Category: Transport

MIL-OSI Global: Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Commuting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, presents challenges for its 17 million residents. Massive traffic jams and unsafe driving cause chaos on the roads, leading to long delays.

The chaos has become a pressing concern for residents. Reaching Gombe, Kinshasa’s central business district, for instance, can take up to five hours from surrounding neighbourhoods.

When he came to power in January 2019, President Felix Tshisekedi promised to combat Kinshasa’s traffic chaos by targeting road infrastructure. This included constructing an interchange and flyover. One-way traffic was introduced on certain streets. These have had little effect. Kinshasa’s traffic issues persist.

While congestion in the capital is usually blamed on poor infrastructure, there are some harder-to-see causes. As social science researchers, we set out to understand what institutional factors might be behind the city’s gridlock.

In a recent paper, we analysed an illegal revenue-generating scheme inside Kinshasa’s traffic police agency involving a coalition of traffic police agents, their managers and judicial officers. We studied the role this scheme plays in the city’s traffic conditions.

Under the scheme, known as the quota system, station managers (police commanders) assign street agents a daily quota of drivers to escort to the station, often based on fabricated allegations.

Our findings and analysis provide insights into how the quota system causes traffic jams and accidents, undermining the police agency’s mandate of traffic regulation. We also detail how corruption operates as a coordinated system rather than as isolated acts of individual misconduct.

The problem

Like many traffic police agencies worldwide, Kinshasa’s traffic police are tasked with managing key intersections and enforcing traffic rules.

Similar to many other civil servants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police officers earn meagre salaries – around US$70 monthly. Anecdotal observation suggests that the police service lacks funds for basic necessities such as fuel or communication costs. Low resources have contributed to police officers extracting funds from drivers, partly for personal profit, partly to cover the costs for their police work.

A major way in which this is done is through a specific scheme involving traffic police agents. We found that station managers assign different street agents a daily quota of drivers to bring to the station.

To meet this quota, agents often use brute force and have the discretion to invent infractions that they report at the police station. The dilapidated state of most cars in Kinshasa helps police officers with this task.

At the station, agents pass the allegations to judicial officers, who have the power to issue charges – or demand bribes so drivers avoid formal penalties. Many drivers try to avoid this extortion by developing relationships with influential protectors. These are people who can intervene on a driver’s behalf and are often high-placed security officers or politicians.

Our research

After three years of qualitative fieldwork, we built trust with a large number of individuals inside and around the traffic police agency. This enabled us to design data collection systems in 2015 to study the traffic police agency’s practices.

We relied on the cooperation of 160 individuals and generated the following data:
- direct observations of over 13,000 interactions between officers and drivers at intersections
- station records of 1,255 escorted vehicles, including bribe negotiations and outcomes
- traffic flow and accident data from 6,399 hourly observations.
To quantify the cost of this scheme on public service, we added an experiment: we collaborated with police commanders to reduce the daily quotas for some teams and days.

We encouraged commanders to temporarily cut their teams’ quotas in half. Reducing quotas could be expected to lower corruption demands on agents, reducing corruption overall. It would also enable agents to focus more of their time on managing traffic – an outcome later confirmed by our findings.

To ensure this approach worked, we compensated commanders for the private income losses they would experience due to the quota reduction, which we carefully estimated before implementing the study. This compensation is not unlike traditional anti-corruption incentives routinely used across the world, except that rather than it being targeted at street-level agents, it targeted the node of this particular scheme: the police commanders.

What we found
1. The scheme generates large illicit revenue. The traffic police agency’s real revenue is five times larger than its official income from fines. We found that 68% of the illicit revenue generated through the quota scheme came from bribes paid by drivers after they’d been escorted to the station. The rest of the illicit revenue comes from street-level bribes outside of this quota scheme.
2. The revenue raised relies on extortion at police stations. Judicial police officers had the power to threaten to issue arbitrary charges. We found that, first, 82% of the allegations were unverifiable by third parties. Second, the amount raised in station bribes was strongly linked to whether a driver was able to call a powerful “protector”.
3. Extortion in police stations relies on the street agents’ power to arbitrarily escort drivers. These agents use their discretion to fabricate allegations and/or physical force to bring drivers to the station. When a driver was not seen making an infraction, force was more likely to be used.
Overall, this means that the scheme hinged on a coalition of managers, agents and judicial officers.

Through the reduction in the quota scheme levels, our scheme also revealed some social costs of this scheme. We found two important results.

Worse traffic: the quota scheme was accountable for a significant share of traffic jams and accidents observed at street intersections from where the agents operate. Partly through their induced absence and partly through their behaviour, the police officers also create numerous traffic jams and accidents. While this is suggestive rather than conclusive, our estimates suggest that 40% of traffic jams at the main intersections of the city are due to the scheme.

Diluted incentives to respect the law: the scheme made it less likely that drivers would respect the law. They could be escorted to a police station regardless of whether they complied with the traffic code.

Why the findings matter

Our study, which provides rare, detailed evidence of how corruption operates, has three policy implications.
1. Target officials’ managers, rather than the officials themselves. Visible corruption is only the tip of the iceberg, and hinges on relationships of power and coalitions inside the state.
2. Limit the discretion of judicial officers to charge the public, or that of agents to escort drivers to police stations arbitrarily.
3. Incentivise “good” corruption. Encouraging station officials to take a significant share of fines for genuine infractions could give agents an incentive to escort drivers who actually break traffic rules. However, the trade-offs between traffic flow, safety and compliance must be carefully weighed, as quotas tied to fines could worsen congestion.
Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra is a co-founder of Marakuja Kivu Research, a data collection organization specialized in data collection in war-torn zones especially eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kristof Titeca is an associate Senior Research Fellow at the Egmont Institute in Belgium.

Albert Malukisa Nkuku and Haoyang (Stan) Xie do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines – https://theconversation.com/kinshasas-traffic-cops-run-an-extortion-scheme-generating-five-times-more-revenue-than-fines-246786
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Maikel Rheinstadter, Professor of Biophysics, McMaster University

We live in a golden age for space exploration. Scientists are gathering massive amounts of new information and scientific evidence at a record pace. Yet the age-old question remains unanswered: are we alone?

New telescope technologies, including space-based tools such as the James Webb Telescope, have enabled us to discover thousands of potentially habitable exoplanets that could support life similar to that on Earth.

Gravitational wave detectors have opened a new avenue for space exploration by detecting space-time distortions caused by black holes and supernovae millions of light-years away.

Commercial space ventures have further accelerated these advancements, leading to increasingly sophisticated spacecraft and reusable rockets, signifying a new era in space exploration.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission successfully touched down on asteroid Bennu when it was 207 million miles away from Earth and brought back rock and dust samples.

Read more:
Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

Several countries have developed the ability to deploy robots on the moon and Mars, with plans to send humans to these celestial bodies in the future.

A central driver of all these ambitious endeavours is still that fundamental question of whether life exists — or ever existed — elsewhere in the universe.

The James Webb telescope was launched in 2021, and is the most powerful telescope ever sent into space.
(Shutterstock)

Defining life

Defining life is surprisingly challenging. While we intuitively recognize living organisms as having life, a precise definition remains elusive. Dictionaries offer various descriptions, such as the ability to grow, reproduce and respond to stimuli.

But even these definitions can be ambiguous.

A more comprehensive definition considers life as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of processing information and maintaining a state of low entropy, with little disorder or randomness.

Living things constantly require energy to sustain their molecular organization and maintain their highly organized structures and functions. Without this energy, life would quickly descend into chaos and disrepair. This definition encompasses the dynamic and complex nature of life, emphasizing its ability to adapt and evolve.

