NORFOLK, Va. – A member of the Bloods criminal street gang was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of a machinegun during a drug-trafficking crime.
According to court documents, on Aug. 28, 2021, in Norfolk, Christopher Scarbor, aka Hellboy, 32, was in a BMW that fled from a marked police unit at a high rate of speed and ignored stop signs. The car entered a cemetery and crashed through and over gravestones before it spun out and stopped.
After the car came to rest in the cemetery, Scarbor was arrested after he attempted to flee on foot. Scarbor possessed a waist pack that contained 87 pills and a machinegun conversion device (MCD), used to convert a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic machinegun. Police also recovered two semi-automatic firearms inside the car.
On April 5, 2023, Scarbor was wanted for failing to appear in court while he was on pretrial release for his Aug. 28, 2021 offense. Norfolk police located Scarbor in a hotel in Norfolk. Officers observed an ammunition magazine in the bathroom and, from within the toilet tank, recovered a handgun with an affixed MCD; 8.51 grams of cocaine; 14.94 grams of fentanyl and xylazine; 17.16 grams of para-fluorofentanyl, fentanyl, and xylazine; and 37.06 grams of methamphetamine.
In 2013, Scarbor was convicted for robbery and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Michael Feinberg, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office; and Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Graham M. Stolle, an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney with the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph E. DePadilla prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:23-cr-112.
NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County man was charged today with (i) being a felon in possession of a firearm, (ii) possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine, and (iii) possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced.
Michael Weaver, 38, of Irvington, New Jersey was charged today by superseding indictment with the above-referenced charges, and his arraignment will be scheduled before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi in Newark federal court.
As a result of Weaver’s significant and violent criminal history, which includes numerous convictions in Essex County for robbery, aggravated assault, unlawful weapons possession, and drug trafficking, he was charged under the Armed Career Criminal Act. That charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison. In total, as a result of all the charges in the Superseding Indictment, Weaver faces a total mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of imprisonment of life in prison. Each offense carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
Acting U.S. Attorney Khanna credited special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II and Chief Mitchell G. McGuire, and the Newark Police Department, under the direction of Director Emanuel Miranda, with the investigation.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Stern of the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit in Newark.
The charges and allegations contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Ross River RCMP investigators have recovered several stolen firearms and charged two adult males following separate and unrelated investigations.
On November 26, 2024, Ross River RCMP received a report of a break and enter at a residence where two rifles were stolen. Through the course of the investigation, police were able to recover the firearms and Robert Power, was arrested and charged with:
Possession of a weapon obtained by crime;
Unauthorized possession of a firearm;
Weapons trafficking;
Possession of property obtained by crime.
On November 30, 2024 police received a report of a rifle that was stolen. Police have since recovered this firearm and have charged Michael Bondarchuk with weapons trafficking and unauthorized possession of a firearm.
Mr. Bondarchuk and Mr. Power were arrested on February 19, 2025 and held in custody for court on February 20. They were both released on Release Orders with conditions including a court appearance for March 6, 2025 in Ross River.
Ross River RCMP request that anyone with information about these incidents to contact Ross River RCMP at 867-969-5555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
The visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House has not gone to plan – at least not to his plan. There were extraordinary scenes as a press conference between Zelensky and Trump descended into acrimony, with the US president loudly berating his opposite number, who he accused of “gambling with world war three”.
“You either make a deal or we’re out,” Trump told Zelensky. His vice-president, J.D. Vance, also got in on the act, accusing the Ukrainian president of “litigating in front of the American media”, and saying his approach was “disrespectful”. At one point he asked Zelensky: “Have you said thank you even once?”
Reporters present described the atmosphere as heated with voices raised by both Trump and Vance. The New York Times said the scene was “one of the most dramatic moments ever to play out in public in the Oval Office and underscored the radical break between the United States and Ukraine since Mr Trump took office”.
Underlying the angry exchanges were differences between the Trump administration and the Ukrainian government over the so-called “minerals deal” that Zelensky was scheduled to sign. But any lack of Ukrainian enthusiasm for the deal is understandable.
In its present form, it looks more like a memorandum of understanding that leaves several vital issues to be resolved later. The deal on offer is the creation of what will be called a “reconstruction investment fund”, to be jointly owned and managed by the US and Ukraine.
Into the proposed fund will go 50% of the revenue from the exploitation of “all relevant Ukrainian government-owned natural resource assets (whether owned directly or indirectly by the Ukrainian government)” and “other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets (such as liquified natural gas terminals and port infrastructure)”.
This means that private infrastructure – much of it owned by Ukraine’s wealthy oligarchs – is likely to become part of the deal. This has the potential of further increasing friction between Zelensky and some very powerful Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, US contributions are less clearly defined. The preamble to the agreement makes it clear that Ukraine already owes the US. The very first paragraph notes that “the United States of America has provided significant financial and material support to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022”.
Western and Ukrainian analysts have also pointed out that there may be fewer and less accessible mineral and rare earth deposits in Ukraine than are currently assumed. The working estimates have been based mostly on Soviet-era data.
Since the current draft leaves details on ownership, governance and operations to be determined in a future fund agreement, Trump’s very big deal is at best the first step. Future rounds of negotiations are to be expected.
Statement of intent
From a Ukrainian perspective, this is more of a strength than a weakness. It leaves Kyiv with an opportunity to achieve more satisfactory terms in future rounds of negotiation. Even if any improvements will only be marginal, it keeps the US locked into a process that is, overall, beneficial for Ukraine.
Take the example of security guarantees. The draft agreement offers Ukraine nothing anywhere near Nato membership. But it notes that the US “supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace”, adding that: “Participants will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments.”
The significance of this should not be overstated. At its bare minimum, it is an expression of intent by the US that falls short of security guarantees but still gives the US a stake in the survival of Ukraine as an independent state.
But it is an important signal both in terms of what it does and does not do – a signal to Russia, Europe and Ukraine.
Trump does not envisage that the US will give Ukraine security guarantees “beyond very much”. He seems to think that these guarantees can be provided by European troops (the Kremlin has already cast doubts on this idea).
But this does not mean the idea is completely off the table. On the contrary, because the US commitment is so vague, it gives Trump leverage in every direction.
He can use it as a carrot and a stick against Ukraine to get more favourable terms for US returns from the reconstruction investment fund. He can use it to push Europe towards more decisive action to ramp up defence spending by making any US protection for European peacekeepers contingent on more equitable burden-sharing in Nato.
And he can signal to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that the US is serious about making a deal stick – and that higher American economic stakes in Ukraine and corporate presence on the ground would mean US-backed consequences if the Kremlin reneges on a future peace agreement and restarts hostilities.
That these calculations will ultimately lead to the “free, sovereign and secure Ukraine” that the agreement envisages is not a given.
For now, however, despite all the shortcomings and vagueness of the deal on key issues –– and the very public argument between the parties – it still looks like it serves all sides’ interests in moving forward in this direction.
This article has been updated with details of the meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.
Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.
Tetyana Malyarenko 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.
Myanmar is mired in one of the world’s worst human rights crises, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday, describing conditions there as “a litany of human suffering.”
Addressing the Human Rights Council on Friday, he detailed the devastating toll of the ongoing conflict and economic collapse on civilians – many of whom have been displaced by the fighting.
Earlier in the day the Council discussed the deteriorating situation in South Sudan, having heard a report from rights investigators serving on the Commission on Human Rights in the country.
“Conflict, displacement and economic collapse have combined to cause pain and misery across Myanmar and civilians are paying a terrible price,” Mr. Türk said.
The number killed in violence last year was the highest since the military coup in 2021. Over 1,800 civilians were killed in 2024, many in indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery shelling, with attacks on schools, places of worship and healthcare facilities having become routine.
Mr. Türk condemned the military’s brutal tactics, including beheadings, burnings, mutilations, and the use of human shields. He also noted that nearly 2,000 people have died in custody since the coup, most due to summary executions and torture.
Deepening humanitarian crisis
Fighting between the junta forces and opposition armed groups has fuelled a humanitarian catastrophe, with more than 3.5 million people displaced and 15 million facing hunger – two million of whom are at risk of famine.
In Rakhine state, clashes between the military and the Arakan Army have intensified, with thousands of civilians killed and Rohingya communities caught in the crossfire.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2024, despite border restrictions. More than 8,000 fled by sea – an 80 per cent increase over 2023 – but at least 650 people, nearly half of them children, perished on the dangerous journey.
Furthermore, scam centres in eastern Myanmar have become notorious for human trafficking, where victims are coerced into cybercrime and subjected to torture, sexual violence, and forced labour.
Military conscription
Mr. Türk also condemned the junta’s activation of military conscription laws, which have led to arbitrary arrests and forced recruitment, particularly targeting young men and women. Fear of conscription has driven many to flee the country, exposing them to trafficking and exploitation.
“Given the humanitarian, political and economic impacts fuelling instability across the region, the international community must do more,” Mr. Türk underscored.
He reiterated his call for an arms embargo, coupled with targeted sanctions – including on jet fuel and dual-use goods – to better protect the people of Myanmar.
Displaced South Sudanese people arrive at a camp in Upper Nile State. (file)
South Sudan: Leaders failing their own people
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan presented its latest report to the Human Rights Council earlier in Geneva, detailing widespread violations, including extrajudicial killings, forced recruitment of children and systematic sexual violence.
Despite South Sudan winning independence over a decade ago and repeated commitments to peace during years of civil war, the Commission found that the same patterns of abuses persist, often implicating high-ranking officials.
“It is unconscionable that so many years after its independence, political leaders continue their violent contestations across the country and are abjectly failing the people of South Sudan,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission.
Extreme ethnic violence
The report described the situation in Tambura, where armed forces and militias inflicted extreme violence along ethnic lines in 2024, reigniting tensions from the 2021 conflict.
Political elites at both local and national levels have actively fuelled this violence while remaining in power despite past crimes.
The Commission also raised alarms over the “Green Book” law introduced in Warrap State in 2024, which authorizes extrajudicial executions for suspected cattle raiding and communal violence.
Address corruption
South Sudan’s leaders agreed in September 2024 to extend the transitional political arrangements by two years, citing funding constraints.
The Commission’s report noted that the government generated $3.5 billion in revenue between September 2022 and August 2024, while essential institutions – such as courts, schools, and hospitals – remain underfunded and civil servants go unpaid.
“Financing essential services and rule of law institutions requires an end to the corruption. The theft of national wealth robs citizens of justice, education, and healthcare,” said Commissioner Carlos Castresana Fernández.
“Without addressing this systemic looting, no peace agreement will ever translate into meaningful change,” he added.
The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. First established in March 2016, it has been renewed annually since. Its three Commissioners are not UN staff, they are not paid for their work and serve in an independent capacity.
A Colorado dentist pleaded guilty today to six counts of tax evasion related to his use of an illegal tax shelter.
According to court documents and statements made in court, since 2014, Ryan Ulibarri owned and operated Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2016, Ulibarri purchased an abusive-trust tax shelter for $50,000. The tax shelter involved concealing income and creating false tax deductions through the use of a so-called business trust, family trust, charitable trust and a private family foundation, all of which Ulibarri created and controlled. From 2017 through 2022, Ulibarri used this tax shelter to conceal from the IRS over $3.5 million in income he earned from his dental practice.
To set up the tax shelter, Ulibarri, as the purported trustee, signed trust instruments purporting to create the three trusts and foundation, and he opened bank accounts in the name of each. He further recruited friends to falsely sign his trust instruments as the purported creators of the trusts. Ulibarri then transferred majority ownership of his dental practice to the business trust. Ulibarri did this despite having been warned by attorneys and CPAs that, in Colorado, a trust could not own a dental practice.
He then transferred over $3 million he earned from his dental practice into the bank accounts of the various trusts and foundation to create the illusion that the funds belonged to those entities. In reality, Ulibarri retained complete control over the funds and used the funds to pay for personal expenses including his home mortgage, credit card bills, boats and professional baseball season tickets. Finally, he filed false tax returns for himself, his dental practice, the trusts and foundation that falsely reported the income he earned from his dental practice as income of the trusts. On those tax returns Ulibarri also claimed fraudulent deductions for his personal living expenses which he disguised as trust expenses and charitable donations.
In total, Ulibarri is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $1 million.
Ulibarri is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Special Agent in Charge Amanda Prestegard of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Denver Field Office made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Scott and Lauren K. Pope and Assistant Chief Andrew J. Kameros of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.
FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The cryptocurrency market has been experiencing one of its most challenging phases. Even the biggest players, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have witnessed steep corrections of 15-30% from their recent highs. During such volatile times, most digital assets struggle to maintain value—but not BDTCOIN. Defying the odds, this emerging cryptocurrency has surged an astonishing 5x in just 15 days since its listing on LBank, turning heads in the crypto world.
At a time when uncertainty looms over the industry, BDTCOIN is rewriting the narrative. It’s not just another token riding speculative waves—it’s a revolutionary digital asset with a purpose. Built on the principles of financial inclusion, cross-border accessibility, and blockchain transparency, BDTCOIN is proving that true innovation thrives even in bear markets.
“In a sea of red, BDTCOIN’s performance is nothing short of extraordinary,” states renowned crypto analyst, Dr. Anya Sharma. “Its gold-backed foundation and quantum-resistant technology provide a level of security and stability that’s crucial in today’s volatile market. I am telling my clients that this is a must-have asset.”
A Market Outperformer in a Bearish Climate
Despite the ongoing market-wide correction, BDTCOIN has emerged as a beacon of resilience, showcasing strong demand and adoption. But what makes BDTCOIN stand out in a sea of digital assets? The answer lies in its unique value proposition—utility-driven innovation designed for real-world impact.
