iriarte, Professor of Archaeology, University of Exeter

    Professor Jamie Hampson discusses the interpretation of rock art with diploma students in front of the Tapirs rock art panel. Jose Iriarte, CC BY-NC-ND

    Diana Vera, a passionate local guide from Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombia, leads a group of sweaty and panting European tourists through the hot, lush Amazonian rainforest. Together, they climb the flattop hill (known as tepui) of Nuevo Tolima. Their destination? A vast, ancient painted wall perched at the very top of the tepui that whispers stories from a time long past.

    As the tourists reach the site, Vera brings history to life. She recounts how archaeology tells us that the first humans arrived here some 13,000 years ago.

    She explains how they left their mark on these landscapes by painting their stories, beliefs and visions of the world on the walls of these hills. Because archaeologists have closely analysed the paintings and their chemical signatures, she can explain how paintings were crafted with local ochre using their fingers and brushes.

    She gestures towards the intricate depictions of animals, plants and people, pausing at an especially intriguing image – a now-extinct ice age “palaeolama” or prehistoric llama.

    Then, she shows them a fascinating hybrid figure – a fusion of bird, deer and human. Much of this artwork is probably shamanic in nature – possibly representing spiritual transformations, most likely induced by hallucinogenic rituals or prolonged fasting.

    After Colombia’s peace process was signed in 2016 between participants in a violent civil war, the rock art of Serranía de la Lindosa became a major draw for research and tourism.

    As well as attracting visitors, this cultural and natural heritage has sparked positive social change in the region. Families of more than 100 tourist guides benefit because tourism provides an economic alternative for these communities.

    It’s a path away from illicit activities such as coca cultivation, destructive deforestation for cattle ranching or joining dissident factions of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla movement.

    Until now, these local guides have largely relied on self-taught knowledge. There are no universities in the region to provide formal education. Little archaeological research has been conducted in this area, so much of its history and heritage remains unexplored.

    To address this gap, my colleagues and I have co-created a diploma degree in cultural heritage management for local tourism guides.

    Our team at the University of Exeter worked closely with Colombian partners including the University of Antioquia, the Secretariat of Culture and Tourism of Guaviare Department and the Geographical Society of Colombia to make sure that the diploma met the needs of local people. This diploma is based on knowledge from our systematic study of archaeology and rock art of the region, as part of a European Research Council-funded project called the LastJourney project.

    A new cultural heritage diploma degree trains archaeology tourist guides in the Colombian Amazon.

    Local community archaeology tourism benefits the heritage, the people and the rainforest. As Colombian archaeologist Javier Aceituno states in The Painted Forest, the 2022 book we co-wrote: “The paintings need the people, and the people need the paintings.”

    The Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, the national heritage authority, has officially designated la Lindosa as an archaeological protected area. However, like many national parks in the Amazon, there are very limited resources for enforcement and preservation of these large rural areas. Local communities can help protect these rock paintings by controlling access and providing guided visits to the sites.

    Forty people took part in the first iteration of this three-month-long diploma in 2023-2024. Each of three 30-hour modules are delivered in rural communities of Cerro Azul, Nuevo Tolima and Raudal del Guayabero in Guaviare department, Colombia.

    Alongside my colleagues from the University of Exeter and the University of Antioquia, I taught modules in communal village buildings, where we conducted experimental archaeology. This included manufacturing stone tools and recreating paint recipes from scratch, providing a practical, hands-on learning experience bringing archaeology to life.*

    This diploma has empowered communities to take a stronger role in managing their archaeological and bio-cultural heritage. By deepening their understanding of this unique history, communities can better protect and manage their heritage, ultimately enriching the tourist experience.

    Three graduates from the course also visited UK archaeological sites, including Stonehenge in Wiltshire, to explore how such sites are preserved and presented to tourists abroad. At the Ancient Technology Centre in Dorset they learnt how visitors can experience archaeology in creative ways through hands-on experiences and demonstrations of ancient crafts and sustainable building techniques.

    Archaeologists and rock art specialists aren’t just sharing their expertise. My colleagues and I are also learning from Indigenous participants. Victor Caycedo, of the Indigenous Amazonian Desana ethnicity, and Ismael Sierra, from the Tukano people of southern Colombia, bring invaluable ancestral knowledge to the diploma.

    They have shared insights into the shamanic and animistic worldviews that have shaped these landscapes for centuries. Their perspectives add a deeper, living dimension to the study of rock art, bridging past and present in a way that only those rooted in these traditions can reveal, as recently published in the journal Arts.

    For Diana Vera, this diploma represents “learning about heritage and the ancient lifeways of the people of La Lindosa”. She told me that she now better understands “the union of three villages with a single purpose of conservation and preservation” and has a greater sense of belonging to these ancestral places and nature. Most of all, this diploma marks the opportunity for “a new beginning” in this region by introducing more sustainable and responsible tourism, she said.