Life on Earth, as we currently understand it, is based on the interplay of DNA, RNA and proteins. DNA serves as the blueprint of life, containing the genetic instructions necessary for an organism’s development, survival and reproduction. These instructions are converted into messages that guide the production of proteins, the workhorses of the cell that are responsible for a vast array of functions.

This intricate system of DNA replication, protein synthesis and cellular processes — all based on long strings of molecules linked by carbon atoms — is fundamental to life on Earth. However, the universe may harbour life forms based on entirely different principles and biochemistries.

An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which uses an X-ray spectrometer to help search for signs of ancient microbial life in rocks.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Something other than carbon

Life elsewhere could use different elements as building blocks. Silicon, with its chemical similarities to carbon, has been proposed as a potential alternative.

If they exist, silicon-based life forms may exhibit unique characteristics and adaptations. For instance, they might use silicon-based structures for support, analogous to bones or shells in carbon-based organisms.

Even though silicon-based organisms have not yet been found on Earth, silicon plays an important role in many existing life forms. It is an important secondary component for many plants and animals, serving structural and functional roles. For example, diatoms, a type of algae found in the ocean, feature glassy cell walls made of transparent silicon dioxide.

This doesn’t make diatoms silicon-based life forms, but it does prove silicon can indeed act as a building block of a living organism. But we still don’t know if silicon-based life forms exist at all, or what they would look like.

Read more:
Extraterrestrial life may look nothing like life on Earth − so astrobiologists are coming up with a framework to study how complex systems evolve

The origins of life on Earth

There are competing hypotheses on how life arose on Earth. One is that that life’s building blocks were delivered on or in meteorites. The other is that those building blocks came together spontaneously via geochemistry in our planet’s early environment.

Meteorites have indeed been found to carry organic molecules, including amino acids, which are essential for life. It’s possible that organic molecules formed in deep space and were then brought to Earth by meteorites and asteroids.

On the other hand, geochemical processes on early Earth, such as those occurring in warm little ponds or in hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean, could have also provided the necessary conditions and ingredients for life to emerge.

However, no lab has yet been able to present a comprehensive, certain pathway to the formation of RNA, DNA and the first cellular life on Earth.

Many biological molecules are chiral, meaning they exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands. While both left- and right-handed molecules are typically naturally produced in equal amounts, recent analyses of meteorites have revealed a slight asymmetry, favouring the left-handed form by as much as 60 per cent.

Chirality refers to the existence in nature of mirror images of the same thing.
(Shutterstock)

This asymmetry in space-derived organic molecules is also observed in all biomolecules on Earth (proteins, sugars, amino acids, RNA and DNA), suggesting it could have arisen from the slight imbalance delivered from space, supporting the theory that life on Earth is extraterrestrial in origin.

Chances of life

The slight imbalance in chirality observed in many organic molecules could be an indicator that life on Earth originated from the delivery of organic molecules by extraterrestrial life. We could well be descendants of life that originated elsewhere.

The Drake equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961, provides a framework for estimating the number of detectable civilizations within our galaxy.

This equation incorporates factors such as the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets, and calculates the fraction of those planets where intelligent life may emerge. An optimistic estimate using this formula suggests that 12,500 intelligent alien civilizations might exist in the Milky Way alone.

The primary argument for extraterrestrial life remains probabilistic: considering the sheer number of stars and planets, it seems highly improbable that life wouldn’t have arisen elsewhere.

The probability of humanity being the sole technological civilization in the observable universe is considered to be less than one in 10 billion trillion. Additionally, the chance of a civilization developing on any single habitable planet is better than one in 60 billion.

With an estimated 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe, the existence of other technological species is highly likely, potentially even within our Milky Way galaxy.

Maikel Rheinstadter receives funding from the National Science and Engineering Council Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Province of Ontario and McMaster University..

– ref. Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely – https://theconversation.com/is-there-life-out-there-the-existence-of-other-technological-species-is-highly-likely-248191

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Africa: Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Raúl Sanchez de la Sierra, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Commuting in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, presents challenges for its 17 million residents. Massive traffic jams and unsafe driving cause chaos on the roads, leading to long delays.

The chaos has become a pressing concern for residents. Reaching Gombe, Kinshasa’s central business district, for instance, can take up to five hours from surrounding neighbourhoods.

When he came to power in January 2019, President Felix Tshisekedi promised to combat Kinshasa’s traffic chaos by targeting road infrastructure. This included constructing an interchange and flyover. One-way traffic was introduced on certain streets. These have had little effect. Kinshasa’s traffic issues persist.

While congestion in the capital is usually blamed on poor infrastructure, there are some harder-to-see causes. As social science researchers, we set out to understand what institutional factors might be behind the city’s gridlock.

In a recent paper, we analysed an illegal revenue-generating scheme inside Kinshasa’s traffic police agency involving a coalition of traffic police agents, their managers and judicial officers. We studied the role this scheme plays in the city’s traffic conditions.

Under the scheme, known as the quota system, station managers (police commanders) assign street agents a daily quota of drivers to escort to the station, often based on fabricated allegations.

Our findings and analysis provide insights into how the quota system causes traffic jams and accidents, undermining the police agency’s mandate of traffic regulation. We also detail how corruption operates as a coordinated system rather than as isolated acts of individual misconduct.

The problem

Like many traffic police agencies worldwide, Kinshasa’s traffic police are tasked with managing key intersections and enforcing traffic rules.

Similar to many other civil servants in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police officers earn meagre salaries – around US$70 monthly. Anecdotal observation suggests that the police service lacks funds for basic necessities such as fuel or communication costs. Low resources have contributed to police officers extracting funds from drivers, partly for personal profit, partly to cover the costs for their police work.

A major way in which this is done is through a specific scheme involving traffic police agents. We found that station managers assign different street agents a daily quota of drivers to bring to the station.

To meet this quota, agents often use brute force and have the discretion to invent infractions that they report at the police station. The dilapidated state of most cars in Kinshasa helps police officers with this task.

At the station, agents pass the allegations to judicial officers, who have the power to issue charges – or demand bribes so drivers avoid formal penalties. Many drivers try to avoid this extortion by developing relationships with influential protectors. These are people who can intervene on a driver’s behalf and are often high-placed security officers or politicians.

Our research

After three years of qualitative fieldwork, we built trust with a large number of individuals inside and around the traffic police agency. This enabled us to design data collection systems in 2015 to study the traffic police agency’s practices.

We relied on the cooperation of 160 individuals and generated the following data:
- direct observations of over 13,000 interactions between officers and drivers at intersections
- station records of 1,255 escorted vehicles, including bribe negotiations and outcomes
- traffic flow and accident data from 6,399 hourly observations.
To quantify the cost of this scheme on public service, we added an experiment: we collaborated with police commanders to reduce the daily quotas for some teams and days.

We encouraged commanders to temporarily cut their teams’ quotas in half. Reducing quotas could be expected to lower corruption demands on agents, reducing corruption overall. It would also enable agents to focus more of their time on managing traffic – an outcome later confirmed by our findings.

To ensure this approach worked, we compensated commanders for the private income losses they would experience due to the quota reduction, which we carefully estimated before implementing the study. This compensation is not unlike traditional anti-corruption incentives routinely used across the world, except that rather than it being targeted at street-level agents, it targeted the node of this particular scheme: the police commanders.