Michael Carter, Senior Crypto Analyst, adds: “While most cryptocurrencies struggled amid February’s market crash, BDTCOIN stood strong, proving itself as one of the most resilient digital assets in the industry. Its gold-backed nature provides a unique hedge against volatility, making it a standout investment.”
The BDTCOIN Difference: More Than Just a Coin
BDTCOIN isn’t just another speculative asset; it’s a cryptocurrency built to redefine financial inclusion, streamline cross-border transactions, and foster economic empowerment. Unlike many cryptos that merely serve as digital gold or investment vehicles, BDTCOIN aims to bridge gaps in the financial ecosystem, making transactions seamless, accessible, and affordable.
Financial Inclusion for the Unbanked : Millions worldwide remain excluded from the traditional banking system due to high costs, accessibility issues, and bureaucratic hurdles. BDTCOIN leverages blockchain technology to provide secure, low-cost financial services, allowing individuals to send remittances, save funds, and access credit without relying on traditional banks.
Cross-Border Transactions Made Easy: Remittance services often charge high fees and take days to process transactions. BDTCOIN eliminates these inefficiencies with near-instant, low-cost cross-border payments, revolutionizing the way migrant workers send money home.
Decentralized and Transparent: BDTCOIN operates on a decentralized blockchain, ensuring transparency and security. By reducing reliance on intermediaries, it minimizes fraud and corruption—critical factors in regions where trust in financial institutions is low.
A Focus on Emerging Markets: While many cryptocurrencies primarily cater to developed nations and institutional investors, BDTCOIN is tailored for emerging markets, where financial innovation is most needed. The coin is gaining traction as a practical alternative to traditional banking systems from Africa to Southeast Asia.
Raj Mehta, Financial Expert, affirms: “BDTCOIN is not just another cryptocurrency; it’s a financial revolution. In a market where volatility reigns, this asset has demonstrated unwavering strength, making it one of the top contenders for long-term adoption.”
Transaction Processing: Speed, Security, and Scalability
BDTCOIN’s underlying blockchain infrastructure is built for efficiency, ensuring rapid, secure, and cost-effective transactions.
Rapid confirmation times: Transactions are processed almost instantly, eliminating long wait times.
Minimal processing fees: Unlike traditional banking systems, BDTCOIN enables low-cost transfers, making financial transactions more accessible.
Scalable infrastructure: Designed for mass adoption, BDTCOIN’s blockchain can handle high transaction volumes without congestion.
24/7 operation: No banking hours or delays—BDTCOIN transactions run around the clock, ensuring seamless financial interactions worldwide.
The Road Ahead for BDTCOIN
As the crypto market remains turbulent, BDTCOIN’s ability to not only withstand the downturn but thrive in it is a testament to its strong fundamentals and growing adoption. With a clear mission to democratize finance and a robust technological backbone, BDTCOIN is poised to redefine how people interact with money in a digital-first world.
With increasing adoption, strategic partnerships, and a focus on real-world utility, BDTCOIN is more than just another cryptocurrency—it’s a movement towards a more inclusive and efficient financial system.
Thus, In a world where the gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen, BDTCOIN offers a glimmer of hope. It’s a reminder that technology when used responsibly, can be a force for good.
Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency investments are subject to market risks. Investors should conduct their own research before making any financial decisions.
Disclaimer: This content is provided by BDTCOIN. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing in crypto and mining related opportunities involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. However, due to the inherently speculative nature of the blockchain sector–including cryptocurrency, NFTs, and mining–complete accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Silvercrest Asset Management Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SAMG) announced today it will host a teleconference at 8:30 am Eastern Time on March 7, 2025, to discuss the company’s financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024. A news release containing the results will be issued before the open of the U.S. equity markets and will be available on http://ir.silvercrestgroup.com/.
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Richard R. Hough III and Chief Financial Officer Scott A. Gerard will review the quarterly results during the call. Immediately after the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session for analysts and institutional investors.
Analysts, institutional investors and the general public may listen to the call by dialing 1-844-836-8743 or for international callers please dial 1-412-317-5723. A live, listen-only webcast will also be available via the investor relations section of www.silvercrestgroup.com. An archived replay of the call will be available after the completion of the live call on the Investor Relations page of the Silvercrest website at http://ir.silvercrestgroup.com/.
About Silvercrest Silvercrest was founded in April 2002 as an independent, employee-owned registered investment adviser. With offices in New York, Boston, Virginia, New Jersey, California and Wisconsin, Silvercrest provides traditional and alternative investment advisory and family office services to wealthy families and select institutional investors. As of September 30, 2024, the firm reported assets under management of $35.1 billion.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today announced an update to the timing of its previously announced presentation at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. Nasdaq CFO Sarah Youngwood will now be presenting at 4:05pm PT (7:05pm ET) on Monday, March 3, 2025. All updated details are included below.
Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference
When:
Monday, March 3, 2025 4:05pm PT (7:05 PM ET)
About Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is a global technology company serving corporate clients, investment managers, banks, brokers, and exchange operators as they navigate and interact with the global capital markets and the broader financial system. We aspire to deliver world-leading platforms that improve the liquidity, transparency, and integrity of the global economy. Our diverse offering of data, analytics, software, exchange capabilities, and client-centric services enables clients to optimize and execute their business vision with confidence. To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, on X @Nasdaq, or at www.nasdaq.com.
Conservatives now claim we are in the middle of a “movement” of workers away from the New Democratic Party, which has historically been seen as the party of labour, toward both federal and provincial conservative parties.
Former Conservative Party of Canada leader Erin O’Toole reached out to workers in the last federal election and current Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, continues to do so.
However, the actual extent of union support for Ford must be put into context. There is no evidence to suggest a major political re-alignment of unions with conservative parties. At the same time, the ability of Ford’s brand of populism to engage with a strategic transactionalism in some unions is a serious challenge to labour movement solidarity.
Local autonomy is part of a democratic labour movement, and many of the endorsements for Ford came from union locals, not the entirety of a union’s membership.
Some unions have policies of not endorsing any party, while others allow endorsements by union locals of individual candidates. More importantly, even if unions decide to endorse a candidate or party, individual members vote for whoever they want. Union members continue to vote in complex and contradictory ways, and they can be swayed by populist politicians as much as any other voter.
Right-wing populism presents a challenge to unions whose members are not isolated from populist politics. Ford’s brand of populism has proven effective in attracting and dividing organized labour, especially public versus private sector union members. He uses populist rhetoric to challenge public sector unions while making more moderate overatures to non-union and private sector workers.
This pivoting populism has proven effective. Promises of a “buck-a-beer” and allowing liquor into corner stores appeals to workers while potentially reducing unionized jobs at LCBO outlets and government revenue for health care and education.
Ford has also demonstrated the ability to shift his populist message when needed. He quickly positioned himself as a leading voice against tariffs proposed by United States President Donald Trump. He successfully engaged a nationalist economic populism defending workers, specifically in Ontario’s manufacturing sector.
Despite being caught saying he was “100 per cent” happy with Trump’s victory, he pivoted to a message that muzzled, at least temporarily, the racist, anti-immigrant, anti-transgender and anti-climate change sentiments of Trumpian populism.
Ford’s folksy rhetoric was flexible enough to maintain his appeal. Union leaders representing workers supportive of Ford, especially in the private sector, either felt pressure to reflect their members politics or were supportive themselves. As a result, some unions were more open to being transactional with the Ontario PCs than in the past.
Transactional approach to politics
In their recent book Shifting Gears, labour experts Stephanie Ross and Larry Savage document Unifor’s shift toward a more transactional approach when dealing with political parties. They argue the union abandoned its traditional party-union alliance with the NDP for more pragmatic relationships with those in power.
Transactional politics are increasingly practised by many unions, and Ford has used it to his advantage. Private sector unions in the building trades and hospitality industries that endorsed Ford have secured millions in training funds from the government.
Ford’s transactional relationships with unions are not without growing pains. Several unions that supported the Ontario PCs in the 2022 election condemned Bill 28, which would have removed the right to strike for 55,000 educational workers. After thousands walked off the job in response, the government withdrew the bill.
Here, we see a broader form of transactional politics in play. If Ford wanted to maintain even minimal union support, he had to recognize basic rights for unionized workers.
The current levels of union support for the Ontario PCs may have an exaggerated significance. After all, the Conservatives only slightly increased their popular vote and lost three seats, dropping to 80 from 83. Similarly, the NDP remains the official opposition, but had their seat count and popular vote diminished, while the Liberals increased both.
The future of labour
Shifting union support for political parties can have an impact, as unions have people and resources that can be allocated to campaigns. But there are limits to the union support conservative parties can build.
First, much of this support is driven by right-wing populism, which can fade over time. The traditional conservative business community can reinstate neoliberal policies that restricts unions and their power.
Second, transactional politics that use taxpayer money are expensive for governments. After all, not every union can be awarded a new training centre.
Perhaps the most significant implications are for the future of the labour movement itself. The politics between unions that collaborate with right-wing populists and those who are attacked by them remain divisive as labour leaders have publicly debated the issue. At what point will the fissures erupt and threaten overall solidarity?
It may be time for the labour movement to go on the offensive against support for right-wing populists among their own memberships — the unions giving endorsements in exchange for resources and the bare minimum, in terms of union recognition.
At this juncture, this will be a struggle. Union political education has always been a challenge, and it’s more difficult in the era of right-wing legacy and social media. Any attempt by central labour bodies, such as the Ontario Federation of Labour, to sanction or expel affiliates who support right-wing parties would have high political costs.
But accommodating, rather than confronting, right-wing populist sentiments among workers and maintaining inter-union solidarity may eventually lead to the movement and political realignment conservatives are hoping for.
Steven Tufts receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He also sits on the board of an organisation that has recevied past funding from the Ontario Skills Development Fund mentioned in the article.
Source: The White House
Today, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance made clear to the world that the United States will not be taken advantage of — a sentiment echoed by the cabinet and members of Congress from across the country.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”
Sen. Lindsey Graham: “I’ve never been more proud of President Trump for showing the American people — and the world — you don’t trifle with this man … He wanted to get a ceasefire. He wants to end the war and Zelenskyy felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: “I am so proud of our Commander-in-Chief. Thank you President @RealDonaldTrump and @VP for standing up for America. We will not tolerate the political games and disrespect of America. America is back.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: “Amen, Mr. President.”
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “Thank you, President Trump, for standing up for the American people and our nation on the global stage.”
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum: “Thank you @POTUS for standing strong for America while working to end the killing abroad.”
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: “American leadership is back — in the Oval Office — and on the world stage. FEARLESS. BOLD. RELENTLESS. We will save America.”
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for the United States. The American people will not stand for disrespect of our President, Oval Office, or our generous taxpayers. Peace is only accomplished through strength and our allies need to understand that.”
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner: “President Trump is standing up for forgotten Americans, not endless foreign wars. Biden’s legacy — increased homelessness, record high interest rates, all-time highs to buy a house, and Americans footing the bill. That ended January 20th. The American people are behind @POTUS.”
Sen. Jim Banks: “Thank you President Trump for standing up for America!”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn: “Thank you President Trump and VP Vance or standing up for America.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty: “The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted. The contrast between the last four years and now could not be more clear. Thank you, Mr. President.”
Sen. Josh Hawley: “Remember: the U.S. Senate has repeatedly and for years voted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine with no strings attached and with no true oversight. It’s time for some ACCOUNTABILITY.”
Sen. Jim Justice: “Glad to have a @POTUS and @VP in charge that absolutely put America FIRST.”
Sen. Mike Lee: “Thank you for standing up for OUR COUNTRY and putting America first, President Trump and Vice President Vance!”
Sen. Bernie Moreno: “Finally we have a President who will speak the TRUTH and stand up against Washington’s endless wars. American taxpayers have been funding this war, it’s time to stop the killing and stop risking World War 3!”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin: “Under this President— the greatest, freest, and most generous nation on Earth is putting America First. I’d encourage anyone who has a problem with that to reevaluate their priorities.”
Sen. Rick Scott: “Thank you President Trump for standing up for America.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt: “It’s about time we have leaders who say what the American people are really thinking and prioritize the core national interests of America. The American taxpayer is tapped out, and President Trump and VP Vance are spot on.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville: “Thank you Mr. President and Vice President Vance for putting America first”
Majority Leader Steve Scalise: “President Trump is fighting for PEACE around the world and is putting America First as our best negotiator—he’s the only one to get Russia to the table to consider a serious and lasting peace agreement with Ukraine.”
Chairwoman Lisa McClain: “President Trump inherited this war. He has said from the beginning he wants to bring peace. @POTUS is a strong leader, and I know his negotiations will bring a deal together.”
Rep. Andy Biggs: “Gone are the days of foreign leaders walking all over us and snubbing their noses at America’s generosity. There’s a new President and Vice President in town. World leaders would be wise to humble themselves.”
Rep. Tim Burchett: “Job well done by @realDonaldTrump and our VP @JDVance. Give respect to get respect.”
Rep. Mike Collins: “Thank God we finally have a @POTUS who is willing to put America FIRST. Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Rep. Eli Crane: “America First. Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw: “If you are the leader of a country in a dire situation with no path to peace without American support, do not come into the Oval Office and argue with the President of the United States in public. Just a word of advice.”
Rep. Andrew Clyde: “President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the AMERICAN PEOPLE. Our great country will NOT be taken advantage of or disrespected.”
Rep. Byron Donalds: “This is what putting the AMERICAN PEOPLE FIRST looks like. Thank you @realdonaldtrump and @JDVance for standing up for our nation.”
Rep. Brandon Gill: “America First in action. Thank you, @realdonaldtrump and @JDVance, for prioritizing our people and for promoting peace!”
Rep. Lance Gooden: “President @realdonaldtrump and Vice President @JDVance will never allow the United States to be disrespected or taken advantage of. America First, always!”