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

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

    José Iriarte receives funding from the European Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), British Academy, National Geographic, Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, FAPESP (Brazil), and CAPES (Brazil).

    – ref. Why I’m training Colombian Amazonians to become archaeology tourist guides – https://theconversation.com/why-im-training-colombian-amazonians-to-become-archaeology-tourist-guides-251651

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Nuclear deterrence: can Britain and France take on America’s role in defending Europe against Russian aggression?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul van Hooft, Research Leader, Defence and Security, RAND

    European doubts about deterrence predate the current US administration. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and its growing reliance on nuclear coercion to ward off Nato support, brought the importance of nuclear weapons to the foreground again for the first time since the cold war.

    Even after the invasion, the US continued to prioritise the Indo-Pacific. It questioned the sufficiency of its nuclear arsenal as China’s weapon stockpile grew and delivery systems improved.

    A bipartisan US congressional commission concluded that the Chinese and Russian arsenals should be seen as a joint “two-nuclear-peer” problem, with North Korea an additional disrupting presence.

    Within this context, European leaders are floating alternatives for deterrence in Europe. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has again affirmed that the French nuclear deterrent has a “European dimension”.

    The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, registered his interest in the idea of the French deterrent being extended to include its European allies. But he also signalled that his country might want to develop its own deterrent.

    The incoming German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has also noted the need to engage with the French and British deterrents. So, could French and British nuclear weapons be enough to deter Russia and reassure European allies?

    Russia has roughly as many weapons as the US. Its arsenal comprises approximately 1,700 deployed strategic weapons and 1,000-2,000 other lower-yield, “smaller” so-called “tactical” nuclear weapons, and another 2,500 non-deployed weapons.

    This is vastly more than France and the UK which have 290 and 225 respectively, or 515 in total.

    Yet, with those numbers both European states should have sufficient strategic weapons to cause unacceptable damage to Moscow and St Petersburg. Their weapons are carried by constantly patrolling nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines – which, are concealed in the ocean far away and are therefore highly likely to survive a first-strike attack. These weapons should be considered credible deterrents for existential threats to either France or the UK.

    Unlike the US, France and the UK are in Europe and cannot consider their security distinct from each other or from Europe. The US, meanwhile, had to have a large and flexible arsenal with tactical nuclear weapons, and a large conventional presence in Europe simply to mount a credible argument, not least to its European allies, that it would actually protect Europe, with nuclear weapons as a last resort.

    The importance of needing to convince Russia of how serious Nato is about deterrence is a matter of record. When they met in Paris in June 1961, the then French leader, General Charles de Gaulle, expressed doubts to the then US president, John F. Kennedy, as to how serious the US was about its defence of Europe, particularly given the uncertainty at the time of the future security of Berlin.

    De Gaulle asked asked Kennedy: “Would you trade New York for Paris?”. His point was that if he wasn’t convinced, would the Russians be? So it’s not just about numbers of warheads. It’s about the defensive posture overall.

    Likely scenarios

    The issue is not existential deterrence but scenarios where French and British survival are not directly threatened. Neither has the option to escalate with so-called “tactical” (or non-strategic) weapons when non-vital interests are at risk – though France could fire a Rafale-launched nuclear “warning shot”.

    Meanwhile, Russia has 1,000–2,000 “tactical” nuclear weapons, which, despite the misleading term, are still entirely capable of levelling a city.

    In case of a conflict in Europe, these could provide military and signalling options between doing nothing and catastrophic escalation. Rather than a full-scale invasion, Russia is more likely to test Nato’s unity by pressuring a Baltic state and using nuclear threats to deter any Nato allies intervening in support. France and the UK would struggle to credibly threaten use of strategic weapons in response.

    Europe’s solution may lie in advanced conventional weapons to deter Russian aggression by building the ability to raise the costs in early stages of a conflict through what is called a strategy of denial. Such capabilities include long-range precision strikes, fifth generation airpower – such as the American F-35 fighter and the French, German and UK alternatives presently being developed – and integrated air and missile defence.

    Given the poor performance of Russia’s own air and missile defence in Ukraine, they could target Russian military units attacking or operating within Nato territory, their reinforcements and their logistics, while denying Russia’s use of missiles. Europe is already investing in cruise missiles, as well as developing their own European long-range strike approach and missile defence.

    Through precision, stealth and low-altitude flight, these weapons could also threaten strategic targets deep in Russia – potentially a more viable, less destabilising alternative to expanding French and British nuclear arsenals, or adding a third nuclear power in Europe.