What we found
1. The scheme generates large illicit revenue. The traffic police agency’s real revenue is five times larger than its official income from fines. We found that 68% of the illicit revenue generated through the quota scheme came from bribes paid by drivers after they’d been escorted to the station. The rest of the illicit revenue comes from street-level bribes outside of this quota scheme.
2. The revenue raised relies on extortion at police stations. Judicial police officers had the power to threaten to issue arbitrary charges. We found that, first, 82% of the allegations were unverifiable by third parties. Second, the amount raised in station bribes was strongly linked to whether a driver was able to call a powerful “protector”.
3. Extortion in police stations relies on the street agents’ power to arbitrarily escort drivers. These agents use their discretion to fabricate allegations and/or physical force to bring drivers to the station. When a driver was not seen making an infraction, force was more likely to be used.
Overall, this means that the scheme hinged on a coalition of managers, agents and judicial officers.

Through the reduction in the quota scheme levels, our scheme also revealed some social costs of this scheme. We found two important results.

Worse traffic: the quota scheme was accountable for a significant share of traffic jams and accidents observed at street intersections from where the agents operate. Partly through their induced absence and partly through their behaviour, the police officers also create numerous traffic jams and accidents. While this is suggestive rather than conclusive, our estimates suggest that 40% of traffic jams at the main intersections of the city are due to the scheme.

Diluted incentives to respect the law: the scheme made it less likely that drivers would respect the law. They could be escorted to a police station regardless of whether they complied with the traffic code.

Why the findings matter

Our study, which provides rare, detailed evidence of how corruption operates, has three policy implications.
1. Target officials’ managers, rather than the officials themselves. Visible corruption is only the tip of the iceberg, and hinges on relationships of power and coalitions inside the state.
2. Limit the discretion of judicial officers to charge the public, or that of agents to escort drivers to police stations arbitrarily.
3. Incentivise “good” corruption. Encouraging station officials to take a significant share of fines for genuine infractions could give agents an incentive to escort drivers who actually break traffic rules. However, the trade-offs between traffic flow, safety and compliance must be carefully weighed, as quotas tied to fines could worsen congestion.
– Kinshasa’s traffic cops run an extortion scheme generating five times more revenue than fines
– https://theconversation.com/kinshasas-traffic-cops-run-an-extortion-scheme-generating-five-times-more-revenue-than-fines-246786

MIL OSI Africa –
February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI Australia: From 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025

Source: Australian Department of Revenue

Fuel tax credit rates

You need to use the rate that applies on the date you acquired the fuel.

Use the fuel tax credit calculator to easily work out the amount to report on your business activity statement (BAS).

The following tables contain the fuel tax credit rates for businesses from:

Table 1: Rates for fuel acquired from 3 February 2025 to 30 June 2025
Eligible fuel type	Used in heavy vehicles for travelling on public roads (see note 1)	All other business uses (including to power auxiliary equipment of a heavy vehicle) (see note 2)
Liquid fuels – for example, diesel or petrol Unit: cents per litre	20.3 (see note 3)	50.8
Blended fuels: B5, B20, E10 Unit: cents per litre	20.3 (see note 3)	50.8
Blended fuel: E85 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	21.73
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	16.6
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per kilogram	0 (see note 4)	34.8
B100 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	15.2

Table 2: Rates for fuel acquired from 5 August 2024 to 2 February 2025
Eligible fuel type	Used in heavy vehicles for travelling on public roads (see note 1)	All other business uses (including to power auxiliary equipment of a heavy vehicle) (see note 2)
Liquid fuels – for example, diesel or petrol Unit: cents per litre	20.1 (see note 3)	50.6
Blended fuels: B5, B20, E10 Unit: cents per litre	20.1 (see note 3)	50.6
Blended fuel: E85 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	21.7
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	16.5
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per kilogram	0 (see note 4)	34.7
B100 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	15.2

Table 3: Rates for fuel acquired from 1 July 2024 to 4 August 2024
Eligible fuel type	Used in heavy vehicles for travelling on public roads (see note 1)	All other business uses (including to power auxiliary equipment of a heavy vehicle) (see note 2)
Liquid fuels – for example, diesel or petrol Unit: cents per litre	19.1 (see note 3)	49.6
Blended fuels: B5, B20, E10 Unit: cents per litre	19.1 (see note 3)	49.6
Blended fuel: E85 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	21.295
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	16.2
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG) (duty paid) Unit: cents per kilogram	0 (see note 4)	34.0
B100 Unit: cents per litre	0 (see note 3)	14.9

Note 1: From 1 November 2019, this rate includes fuel used to power passenger air-conditioning of buses and coaches.

Note 2: Claims for packaging or supplying fuel can use the ‘all other business uses’ rate for the appropriate eligible fuel type.

Note 3: Fuel tax credit rates change for liquid fuels used in a heavy vehicle for travelling on a public road due to changes in the road user charge, which increases by 6% each year over 3 years, from:

28.8 cents per litre in 2023–24, to
30.5 cents per litre in 2024–25, and to
32.4 cents per litre in 2025–26.

Fuel tax credits are reduced to nil where the road user charge exceeds the fuel tax credit rate.

Note 4: Fuel tax credit rates change for gaseous fuels due to changes in the road user charge, which increases by 6% each year over 3 years, from:

38.5 cents per kilogram in 2023–24, to
40.8 cents per kilogram in 2024–25, and to
43.2 cents per kilogram in 2025–26.

Currently, the road user charge reduces fuel tax credits for gaseous fuels to nil.

MIL OSI News –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Gevo Completes Acquisition of Red Trail Energy Assets in North Dakota, Expanding a Burgeoning Portfolio of Energy Assets

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO), a leading developer of hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the ethanol production plant and carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) assets of Red Trail Energy, LLC (“Red Trail Energy”) for an aggregate purchase price of $210 million, subject to customary adjustments, including a working capital adjustment. The acquired assets include the plant, pore space, and we are bringing on their experienced operational personnel. In addition to creating another strategic option for economic and competitively advantaged sustainable aviation fuel (“SAF”) facilities, this acquisition is expected to contribute $30 million to $60 million of Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾ to Gevo annually. The acquired assets are being renamed “Net-Zero North.”

“This transformational acquisition marks the start of Net-Zero North,” said Gevo Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Gruber. “Looking forward, this is a great site to expand the plant to produce SAF, along with other additional co-located projects. We like the potential annual Adjusted EBITDA of $30 million to $60 million, synergies with the existing Gevo platform of assets, and having CCS assets in the Gevo portfolio as a risk mitigation tool for carbon sequestration for our Net-Zero 1 (“NZ1”) plant under development in South Dakota. The proven CCS site will allow us to permanently sequester biogenic carbon dioxide to produce US products with the highest quantity and quality of carbon abatement to address a growing global market demand. Net-Zero North is a key step on our path to becoming self-sustaining and profitable as a company in advance of our NZ1 project coming online.”

The transaction was funded with a combination of Gevo equity capital and a $105 million senior secured term loan facility from Orion Infrastructure Capital (“OIC”), a U.S.-based private investment firm. OIC has also indicated interest in providing up to an additional $100 million in debt for future growth projects at Net-Zero North that are mutually agreed upon. In addition, OIC is investing $5 million in equity at Net-Zero North, which is in addition to the equity contributed by Gevo. The investment comes from OIC’s Infrastructure Credit Strategy, which provides non-dilutive and flexible capital to middle market infrastructure businesses in North America. The strategy seeks to capitalize on the growing need for investment and innovation in sustainable Infrastructure in North America.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Gevo team on this acquisition,” said Ethan Shoemaker, Investment Partner and Head of Infrastructure Credit at OIC. “The Net-Zero North assets bring together operating carbon sequestration, a strong track record of profitability, near-term upside from their industry-leading carbon intensity score, a strong operating team, and room to grow. We are also excited about the potential synergies and incremental value that the Gevo team and platform of assets brings to the Net-Zero North business.”