Rep. Paul Gosar: “Thank you, Mr. President and Vice President. The days of the USA getting pushed around are clearly over.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “President Trump and Vice President Vance will put America First every single time. Putting Zelensky in his place while he disrespects the U.S. in the Oval Office is exactly what American leadership should look like. This is what We The People want to see!”
Rep. Pat Harrigan: “America’s priorities come first. @POTUS and @VP made it clear—Ukraine’s interests are not America’s interests. We’ve spent hundreds of billions with no accountability, no clear objectives, and no plan for peace. It’s time to put America first and end this war.”
Rep. Mark Harris: “Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance, for boldly defending America’s interests. This is PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH”
Rep. Diana Harshbarger: “The act displayed by Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was nothing short of a massive show of disrespect for the Trump Administration and the American people. Despite this, President Trump and Vice President Vance are holding the line and trying to end this conflict peacefully. God bless them both.”
Rep. Wesley Hunt: “You do NOT blame the people fighting to save your country! America leads—no more excuses!”
Rep. Nancy Mace: “Peace through strength live from the Oval”
Rep. Thomas Massie: “Is this the end of Zelensky’s presidency? He hitched his wagon to Biden and the deep state. They lost and now he doesn’t seem to be playing his cards well.”
Rep. Brian Mast: “American won’t be taken advantage of and America won’t be taken for granted. Thank you, President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing up for America.”
Rep. Addison McDowell: “AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER ALWAYS COME FIRST”
Rep. Mary Miller: “What has happened in Ukraine is a travesty. Joe Biden threw “gas on the fire.” Ukraine lost an entire generation, and Americans hundreds of billions in tax dollars. We thank God for giving us strong leadership. Thank you @POTUS and @VP for putting America’s interests first, and working to end this terrible war.”
Rep. Riley Moore: “It is amazing to have a President and VP who put America First! Thank you President Trump and VP Vance for fighting for our country and our people!”
Rep. Troy Nehls: “President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the American people. This is America First leadership on display. Thank you POTUS and VP!”
Rep. Ralph Norman: “THIS is strong leadership that is ensuring we put the American people FIRST. Thank you @realDonaldTrump and @JDVance for standing up for our nation.”
Rep. Andy Ogles: “This is what it looks like to stand up for America.”
Rep. Mike Rulli: “You don’t have the cards!”
Rep. Keith Self: “TOUGH and FAIR. The world is witnessing American leadership back in the White House. Thank you President Trump and Vice President Vance.”
Rep. Victoria Spartz: “Zelensky is doing a serious disservice to the Ukrainian people insulting the American President and the American people – just to appease Europeans and increase his low polling in Ukraine after he failed miserably to defend his country. This is not a theater act but a real war!”
Rep. Greg Steube: “Ridiculous grandstanding by Zelensky in the Oval Office. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to defend Ukraine. And this is the thanks the American people get? It’s time to end this war.”
Rep. Marlin Stutzman: “TRUMP IS THE GREATEST NEGOTIATOR AMERICA HAS EVER HAD! AMERICA IS BEING MADE GREAT BEFORE OUR VERY EYES!”
Rep. Andy Weber: “America FIRST. Strong, unapologetic leadership on the world stage is BACK!”
Rep. Joe Wilson: “I agree with President Trump that Ukrainian soldiers have been unbelievably brave! Critical Minerals Deal a major step forward toward ending the war responsibly. More sanctions on Russia & arms for Ukraine create maximum leverage for FULL land swap Art of the Deal!”
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that his office’s Vulnerable Adults and Medicaid Provider Fraud unit (VAMPF) has arrested Caitlyn Danielle Morgan, 32 years old, of Greer, S.C., and Debra Jones Howard, 69 years old, of Greer, S.C. Morgan was charged with one count of Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult {43-35-0085 (D)}, one count of Forgery, value $10,000 or more {16-13-0010(A)}, one count of Criminal Conspiracy {16-17-0410}, and two counts of Medical Assistance Provider Fraud {43-07-0060}. Howard was charged with one count of Forgery, value less than $10,000 {16-13-0010(A)}, one count of Criminal Conspiracy {16-17-0410}, and one count of Medical Assistance Provider Fraud {43-07-0060}.
An investigation by VAMPF alleges that, between January 27, 2021 and December 19, 2024, Morgan and Howard conspired together to make or cause to be made false claims for payment to South Carolina’s Medicaid program. Specifically, it is alleged that Morgan, as a personal care attendant employed at various times by Care Givers on Demand and the Charles Lea Center, signed and submitted false time sheets indicating that she had rendered care to a Medicaid beneficiary when she had not. It is further alleged that Morgan caused or required a vulnerable adult to engage in activity or labor which is improper, unlawful, or against the reasonable and rational wishes of a vulnerable adult by submitting the false timesheets with the victim’s knowledge for services never rendered.
Howard is alleged to have conspired with Morgan by signing off on Morgan’s false timesheets indicating that she had witnessed Morgan rendering care.
This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.
Exploitation of a Vulnerable Adult is a felony and, upon conviction, has a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. Conspiracy is a felony and, upon conviction, has a penalty of up to five years in prison or a fine of up to $5,000. Forgery, value $10,000 or more, is a felony and, upon conviction, has a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, a fine at the discretion of the court, or both. Forgery, value $10,000 or less, is a felony and, upon conviction, has a penalty of up to five years in prison, a fine at the discretion of the court, or both. Medical Assistance Provider Fraud is a class A misdemeanor and, upon conviction, has a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000.
Pursuant to federal regulations, VAMPF has authority over Medicaid provider fraud; abuse and neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries in any setting; and the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of individuals residing in assisted living facilities or nursing homes.
Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.
The South Carolina Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, dba VAMPF, receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $2,889,252 for federal fiscal year 2025. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $963,084 for FFY 2025, is funded by South Carolina.
A Colorado dentist pleaded guilty today to six counts of tax evasion related to his use of an illegal tax shelter.
According to court documents and statements made in court, since 2014, Ryan Ulibarri owned and operated Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2016, Ulibarri purchased an abusive-trust tax shelter for $50,000. The tax shelter involved concealing income and creating false tax deductions through the use of a so-called business trust, family trust, charitable trust and a private family foundation, all of which Ulibarri created and controlled. From 2017 through 2022, Ulibarri used this tax shelter to conceal from the IRS over $3.5 million in income he earned from his dental practice.
To set up the tax shelter, Ulibarri, as the purported trustee, signed trust instruments purporting to create the three trusts and foundation, and he opened bank accounts in the name of each. He further recruited friends to falsely sign his trust instruments as the purported creators of the trusts. Ulibarri then transferred majority ownership of his dental practice to the business trust. Ulibarri did this despite having been warned by attorneys and CPAs that, in Colorado, a trust could not own a dental practice.
He then transferred over $3 million he earned from his dental practice into the bank accounts of the various trusts and foundation to create the illusion that the funds belonged to those entities. In reality, Ulibarri retained complete control over the funds and used the funds to pay for personal expenses including his home mortgage, credit card bills, boats and professional baseball season tickets. Finally, he filed false tax returns for himself, his dental practice, the trusts and foundation that falsely reported the income he earned from his dental practice as income of the trusts. On those tax returns Ulibarri also claimed fraudulent deductions for his personal living expenses which he disguised as trust expenses and charitable donations.
In total, Ulibarri is alleged to have caused a tax loss to the IRS of over $1 million.
Ulibarri is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count of tax evasion as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and Special Agent in Charge Amanda Prestegard of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Denver Field Office made the announcement.
IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Scott and Lauren K. Pope and Assistant Chief Andrew J. Kameros of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.
Español Grapefruit juice and grapefruit can be part of a healthy diet. Grapefruit has vitamin C and potassium, nutrients your body needs to work properly. Grapefruit juice and grapefruit can affect the way your medicines work, and that food and drug interaction can be a concern. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required that some prescription and over-the-counter drugs generally taken by mouth include warnings against drinking grapefruit juice or eating grapefruit while taking the drug. Here are examples of some types of drugs that grapefruit juice can cause problems (interact) with:
Some statin drugs to lower cholesterol, such as Zocor (simvastatin) and Lipitor (atorvastatin). Some drugs that treat high blood pressure, such as Procardia and Adalat CC (both nifedipine). Some organ-transplant rejection drugs, such as Neoral and Sandimmune capsule or oral solution (both cyclosporine). Some anti-anxiety drugs, such as BuSpar (buspirone). Some corticosteroids that treat Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, such as Entocort EC and Uceris tablet (both budesonide). Some drugs that treat abnormal heart rhythms, such as Pacerone and Cordarone tablet (both amiodarone). Some antihistamines, such as Allegra (fexofenadine).
Grapefruit juice does not affect all the drugs in the categories above. The severity of the interaction can be different depending on the person, the drug, and the amount of grapefruit juice you drink. Talk to your health care provider or pharmacist, and read any information provided with your prescription or non-prescription drug to find out:
If your specific drug may be affected. How much, if any, grapefruit juice you can have. What other fruits or juices may also affect your drug in a similar way to grapefruit juice.
How Grapefruit Juice Can Interfere With Medications With most drugs that are affected by grapefruit juice, “the juice lets more of the drug enter the blood,” says Shiew Mei Huang, Ph.D., of the FDA. “When there is too much drug in the blood, you may have more side effects.” For example, if you drink a lot of grapefruit juice while taking certain statin drugs to lower cholesterol, too much of the drug may stay in your body, increasing your risk for liver and muscle damage that can lead to kidney failure. Many drugs are broken down (metabolized) with the help of a vital enzyme called CYP3A4 in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can block the action of intestinal CYP3A4, so instead of being metabolized, more of the drug enters the blood and stays in the body longer. The result: too much drug in your body. The amount of the CYP3A4 enzyme in the intestine varies from person to person. Some people have a lot of this enzyme and others just a little. So grapefruit juice may affect people differently even when they take the same drug. Although scientists have known for several decades that grapefruit juice can cause too much of certain drugs in the body, more recent studies have found that the juice has the opposite effect on a few other drugs. “Grapefruit juice can cause less fexofenadine to enter the blood,” decreasing how well the drug works, Huang says. Fexofenadine (brand name Allegra) is available as both prescription and OTC to relieve symptoms of seasonal allergies. Fexofenadine may also not work as well if taken with orange or apple juice, so the drug label says, “Do not take with fruit juices.” Why this opposite effect? Instead of changing metabolism, grapefruit juice can affect proteins in the body known as drug transporters, some of which help move a drug into our cells for absorption. As a result, less of the drug enters the blood and the drug may not work as well, Huang says. How Grapefruit Juice Affects Some Drugs When drugs are swallowed, they may be broken down (metabolized) by enzymes and/or absorbed using transporters in cells found in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can cause problems with these enzymes and transporters, causing too much or too little drug in the body.
Some drugs, like certain statins used to lower cholesterol, are broken down by enzymes. As shown above, grapefruit juice can block the action of these enzymes, increasing the amount of drug in the body and may cause more side effects.
Other drugs, like fexofenadine, are moved by transporters into the body’s cells. As shown above, grapefruit juice can block the action of transporters, decreasing the amount of drug in the body and may cause the drug to not work as well.
Find Out if You Should Avoid Grapefruit or Other Juices
Ask your doctor or pharmacist if grapefruit juice interacts with your medication. Read the medication guide or patient information sheet that comes with your prescription drug to find out if grapefruit juice affects your drug. Read the Drug Facts label on your OTC drug, which will say whether you shouldn’t have grapefruit or other fruit juices with it. If you must avoid grapefruit juice with your medicine, check the labels of fruit juices or drinks flavored with fruit juice to see whether they are made with grapefruit juice. Seville oranges (often used to make orange marmalade), pomelos, and tangelos (a cross between tangerines and grapefruit) might have the same effect as grapefruit juice. Do not eat those fruits if your medicine interacts with grapefruit juice.
Eurojust coordinated the collaboration between French and Belgian authorities that led to the arrest of 12 gang members on 26 February. The criminals are suspected of attempting to rob cash transports for banks. Due to the swift cooperation between the authorities, the criminals were stopped before committing a robbery.
Two High Value Targets specialised in armed robbery were part of the criminal group. One of the suspects is known as the ‘escape king’ due to him escaping from prison multiple times. In the course of their investigation, the French authorities noticed the two High Value Targets travelling regularly to Belgium. They suspected the targets were planning to commit a crime. After their investigations showed that the members had links with Belgian suspects, cooperation with the Belgian authorities was quickly set up through Eurojust.
A joint investigation team was set up at Eurojust to allow the Belgian and French authorities to work together swiftly and efficiently, exchanging information and evidence in real time. To stop the criminals, a joint operation was planned at Eurojust.
In the late hours of 26 February, the Belgian authorities arrested 12 suspects. The authorities know several of the people arrested. Following the arrests, several searches were carried out in France and Belgium. Investigations into the robbers are ongoing.
The following authorities carried out the operations:
France: JIRS PARIS inter regional specialised jurisdiction; OCCLO National Police Organised Crime unit
Belgium: PPO Brussels; Investigative Judge Brussels; Judicial Police Brussels (PJF Bruxelles); Special Units Belgian Federal Police (DSU)
HOUSTON – A 47-year-old Houston man has entered a guilty plea to wire fraud and conspiracy for a romance scheme targeting citizens nationwide, many of whom were elderly, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
Darlington Akporugo admitted to being a central figure in a long-running romance scheme based in Houston that victimized citizens from Chicago to Kentucky. Akporugo worked with others to lure victims through online romances and then induce them to send money to various bank accounts he controlled.
To further the fraud, Akporugo and his co-conspirators used fake names to contact victims on social media, gain their confidence and then persuade them to invest in non-existent businesses or provide funds for invented personal circumstances.