    No time to waste

    Politically, however, there is a need for more than hardware. European states should find an institutional forum to coordinate deterrence. This means either convincing France to return to Nato’s nuclear planning group or creating another council for European deterrence with France, the UK, and other key European states like Germany and Poland.

    Those and other European armed forces could also conduct conventional operations in support of nuclear operations exercises together with France and the UK, specifically the French air force with its air-launched warheads.

    Simply put, there are material and political solutions to European deterrence problems if the US turns out to be preoccupied by events in Asia. The real constraint that France and the UK, and the rest of Europe, now face is how to build both the hardware and habits of conventional and nuclear deterrence in Europe in little or no time at all.

    Paul van Hooft received a Stanton Nuclear Security Foundation research grant in 2018.

    – ref. Nuclear deterrence: can Britain and France take on America’s role in defending Europe against Russian aggression? – https://theconversation.com/nuclear-deterrence-can-britain-and-france-take-on-americas-role-in-defending-europe-against-russian-aggression-252338

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can a daily nap do more harm than good? A sleep researcher explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Talar Moukhtarian, Assistant Professor in Mental Health, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick

    Olga Rolenko/Shutterstock

    You’re in the middle of the afternoon, eyelids heavy, focus slipping. You close your eyes for half an hour and wake up feeling recharged. But later that night, you’re tossing and turning in bed, wondering why you can’t drift off. That midday snooze which felt so refreshing at the time might be the reason.

    Naps have long been praised as a tool for boosting alertness, enhancing mood, strengthening memory, and improving productivity. Yet for some, they can sabotage nighttime sleep.

    Napping is a double-edged sword. Done right, it’s a powerful way to recharge the brain, improve concentration, and support mental and physical health. Done wrong, it can leave you groggy, disoriented, and struggling to fall asleep later. The key lies in understanding how the body regulates sleep and wakefulness.

    Most people experience a natural dip in alertness in the early afternoon, typically between 1pm and 4pm. This isn’t just due to a heavy lunch – our internal body clock, or circadian rhythm, creates cycles of wakefulness and tiredness throughout the day. The early afternoon lull is part of this rhythm, which is why so many people feel drowsy at that time.

    Studies suggest that a short nap during this period – ideally followed by bright light exposure – can help counteract fatigue, boost alertness, and improve cognitive function without interfering with nighttime sleep. These “power naps” allow the brain to rest without slipping into deep sleep, making it easier to wake up feeling refreshed.

    But there’s a catch: napping too long may result in waking up feeling worse than before. This is due to “sleep inertia” – the grogginess and disorientation that comes from waking up during deeper sleep stages.

    Once a nap extends beyond 30 minutes, the brain transitions into slow-wave sleep, making it much harder to wake up. Studies show that waking from deep sleep can leave people feeling sluggish for up to an hour. This can have serious implications if they then try to perform safety-critical tasks, make important decisions or operate machinery, for example. And if a nap is taken too late in the day, it can eat away from the “sleep pressure build-up” – the body’s natural drive for sleep – making it harder to fall asleep at night.

    When napping is essential

    For some, napping is essential. Shift workers often struggle with fragmented sleep due to irregular schedules, and a well-timed nap before a night shift can boost alertness and reduce the risk of errors and accidents. Similarly, people who regularly struggle to get enough sleep at night – whether due to work, parenting or other demands – may benefit from naps to bank extra hours of sleep that compensate for their sleep loss.

    Nonetheless, relying on naps instead of improving nighttime sleep is a short-term fix rather than a sustainable solution. People with chronic insomnia are often advised to avoid naps entirely, as daytime sleep can weaken their drive to sleep at night.

    Certain groups use strategic napping as a performance-enhancing tool. Athletes incorporate napping into their training schedules to speed up muscle recovery and improve sports-related parameters such as reaction times and endurance. Research also suggests that people in high-focus jobs, such as healthcare workers and flight crews, benefit from brief planned naps to maintain concentration and reduce fatigue-related mistakes. Nasa has found that a 26-minute nap can improve performance of long-haul flight operational staff by 34%, and alertness by 54%.

    How to nap well

    To nap effectively, timing and environment matter. Keeping naps between ten and 20 minutes prevents grogginess. The ideal time is before 2pm – napping too late can push back the body’s natural sleep schedule.

    The best naps happen in a cool, dark and quiet environment, similar to nighttime sleep conditions. Eye masks and noise-cancelling headphones can help, particularly for those who nap in bright or noisy settings.

    Despite the benefits, napping isn’t for everyone. Age, lifestyle and underlying sleep patterns all influence whether naps help or hinder. A good nap is all about strategy – knowing when, how, and if one should nap at all.

    For some it’s a life hack, improving focus and energy. For others, it’s a slippery slope into sleep disruption. The key is to experiment and observe how naps affect your overall sleep quality.