“North Dakota is a state that understands both energy and agriculture, and that they are synergistic,” Gruber said. “We expect to continue to partner with the community to grow the business as they’re a resource that understands how oil and gas, pipelines, carbon capture, and regenerative agriculture all fit together. Net-Zero North provides the fundamental pieces of the puzzle towards cost-effective energy production, such as SAF, while addressing the market demand for cost effective, lower-carbon-footprint products.”

“We’re taking on a first-class operation from the previous owners, with an exemplary safety record and excellent people to back it up,” said Chris Ryan, President and Chief Operating Officer of Gevo. “The operations team have done a great job, and we’re excited they’re continuing on with us. We are already in engineering development for a Net-Zero alcohol-to-jet (“ATJ”) SAF plant to be built at the site.”

“Net-Zero North is one of a select few ethanol plants in the U.S., of which we are aware, that are expected to maximize value from carbon abatement, including under Section 45Z,” explained Ryan. “Net-Zero North, with its efficient operating profile and CCS, is projected to achieve a carbon intensity (“CI”) score in the low 20s (not including improved agricultural results that farmers can achieve using regenerative agriculture practices) using the variation of the GREET model proposed in the Section 45Z rule. We believe that is about 30 CI points lower than the best plants that are not connected to CCS. British Columbia previously scored the Net-Zero North plant at a CI of 19. This is a great starting point to expand Gevo’s business.”

Advisors
Ocean Park Securities, LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor and sole lead arranger on the debt financing for Gevo.

Acquisition Conference Call
A conference call will be held on Monday, February 3, 2025, at 10:00am ET to discuss the acquisition.

To participate in the live call, please register through the following event weblink: https://register.vevent.com/register/BI174d9b6ef4074fed9db695b122abda12

After registering, participants will be provided with a dial-in number and pin. To listen to the conference call (audio only), please register through the following event weblink: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/7e4padot

A webcast replay will be available after the conference call ends on February 3, 2025. The archived webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of Gevo’s website at www.gevo.com..

Further information regarding the acquisition and accompanying debt financing is included in the Current Report on Form 8-K, which Gevo will file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

About Gevo
Gevo is a next-generation diversified energy company committed to fueling America’s future with cost-effective, drop-in fuels that contribute to energy security, abate carbon, and strengthen rural communities to drive economic growth. Gevo’s innovative technology can be used to make a variety of renewable products, including SAF, motor fuels, chemicals, and other materials that provide U.S.-made solutions. By investing in the backbone of rural America, Gevo’s business model includes developing, financing, and operating production facilities that create jobs and revitalize communities. Gevo owns and operates one of the largest dairy-based renewable natural gas (“RNG”) facilities in the United States, turning by-products into clean, reliable energy. We also operate an ethanol plant with an adjacent CCS facility, further solidifying America’s leadership in energy innovation. Additionally, Gevo owns the world’s first production facility for specialty ATJ fuels and chemicals. Gevo’s market driven “pay for performance” approach regarding carbon and other sustainability attributes, helps ensure value is delivered to our local economy. Through its Verity subsidiary, Gevo provides transparency, accountability and efficiency in tracking, measuring and verifying various attributes throughout the supply chain. By strengthening rural economies, Gevo is working to secure a self-sufficient future and to make sure value is brought to the market.

For more information, see www.gevo.com.

About OIC
With approximately $5 billion in assets under management, OIC invests in North America and select international markets. OIC’s unique partnership approach – for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – cultivates creative credit, equity, and growth capital solutions to help middle market businesses scale and deploy sustainable infrastructure. OIC’s target investment sectors include energy efficiency, digital infrastructure, sustainable power generation, renewable fuels, waste & recycling, and transportation, storage & logistics. OIC was founded in 2015 by a team of energy and sustainability veterans, successful infrastructure investors, and former asset owners and industry operators. Across OIC’s platform is a team of approximately 45 professionals based in New York, Houston, and London.

Forward Looking Statements
This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including statements related to the expected operation of Net-Zero North, the expected effect of the acquisition on Adjusted EBITDA, the expected annual Adjusted EBITDA from Net-Zero North, and our future prospects as a combined company, including our plans for the site and synergies with our other projects. These statements relate to analyses and other information, which are based on forecasts of future results or events and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. We claim the protection of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for all forward-looking statements in this release.

These forward-looking statements are identified by the use of terms and phrases such as “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target” and similar terms and phrases or future or conditional verbs such as “could,” “may,” “should,” “will,” and “would.” However, these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and other expectations reflected in or suggested by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve those plans, intentions or expectations. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those that we expected.

Important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from our expectations, or cautionary statements, include among others, the risk that anticipated benefits, including synergies, from the acquisition may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected, including that the transaction may not be accretive within the expected timeframe or to the extent anticipated; failure to successfully integrate the acquired assets and employees; changes in legislation or government regulations affecting the future operations of the acquired assets; and other risk factors or uncertainties identified from time to time in Gevo’s filings with the SEC. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements identified above and in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 as well as other cautionary statements that are made from time to time in our other SEC filings and public communications. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made in this release in the context of these risks and uncertainties.

We caution you that the important factors referenced above may not reflect all of the factors that could cause actual results or events to differ from our expectations. In addition, we cannot assure you that we will realize the results or developments we expect or anticipate or, even if substantially realized, that they will result in the consequences or affect us or our operations in the way we expect. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

Media Contact
Heather Manuel
Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships
PR@gevo.com

IR Contact
Eric Frey
Vice President of Corporate Development
IR@Gevo.com

⁽¹⁾ Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure calculated as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, inclusive of the value of monetizable tax credits such as Sections 45Q and 45Z and excluding project development costs.

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Color Star VP Attended The 2025 Davos World Economic Forum
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

New York , Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — During the 2025 Davos World Economic Forum (WEF), artificial intelligence (AI), financial investments, and social ventures have emerged as central topics of conversation among global business and technology leaders. Ren Pelosi, Vice President of Color Technology was invited to participate in a series of discussions at Davos. In a special interview on ESG TV, Ren shared her career transformation journey—from a Wall Street trader to a social impact investor and tech innovator—while delving into high tech and AI’s potential to drive economic growth and societal change. She also explored how investors can seize opportunities presented by technological advancements.

In her interview on ESG TV, Ren discussed how her financial expertise has enabled her to integrate technological innovation and social impact into investment strategies, creating long-term value. She remarked, “I have always believed in the power of capital, but today’s investments are not just about financial returns; they’re about driving technological progress, sustainability, and social change. AI is reshaping industries, and we stand at the forefront of this revolution.” As a seasoned investor and entrepreneur, Ren has long focused on how technology can drive social change. With extensive experience in Wall Street financial trading and investing, she is also committed to combining social ventures and tech innovation. She has organized and led multiple social impact investing forums, helping emerging tech companies balance sustainability and commercial success. “Technology and capital are reshaping our society. Cutting-edge technologies like AI and blockchain are not only transforming businesses but also making social impact investing possible. Investors need a deeper foresight to capitalize on this wave of technological change.”

As an investor with a deep financial market background, Ren pointed out that traditional investment logic is being upended, with more capital flowing toward ESG-friendly enterprises. The rise of AI and digital tools has provided new opportunities for impact investing. In the discussion, Ren highlighted her involvement with Color Technology,. Initially focused on traditional offline entertainment, Color successfully completed a transformation during the pandemic, expanding into online entertainment. Now, with the rapid rise of AI, Color Star aims to drive industry change through AI-powered entertainment innovations, creating more personalized and immersive experiences for audiences. In Ren’s view, Color Star represents a new business model—using AI technology to enhance content production efficiency, optimize user experiences, and create a more interactive and immersive entertainment ecosystem.

“The entertainment industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace,” Ren stated in the interview. “AI is not just improving content production efficiency; more importantly, it’s redefining how audiences interact, enhancing personalized recommendations and immersive experiences. Companies like Color are at the forefront of this transformation, using AI to build the next-generation entertainment ecosystem.”