As part of his plea, Akporugo admitted to approaching potential victims, primarily on social media sites such as Facebook, and then directing them to send money to either his or his associates’ bank accounts. That money was often then directed overseas.
In addition to collecting cash and wire transfers, Akpourgo also admitted to having victims open lines of credit in his name and, in one case, purchasing a luxury vehicle for his personal use.
During the multi-year investigation, authorities were able to identify over 25 victims of the scheme, the majority either retired or of advanced age.
Losses from the fraud ring’s operation total more than $3 million.
“As we unfortunately have seen, victims of romance scams suffer tremendous financial loss, sometimes amounting to their entire life savings,” said Ganjei. “Those have fallen prey to such fraudsters are often too embarrassed to come forward and report the incident to law enforcement. Although this is an understandable reaction, we encourage victims to nonetheless come forward, as their story may help the future victimization of others.”
U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge will impose sentencing June 6. At that time, Akporugo faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.
He will remain in custody pending that hearing.
Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Carter prosecuted the case.
BOSTON – A Northborough man was sentenced today in federal court in Worcester for wire fraud and money laundering charges after embezzling approximately $366,477 from a non-profit organization in Sturbridge.
Kyriakos Kapiris, a/k/a Rick Kapiris, 38, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman to two years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Kapiris was also ordered to pay $371, 088.97 in restitution. In June 2022, Kapiris pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
From April 2015 to May 2020, Kapiris worked as the Information Technology Manager at Venture Community Services (VCS), a non-profit organization in Sturbridge, Mass. that services developmentally disabled members of the community. As part of his responsibilities, the organization provided Kapiris access to two company credit cards to purchase equipment and services as needed. Beginning in 2016, Kapiris used the two company credit cards to purportedly purchase equipment from two vendor accounts on the web app Square and one account on Amazon. In reality, Kapiris created the three vendor accounts to embezzle the funds and fabricated sales invoices for purportedly purchased equipment to conceal the scheme. Kapiris used the names of legitimate Massachusetts companies for the two Square accounts and created the Amazon account in the name of a company that he controlled, “NetworkingPlus.”
Kapiris linked the three vendor accounts to several of his own personal accounts at Bank of America into which he transferred the fraudulent proceeds. Kapiris then used the stolen funds for personal expenses, including to build a house. The house was forfeited by the government and sold.
At sentencing, the Court noted that the defendant had been previously convicted of stealing from a prior employer and was on probation for that offense at the time of his theft from VCS.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Sturbridge and Northborough Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lucy Sun and Kristen Noto of the Worcester Branch Office prosecuted the case.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced today new immigration charges in four cases in the District.
Task force agents arrested Alberto Caiceros-Cruz, 40, after observing him leave his residence in Columbus and drive a vehicle with no registration displayed. Caiceros-Cruz is a Mexican national and was most recently removed from the United States in 2022.
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Columbus indicted an El Salvadoran national with illegally reentering the United States after being convicted of sex offenses and a Honduran national with illegally possessing firearms.
Carlos Gonzales-Hernandez, 55, was detained in January 2025 following a traffic stop in Madison County. He was then transferred into ICE custody. The defendant had been removed from the United States following a local prison sentence for sex offenses. Gonzales-Hernandez was previously convicted in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas of three counts of gross sexual imposition and received a prison sentence of six years.
Elmer Edison Rodriguez-Guzman, 46, was in a vehicle that was stopped in Cambridge, Ohio, in July 2024 due to no taillights. Law enforcement officials discovered items including a handgun, a double-barrel shotgun and ammunition. Rodriguez-Guzman was arrested in Guernsey County and then transferred into federal custody.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Columbus indicted Pedro Marquez, 34, who is also known as Peter Marquez, Pedro Ravas Rivas, Alex Rivas Vasquez and Alex Vasquez Rivas. In 2011, Marquez was convicted of participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy and illegally reentering the United States and was sentenced to federal prison. Marquez had conspired with others in the Eastern District of Oklahoma to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Marquez transported, delivered and distributed the drugs on behalf of the conspiracy. He was removed from the United States again in 2016 following his term of imprisonment. Law enforcement found and arrested Marquez in Bloomingburg, Ohio, on Feb. 13.
Illegally reentering the United States is a federal crime punishable by up to two years in prison. If the offender has a prior felony conviction (or multiple prior misdemeanor convictions of certain types), the penalty is increased to 10 years in prison, and if the offender has been previously convicted of an aggravated felony, the defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.
Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jared Murphey, acting Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit; and Robert Lynch, Field Office Director, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit Field Office; announced the charges. Assistant United States Attorneys Tyler J. Aagard, Sheila G. Lafferty and David J. Twombly are representing the United States in these cases.
Indictments and criminal complaints merely contain allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
These cases are being prosecuted as part of the Southern District of Ohio Immigration Enforcement Task Force, which dedicates agents, attorneys and other staff to investigating and prosecuting immigration violations.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
MOMBASA, Kenya, February 28, 2025/APO Group/ —
Afreximbank to finance development and operationalisation of industrial parks and special economic zones to bolster industralisation and export manufacturing
Afreximbank also commits to three-year US$3 billion Kenya country programme to support trade and trade-related investments
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) (www.Afreximbank.com), Africa’s foremost trade development Bank, today in Mombasa, Kenya, ratified a series of initiatives designed to support Kenya’s industrialisation and export-led development agenda. Under the terms of the initiatives, formalised at a signing ceremony with the Kenyan authorities, Afreximbank will finance the development and operationalisation of industrial parks (IPs) and special economic zones (SEZs) to bolster the country’s industrialisation and export manufacturing.
The proposed industrial parks, to be developed by Afreximbank through its affiliate company, Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (Arise IIP), will create and sustain an environment in which export-oriented industries can thrive, by leveraging economies of scale, shared infrastructure and access to global markets.
Two projects to be undertaken by Afreximbank, with the support of the Government of Kenya and other strategic collaborators, are the development of the Dongo Kundu Integrated Industrial Park and the Naivasha Special Economic Zone II (Naivasha II), for which, having secured leases of the relevant land, Afreximbank intends to leverage the expertise and experience of Arise IIP, a special economic zone developer with experience in the development of integrated industrial parks in Africa.
Both the Dongo Kundu Integrated Industrial Park and the Naivasha Special Economic Zone II are included in the Fourth Medium Term Plan (2023-2027) of the Kenyan government’s Vision 2030, entitled “Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda for Inclusive Growth”, reflecting the high priority which state institutions are giving to measures that strengthen, expand and accelerate Kenya’s capacity to export value-added goods within Africa and globally.
Speaking on the signing, the President of the Republic of Kenya, H.E. Dr. William S. Ruto said; “We have a responsibility to steer the country in the right direction, harnessing the immense potential of manufacturing, industrialization, agro-processing, and value addition within Special Economic Zones. The signing of these agreements today marks a significant milestone in Kenya’s development, expanding opportunities to enhance our manufacturing sector and create a more conducive environment for investment. We convene here today to sign an investment – and not a loan – undertaken by people whose faith in this country and its possibilities motivates their decision. This is our country, let’s continue to do whatever it takes to make it an attractive destination for those who want to invest.”
In his own comments, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said:
“Africa has been heralded as a land of opportunity, blessed with resources that power the world. Yet, we have struggled to translate this wealth into lasting prosperity for our people. For decades, we have watched as others reap the rewards of our natural resources, leaving us tethered to a cycle of dependency—exchanging our riches for aid and loans that kept us on the fringes of the global breadbasket.
“Those days are behind us. Today, Kenya takes a bold step to reshape this story in a profound and impactful manner. These Parks are an integral part of the Government’s plan to boost the country’s economic growth under the Vision 2030 development blueprint.
Today’s signatures are more than ink on paper—they are a promise to the people of Kenya, a pledge that the country will rise as a beacon of industrial might and self-reliance.”
Mrs. Oluranti Doherty, Managing Director of Export Development at Afreximbank, and Captain William K. Ruto, Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority, signed the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone agreement. Dr. Kenneth Chelule, Chief Executive Officer of the Special Economic Zones Authority, and Mrs. Doherty signed the Naivasha Special Economic Zone agreement, with H.E. Dr. William Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya, and Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, witnessing the signing of both agreements for the State and for the Bank, respectively.
The Dongo Kundu Industrial Park within the Mombasa SEZ is expected, upon completion, to boost the area with a state-of-the-art industrial park that will contribute significantly to economic growth and industrialisation efforts in Mombasa County and in Kenya as a whole.
The Naivasha II Special Economic Zone – Naivasha II project is located at Mai Mahiu and will include a free trade zone, an industrial park, a logistics zone and a public utility area with a supporting road network. The project will occupy an area of approximately 5000 acres.
The Naivasha II project will also derive value from its strategic geographic position as it sits on the gateway to East and Central Africa through the Northern Corridor Transport System, which comprises both a standard gauge railway and a major highway. Moreover, the SEZ will be close to the Naivasha Inland Container Depot, which serves the East African hinterland countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.
Other dignitaries in attendance included Mrs Oluranti Doherty, Managing Director, Export Development, Afreximbank; Hon. Davis Chirchir E.G.H, Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary; Hon. Hassan Ali Joho, Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs; Hon. Salim Mvurya, Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports of Kenya and Honourable Lee Kinyanjui, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry. Additionally, Captain William K. Ruto, Managing Director, Kenya Ports Authority; Dr. Kenneth Chelule, Chief Executive Officer, Special Economic Zones Authority; His Excellency Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, Governor of Mombasa County; the Honourable Benjamin Tayari, Chairman, Kenya Ports Authority, and Mr. Fredrick Muteti, EBS, Chairperson, Special Economic Zones Authority attended the event.
Source: United States Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of World Teen Mental Wellness Day, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus, Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), along with Representatives August Pfluger (R-Texas-11), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.-8), John Joyce (R-Pa.-13), and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.-14), introduced bipartisan legislation to combat the growing youth mental health crisis in America. The Early Action and Responsiveness Lifts Youth (EARLY) Minds Act would provide early intervention and prevention services to children struggling with mental health challenges.
The data is clear: more work needs to be done to protect children’s mental health. Over the past few decades, mental health disorders have steadily risen among children and adolescents, with nearly half of adolescents in the United States facing a mental health disorder at some point in their lives. Nearly 20 percent of children ages 3-17 in the United States have a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder. More than 40 percent of teens — including 57 percent of teenage girls — reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Research shows that intervening early with people who are experiencing mental health challenges can help prevent those challenges from turning more serious and becoming more costly to treat, while leading to improvements in symptoms, relationships, quality of life, and engagement with schoolwork.
The EARLY Minds Act seeks to empower states by allowing them to allocate up to five percent of their Mental Health Block Grant funding for prevention and early intervention activities. This strategic allocation of resources is critical to identify and support Americans before their mental health challenges escalate. The Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is currently limited to funding services for those with severe, diagnosed mental illnesses. With this adjustment, states will have the opportunity to take full advantage of Mental Health Block Grants to intervene early and save lives.
“Young people deserve access to mental health services as soon as they need them. But our children are often forced to wait years for an official diagnosis, leaving them without vital mental health support,” said Senator Padilla. “Our bipartisan legislation would address the growing youth mental health crisis by equipping states to provide young people preventative treatment and early intervention services — because no child should have to suffer in silence.”
“Prevention and early intervention are key to addressing the mental health crisis,” said Senator Tillis. “The bipartisan EARLY Minds Act gives states the flexibility to invest in these critically-important services to ensure children and families get the support they need when it matters most – not years too late.”
“In recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in depression, anxiety, and other behavioral health conditions among young people, and we need to do more to support them,” said Senator Kaine. “That’s why I’m joining my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan legislation that will help states expand prevention and early intervention mental health resources for young people.”
“As reports of severe mental health issues continue to rise across the country, it is imperative that we address this issue and help people in crisis receive the treatment they need,” said Representative Pfluger. “Research has consistently demonstrated the effectiveness of early intervention in mitigating the severity of mental health challenges among children and adults. By allowing states the flexibility to utilize MHBG funds for prevention and early intervention, the EARLY Minds Act presents a commonsense solution to address the worsening youth mental health crisis.”
“As a pediatrician, I understand the value of preventative care, including for mental health,” said Representative Schrier. “That is why Mental Health Block Grants should fund prevention and early intervention services. At a time when behavioral health challenges are on the rise, it is important to build support systems, resiliency, and coping mechanisms early. This bill will complement existing federal programs like Medicaid and CHIP, that provide critical behavioral health care to children and families across the country.”
“Prevention and early intervention are vital for reducing the severity of mental health challenges, particularly in children,” said Representative Castor. “As Co-Chair of the Children’s Health Care Caucus, I am committed to ensuring families have the support they need to keep their kids healthy at a time with so much uncertainty. Allowing Mental Health Block Grants to fund prevention and early intervention services is a sensible, bipartisan solution to an urgent need. This bill will connect more children with proven, effective care before their health escalates into crisis level. This bill will work best in tandem with strong, robust Medicaid and CHIP programs that provide lifesaving mental health services to children and their families. I look forward to working with Representatives Pfluger, Schrier, and Joyce to advance this critical legislation and protect health coverage for our nation’s kids.”
“Assisting children in crisis so that they can receive the care and support that they need is vital to fixing the youth mental health epidemic in our country,” said Representative Joyce. “As a physician, I know the importance of prevention and early intervention, and I’m proud to cosponsor this legislation to ensure SAMHSA’s Community Mental Health Services Block Grant can be used to effectively reach and assist our nation’s youth in need.”
“Proactive early intervention and prevention can dramatically change the trajectory of a child’s life by addressing mental health issues before they escalate,” said Matthew Cook, President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA). “The EARLY Minds Act gives states greater flexibility to make resources available for early detection and prevention services like mental health screenings, educational support for parents, and evidence-based interventions for children facing behavioral health challenges. CHA applauds this bipartisan legislation that will help combat the escalating youth mental health crisis.”