    Done wisely, naps can be a valuable tool. Done poorly, they might be the reason you’re staring at the ceiling at midnight.

    Talar Moukhtarian previously received funding from UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC).

    – ref. Can a daily nap do more harm than good? A sleep researcher explains – https://theconversation.com/can-a-daily-nap-do-more-harm-than-good-a-sleep-researcher-explains-251630

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sharha Sharha, PhD Candidate in Kamasutra Feminism, Cardiff Metropolitan University

    A carved erotic scene on the outer wall of temple in Khajuraho complex, India. Cortyn/Shutterstock

    For some people, the Kamasutra is little more than a name associated with condom brands, scented oils and chocolates shaped into erotic positions. In India, where sex remains a taboo subject, this ancient sex manual has often been reduced to merely a “dirty book”.

    But beneath this narrow view lies a deeper message: the Kamasutra is a treatise on sexual autonomy, one that could be revolutionary for women.

    In Indian society, women’s sexual pleasure is often invisible, buried beneath layers of cultural silence. Women are often taught to suppress their desires, their voices stifled by traditions that prioritise male needs. Yet, it was in this very country that the Kamasutra was written.

    Composed in the ancient Sanskrit language in the 3rd century by the Indian philosopher Vatsyayana, the Kamasutra is more than a book about sexual positions. The word “kama” means love, sex, desire and pleasure, while “sutra” translates to a treatise. The text explores relationships, ethics and social norms. It offers a framework for mutual respect and understanding between partners.

    In her 2016 book Redeeming the Kamasutra, scholar of Indian culture and society Wendy Doniger argues that Vatsyayana was an advocate of women’s pleasure as well as stressing their right to education and the freedom to express desire. Far from reinforcing male dominance, the Kamasutra originally emphasised the importance of mutual enjoyment and consent. It presents sex as a shared experience rather than a male conquest.

    Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890).
    Rischgitz/Stringer/Wikimedia

    The perception of the Kamasutra as a male-centred sex manual can be traced back to its first English translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883.

    Burton, a British soldier and explorer, omitted or altered passages that highlighted women’s autonomy. It shifted their role from active participants to passive recipients of male pleasure.

    In contrast, scholars such as Ganesh Saili have argued that the Kamasutra originally depicted women as equal partners in intimacy. According to the text, women communicated their needs through gestures, emotions and words, ensuring that their pleasure was just as valued as men’s. Importantly, conversation played a central role in intimacy, reinforcing the necessity of a woman’s consent before having sex.

    Despite this rich history, Indian society continues to largely suppress discussions around female sexuality. Indian sex educator and journalist Leeza Mangaldas argues that women’s sexual pleasure remains a taboo topic, policed by cultural expectations that dictate women must remain silent, subservient and sexually inactive before marriage.

    Social scientist, Deepa Narayan, argues that this suppression begins at home. Girls are often taught to deny their own bodies and prioritise male desires.

    The title page of the 1883 edition of Sir Richard Burton’s translation.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    This control extends to patriarchal social norms that uphold virginity as a virtue for women while imposing no such expectation on men. Sex is framed as something women “give” rather than something they experience. Pleasure is seen as a right for males but merely an afterthought for females. Sex is for men but for women, it is only for producing babies.

    Yet the Kamasutra itself tells a different story. In its original form, it described women as active participants in their pleasure and compared their sensuality to the delicacy of flowers – requiring care, attention and respect.

    My own research explores “Kamasutra feminism”. This is the idea that this ancient text is not just about sex but about sexual autonomy. It challenges patriarchal norms by promoting women’s freedom to articulate their desires and take control of their pleasure. The Kamasutra rejects the notion that women’s sexuality should be regulated or repressed. Instead, it advocates for mutual satisfaction and consent.

    Doniger describes the Kamasutra as a feminist text, citing its emphasis on women choosing their partners, expressing their desires freely and engaging in pleasurable sexual relationships. It recognises economic independence as a crucial factor in women’s sexual autonomy. Financial freedom is linked to the ability to make personal choices.

    An original Kamasutra manuscript page preserved in the vaults of the Raghunath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir.
    Ms Sarah Welch/Wikimedia, CC BY

    Patriarchy versus sexual liberty

    Ultimately, the Kamasutra represents a clash between patriarchy – where women’s sexuality is controlled – and a vision of sexual liberty. It offers an alternative narrative, one where seduction is about mutual enjoyment rather than male domination. Its teachings encourage open discussions about intimacy, allowing women to reclaim their voices in relationships.

    For more than a century, the Kamasutra has been misinterpreted, its radical message buried beneath layers of censorship and cultural shame. But if we look beyond its erotic reputation, we find a text that speaks to the importance of consent, equality and female agency.