Color’s current AI explorations include:
- Smart Content Creation: AI enables the production of creative content such as music, scripts, and videos, increasing efficiency for creators.
- Personalized Recommendation Algorithms: AI analyzes user preferences to deliver precise content suggestions.
- Immersive Entertainment Experiences: Integrating VR/AR and AI to create more interactive future entertainment models.
Ren is also actively involved in the Social Ventures sector and promotes global impact investing. She emphasized that AI is not only empowering companies like Color but also upgrading the entire investment ecosystem. In several discussions during Davos, Ren repeatedly stressed the need for investors to focus on the long-term societal and corporate impacts of technology, rather than just short-term returns. The companies that balance innovation, profitability, and social responsibility will be the true winners. She has long advocated for capital to support sustainable development, technological innovation, and socially responsible enterprises, and has organized industry forums to help high-potential companies secure investments and resources. “The future market will be dominated by businesses that create both commercial value and social impact. Whether it’s AI in entertainment or blockchain in financial services, we must view the impact of technology from a long-term perspective.”

As the 2025 Davos Forum draws to a close, Ren’s core message is becoming ever clearer: The future belongs to those who dare to innovate and embrace AI, driving technological advancements and social impact investing. She calls on investors, entrepreneurs, and related players to embrace technological innovation, deeply explore the potential of AI, and ensure that technological progress aligns with ethics and sustainability.

With her expertise in finance, investment, and technology, Ren is part of the global discussions on the AI revolution, digital innovation, and the future of the entertainment industry.

Color Deepens AI Empowerment, Shaping the New Era of Entertainment

As AI technology evolves, Color Star will continue to deepen its application of AI in content production, user experience optimization, and entertainment interaction, ensuring the company maintains its leadership in the global entertainment industry.

“We are at a critical time in reshaping the entertainment industry,” Ren said. “Color Star will continue to invest in AI and technological innovation, exploring how to use artificial intelligence to create more personalized, immersive, and global entertainment experiences.”

About Color Star Technology Co., Ltd.

Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ADD) is an entertainment and education company that provides online entertainment performances and online music education services. Its business operations are conducted through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Color Metaverse Pte. Ltd. and CACM Group NY, Inc. More information about the Company can be found at www.colorstarinternational.com and www.colorstar.investorroom.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development; changes in technology; economic conditions; the growth of the educational and training services market internationally where ADD conducts its business; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; as well as those risks and uncertainties discussed from time to time in other reports and other public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Color Star. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward–looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof unless required by applicable laws, regulations or rules.

For more information, please contact:
Color Star Investor Relations
Office Number No. 1003, 9th Floor,
7 World Trade Center, Suite 4621
New York NY 10007
Office: (212) 410-5186
Email ir@colorstarinternational.com

The MIL Network –
February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Kate McMahon, Historian of Global Slavery, Smithsonian Institution

John Warner Barber’s ‘Death of Capt. Ferrer,’ 1839. Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

On the night of July 1, 1839, 53 enslaved Africans revolted aboard the slaving schooner La Amistad – Spanish for “Friendship” – while they were being shipped to a plantation in Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.

Kidnapped and trafficked from modern-day Sierra Leone to Havana on a larger vessel, they had been transferred to the smaller La Amistad to reach Puerto Príncipe.

A 25-year-old man named Sengbe Pieh led the rebels, who suffered 10 fatalities in the fray. They still managed to kill the captain, Ramon Ferrer, and take control of the ship, ordering the surviving crew to return them to Sierra Leone. But the crew instead sailed the vessel north, where it was captured in Long Island Sound.

With the rebels detained in Connecticut, their fate would be decided by the state’s legal system.

A remarkable set of 22 drawings reveal the faces of these rebels, providing a rare glimpse into their humanity when they were affirming their right to live free.

I served as the lead historian and researcher for an exhibition where three of these portraits are now on display, “In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World,” at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Few images exist

In 1808, the United States, along with a host of other countries, banned the participation of its citizens in the transportation of enslaved people from Africa to the Americas. Nonetheless, at least 2.8 million Africans were brought to the Americas between 1808 and 1866, primarily to work on sugar plantations in Brazil and Cuba. Shippers, plantation owners, merchants and crews reaped massive profits.

But historians know very little about the individuals aboard these slave ships. More often than not, their existence was reflected in numbers on ledgers and spreadsheets. Their birth names, birth dates, family histories – anything that would have humanized them – were hard to come by.

Portraits of enslaved people from the 19th century were also unusual. Enslavers often viewed them as mere chattel and not worth the expense and effort of commissioning a painting. If they did appear in art, it was in the background as loyal servants, helpless victims or stereotypical brutes.

Putting faces to the names

That’s what makes these drawings, created by Connecticut artist William H. Townsend during the trial, so remarkable.

‘Fuli,’ by William H. Townsend.
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

Historians don’t know exactly why Townsend decided to draw them, only that he lived locally and sat in the courtroom during the trial. In 1934, these portraits were donated to Yale University’s Beinecke Library by one of Townsend’s descendants.

While his motivations for drawing these portraits remain unclear, the humanity he depicted is clear. The expressions of his subjects often evoke both their resistance and their desire for freedom.

Fuli, one of several captives who had stolen water on board the vessel and had been ordered flogged by Captain Ferrer during the voyage, gazes at the viewer with a solemn, self-possessed air. It’s easy to imagine him as a leader steeled by all the suffering he experienced over the course of his journey.

Marqu – or Margru – was one of the three young girls who were aboard the Amistad. In her portrait, she gently smiles – a glint of a personality that’s persevered despite the trauma of the voyage and her time spent in prison awaiting trial.

Marqu, drawn by William H. Townsend, was one of three enslaved girls aboard the Amistad.
Library of Congress

Grabo – or Grabeau – was second-in-command to Pieh in the revolt. He was a rice planter and was married at the time of his capture, and was enslaved to repay a debt his family owed. In his portrait, he gazes with his eyebrows raised – inquisitive, proud and at ease.

Lights of freedom

Despite their different facial expressions, the three appear to be united in their collective determination to be agents in their own liberation. In Pieh’s words: “Brothers, we have done that which we purposed. … I am resolved it is better to die than to be a white man’s slave.”

Grabo, second-in-command of the rebels aboard the Amistad, drawn by William H. Townsend.
Library of Congress

The lawyers hired by abolitionists to represent the 53 surviving rebels – Roger S. Baldwin, Theodore Sedgwick and Seth Staples – argued that they rebelled because “each of them are natives of Africa and were born free, and ever since have been and still of right are and ought to be free and not slaves.”

Eventually, the case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court found that because the captives aboard the Amistad were free at the time of their capture in Long Island, they could not be considered property of Spain.

The verdict became a landmark case for litigating the illegal slave trade, which continued to expand over the next two decades until finally ending in the 1860s. The Amistad rebels inspired other captives: In 1841, as the American ship Creole traveled between Richmond, Virginia, and New Orleans, those on board revolted, wresting control of the ship and sailing it to the Bahamas, where they eventually gained their freedom.

These portraits, like the testimony in court and the revolt onboard the Amistad, bring the massive, messy, contested story of slavery down to the scale of individual humans. Their visages call upon present and future generations to collectively imagine not only the horrors of the slave trade, but also the power of individual dignity and collective resistance.

They light the darkness – in the 1840s and in the world today.

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

– ref. Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad – https://theconversation.com/rare-portraits-reveal-the-humanity-of-the-slaves-who-revolted-on-the-amistad-245133

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sara Hughes, Adjunct Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Las Vegas’ water supplier offers rebates to residents who tear out their grass lawns to save water. LPETTET/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country.

Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them.

By December, much of the region was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Residents in New York City and Boston were asked to reduce their water use, while Philadelphia faced risk to its water supply due to saltwater coming up the Delaware River.

Parts of the Northeastern U.S. were so dry in summer 2024 that several large wildfires burned in New Jersey, as well as in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even in New York City.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection via AP

Before the drought, many people in the region weren’t prepared for water shortages or even paying much attention to their water use.

As global temperatures rise, cities throughout the U.S. are more likely to experience hotter, drier conditions like this. Those conditions increase evaporation, drying out vegetation and soil and lowering groundwater tables.

The Northeast drought was easing in much of the region in early 2025, but communities across the U.S. should take note of what happened. They can learn from the experiences of cities that have had to confront major water supply crises – such as Cape Town, South Africa; São Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Las Vegas; and New Orleans – and start planning now to avoid the worst impacts of future droughts.

Lessons from cities that have seen the worst

Our new analysis of these five cities’ experiences provides lessons on how to avoid a water supply crisis or minimize the effects through proactive policies and planning.

Many cities have had to confront major water supply crises in recent years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Cape Town’s “Day Zero.”

After three years of persistent drought in the region, Cape Town officials in fall 2017 began a countdown to Day Zero – the point at which water supplies would likely run so low that water would be turned off in neighborhoods and residents would need to fetch a daily allocation of water at public distribution points. Initially it was forecast to occur in April 2018.

Residents in Cape Town, South Africa, line up to fill water jugs during a severe drought in 2018.
AP Photo/Bram Janssen

Water rates were raised, and some households installed flow restrictors, which would automatically limit the amount of water that could be used. Public awareness and conservation efforts cut water consumption in half, allowing the city to push back its estimate for when Day Zero would arrive. And when the rains finally came in summer 2018, Day Zero was canceled.

A second example is São Paulo, which similarly experienced a severe drought between 2013 and 2015. The city’s reservoirs were reduced to just 5% of their capacity, and the water utility reduced the pressure in the water system to limit water use by residents.

Water pricing adjustments were used to penalize high water users and reward water conservation, and a citywide campaign sought to increase awareness and encourage conservation. As in Cape Town, the crisis ended with heavy rains in 2016. Significant investments have since been made in upgrading the city’s water distribution infrastructure, preventing leaks and bringing water to the city from other river basins.

Planning ahead can reduce the harm

The experiences of Cape Town and São Paulo – and the other cities in our study – show how water supply crises can affect communities.

When major changes are made to reduce water consumption, they can affect people’s daily lives and pocketbooks. Rapidly designed conservation efforts can have harmful effects on poor and vulnerable communities that may have fewer alternatives in the event of restrictions or shutoffs or lack the ability to pay higher prices for water, forcing tough choices for households between water and other necessities.

Planning ahead allows for more thoughtful policy design.

For example, Las Vegas has been grappling with drought conditions for the past two decades. During that time, the region implemented water-conservation policies that focus on incentivizing and even requiring reduced water consumption.

Lake Mead, a huge reservoir on the Colorado River that Las Vegas relies on for water, reached record low levels in 2022.
AP Photo/John Locher

Since 2023, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has implemented water rates that encourage conservation and can vary with the availability of water supplies during droughts. In its first year alone, the policy saved 3 billion gallons of water and generated US$31 million in fees that can be used by programs to detect and repair leaks, among other conservation efforts. A state law now requires businesses and homeowner associations in the Las Vegas Valley to remove their decorative grass by the end of 2026.

Since 2002, per capita water use in Las Vegas has dropped by an impressive 58%.

Solutions and strategies for the future

Most of the cities we studied incorporated a variety of approaches to building water security and drought-proofing their community – from publishing real-time dashboards showing water use and availability in Cape Town to investing in desalination in Melbourne.

But we found the most important changes came from community members committing to and supporting efforts to conserve water and invest in water security, such as reducing lawn watering.

There are also longer-term actions that can help drought-proof a community, such as fixing or replacing water- and energy-intensive fixtures and structures. This includes upgrading home appliances, such as showers, dishwashers and toilets, to be more water efficient and investing in native and drought-tolerant landscaping.

Prioritizing green infrastructure, such as retention ponds and bioswales, that help absorb rain when it does fall and investing in water recycling can also diversify water supplies.

Taking these steps now, ahead of the next drought, can prepare cities and lessen the pain.

Michael Wilson is an employee of RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. This research was funded by the RAND Center for Climate and Energy Futures.

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

– ref. Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control – https://theconversation.com/drought-can-hit-almost-anywhere-how-5-cities-that-nearly-ran-dry-got-water-use-under-control-248760

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Randolph Hubach, Professor of Public Health, Purdue University

Rural America can be idyllic, but many communities still need support. Mint Images via Getty Images

Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration.

Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a rapid pace, leaving rural residents traveling farther for health care. Affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in rural communities, where pay is often lower and poverty higher than average. Land ownership is changing, leaving more communities with outsiders wielding influence over their local resources.

As experts in rural health and policy at the Center for Rural and Migrant Health at Purdue University, we work with people across the United States to build resilient rural communities.

Here are some ways we believe the Trump administration could work with Congress to boost these communities’ health and economies.

1. Rural health care access

One of the greatest challenges to rural health care is its vulnerability to shifts in policy and funding cuts because of rural areas’ high rates of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

About 25% of rural residents rely on Medicaid, a federal program that provides health insurance for low-income residents. A disproportionate share of Medicare beneficiaries – people over 65 who receive federal health coverage – also live in rural areas. At the same time, the average health of rural residents lags the nation as a whole.

Rural clinics and hospitals

Funding from those federal programs affects rural hospitals, and rural hospitals are struggling.

Nearly half of rural hospitals operate in the red today, and over 170 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. The low population density of rural areas can make it difficult for hospitals to cover operating costs when their patient volume is low. These hospital closures have left rural residents traveling an extra 20 miles (32 km) on average to receive inpatient health care services and an extra 40 miles (64 km) for specialty care services.

The government has created programs to try to help keep hospitals operating, but they all require funding that is at risk. For example:
- The Low-volume Hospital Adjustment Act, first implemented in 2005, has helped numerous rural hospitals by boosting their Medicare payments per patient, but it faces regular threats of funding cuts. It and several other programs to support Medicare-dependent hospitals are set to expire on March 31, 2025, when the next federal budget is due.
- The rural emergency hospital model, created in 2020, helps qualifying rural facilities to maintain access to essential emergency and outpatient hospital services, also by providing higher Medicare payments. Thus far, only 30 rural hospitals have transitioned to this model, in part because they would have to eliminate inpatient care services, which also limits outpatient surgery and other medical services that could require overnight care in the event of an emergency.
Rural emergency hospitals can get extra funding, but there’s a catch: They have no inpatient beds, so people in need of longer care must go farther.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Services for pregnant women have also gotten harder to find in rural areas.

Between 2011 and 2021, 267 rural hospitals discontinued obstetric services, representing 25% of the United States’ rural obstetrics units. In response, the federal government has implemented various initiatives to enhance access to care, such as the Rural Hospital Stabilization Pilot Program and the Rural Maternal and Obstetric Management Strategies Program. However, these programs also require funding.

Expanding telehealth

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth – the ability to meet with your doctor over video – wasn’t widely used. It could be difficult for doctors to ensure reimbursement, and the logistics of meeting federal requirements and privacy rules could be challenging.

The pandemic changed that. Improving technology allowed telehealth to quickly expand, reducing people’s contact with sick patients, and the government issued waivers for Medicare and Medicaid to pay for telehealth treatment. That opened up new opportunities for rural patients to get health care and opportunities for providers to reach more patients.