On average, there is an 11-year delay between when someone starts experiencing a mental health condition and when they receive treatment. For a young person, that means suffering without help throughout the majority of their childhood before receiving treatment.
The EARLY Minds Act also requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide reports to Congress detailing states’ efforts to promote early intervention. HHS would report to Congress every two years regarding states’ efforts to promote early intervention, including comprehensive information on their activities and outcomes.
The EARLY Minds Act has garnered widespread support from leading mental health advocacy organizations, including American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, American Mental Health Counselors Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Association of Children’s Residential & Community Services (ACRC), Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Children’s Hospital Association, Committee for Children, Crisis Text Line, Family Voices, First Focus Campaign for Children, Global Alliance for Behavioral Health & Social Justice, International Society of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses (ISPN), Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Mental Health America, Mental Health Counselors Association, MomsRising, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, National Association of School Psychologists, National Board for Certified Counselors, National Children’s Alliance, National Federation of Families, National League for Nursing, Nemours Children’s Health, Sandy Hook Promise, School Social Work Association of America, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, The Jed Foundation, The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health, Trust for America’s Health, Western Youth Services, and Youth Villages.
“Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people ages 10-19. Preventing youth suicide begins with early intervention,” said Laurel Stine, J.D., M.A., Executive Vice President and Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. “By allowing states to use a portion of their Mental Health Block Grant funding to identify and treat behavioral health conditions among children and youth, the EARLY Minds Act takes an upstream approach to mental health that will help support youth at risk for suicide. We commend Representative Pfluger, Representative Schrier, Representative Joyce, Representative Castor, Senator Padilla, Senator Murkowski, Senator Tillis, Senator Kaine, and Senator Murkowski for their leadership on this important issue.”
“Pediatricians know prevention and early intervention is critical to keeping our patients healthy – including their mental health. The EARLY Minds Act would provide states with more options for funding key services that help young people get the care they need before a mental health condition is diagnosed or gets worse. The American Academy of Pediatrics applauds the EARLY Minds Act sponsors for their leadership on this bipartisan bill and calls on lawmakers to swiftly advance it,” said Susan Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The American Psychological Association applauds Senators Padilla, Tillis, Murkowski, and Kaine for introducing the bipartisan EARLY Minds Act, which will help expand quality, evidence-based mental health prevention and early intervention services to all communities,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD. “Intervening before the onset of mental illness is a cornerstone of a population health approach to treatment. Allowing the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant to be used for prevention and early intervention is critical for ensuring that more people, including the very youngest, do not develop mental health conditions and can lead healthy, productive and fulfilled lives.”
“The Early Minds Act adds critical intervention and preventive programs for children and can greatly benefit families in the under-resourced communicates served by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles,” said Paul Viviano, President and Chief Executive Officer of CHLA. “Allowing states the flexibility of supporting these services can help identify troubled children in the early stages of a mental health crisis before conditions worsen, creating hope and building healthier futures for children.”
“Federal data shows us that our nation’s youth are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis that demands immediate action from us all. As many as 4 out of 10 high school students experience persistent feelings of hopelessness, and 1 in 5 have seriously considered suicide. The sooner we, as Trusted Adults, can intervene and connect young people with help, the more opportunities we have to avert tragedies, self-harm, or suicide. This legislation provides a pathway to act sooner, and lives will not only be saved but will also be transformed, as a result,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and co-CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund and father of Daniel, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
“There’s no question that youth are struggling right now. At Crisis Text Line, young people reaching out for help have told us that they need more in-person programs to support their mental health. That is why we are thrilled to support the EARLY Minds Act, which would allow states the flexibility to invest in critical prevention and early intervention programming,” said Courtney Gallo Hunter, VP, Public Policy, Crisis Text Line.
Senator Padilla is a leading advocate for expanding mental health care access, especially for underserved communities. In 2023, Padilla, Tillis, and Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) launched the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus to serve as a forum for Senators to collaborate on and promote bipartisan legislation and solutions, hold events to raise awareness of critical mental health issues, and destigmatize mental health. Last year, Padilla and Tillis passed a Senate resolution to raise the alarm about the mental health care crisis American children face and highlight the urgent need to increase our investment in mental health care for children and adolescents. Padilla and Tillis applauded the Federal Communications Commission for making critical improvements to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to help callers access localized, lifesaving behavioral health resources and mirrored the main provision of the Senators’ Local 9-8-8 Response Act of 2023. Padilla previously introduced a trio of bills to address the unique mental health needs of military children, Latinos, and farm workers.
A one-pager on the bill is available here.
Full text of the bill is available here.
The cost of living crisis, which saw inflation in the US peak at a four-decade high of 9.1% in 2022, played a significant role in determining the outcome of last November’s presidential election.
Exit polls across ten of the key battleground states showed 32% of voters considered the economy to be the most important election issue. Among that group of voters, a staggering 81% voted for Donald Trump.
Trump had spent most of his election campaign saying his administration would tackle high prices – even vowing to bring them down on day one. However, the latest figures suggest inflation in the US has increased since he took office, rising unexpectedly to a six-month high of 3% in January.
This rise is largely because of the economy Trump inherited. But some experts have expressed concerns that his stated economic strategy, including trade tariffs, major tax cuts and lower interest rates, will only add to inflation.
While tax cuts and interest rate changes are familiar policies, the use of tariffs has been less common in recent decades. These are used by governments to balance trade relationships or in retaliation to tariffs imposed by other countries. They generally make foreign imported goods more expensive while also raising tax revenues for governments.
The Trump administration has set tariffs of 25% on all steel and aluminium imports, and imposed 10% trade tariffs on a wide range of consumer imports from China. While proposed tariffs of 25% on imports from Mexico and Canada have been temporarily paused, the US has signalled its intention to introduce tariffs on imports from the European Union.
A General Motors car assembly facility in Ontario, Canada, where economists predict the proposed tariffs would have a catastrophic effect. JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock
Will tariffs lead to inflation?
Trump’s aides insist the tariffs won’t have a negative impact on American consumers and businesses. On February 18, Peter Navarro, senior counsel for trade and manufacturing at the White House, told the New York Times: “It’s not going to be painful for America. It’s going to be a beautiful thing.”
Navarro argues that foreign exporters, concerned about losing market share, will reduce the pre-tariff price they charge US importers.
But economic theory suggests that tariffs generally do lead to higher prices. Peter Lavelle, a trade expert at the UK’s Institute for Fiscal Studies, says that evidence from Trump’s first term – when tariffs were imposed on solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminium – shows these costs were “almost entirely passed on to domestic consumers”, thus adding to inflation.
A key reason for the tariffs is to make US domestic manufacturing more competitive on the international stage. This could bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. Manufacturing employment declined by 35% in the US from its peak of 19.6 million in 1979 to 12.8 million in 2020.
However, there was no evidence of tariffs bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US during Trump’s first term. In fact, manufacturing employment remained static between 2017 and 2021.
There are fears that tariffs could instead trigger a trade war, where countries retaliate with tariffs of their own. Canadian officials, for instance, have made it clear they will introduce retaliatory tariffs on the US – “selected in order to hit particularly red and purple [Trump-supporting] states”.
Economists analyse such scenarios using game theory. A trade war takes the form of what economics-speak calls a “non-cooperating Nash equilibrium”, where the economic outcome is negative for all countries involved.
Some recent modelling on the impact of Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico supports this view. Tariff retaliation is likely to raise inflation rates even further than otherwise in all three economies.
A trade war could also squeeze profit margins for exporting producers in the US, by making some US-produced goods relatively more expensive. This would show up in lower real income through reduced employment and wages. This outcome, like higher prices, is unlikely to be popular with US voters.
Given the evidence from Trump’s first term, it is difficult to see how tariffs will be anything but inflationary. Trump’s proposed tax cuts valued at US$5-11 trillion would also add to inflationary pressures, as would the lower interest rates he has called for.
Ana Swanson, a trade and international economist at the New York Times, believes the threat of tariffs is being used merely as a negotiating strategy. However, like many other economists, Swanson sees uncertainty as the biggest impact of Trump’s tariff policy.
In a podcast on February 4, she said: “If you, as the business, are watching out for the threat of tariffs, are you going to make an investment in a new factory or hire new workers?” Uncertainty leads to reduced investment and lower growth.
Realistically, Trump was never going to bring down prices for US consumers. To do that would be deflationary, and economists generally fear deflation even more than inflation. Falling prices lead to deferred spending and can be devastating for economic growth.
The best outcome for US consumers is that prices increase at a slower rate, close to the US Federal Reserve’s inflation target of 2%. However, given the recent uptick in inflation, as well as Trump’s strategy of tariffs, tax cuts and lower interest rates, the direction of travel all points towards higher price rises.
Recent evidence from elections in many advanced economies shows that voters do not like inflation, and will punish administrations who are in power during inflationary periods.
Since inflation peaked in many advanced economies in 2022, more than 70% of incumbent administrations have been voted out of government. Trump should keep this in mind as he embarks on his quest to make America’s economy great again.
Conor O’Kane 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.
Elon Musk is wielding a chainsaw against US government departments, potentially culling tens of thousands of jobs, as part of a huge plan to shrink the government and slash federal spending.
This large-scale purge of public servants, coordinated through Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), may end up creating one of the biggest employment cuts in US history. Tech company IBM laid off 60,000 people in 1993, and about 25,000 workers (some outside the US) lost their jobs when Lehman Brothers bank went bust in 2008, but this swathe of job losses could outstrip them both, with numbers predicted to hit around 300,000.
On Friday February 21, Musk sent a “productivity email” to all federal employees demanding that they summarise the work they’d done in the past week. President Donald Trump hailed Musk’s ultimatum as “ingenious” and echoed that failure to comply would mean that employees would be “semi-fired or fired”.
By the Monday, chaos reigned in Washington. The bedlam left career civil servants unsure of how, or even whether, to reply, marking the latest flashpoint in a tumultuous last month created by Doge and aimed at trimming the federal workforce. Adding insult to injury, Musk later admitted the email was a ruse to test whether federal workers “had a pulse”. A follow-up email is rumoured to be coming this weekend.
On X, Musk doubled down, posting an image of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants looking at a “Got Done Last Week” list that included: “Cried about Trump, Cried about Elon, Cried about Trump and Elon some more.” Days earlier, at the annual gathering of the US right wing, the Conservative Political Action Conference, Musk brandished a chainsaw and screamed “Chainsaw!” to show the uproarious Maga crowd how he intended to eviscerate the federal bureaucracy.
Political payback?
Doge’s proposed job cuts are vast and deep. So far, much of Musk’s ire has been directed at the US Agency for International Development (USAid), where 4,700 employees have already been put on leave – with 1,600 of those positions terminated.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Doge started with this soft target. Although the US spends only about 1% of federal money on development aid, polls consistently show that Americans, especially Republicans, think Washington overspends on foreign assistance.
The cuts also come amid rising speculation that these firings could be part of a political retaliation by the White House. Influential adviser Stephen Miller claimed, without showing evidence, that 98% of workers at USAid “either donated to Kamala Harris or another leftwing candidate”.
The Trump administration has also forced out dozens of officials across the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency charged with investigating attempts at foreign interference in US elections.
Even the Pentagon, traditionally a “third rail” for Republican presidents when it comes to spending reductions, is feeling the squeeze. The US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, has promised to slash military spending by 8% over the next five years from its US$850 billion (£674 billion) annual budget. While US service members in uniform are currently exempt from job losses, many expect civilian workers, especially those in their probationary period, to be shown the door soon.
There are many thousands of federal jobs across the US.
Washington DC, which voted for former vice-president Harris over Trump by a margin of 92.5% to 6.6%, is home to the largest number of government jobs: about 2.2 million civilians. However, federal workers are spread across the US. That includes red states where Trump won in 2024. For example, there are more than 129,000 federal jobs in Texas, more than 94,000 in Florida, and more than 79,000 in Georgia.
For Trump, this complicates the Doge agenda to make a dent in America’s US$36 trillion (£28.6 trillion) debt through mass job terminations. While many Maga supporters cheered campaign pledges to eliminate government “waste, fraud and abuse”, many now confront the stark reality of job losses in their communities (or even their own jobs).
Trump has promised to get spending by the national government under control, but without addressing reform of essential services – such as Medicare and social security – it’s unclear how he can achieve this goal.
Backlash and legal battles
Public opinion towards Musk breaks sharply along partisan lines. According to recent polling by YouGov, 42% of Americans have a positive view of Musk (52% unfavourable), including 79% of Republicans but just 10% of Democrats. The same percentage, 42%, think favourably of Doge, with similar partisan divides. But the number of Americans who rate Musk positively has been dropping in the past few weeks, although he is seen as increasingly influential.
Contributing to negativity, Musk’s rollout of Doge to oversee cuts to the federal labour force hasn’t come without major flubs. For example, he recently fired (before un-firing) workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, tasked with overseeing the country’s nuclear weapons stockpiles.
Even some Trump loyalists are pushing back. After Musk’s “document work or resign” email was blasted to the FBI, newly minted director Kash Patel sent his own message telling employees not to respond, declaring: “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes.”
On X, Harvard political scientist Maya Sen called the reaction “probably a good development for the rule of law”, adding: “Musk got a head start but separate & distinct interests of new political appointees over their own workforces will clash more and more w/Musk.”
The Trump administration now faces mounting legal challenges to Doge’s agenda. An amended lawsuit filed by a cadre of unions, including the nation’s largest federation of unions, AFL-CIO, alleged that mass firings of probationary workers is illegal, and that only federal agencies have control over human resources decisions.
Beyond legal chokepoints, Musk confronts increasing scepticism – even within Doge itself. On Tuesday February 25, 21 employees from Doge resigned, saying they would not use their professional skills to “dismantle critical public services”.