    Reclaiming the Kamasutra as a guide for sexual empowerment could help dismantle deeply ingrained taboos and reshape the conversation around women’s pleasure. In a world where female desire is still widely policed, this ancient manuscript reminds us that women’s pleasure is not a luxury, but a right.

    Sharha Sharha 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. Women’s sexual pleasure is still taboo – but the Kamasutra tells a different story – https://theconversation.com/womens-sexual-pleasure-is-still-taboo-but-the-kamasutra-tells-a-different-story-251987

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Argentina: despite the scandals, Milei’s politics are here to stay

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Juan Pablo Ferrero, Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics, University of Bath

    The Argentinian president, Javier Milei, is going through the toughest moment of his short but remarkable political career. He is facing impeachment calls – as well as legal action – over his promotion of a cryptocurrency on social media.

    The cryptocoin $Libra, which Milei mentioned in a social media post on February 14, quickly rose in value before nosediving, causing severe losses for people who had invested in it. Milei has insisted that his post did not constitute an endorsement.

    “I’m a techno-optimist … and this was proposed to me as an instrument to help fund Argentine projects,” he said in a television interview. “It’s true that in trying to help out those Argentines, I took a slap in the face.”

    I doubt this is it for Milei. But even if it is the beginning of the end, Milei’s politics are here to stay. His leadership style, discourse and actions represent an emerging constituency with both a present and a future.

    This is because Milei is not, in my opinion, the effect of a crisis of representation. He is instead a faithful representative of a new reactive society emerging worldwide, which is largely sceptical of institutional mediation and values problem solvers and strong executives.

    People at the inauguration of Javier Milei in December 2023.
    Facundo Florit / Shutterstock

    To explore this phenomenon, imagine if you will, “Ricardo”, a fictitious yet representative member of a vulnerable segment of Argentina’s workforce. People like Ricardo returned to the labour market after the pandemic with precarious jobs and lower wages.

    He is a delivery worker who uses multiple digital platforms to earn a living. His life, characterised by the gig economy and labour informality, reflects a broader trend affecting around 50% of workers in Argentina.

    Ricardo had previously voted for Argentina’s left-wing leader, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. But he voted for Milei in the last election, as did many others, and says he would vote for Milei again today. His sympathy for Milei has grown over the year he has been in office.

    According to a recent poll put together by political consultancy firm Tendencias, 89.6% of those who voted for Milei in the 2023 general election were happy with their choice. A growing share of Argentina’s population seemingly approves of the Milei administration.

    During the pandemic, Ricardo’s ability to support his family was diminished by government-imposed restrictions on travel and movement. These restrictions, which were often violently enforced by security forces, pushed him into poverty. The rate of poverty in Argentina increased to over 40% during the pandemic.

    This experience led Ricardo to feel a sense of satisfaction when Milei began mass layoffs of public employees to cut public spending. He thought this was payback time for those in the public sector, with job security, who did not have to endure what he had to during the pandemic.

    For Ricardo, they were all ñoquis (gnocchi), a slang term widely used in Argentina to refer to public employees who receive a salary but allegedly do little work. These workers are called ñoquis because many Argentinians traditionally eat gnocchi on the 29th day of every month, around the time people receive their monthly paychecks.

    Ricardo consumes all of the short clips circulating online from television interviews and talks at international forums of Milei “destroying” career politicians, whom he calls la casta (the caste). Milei sees the main aim of the caste as the reproduction of themselves, so he advocates for a small state or no state at all. Milei believes that nearly everything should be privatised.

    While Ricardo thinks politicians should be compensated for their job, many from across Argentina’s political spectrum have become extremely wealthy, so he’s with Milei on this one too. He even wears a chainsaw as a key ring – a nod to Milei’s promise to slash the size of the state.

    Ricardo acknowledges that life has become very expensive in Argentina since Milei took office. This is because, while inflation has gone down, the Argentinian peso has gained value, making Argentina one of the most expensive countries in the world. However, he believes this remains a price worth paying for a stable and prosperous Argentina.

    The aforementioned poll suggests that many Argentinians feel that their economic situation is better than a year ago, and will improve over the course of the next six months. Inflation, which was the leading concern in most polls ahead of the election, has fallen to sixth place.

    Ricardo is persuaded by Milei’s mantra: “If printing money would end poverty, printing diplomas would end stupidity”. And in recent times, Ricardo has spent his scarce leisure moments watching videos on his phone where internet influencers teach him how to multiply his dwindling income by investing in cryptocurrencies that promise high returns in a short time.

    In Argentina, like many other areas of the world, the appetite for gambling or investing in highly risky ventures such as cryptocurrency has multiplied as a means to win money fast. This is especially true among young people, often with devastating consequences.