However, the Medicare and Medicaid waivers for most telehealth services were only temporary. Only payments for mental and behavioral health teleheath services continued, and those are set to expire with the federal budget in March 2025, unless they are renewed.

One way to expand rural health care would be to make those waivers permanent.

Increasing access to telehealth could also support people struggling with opioid addiction and other substance use disorders, which have been on the rise in rural areas.

2. Affordable housing is a rural problem too

Like their urban peers, rural communities face a shortage of affordable housing.

Unemployment in rural areas today exceeds levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Job growth and median incomes lag behind urban areas, and rural poverty rates are higher.

Rural housing prices have been exacerbated by continued population growth over the past four years, lower incomes compared with their urban peers, limited employment opportunities and few high-quality homes available for rent or sale. Rural communities often have aging homes built upon outdated or inadequate infrastructure, such as deteriorating sewer and water lines.

Rental homes in older towns can become run down. Community maintenance of pipes and other services also requires funding.
LawrenceSawyer/E+ via Getty Images

One proposal to help people looking for affordable rural housing is the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for creating a new federal tax credit to spur the development and renovation of family housing in distressed urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods.

Similarly, the Section 502 Direct Loan Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which subsidizes mortgages for low-income applicants to obtain safe housing, could be expanded with additional funding to enable more people to receive subsidized mortgages.

3. Locally owned land benefits communities

Seniors age 65 and older own 40% of the agricultural land in the U.S., according to the American Farmland Trust. That means that more than 360 million acres of farmland could be transferred to new owners in the next few decades. If their heirs aren’t interested in farming, that land could be sold to large operations or real estate developers.

That affects rural communities because locally owned rural businesses tend to invest in their communities, and they are more likely to make decisions that benefit the community’s well-being.

A farmer carries organic squash during harvest. Young farmers often struggle to find land to expand their operations.
Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images

Congress can take some steps to help communities keep more farmland locally owned.

The proposed Farm Transitions Act, for example, would establish a commission on farm transitions to study issues that affect locally owned farms and provide recommendations to help transition agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers.

About 30% of farmers have been in business for less than 10 years, and many of them rent the land they farm. Programs such as USDA’s farm loan programs and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program help support local land purchases and could be improved to identify and eliminate barriers that communities face.

We believe that by addressing these issues, Congress and the new administration can help some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Efforts to build resilient and strong rural communities will benefit everyone.

Randolph Hubach receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Cody Mullen receives funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is affiliated with the National Rural Health Association.

– ref. 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care – https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-trump-administration-could-reinvest-in-rural-americas-future-starting-with-health-care-245451
MIL OSI – Global Reports –
February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas R. Micinski, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Maine

View at the entrance of the United States Embassy taken in Bogota, Colombia Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images

As diplomatic spats go, it was short-lived.

On Jan 26, 2025, Colombian President Gustavo Petro turned away American military planes carrying people being deported from the United States. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 25% tariffs and travel bans on Colombian government officials. Despite insisting that “the U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals” and needed to “establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” Petro’s government backed down and resumed cooperation with U.S. immigration officials.

All this took place in the span of just a few hours. But “migration diplomacy” – the use of diplomatic tools and threats to control the number and flow of migrants – isn’t new. Indeed, it was a feature of Trump’s first administration. And it is not unique to Trump; it has been in the foreign policy playbook of previous U.S. presidents as well as the European Union and governments around the world.

As an expert on migration policy and international affairs, I have observed the evolution of this global trend, in which nations leverage migration policies for geopolitical ends.

Richer countries with increasingly populist, nationalist bases are putting in place anti-migrant policies. But these same nations depend on poorer countries to accept deportations and host the majority of the world’s refugees – governments can’t unilaterally “dump” deported immigrants back into the home country, or in a third country.

And while migration diplomacy can be cooperative, there’s always the possibility a disagreement will spiral into diplomatic spats or outright conflict.

Threats to control migration

Migration diplomacy is a relatively recent academic term. But the practice of using foreign policy tools to control migration is centuries old. Common tools of migrant diplomacy fall between the “carrots” of bilateral treaties, development aid and infrastructure investment, and the “sticks” of tariffs, travel bans and sanctions.

Trump, during his first term, focused more on the sticks, frequently threatening tariffs or cuts in aid to push through deals on migration. For example, in 2018, Trump posted on Twitter that if Honduras and other Central American governments did not stop migrant caravans to the U.S., he would cut all aid: “no more money or aid will be given … effective immediately!”

A few months later, Trump followed through with the threat, suspending US$400 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Trump then upped the ante, posting: “Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ … Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good.”

Within three days, Guatemala signed a deal with the U.S. to cooperate on asylum and deportations. Honduras and El Salvador followed suit two months later.

Similarly, in 2019, Trump threatened Mexico that the U.S. would impose a 5% tariff on goods “until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP.”

Within 11 days, Mexico signed the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, institutionalizing what human rights groups called “illegal pushbacks” that put people at risk of torture, sexual violence and death.

Imposing visa restrictions

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. government can stop granting visas to any country that “denies or unreasonably delays accepting an alien who is a citizen.”

And during his first term, Trump imposed visa restrictions on people from Cambodia, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sierra Leone because those countries were deemed to be not cooperating with deportations.

Such visa restrictions worked with Guinea and Ghana, which both began accepting deportations of their citizens from the U.S.

Migration as diplomatic weapon

Nations also use migration policy as tools to push other foreign policy goals not necessarily related to migration. As political scientist Kelly Greenhill explored in her book “Weapons of Mass Migration,” governments are using coercive engineered migration to create pressure against other rival nations. This was seen in 2021 when Belarus bused asylum seekers to the Polish border in an apparent effort to overwhelm the EU’s asylum system.

Migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border in 2021.
Leonid Shcheglov/BELTA/AFP via Getty Images

Similarly, Trump used migration policies to bully other nations into cooperating with the United States. The “Muslim ban” of his first administration – rebranded in later iterations as travel bans – banned entry of citizens from Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. While the first executive order pertaining to the ban was immediately criticized as Islamophobic, the administration changed legal reasoning in front of the Supreme Court, arguing that the ban stemmed from nations not sharing information about potential terrorists and due to their passports being vulnerable to fraud.

The travel bans were an attempt to coerce nations into sharing information with the U.S. and enforcing U.S. standards of identity documents. Indeed, Chad was later removed from the ban when it adopted these standards.

The use of migration diplomacy by the U.S. government predates Trump. Tit-for-tat restrictions on travel were common throughout the Cold War. In 2001, President George W. Bush applied visa sanctions to Guyana when its government refused to cooperate on deportations. In 2016, President Barack Obama also applied retaliatory visa restrictions on Gambia for failing to accept U.S. deportation flights.

Conditional aid from EU

The European Union tends to use carrots rather than sticks to encourage cooperation on deportations. For example, a 2016 EU-Turkey deal provided 6 billion euros (US$6.25 million) in aid for refugees in Turkey in exchange for accepting the deportation of what the EU describes as “irregular migrants.” In 2023, the EU also struck a 105 million euro ($109 million) deal with Tunisia in return for the North African country’s cooperation on preventing irregular migration.

But like Trump, the EU is not opposed to punishing states for refusing to cooperate on deportations. In April 2024, the EU tightened rules on visas for Ethiopians because their government refused to accept the return of citizens who had asylum claims denied. Earlier, the EU suspended 15 million euros ($15.6 million) in development aid to Ethiopia on similar grounds.

Migration interdependence

Trump’s threats and EU migration deals reveal a type of migration interdependence: Rich states in the Global North don’t want to host large numbers of migrants and refugees and need willing partners in the Global South to accept deportations, enforce emigration restrictions and continue hosting the majority of the world’s refugees.