Even among some Republican lawmakers, there’s worry about the breakneck speed of firings. Republican representative Jeff Van Drew, for example, said that “we have to be really careful that we’re cutting things that don’t hurt everyday people”. Some have criticised Musk’s flippant attitude toward longstanding public servants. Others think Musk is taking a hatchet to a problem that requires a scalpel.
Whether a hatchet, a scalpel or a chainsaw, Musk’s slash-and-burn approach carries risks. By the 2026 midterms (when 35 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for election), the picture of Musk gleefully slicing government jobs could be less a symbol of efficiency, more a symbol of Trump-era hubris.
Thomas Gift 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.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova presented the national project “Family” at an extended meeting of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood.
Tatyana Golikova presented the national project “Family”
February 28, 2025
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Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Olga Petrova and Deputy Minister of Education Andrei Nikolaev spoke about the prerequisites for the formation, main goals and directions of the new national project.
As Tatyana Golikova noted, the national project “Family” is comprehensive and was formed taking into account the instructions of the President of Russia and his decree No. 309. It is aimed at achieving three national development goals:
• preserving the population, strengthening health and improving well-being of people, supporting families;
• realizing the potential of each person, developing his talents, raising a patriotic and socially responsible individual;
• comfortable and safe living environment.
“When developing the national project, we focused on the family in the broadest sense of the word. Therefore, the national project included measures aimed at both stimulating new births and supporting various types of families, including young, large families, and older generations of families,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
She noted that the national project “Family” replaces the national projects “Demography”, “Culture” and some activities of the national project “Healthcare” and takes into account all the experience of positive decisions accumulated in recent years.
The national project consists of five federal projects. The Ministry of Labor has been appointed as the head of three projects: FP “Family Support”, “Large Families”, “Older Generation”. FP “Maternity and Childhood Protection” is assigned to the Ministry of Health, FP “Family Values and Cultural Infrastructure” to the Ministry of Culture.
17.9 trillion rubles have been allocated for the implementation of the national project over six years, including 7.8 trillion rubles over the next three years.
“The President of the country has set the task of ensuring sustainable growth in the birth rate, increasing the total fertility rate to 1.6 by 2030 and to 1.8 by 2036. The target value can be achieved provided that not only the social sphere, but also all areas of our life – the economy, development of housing and rural infrastructure, improvement of cities and towns – will work towards this goal,” said Tatyana Golikova.
According to her, preliminary results for 2024 show that, compared to 2023, the total fertility rate, according to Rosstat’s operational data, has remained almost unchanged, decreasing by 0.7% to 1.4.
At the same time, 18 regions have seen an increase in the birth rate. It is important that among them are regions of Central Russia, the North-West from the cluster “Demographic Winter” – these are Smolensk, Oryol, Ryazan, Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions.
“The growth dynamics of births of third and subsequent children has been maintained – by 1.1% compared to the previous year. At the same time, Russia, like many developed countries, is characterized by demographic challenges and new trends in the development of the institution of the family. Based on these challenges, we have formed seven key areas,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The first direction is the implementation of the “plus one child in every family” approach. The target is large families.
The second direction is to level out the high regional differentiation in birth rates.
According to preliminary results for 2024, in 38 regions, excluding new regions, the birth rate is higher than the Russian average, and in two – the Chechen Republic and Tuva – it exceeds the level of simple reproduction – 2.1. In general, the differentiation between regions has not changed – the indicator differs by three times).
In such conditions, federal umbrella measures with uniform conditions for the entire country must be supplemented in all subjects with regional support measures linked to local specifics and targeted work with individual groups of regions, supporting them from the federal level. It is important that the growth of the total fertility rate in the territory, support for large families, and the reduction of their poverty become a personal project of each governor.
The third direction is the creation of conditions for the harmonious combination of professional development with the birth and upbringing of children.
“To do this, we are fine-tuning both state and corporate policies. Together with the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, we have developed recommendations for the implementation of corporate social policy. Informally, we call them the “corporate demographic standard”. At the end of the year, it was adopted by the Russian Tripartite Commission,” noted Tatyana Golikova. “As you remember, at the final meeting of the State Council, the President supported certain additional measures, including tax incentives for employers, so that there would be an opportunity to support working women and working families. And of course, an important topic here is support for the older generation.”
The fourth direction is increasing the birth rate in rural areas.
The village has traditionally been the basis for population growth in the country, large families. Despite the decrease in the total fertility rate in the village by a third in the last 10 years, the fertility rate in the village as a whole is currently maintained at the level that must be achieved throughout the country by 2030. It is important to maintain it at this level and, if possible, increase it.
“Last year, a pilot project was launched in three regions – Novgorod, Tambov and Penza regions, which is aimed at developing infrastructure. And although not much time has passed, we are already seeing the first positive results. Over the three quarters of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, the number of women registered for pregnancy at antenatal clinics in the pilot regions increased by 15% on average, and the number of women who continued their pregnancy increased by 22% on average,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“Another area is improving the well-being of families so that they can make decisions about having another child. These are, of course, new targeted support measures. And here, both within the framework of the national project and within the framework of individual state programs and general policy, we will continue measures aimed at increasing the minimum wage, increasing citizens’ labor incomes, and, of course, keeping inflation low,” Tatyana Golikova emphasized.
The sixth direction is strengthening reproductive health and developing children’s medicine. It is planned to further increase additional investments in infrastructure and technologies in healthcare.
The seventh direction is strengthening the values of the family institution. All events related to the national project “Culture” implemented in previous years are concentrated here. These include cultural centers, cinemas in rural areas, modernized theaters and museums, model libraries, renovated and equipped children’s art schools, and new cinemas.
“There are no trifles in issues such as birth rate. This really should become the business of every governor, so that there are more of us, Russians,” concluded Tatyana Golikova.
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.
WASHINGTON—On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education launched a new anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion portal to chill and stop education and instruction that ensure every child has access to the resources and opportunities needed to learn. This measure to stamp out equity threatens the real programs in the public schools where 90% of all students, and 95% of students with disabilities, learn. This gimmick is the latestattack by the Trump administration on long-standing federal civil rights laws.
The following statement can be attributed to NEA President Becky Pringle:
“As I talk to educators and parents around the country, what I hear from most everyone—regardless of political affiliation or whether they live in rural, urban or suburban America—is that we all want all students to have the opportunities and resources they need to succeed.
“Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs create a sense of belonging where we all feel comfortable sharing our ideas and lived experiences. It gives people who look and sound like me and who come from communities like mine, or who speak a different language, or first-generation college students, a foot in the door and the opportunity to reach their full potential.
“The politicians and their followers attacking these long-standing and successful programs are looking to create a problem where one doesn’t exist. They want to divide us so we’re not paying attention to their real agenda, which is gutting our community public schools to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. More to the point, it’s astonishing that Trump and his loyalists currently in charge of the Department of Education are creating political stunts like this instead of using precious taxpayer dollars to do the very real work of ensuring opportunity and access. The administration shut down more than 10,000 civil rights investigations as one of their first actions, more than half of which were for students with disabilities.
“Let’s not let politicians distract us from the real issues facing public schools. We know what’s at stake. That’s why we are coming together—parents, students, and educators—to make sure every child, regardless of race, ZIP code, or family income, has the opportunities and resources they need to live into their brilliance.”
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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org
Español Whether you’re looking to buy weight loss, male enhancement, or certain other products, these days you’re apt to look for them online, rather than at a physical store. But buyer, beware. When you buy such products, you may actually be getting an illegal product; and that product may contain potentially dangerous ingredients that are not on the label. This is not a new development. Over the past decade, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has frequently warned consumers that certain products sold over-the-counter — including those sold over the “virtual” counter — contain hidden active ingredients that could be harmful. Hidden ingredients are a problem in products promoted for weight loss, body building, pain relief, sleep aids, and sexual enhancement. Often, products containing active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs are falsely represented as dietary supplements. It is clear from the results of our decade of testing that retailers and distributors, including online marketplaces, do not effectively prevent these types of potentially harmful products from being sold to consumers. The FDA has also found products marketed as supplements with claims to treat or prevent serious diseases such as cancer, HIV, and COVID-19. These products are typically unapproved drugs that have not been reviewed by the FDA for safety or effectiveness, and consumers should not buy them. What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You Take weight loss and male enhancement products, for example. The FDA recently tested nearly 70 of these products found on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.com, and discovered most of them contained active pharmaceutical ingredients not listed on the label. These hidden ingredients may interact with other drugs you are taking, or they may be associated with serious side effects. All 29 of the products the FDA purchased on Amazon, 80% purchased on eBay, and half of the products purchased on Walmart contained undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients. The FDA’s laboratory testing found the products contained various undeclared active ingredients, including sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, sibutramine, desmethylsibutramine, phenolphthalein and/or fluoxetine. Most of these active ingredients are found in FDA-approved prescription drugs, including Viagra and Cialis; others were removed from the market for serious safety concerns. How Can You Identify Dangerous Products? It is easy for people to sell a potentially dangerous product online. We advise consumers not to purchase weight loss, sexual enhancement, body building, sleep aid, and pain relief products that are listed in the public notifications at the links above. If you are considering buying a product marketed as a dietary supplement, please go to the FDA’s tainted products database, where you will find nearly 1,000 of these potentially dangerous products listed. The agency updates the database as it finds new products that contain undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients; however, new products and new websites pop up all the time, and it is impossible for the database to keep up. Even if a product has a different but similar name or is not in the list, you need to be cautious. Also watch out for products that are sold in one- or two-capsule packages that promise immediate results. The FDA works hard to identify and remove potentially dangerous products from the marketplace, but it’s a constant and ongoing effort. Steps to Take to Stay Safe If you are thinking of using a product in one of these categories, talk to your doctor first. Ask your doctor for help in identifying reliable and credible information about the product. Do not take products that are sold without a prescription and claim to treat, cure or prevent a serious disease such as HIV or cancer. Products approved to treat or prevent serious diseases generally are prescription products, which are restricted to use under the supervision of a licensed health care professional.
Be cautious about trusting consumer reviews that include miraculous disease treatment and prevention claims. Be aware of websites that direct you to online marketplaces to buy products. Claims regarding a product’s ability to prevent or treat a disease made on these websites have not been reviewed by FDA. See BeSafeRx for information about how to safely buy medicine online.
And finally, if you experience an injury from a product, do not just add a product review to the online marketplace; please also report your concerns to the FDA’s MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program so the agency can take any appropriate action to protect consumers from any unsafe products. Consumers are also encouraged to report unlawful sales of products sold online.
Español If you’re a smoker, you probably realize the dangers smoking may pose to your health. But have you ever thought about how the habit affects your pet? According to Food and Drug Administration veterinarian Carmela Stamper, D.V. M., the news is not good. “Smoking’s not only harmful to people; it’s harmful to pets, too,” Stamper says. “If 58 million non-smoking adults and children are exposed to tobacco smoke, imagine how many pets are exposed at the same time.” What’s Lingering on Your Rug, Furniture, and Clothes? Both secondhand smoke (which lingers in the air your animal breathes in) and third-hand smoke hurt pets. What’s third-hand smoke? It’s residue (harmful compounds that are left behind, such as nicotine) that can get on skin and clothes, as well as furniture, carpets, and other things where a smoker lives. “Like children, dogs and cats spend a lot of time on or near the floor, where tobacco smoke residue concentrates in house dust, carpets and rugs. Then, it gets on their fur,” Stamper explains. “Dogs, cats and children not only breathe these harmful substances in, but pets can also ingest them by licking their owner’s hair, skin, and clothes.” And of course, if your dog or cat grooms itself or another animal, he’s ingesting the residues as well, Stamper says. Facts That May Surprise You About Pets and Smoking Did you know …
how tobacco smoke affects a dog depends on the length of the dog’s nose? that certain dog breeds are at increased risk of nose or lung cancer? that cats who live with people who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day have three times the risk of developing lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system? that your smoking can endanger your pet bird, guinea pig, and even your fish?
Learn More Learn more about the dangers smoking can pose to your pet and find some resources to help a smoker you know cut back on or quit smoking in the article “Be Smoke-free and Help Your Pets Live Longer, Healthier Lives,” on the FDA website. back to top
A fierce work ethic, great research, and many hours of practice helped the Husky Case Competition Club win the top prize at the 32nd Kogod Case Competition at American University earlier this month.
This is the second consecutive year that the UConn team took home the top prize. A new team competed this year, and all five participants are second-year business students who had never entered a case competition before.
“Our ideas were super niche and I think that took the judges by surprise,’’ said Sophia Viar, a finance major and the president of the club. “They were intrigued by the complexity of what we had done.’’
The team prepared for months, sometimes putting in five hours a day to fine-tune their case and improve their presentation.
“We practiced over and over in the School of Business Board Room,’’ Viar said. “We basically asked each other questions over and over. We drilled. We were ready for every question that the judges threw at us.’’
Other team members included: Maria Cayward (analytics and information management), David Lu (finance), Kabir Ramnani (finance) and Daniel Barberi (finance and economics). None of the team members knew each other well before they started the competition.
The Challenge: Using AI to Help a Fortune 500 Company
The case competition involved integrating artificial intelligence into Xylem Inc., an American water technology provider and Fortune 500 company, that does business in more than 150 countries.
In their final presentation, the Husky team proposed using Novable software, which sources startups that match a company’s needs. They also recommended exploring the offerings of Oxyle, a company with a new filter that can destroy PFAS contaminants.
“One of the judges, who works for Xylem, said, ‘You hit the nail on the head. You guys are amazing!’ ’’ Viar said. The UConn team defeated four teams from American University, as well as teams from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University. They also took the prize for Best Q&A when the competition concluded on Feb. 15 in Washington, DC.