    Representation of a new society

    There is a new political subject emerging worldwide marked by the precariousness of new forms of work, whose socialisation occurs in the digital world dominated by influencers. These people see the state not only as unnecessary, but as an enemy to be destroyed and distrust all institutional political intermediaries. Milei represents this new society.

    The process by which an issue becomes a subject of political debate and action has also changed. Solutions to single issues have replaced political programmes with complex visions about the future as the main source of popular validation. Big personalities can carry this forward more successfully than bureaucratic political parties.

    Presidents have become more like city majors judged by their ability to provide solutions to a single issue. In the case of Milei, it’s inflation. For Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, it’s security. And for Donald Trump in the US, it’s China.

    The figureheads of new political formations might change, but the politics of these formations will not.

    Juan Pablo Ferrero 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. Argentina: despite the scandals, Milei’s politics are here to stay – https://theconversation.com/argentina-despite-the-scandals-mileis-politics-are-here-to-stay-250183

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Press Release – Expressions of Interest – Jersey Ferry Tuesday 18 March 2025

    Source: Channel Islands – States of Alderney

    Press Release
    Date: 18th March 2025

    Economic Development seeks Ferry Service operator between Jersey and Alderney

    The Economic Development Committee recognises the importance of connectivity to the island and is keen to expand ferry service offerings to Alderney.
    In keeping with the States established procurement procedures, and to demonstrate value for money to local taxpayers, the States is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOI) for a seasonal ferry service between the Island and Jersey for the 2025 summer season.

    The opportunity is open to ferry service providers with vessels of up to 12-passenger capacity to operate between the Spring Bank Holiday at the end of May until the end of September.
    The successful applicant will also have an option to extend to 2026 subject to review by both parties.

    It is envisaged that a minimum service for the Alderney-Jersey route would involve at least four rotations per week to accommodate overnight stays in Alderney.
    At this stage, potential providers are being asked to provide basic details to the States including vessel, proposed timetable and fares and what support the service may require from the States. Once initial submissions have been received, a more detailed process will be carried out to select the provider in time to commence the service in May.

    Details about the EOI and the procurement process can be found at the link: CHttpHandler.ashx

    Chair of the Economic Development Committee, Stuart Clark said ‘the seasonal ferry services to Guernsey for visitors and residents alike have been an important factor in Alderney’s transport offering. The limited travel links to Jersey have also been well noted and the Committee feels that direct links to Jersey is a market that should be tested and exploited.’

    Closing date for submission of EOI is March 28th 2025.

    Ends

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Alexey Overchuk spoke at the plenary session of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

    Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

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

    Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk spoke at the plenary session of the XXXIV Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

    The main topics of discussion at this year’s RSPP congress were key areas of interaction between business and government and proposals for the participation of the business community in achieving national development goals for the country and implementing national projects.

    From the transcript:

    A. Overchuk: Dear colleagues!

    Thank you very much for the invitation and the opportunity to speak before the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The success of our economy and the country as a whole truly depends on those present in this hall.

    Entrepreneurship involves competition for access to resources and markets, whether nationally or internationally. It is this activity that provides the source of progress, income and wealth for individual households, businesses and nations.

    We are participants in the formation of a new world with new trade and economic ties and priorities.

    The Russian economy is adapting to deal with that part of the world that has higher rates of economic growth, good demographics, and wants to work with us. And the Government is facilitating this adaptation.

    We see our main task in this process as providing Russian industrialists and entrepreneurs with the best competitive conditions for doing business throughout the entire international value chain, that is, at every stage of the process of creating a product or service and delivering it to consumers.

    Within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Union State of Russia and Belarus, our actions are aimed at expanding opportunities for our exporters, as well as improving the balance of supply and demand in our common domestic market. Work here is carried out in several areas – this is customs and tariff protection of the domestic market of the Eurasian Economic Union; the formation of common markets and a barrier-free environment in the single customs territory of the EAEU; the development and creation of international transport corridors; the formation of a network of free trade agreements and non-preferential agreements on trade and economic cooperation and the adoption of technical regulations and standards of the EAEU by other countries.

    Within the framework of the single customs space of the EAEU, we strive to respond flexibly to the market situation and accordingly regulate single customs tariffs and import volumes.

    Imported goods and services are part of international value chains and also affect supply and prices in the domestic consumer market. This has a dampening effect on inflation, affects interest rates and labor costs, and is ultimately reflected in production costs.

    Cheap imports can pose threats by displacing domestic producers, reducing employment and income levels, and slowing economic growth. Here, we strive first and foremost to stand on the side of our producers’ interests, giving priority to import substitution and strengthening our economic and technological independence.

    To solve this problem, as well as to stimulate the development of production and economic ties and trade between our countries, the EAEU has launched a support mechanism in the form of subsidizing the interest rate on loans issued by banks for the development of industrial cooperation projects covering three or more EAEU member states. The first two fairly large projects have already been approved. Options for expanding this mechanism to the agro-industrial complex are being considered. I urge Russian entrepreneurs, in conjunction with partners from EAEU member states, to actively use this already existing support mechanism.

    We monitor the balance of supply and demand in the consumer market, primarily the food market, which underlies the cost of the consumer basket. This is one of the elements in determining the level of inflation, which affects the key rate and the cost of lending for business.

    In order to influence the cost of the consumer basket within the EAEU, in addition to tariff measures, over the past two or three years we have begun to apply such a mechanism as a joint indicative balance of supply and demand for individual types of agricultural crops. The EAEU today determines balances for such types of goods as grain, sunflower seeds, sunflower oil and sugar.

    In the event of a reduction in the supply of certain types of goods on the national markets of individual EAEU member states, the EEC Council takes targeted tariff measures. At the same time, decisions to reduce tariffs are taken only after it becomes clear that an increase in supply on the EAEU domestic market is only possible through imports from outside the union. We call for close cooperation with both manufacturers and associations of manufacturers, that is, with businesses.

    Due to the similarity of the structures of our economies within the EAEU, we often compete with our union partners in foreign markets. This affects the reduction of our producers’ income. Now our partners are realizing the benefits of coordinating efforts to promote exports, and we already have positive examples. We will support and develop such initiatives if it is beneficial to our business.

    Within the EAEU, we are forming common markets for goods, services, capital and labour. We have made significant progress in the electric power market. In December 2024, we recorded that the gas market in the EAEU had already taken shape in the form in which it actually exists. Within the Union State, we are reaching agreements on a common oil market and will continue to develop this within the EAEU.

    Common markets within the Union State and the EAEU not only expand opportunities for the sale of goods and services, but also create healthier competitive conditions.

    We will continue to work to reduce and eliminate barriers that hinder the formation of single markets throughout the Eurasian Economic Union, as provided for in our major agreement.

    As the largest economy in the EAEU, Russia is a premium market. And business representatives from EAEU partner states closely monitor changes in the Russian regulatory framework and quickly identify decisions that prevent them from entering our market, if such appear. We would like our business community to more actively enter the markets of other EAEU member states and promptly provide us with information on violations of EAEU law, if such arise.

    Based on economic and geopolitical realities, we focus on ensuring transport and logistics connectivity of our market with the markets of the global South. A program for the modernization and construction of international checkpoints is being implemented. We are working on the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway section in Iran, which will ensure uninterrupted connectivity of the ports of the Russian northwest with Iranian ports in the Indian Ocean.

    We are discussing the modernization of the Ulaanbaatar railway that runs through Mongolia. We are using existing routes and seeking from our partners to improve tariff conditions for our shippers.

    A pilot project was launched to use electronic international consignment notes for international road freight transportation within the single customs territory of the EAEU. To protect the internal market of the Union State, navigation seals began to be used for transit products.

    I would like to draw attention to the Agreement on the Unified Customs Transit System of the EAEU concluded in December 2024 and the fact that states that are not members of the union can also join this agreement. This will allow external partners to be involved in certain aspects of the customs regulation of the union, which will help reduce the time spent on the passage of goods.

    In the context of illegal sanctions, we rely more on internal forces, we are pursuing a policy of import substitution, but we also strive to rely on the opportunities that are provided to us by trade regimes within the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the EAEU, the CIS, as well as those states with which we are establishing free trade zones. And we strive to develop trade with friendly countries.

    The world is beginning to notice the successes of our integration association. They see that the EAEU is becoming a center of attraction for states located to the south of the post-Soviet space, such as Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, the ASEAN countries, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, and African states. We are building closer trade relations with them, including in the form of free trade agreements.

    For example, just the day before yesterday, the Islamic Republic of Iran notified the Eurasian Economic Commission of the completion of the procedures necessary for the entry into force of a full-scale free trade agreement between the EAEU and Iran. The agreement will enter into force on May 15, and this means that for the EAEU member states, the export market will increase by 85 million consumers. At the same time, Iranian producers will gain access to the common market of the EAEU member states, which is more than 180 million people, which will lead to improved competition in our markets.

    Similar work is currently underway with a number of other countries. By the end of the year, we can expect that the EAEU may sign two more free trade agreements. I believe that our business community should carefully study these new opportunities.

    In conclusion, I would like to say that this year an action plan for the implementation of the EAEU Declaration for 2030–2045, “The Eurasian Economic Path,” is being prepared for adoption. I would like the members of the Business Council to participate more actively in this work.