The victory reflects the enormous effort that the team put into the project.
“We started working on the case in November and there was a lot of back and forth with the team,’’ Viar said. “We had four months to develop our idea, and we changed direction often. It was pretty rocky in the first months until we nailed it down.’’
Ramnani said the team had incredible spirit and dedication, despite some mumbling about having to work over the holiday break.
“All of us had a hunger for it. We wanted to put our best foot forward,’’ Ramnani said. “I think one of the key lessons I learned is how to articulate ideas in a concise way. If you over-speak, you overcompensate. What matters is the quality of what you say. I learned to make my answers concise and deliberate.’’
Competition Will Enhance Careers Down the Road
Viar is planning a career in management consulting and said the competition is well aligned with her career aspirations. She looks forward to discussing her case-competition achievement in job interviews.
Ramnani agreed, saying the competition highlighted the problem-solving skills of every team member.
“I really didn’t know anything about the water industry until I started working on the case competition. I had to learn so much,’’ he said. “I also learned that sometimes you have to cut your losses. If we worked on an idea for a week and it wasn’t working out, I learned not to be emotionally attached to the idea, to move on and try something new.’’
Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan was arrested yesterday and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
As alleged in the criminal complaint, in December 2024, Hassan attempted to travel from Minnesota to Somalia to join ISIS on two occasions, neither of which were successful. Hassan attempted to disguise the purpose of his travel as visiting family despite having none in Somalia and was traveling with his birth certificate, naturalization certificate, and high school diploma. The FBI’s investigation established that Hassan publicly supported ISIS on social media through multiple posts and communicated with a Facebook account for the Manjaniq Media Center, which encouraged individuals to travel to join ISIS and touts itself as a media organization of the Islamic Caliphate. The investigation further revealed that Hassan praised Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the perpetrator of the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 1. On Feb. 21, Hassan also posted a video of himself driving while holding a small ISIS flag inside the vehicle, as well as another video of himself driving with an open knife on his lap. On Feb. 26, FBI observed Hassan driving while again holding the ISIS flag.
Hassan was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. He made his initial appearance in the District of Minnesota today and was ordered to remain in custody pending a formal detention hearing which will take place at a later date.
The FBI is investigating the case with assistance from the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar for the District of Minnesota and Trial Attorneys Ryan White and Charles Kovats Jr. of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.
A complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law
New York, N.Y., Feb. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) (“NANO Nuclear” or “the Company”), a leading advanced nuclear energy and technology company focused on developing clean energy solutions, today announced that Darlene T. DeRemer, previously Chairwoman of NANO Nuclear’s Executive Advisory Board for Institutional Finance, has now transitioned to a new, active corporate role with NANO Nuclear as its Executive Director of Corporate Finance.
In her new role, Ms. DeRemer will assist NANO Nuclear’s executive management as a consultant in the continuing development and execution of the Company’s financing strategies and its corporate processes and procedures, all with a view towards supporting NANO Nuclear’s long-term growth.
This appointment follows a similar, previously announced, leadership transition for the Hon. John G. Vonglis, who now serves as NANO Nuclear’s Executive Director of Global Government Affairs after having served on the Company Executive Advisory Board. These appointments highlight the confidence of leading professionals in NANO Nuclear’s mission and potential. Since its inception, NANO Nuclear has attracted highly qualified and proven leaders in finance, regulation, and science. Ms. DeRemer’s appointment adds to a growing roster of exemplary professionals dedicated to NANO Nuclear’s emerging status at the forefront of the advanced nuclear energy technology industry.
“Working alongside Jay and James on NANO Nuclear’s Executive Advisory Board confirmed my confidence in NANO Nuclear’s mission and leadership, and I’m thrilled to step into a more active role where I can contribute to NANO Nuclear’s continued success,” said Darlene T. DeRemer, Executive Director of Corporate Finance of NANO Nuclear Energy. “I believe that the future of the nuclear energy industry and NANO Nuclear’s mission are closely aligned, given the innovative potential of our technologies to provide reliable, robust, and secure power to data centers, remote communities, mining projects, military installations, and beyond.”
Figure 1 – NANO Nuclear Energy Executive Advisory Board Member Darlene T. DeRemer Transitions to Active Role within the Company as its Executive Director of Corporate Finance.
Darlene DeRemer is the Chair of the ARK Invest ETF Trust Board and co-founder of Grail Partners LLC, a merchant banking firm where she leads the firm’s Boston office. As a senior banker, she focuses on the global asset management industry, advising clients on a wide range of strategic transactions. With over 25 years of experience as a leading adviser in the financial services industry, Ms. DeRemer specialized in strategic marketing, product design, and the implementation of innovative service strategies.
Before transitioning into investment banking, Ms. DeRemer led or participated in numerous advisory transactions. Her current clients include institutional and mutual fund managers in the U.S., as well as alternative investment firms seeking to access public markets both domestically and internationally. Previously, Ms. DeRemer ran NewRiver’s eBusiness Advisory unit for four years and operated her own strategy firm, DeRemer + Associates, for 18 years. Founded in 1987, DeRemer + Associates was the first consultancy focused on the U.S. mutual fund industry. Darlene holds a B.S. in finance and marketing (summa cum laude, 1977) and an MBA with distinction (1979) from Syracuse University.
“I’m pleased to welcome Darlene to her new role at NANO Nuclear and thank her for her contributions as Chairwoman of our Executive Advisory Board for Institutional Finance,” said Jay Yu, Founder and Chairman of NANO Nuclear Energy. “Her extensive background in guiding growing companies will be hugely beneficial as we expand and strengthen our operations in both the near and long term. I look forward to working with Darlene to ensure that NANO Nuclear has the financial capabilities to achieve our ambitious goals and as we seek to establish ourself as leader in the advanced nuclear energy industry.”
“Darlene’s decision to move into a more active role with our company underscores both the great promise of our ambitions and our track record of achievements to date,” said James Walker, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Reactor Development of NANO Nuclear Energy. “Her leadership abilities and finely honed expertise will be tremendous assets as we continue to expand. In particular, her extensive network and talent for navigating complex financial landscapes will be vital as NANO Nuclear looks to capitalize on the growing momentum in the nuclear energy industry.”
About NANO Nuclear Energy, Inc.
NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) is an advanced technology-driven nuclear energy company seeking to become a commercially focused, diversified, and vertically integrated company across five business lines: (i) cutting edge portable and other microreactor technologies, (ii) nuclear fuel fabrication, (iii) nuclear fuel transportation, (iv) nuclear applications for space and (v) nuclear industry consulting services. NANO Nuclear believes it is the first portable nuclear microreactor company to be listed publicly in the U.S.
Led by a world-class nuclear engineering team, NANO Nuclear’s reactor products in development include “ZEUS”, a solid core battery reactor, and “ODIN”, a low-pressure coolant reactor, each representing advanced developments in clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand capable, advanced nuclear microreactors. NANO Nuclear is also developing patented stationary KRONOS MMR™ Energy System and space focused, portable LOKI MMR™.
Advanced Fuel Transportation Inc. (AFT), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is led by former executives from the largest transportation company in the world aiming to build a North American transportation company that will provide commercial quantities of HALEU fuel to small modular reactors, microreactor companies, national laboratories, military, and DOE programs. Through NANO Nuclear, AFT is the exclusive licensee of a patented high-capacity HALEU fuel transportation basket developed by three major U.S. national nuclear laboratories and funded by the Department of Energy. Assuming development and commercialization, AFT is expected to form part of the only vertically integrated nuclear fuel business of its kind in North America.
HALEU Energy Fuel Inc. (HEF), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is focusing on the future development of a domestic source for a High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication pipeline for NANO Nuclear’s own microreactors as well as the broader advanced nuclear reactor industry.
NANO Nuclear Space Inc. (NNS), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is exploring the potential commercial applications of NANO Nuclear’s developing micronuclear reactor technology in space. NNS is focusing on applications such as the LOKI MMR™ system and other power systems for extraterrestrial projects and human sustaining environments, and potentially propulsion technology for long haul space missions. NNS’ initial focus will be on cis-lunar applications, referring to uses in the space region extending from Earth to the area surrounding the Moon’s surface.
This news release and statements of NANO Nuclear’s management in connection with this news release contain or may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this context, forward-looking statements mean statements related to future events, which may impact our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “potential”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would” or “may” and other words of similar meaning. In this press release, forward-looking statements include those regarding the anticipated benefits of Ms. DeRemer’s association with the Company as described herein. These and other forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this news release and represent management’s current views and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, events or results and involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control. For NANO Nuclear, particular risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: (i) risks related to our U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) or related state or non-U.S. nuclear fuel licensing submissions, (ii) risks related the development of new or advanced technology and the acquisition of complimentary technology or businesses, including difficulties with design and testing, cost overruns, regulatory delays, integration issues and the development of competitive technology, (iii) our ability to obtain contracts and funding to be able to continue operations, (iv) risks related to uncertainty regarding our ability to technologically develop and commercially deploy a competitive advanced nuclear reactor or other technology in the timelines we anticipate, if ever, (v) risks related to the impact of U.S. and non-U.S. government regulation, policies and licensing requirements, including by the DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including those associated with the recently enacted ADVANCE Act, and (vi) similar risks and uncertainties associated with the operating an early stage business a highly regulated and rapidly evolving industry. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this news release. These factors may not constitute all factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in any forward-looking statement, and NANO Nuclear therefore encourages investors to review other factors that may affect future results in its filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov and at https://ir.nanonuclearenergy.com/financial-information/sec-filings. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a predictor of actual results. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this news release, except as required by law.
A homeless man asleep in Edinburgh, where the author carried out research into the link between drug use and exploitation.Serge Bertasius Photography/Shutterstock
All names have been changed to protect the identities of interviewees.
Patrick is 32 years old and has been homeless on and off in Edinburgh since growing up in care. He speaks with a rasping quality due to the ravages of sleeping outdoors in cruel Scottish winters. Until recently, he was one of thousands of people in the UK trapped in exploitation, often referred to as modern slavery.
In the UK over the past five years, more than 59,000 people have been identified as possible victims of exploitation – sometimes having been trafficked into the country for this express purpose. Some are forced into criminal forms of labour, like growing marijuana, or put to work in agriculture, hospitality, care or construction in illegal conditions. Still more are trapped in private homes in what is termed “domestic servitude”.
And there is Patrick’s category, which is sexual exploitation.
Patrick began taking drugs at 14 years old while in care. Two years later, he was kicked out of the children’s home and met an older man who introduced him to gammahydroxybutrate, or “G” as Patrick calls it. This is known as a “chemsex” drug due to its ability to induce arousal and reduce inhibitions.
The dealer began having sex with him and taking him to sex parties with other men. Soon, Patrick was addicted to G and, over time – the precise length is unclear as, like many people who’ve experienced trauma and addiction, his memories are highly fragmented – the man began to control him. If Patrick wanted more G, he had to have sex with the older man or with other people he selected. Specific sex acts were demanded, regardless of Patrick’s consent.
This controlling behaviour escalated: if Patrick wanted heating in the room in which he slept, if he wanted access to electricity to charge his phone, if he wanted clean clothes or food, if he wanted to avoid being hit, sex was required.
“I never had a choice,” Patrick tells me about his time living in that house. “If I hadn’t got the drugs, I’d die.”
The man kept him on a chemical leash for years. He was not physically restrained in the house, and he had access to his own bank account and benefits payments. Sometimes he slept rough to escape the abuse – but he always returned, because he lived in fear of “rattling”, as he calls withdrawal.
It wasn’t just fear of the physical suffering involved in going without the drug. Patrick’s father murdered his mother when he was a small child. He describes his addiction as a chance to feel free of that trauma – to feel “like superman, like flying”.
Addiction was a driving force in Patrick’s exploitation. And he isn’t alone: several court cases involving the exploitation of homeless people have acknowledged the role of addiction in their victimisation.
In 2013, R v Connors found that the Connors family, which ran a casual construction business in Bedfordshire, had recruited homeless men into their service. The men were promised accommodation, food and reasonable wages, only to receive “something like £10 per day” – if they were paid at all. They worked long hours in poor conditions without necessary equipment or clothing, and “on occasion they were subjected to violence or the threat of violence”.
As a result, three members of the Connors family received custodial sentences of between four and 14 years. The court judgement noted that their victims “were chosen deliberately. Usually they were homeless, addicted to alcohol, friendless and isolated.”
Three years later, the case of R v Rooney found that 11 members of the Rooney family had victimised at least 18 people in Lincolnshire, forcing them to work without pay and to live in squalid conditions for up to 26 years. In one instance, they made a victim dig his own grave to force him to sign a contract of lifelong servitude. Nine members of the family were sentenced to jail, with most receiving sentences of five years or more.
After a subsequent unsuccessful appeal, the judge drew a direct link between victimisation, addiction and homelessness, stating: “The appellants were said to have manipulated and controlled these men by withholding pay [and] feeding their vulnerabilities and addictions, such as to alcohol or cannabis.”
It didn’t end there. In 2020, the office of the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner examined Operation Fort, “the UK’s largest anti-slavery prosecution”, which took four years to conclude. It found that some of the victims had been recruited from homeless shelters and were addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Illicit drug use is damaging large parts of the world socially, politically and environmentally. Patterns of supply and demand are changing rapidly. In our longform series Addicted, leading experts bring you the latest insights on drug use and production as we ask: is it time to declare a planetary emergency?
The role of addiction in all these cases is important to acknowledge – as is recognising that homelessness isn’t a singular thing. Some people experience homelessness only once; others are homeless repeatedly and for years. There are people for whom lacking shelter is the main measure by which they are disadvantaged, which differs to those who are “multiply excluded” or who have “severe and multiple disadvantages” – including histories of institutional care, substance dependency, and criminal records. And that’s without layering on additional factors such as race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender.
As part of my PhD research, I spent several months investigating Edinburgh’s street community, delving into homeless people’s experiences of exploitation, and finding out how and why these experiences occurred.
I chose to work exclusively with people who, like Patrick, were either British or had migration statuses that afforded them the same rights as British people (such as access to benefits). Other statuses – like being an asylum seeker, being on highly restrictive work visas or being undocumented – are widely recognised to make people more vulnerable to being exploited. Removing this factor enabled me to focus on victimisation that could not be explained by immigration policy, and which might point to new or under-explored territories.
I uncovered many cases like Patrick’s: homeless British people who had been exploited. But I also met people who were homeless and had not been exploited. And one of the main differences was addiction. Everyone who had been exploited while homeless had a substance dependency. And it seemed to be this, more than homelessness, which had put them in harm’s way.
Debt bondage on the streets of Edinburgh
Like Patrick, Paul is a white Scottish man in his 30s. He began sofa-surfing at the age of 11 after leaving his abusive family home. Since then, his life has been chronically chaotic: rough sleeping, prison, time in hostels, social housing and back again. Addiction has been the sole stable feature – in his case, a heroin habit which started “when I was 22, in prison”.
Paul has done various things for money over the years: begging (but only once because “I couldn’t deal with the shame of sitting down with people I knew walking past”); house-breaking (“shit stuff I wish I could take back”); shoplifting and reselling (“bacon, cheese, booze, anything that was more expensive”); and also drug running. It was this last method where he got into trouble.
A homeless man sleeping outside a branch of Barclays bank in Princes Street, central Edinburgh. Serge Cornu/Shutterstock
Paul was shoplifting and wasn’t making much money when he “got an offer” to become a drug runner instead. Although movies would have us believe that most modern slavery is the result of kidnapping or abduction, it’s usually the result of a subtler process. The potential victim is offered something they need, such as money or passage to a different country, and it goes wrong.
For Patrick and Paul, what they needed was drugs. Paul accepted the offer and began working as a runner, taking drugs from the dealer’s house to the customers and risking arrest on the way. He was paid in small amounts of heroin for his personal use. Looking back, he sees the dealer as “basically getting me deeper and deeper into trouble”, by escalating his addiction and using it as a control mechanism to keep him working – like the chemical leash experienced by Patrick.
For Jack, a third Scottish homeless man, it was worse. Initially, he bought drugs (both heroin and crack cocaine) using cash, but then a dealer began giving him more than he could afford. “I’d say I only want a half-ounce … and he’d say nah, he’s gonna give me the full one.”
Over time, Jack’s debt grew. He tried to repay it by working as a drug runner for the man, but the money could never be paid off. This was partly because he always needed his next hit, but also because the dealer was inflating the debt each time. There was no way out.
The dealer was also, according to Jack, “quite a fuckin’ scary bloke” – which turned out to be Jack’s way of disclosing that he had been threatened when he tried to leave for a different dealer. At least once, he had been hit.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority describes debt bondage as when “an employer or controller will use different tactics to trap the victim in an endless cycle of debt which can never be repaid”. In Jack’s case, as with others in my investigation, it was a particular instrumentalisation of that chemical leash.
“We call it ‘in your pocket’,” Jack explains. “That’s what they say: ‘I’ve got him in my pocket now.’”
Paul and Jack had experienced localised permutations of what government and police call county lines – the transporting of drugs by children or vulnerable adults under coercion.
It may have a special label, but this is a normal part of the drug dealing business model. When I recount Paul’s and Jack’s experiences to Ryan, another homeless Scottish man who is familiar with the drug economy thanks to his dealer dad, he snorts: “Well aye, obviously.”
Into the arms of would-be exploiters
Patrick, Paul and Jack had all been exploited within the drug economy in one way or another, and this is where government-approved county lines strategies are focused. But addiction drives exploitation more broadly than the drug sector itself; as in the Rooney and Connors cases, legal employment sectors including construction and farmwork are subject to addiction-fuelled exploitation too.
When Jack was approached to paint scaffolding poles for £80 a day, he jumped at the chance – it looked like good money for an easy task. But the job wasn’t what it seemed. The recruiter knew Jack was an addict and dropped him off alone at a warehouse with a bag of speed, so he would work through the night with no sleep. This happened for four weekends in a row, with the man alternating between treating Jack well (“made me feel like I was ‘the man’”) and frightening him (“he pure intimidated me”). The £80 per day never materialised.
In Paul’s case, he was offered farmwork by a man outside a soup kitchen he frequented. Paul says he didn’t trust the guy “just from looking at him … and the way he went about it, like strolling up to a homeless place. That’s where most serial killers go to get victims.”
Paul was warned off by street acquaintances who’d heard of people being treated badly at the farm. “They were living in, basically, homeless situations – in a barn or something with no heating and stuff like that, being worked when the guy says … You’ve no money to get home, you don’t know where you are.”
Yet even with this information, when it happened a second time, Paul decided to go. He needed money for his heroin habit. Thankfully, he was too slow to say yes and he lost out to two other men. He doesn’t know what happened to them.
When Paul and I met, he was staying off heroin, thanks to methadone and various other prescription drugs. I asked what he’d do if someone approached him with the same kind of job offer now. He said he’d decline; he no longer needs the money for heroin.
Video: BBC Scotland.
Lorraine, in her 40s and also Scottish, spent years doing sex work. She’d been in various situations during that time, including being deceived into brothel work based on potential earnings which turned out to be untrue, and being pimped by someone who “was supposed to be a friend”.
When we met, Lorraine was no longer doing sex work for anyone but herself. I asked what had changed. Along with getting a place in an emergency shelter, she said it was “because I’m not using [drugs], you know; I’m not using any more. I used to be a prolific crack and heroin addict.”
Paul and Lorraine aren’t alone. Nearly everyone I’ve interviewed draws a direct line between the high cost of illegal drugs and the likelihood of being exploited. In contrast, those who’ve got clean are free from coercion and able to get by on their benefits – benefits they receive, in general, for severe mental health conditions and learning disabilities.
Can criminals be victims too?
Ryan was right when he snorted “aye, obviously” to me: the link between addiction and exploitation should be plain to see. There are passing mentions of addiction issues among homeless survivors peppered in the Rooney, Connors, Operation Fort and other case documents. So why had all bar one of the people whom I met, and who shared their stories of exploitation with me, not been flagged as possible victims by services?
The one exception to this rule offers some answers.
Piotr came to the UK after seeing an advert for a job in a car garage. He liked that first job. Even though it paid lower than the minimum wage, it was enough to meet his needs and the boss was reasonable. But when that garage closed and his long-distance marriage broke down, Piotr relapsed into alcoholism. He needed to find a new job so he could fund his daily intake.
Another garage owner who was aware of Piotr’s dependency offered him work. They didn’t make an agreement about money, but Piotr told me he’d hoped to get around £20 a day plus some food or cigarettes. That may sound bad to people accustomed to legal minimum wages, but the reality turned out much worse.
Piotr wasn’t paid at all. He slept in a caravan on the garage site, and if he wanted to use gas or electricity, he had to pay for it … with no wages. He told me how the boss would shout at him, and sometimes hit him too.
Thankfully, after around a year, Piotr was able to leave and, during the period we met, he was working somewhere that treated him better and paid him consistently – though still below the legal minimum.
It was while Piotr was working at this new and better place that homelessness support workers encountered him and began to wonder whether he’d been exploited. The fact they were correct isn’t the point here; rather, why had they flagged his victimisation but not Patrick’s, Paul’s, Lorraine’s or Jack’s? And what might this tell us about homelessness and exploitation more broadly?
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
The answer may lie in a concept introduced nearly 40 years ago by criminologist Nils Christie. The “ideal victim” is the notion that we’re more willing to view some people as victims than others. Christie suggested various criteria that make people more likely to receive the social label of “victim”: including that they’re weaker than the perpetrator; that they’re carrying out a respectable project at the time of the harm occurring; and that their general behaviour is blameless – namely, they were doing nothing illegal nor putting themselves at risk.
In this analysis, it should be obvious that Patrick, Paul, Lorraine and Jack are all non-ideal victims. Most have been in prison, some multiple times, and all regularly commit crimes by taking drugs or earning money in illegal (drug running, stealing) or semi-legal (sex work) ways. In contrast, Piotr does none of these things.
But while social bias goes against viewing Patrick, Paul, Lorraine and Jack as victims, empirical data tells us otherwise. Studies show that “engagement in offending behaviour is one of the strongest correlates of victimisation”. Substance abuse in particular is recognised to put people at greater risk of becoming victims of crime.
Yet the support workers I interviewed make it clear that, in general, their homeless clients are not asked about their various criminal activities. Their rationale varied: some felt that asking probing questions about these activities might harm their relationship, making clients suspicious of their motives and damaging their ability to support them. Others felt it was simply none of their business how or whether clients earned money illegally, either because of their perceived remit of their work, or because they viewed the activities as distasteful or shameful.
Drinking alcohol was safe to ask about, as was working in legal sectors like car garages – but not heroin, not crack cocaine, not G, not sex work, not drug running, and so on.
Paradoxically, then, the very aspects of someone’s life which may instinctively put off support workers, police, medical professionals and others from viewing them as possible victims are the same aspects which make them more at risk of victimisation.
Compounding this, Piotr is not British while all the others are. There is very limited data on exploitation in the homelessness community but, according to information published by the charities Unseen and The Passage, most people who are identified as victims of exploitation have been migrants. Two-thirds of those highlighted by the latter have “no recourse to public funds”, a particularly precarious form of migration status which bans people from accessing benefits and other forms of social assistance.
In theory, this should have meant that my investigation – which excluded anyone in that precarious category, solely interviewing British people or migrants who have the same protections as UK citizens – wouldn’t have easily found victims. But when I spent lots of time getting to know people living on the streets of Edinburgh, I found this wasn’t the case.
That doesn’t mean Unseen or The Passage are wrong in their activities or data, far from it. Victimisation is not a zero-sum game: multiple categories of homeless people can be at especially high risk. Rather, it brings an additional population into view for deeper consideration.
A tent pitched in New Calton burial ground in Calton Hill, Edinburgh. Fotokon/Shutterstock
Following Christie’s concept, academics have considered how migration and victimhood intersect, noting that migrants’ perceived “weakness, frailty and passivity” aligns with the ideal victim idea. On exploitation specifically, a great deal of research and action has taken place to highlight the ways in which the UK’s “hostile environment” migration policy renders migrants vulnerable to exploitation.
This combination of perception and policy makes it plausible that homeless people of foreign origin are more easily recognised as victims than people who have remained in the area in which they grew up, like the Scottish people encountered in my investigation – and especially those exhibiting some of the other “unideal” factors I’ve described.
What does this mean?
The finding that addiction is an important driver of exploitation among the homeless community offers guidance for targeted intervention. People who are homeless and have substance dependencies should be considered higher risk for exploitation than people who are homeless without addictions.
While there are many factors which contribute to victimisation, and this article is the product of a broader body of research, it does offer a strong indication of one place we should look for harm.
Second, police and other frontline services should consider biases that may be blinding them to some victims, specifically British people with offending records.
Third, my investigation points to a broader question: if addiction is driving vulnerability to exploitation, what does this mean for drug and alcohol policy? In England, funding of local council addiction services has halved over the past ten years; while in Scotland as well as England and Wales, the high rate of drug-related deaths demonstrates a desperate need for more intervention.
Meanwhile, the National Police Chiefs’ county lines policing strategy for 2024-2027 doesn’t mention addiction even once. There is a glaring need for a better-funded, more joined-up approach to understanding and addressing addiction, thereby reducing exploitation crimes.
Going further, one useful response could be the UK-wide introduction of “safe consumption rooms”, whose main purpose is to reduce drug-related harms including contamination and overdose. After much political debate, the first such facility in Scotland, called the Thistle and located in Glasgow, opened on January 13 2025.
Video: Channel 4 News.
In the context of exploitation, these safe consumption rooms could remove the obstacle of illegality from identification. In a space in which drug-taking is explicit, people may feel safer to disclose harm, and support workers may feel safer to probe into people’s lifestyles.
This builds on my forthcoming study, to be published in a collection from Amsterdam University Press. It shows how health clinics and social spaces that are explicitly run by and for sex workers, and which have no links to policing, are able to identify victims of exploitation who have otherwise gone unnoticed or avoided sharing their victimisation out of fear of being criminalised, because of their involvement with the sex industry or their migration statuses. By creating safe spaces free from judgement or criminalisation, we open new opportunities for support.
Being able to regulate drugs by decriminalising them may also be beneficial. It would not remove the problem – alcohol is legal and Piotr was still exploited – but it could blunt the instrumentalisation of addiction by would-be exploiters, making it harder to construct “drug debt bondage” like that experienced by Jack, and more difficult to hold the threat of imposed withdrawal over victims, as experienced by Patrick.
So far, the Labour government appears to be continuing this disappointing track record. In its election manifesto, it pledged to introduce “a new offence of criminal exploitation of children, to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime”. But this reinforces the “ideal victim” problem: children are innocents, but what of their adult, addicted counterparts? And what about the drug policies underlying this illicit economy?
Since taking office, and as we approach the ten-year anniversary of the UK’s “world-leading” Modern Slavery Act, the government has committed to a “holistic victim-centred approach”, but there is no indication that this will include people like Patrick, Paul and Jack.
We have known the factors driving modern slavery for years. This investigation provides more evidence that we must address drug policy and addiction support as part of any effective strategy to reduce the deeply damaging effects of exploitation.
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Emily Kenway receives funding from the University of Edinburgh and is on the boards of National Ugly Mugs (trustee) and the New Economy Organisers Network (chair). She is the author of Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve It (Headline, 2023), which was a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