    Thank you for your attention.

    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 USA: HHS, FDA Announce Operation Stork Speed to Expand Options for Safe, Reliable, and Nutritious Infant Formula for American Families

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services – 3

    For Immediate Release:
    March 18, 2025

    Today, under the leadership of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to enhance its efforts to ensure the ongoing quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience of the domestic infant formula supply.
    “The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” said HHS Secretary Kennedy. “Helping each family and child get off to the right start from birth is critical to our pursuit to Make America Healthy Again.”
    The FDA is announcing a set of actions and initiatives focused on infant formula, such as beginning the nutrient review process and increasing testing for heavy metals and other contaminants. The agency is also encouraging companies to develop new infant formulas and clarify opportunities to help inform consumers about formula ingredients. These enhanced FDA commitments are focused on making sure a strong supply of the sole source of nutrition for formula-fed babies and children remains available for one of our nation’s most vulnerable populations.
    “The FDA is deeply committed to ensuring that moms and other caregivers of infants and young children and other individuals who rely on infant formula for their nutritional needs have confidence that these products are safe, consistently available, and contain the nutrients essential to promote health and wellbeing during critical stages of development and life,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, M.D., M.P.H. “Whether breastfed, bottle fed or both, the rising generation must be nourished in a way that promotes health and longevity over the course of their lives.”
    The FDA uses its authorities, both longstanding and newly granted, to uphold the safety, nutritional adequacy and resilience of infant formula and the infant formula supply. The FDA is:

    Starting the nutrient review required by law by issuing a Request for Information in the coming months to start the first comprehensive update and review of infant formula nutrients by the FDA since 1998
    Increasing testing for heavy metals and other contaminants in infant formula and other foods children consume
    Extending the personal importation policy
    Encouraging companies to work with the FDA on any questions regarding increased transparency and clearer labeling
    Communicating regularly with consumers and industry stakeholders as significant developments occur to ensure transparency, including information regarding nutrients and health outcomes
    Collaborating with the National Institutes of Health and other scientific bodies to address priority scientific research gaps regarding short- and long-term health outcomes associated with formula feeding in infancy and childhood across the lifespan

    The FDA remains committed to infant formula safety and nutritional quality and is taking all actions to ensure the U.S. infant formula supply ranks best in the world.
    Related Information

    Related Information

    ###

    Boilerplate

    The FDA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protects the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness, and security of human and veterinary drugs, vaccines and other biological products for human use, and medical devices. The agency also is responsible for the safety and security of our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, dietary supplements, radiation-emitting electronic products, and for regulating tobacco products.

    Inquiries

    Consumer:
    888-INFO-FDA

    Content current as of:
    03/18/2025

    Regulated Product(s)

    Follow FDA

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE arrests 81 illegal aliens as part of joint federal law enforcement operation in Kentucky, of which 25 also charged with felony criminal offenses

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    LOUISVILLE, Ky. – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 81 illegal aliens during an enhanced targeted enforcement operation March 10 to 14 which included multiple federal law enforcement agencies in Kentucky, with 25 of the aliens charged with criminal offenses including illegal reentry, illegal possession of firearms, and illegal possession of controlled substances.

    Illegal aliens who were not charged criminally will be held in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

    Arrests included illegal aliens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Cuba, India and Palau.

    Among those arrested during the operation include:

    • A 35-year-old citizen of Honduras charged with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien and illegal reentry.
    • A 50-year-old citizen of Mexico charged with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.
    • A 30-year-old citizen of Mexico charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.
    • A 45-year-old citizen of Guatemala convicted of domestic violence conviction, public intoxication, driving without a license, and DUI.
    • A 44-year-old citizen of India convicted of sexual misconduct with a minor, intimidation, and battery.
    • A 28 -year-old citizen of Mexico charged with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.
    • A 32-year-old citizen of Mexico convicted of drug trafficking, possession of multiple firearms with machine gun conversion devices who is charged with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien and illegal reentry.

    “Public safety relies on the expertise of ICE officers who are able to coordinate across federal agencies to accomplish these arrests,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Chicago Field Office Director Sam Olson. “Operations that lead to the arrest and detention of alien offenders can be complex and may, at times, prove to be challenging. Our agency is more than capable to meet those challenges. I’m grateful for all our federal partners here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and we are committed, as a united group, to removing individuals from our communities who pose a threat to public safety and national security.”

    Partner law enforcement participating in the operation included the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Criminal charges by indictment or criminal complaint are pursued by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Western District of Kentucky and the Eastern District of Kentucky.

    Members of the public can report crimes and suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the online tip form.

    Learn more about ICE’s mission to increase public safety in your community on X at @EROChicago.

    MIL OSI USA News –