This interdependence is typically balanced by rich countries footing the bill and poor countries accepting deportations. But migration diplomacy is also used by less powerful nations aware of the opportunity of exacting concessions out of countries, blocs or international bodies. For example, the Kenyan government repeatedly threatened to close the Dadaab refugee camp and expel all Somali refugees unless it received more international aid. Similarly, Pakistan threatened to deport Afghan refugees unless the international community did more, but backed down after significant increases in aid.

Rwanda extracted around $310 million from the British government without resettling a single person after a 2022 plan aimed at deterring asylum seekers to the U.K. by deporting them to Rwanda – where their cases would be reviewed and eventually settled – was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights and the U.K.’s Supreme Court.

Similarly, the small South Pacific island nation of Nauru was paid more than $118 million with the aim of hosting all asylum seekers to Australia. The policy broke down after reports of abysmal conditions in Nauru’s detention facilities.

While migration diplomacy does work both ways, richer countries by and large have the upper hand. And Trump’s threats against Colombia – and others – are just one example of this hardball migration diplomacy.

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

– ref. Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy – https://theconversation.com/trumps-tariff-threats-fit-a-growing-global-phenomenon-hardball-migration-diplomacy-248380

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Colin Gordon, Professor of History, University of Iowa

There has long been a tug-of-war over White House plans to make government more liberal or more conservative. Douglas Rissing/iStock / Getty Images Plus

For much of the 20th century, efforts to remake government were driven by a progressive desire to make the government work for regular Americans, including the New Deal and the Great Society reforms.

But they also met a conservative backlash seeking to rein back government as a source of security for working Americans and realign it with the interests of private business. That backlash is the central thread of the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump Administration.

Alternatively disavowed and embraced by President Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign, Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policy proposals – many written by veterans of his first administration. It echoes similar projects, both liberal and conservative, setting out a bold agenda for a new administration.

But Project 2025 does so with particular detail and urgency, hoping to galvanize dramatic change before the midterm elections in 2026. As its foreword warns: “Conservatives have just two years and one shot to get this right.”

The standard for a transformational “100 days” – a much-used reference point for evaluating an administration – belongs to the first administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill in Washington on Aug. 14, 1935.
AP Photo, file

Social reforms and FDR

In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt faced a nation in which business activity had stalled, nearly a third of the workforce was unemployed, and economic misery and unrest were widespread.

But Roosevelt’s so-called “New Deal” unfolded less as a grand plan to combat the Depression than as a scramble of policy experimentation.

Roosevelt did not campaign on what would become the New Deal’s singular achievements, which included expansive relief programs, subsidies for farmers, financial reforms, the Social Security system, the minimum wage and federal protection of workers’ rights.

Those achievements came haltingly after two years of frustrated or ineffective policymaking. And those achievements rested less on Roosevelt’s political vision than on the political mobilization and demands made by American workers.

A generation later, another wave of social reforms unfolded in similar fashion. This time it was not general economic misery that spurred actions, but the persistence of inequality – especially racial inequality – in an otherwise prosperous time.

LBJ’s Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs declared a war on poverty and, toward that end, introduced a raft of new federal initiatives in urban, education and civil rights.

These included the provision of medical care for the poor and older people via Medicaid and Medicare, a dramatic expansion of federal aid for K-12 education, and landmark voting rights and civil rights legislation.

As with the New Deal, the substance of these policies rested less with national policy designs than with the aspirations and mobilization of the era’s social movements.

Resistance to policy change

Since the 1930s, conservative policy agendas have largely taken the form of reactions to the New Deal and the Great Society.

The central message has routinely been that “big government” has overstepped its bounds and trampled individual rights, and that the architects of those reforms are not just misguided but treasonous. Project 2025, in this respect, promises not just a political right turn but to “defeat the anti-American left.”

After the 1946 midterm elections, congressional Republicans struck back at the New Deal. Drawing on business opposition to the New Deal, popular discontent with postwar inflation, and common cause with Southern Democrats, they stemmed efforts to expand the New Deal, gutting a full employment proposal and defeating national health insurance.

They struck back at organized labor with the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which undercut federal law by allowing states to pass anti-union “right to work” laws. And they launched an infamous anti-communist purge of the civil service, which forced nearly 15,000 people out of government jobs.

In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce commissioned Lewis Powell – who would be appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon to the Supreme Court the next year – to assess the political landscape. Powell’s memorandum characterized the political climate at the dawn of the 1970s – including both Great Society programs and the anti-war and Civil Rights movements of the 1960s – as nothing less than an “attack on the free enterprise system.”

In a preview of current U.S. politics, Powell’s memorandum devoted special attention to a disquieting “chorus of criticism” coming from “the perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.”

Powell characterized the social policies of the New Deal and Great Society as “socialism or some sort of statism” and advocated the elevation of business interests and business priorities to the center of American political life.

A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Building a conservative infrastructure

Powell captured the conservative zeitgeist at the onset of what would become a long and decisive right turn in American politics. More importantly, it helped galvanize the creation of a conservative infrastructure – in the courts, in the policy world, in universities and in the media – to push back against that “chorus of criticism.”

This political shift would yield an array of organizations and initiatives, including the political mobilization of business, best represented by the emergence of the Koch brothers and the powerful libertarian conservative political advocacy group they founded, known as Americans for Prosperity. It also yielded a new wave of conservative voices on radio and television and a raft of right-wing policy shops and think tanks – including the Heritage Foundation, creator of Project 2025.

In national politics, the conservative resurgence achieved full expression in President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign. The “Reagan Revolution” united economic and social conservatives around the central goal of dismantling what was left of the New Deal and Great Society.

Powell’s triumph was evident across the policy landscape. Reagan gutted social programs, declared war on organized labor, pared back economic and social regulations – or declined to enforce them – and slashed taxes on business and the wealthy.

Publicly, the Reagan administration argued that tax cuts would pay for themselves, with the lower rates offset by economic growth. Privately, it didn’t matter: Either growth would sustain revenues, or the resulting budgetary hole could be used to “starve the beast” and justify further program cuts.

Reagan’s vision, and its shaky fiscal logic, were reasserted in the “Contract with America” proposed by congressional Republicans after their gains in the 1994 midterm elections.

This declaration of principles proposed deep cuts to social programs alongside tax breaks for business. It was perhaps most notable for encouraging the Clinton administration to pass the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, “ending welfare as we know it,” as Clinton promised.

Aiming at the ‘deep state’

Project 2025, the latest in this series of blueprints for dramatic change, draws most deeply on two of those plans.

As in the congressional purges of 1940s, it takes aim not just at policy but at the civil servants – Trump’s “deep state” – who administer it.

In the wake of World War II, the charge was that feckless bureaucrats served Soviet masters. Today, Project 2025 aims to “bring the Administrative State to heel, and in the process defang and defund the woke culture warriors who have infiltrated every last institution in America.”

As in the 1971 Powell memorandum, Project 2025 promises to mobilize business power; to “champion the dynamic genius of free enterprise against the grim miseries of elite-directed socialism.”

Whatever their source – party platforms, congressional bomb-throwers, think tanks, private interests – the success or failure of these blueprints rested not on their vision or popular appeal but on the political power that accompanied them. The New Deal and Great Society gained momentum and meaning from the social movements that shaped their agendas and held them to account.

The lineage of conservative responses has been largely an assertion of business power. Whatever populist trappings the second Trump administration may possess, the bottom line of the conservative cultural and political agenda in 2025 is to dismantle what is left of the New Deal or the Great Society, and to defend unfettered “free enterprise” against critics and alternatives.

Colin Gordon receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation.

– ref. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform – https://theconversation.com/trumps-project-2025-agenda-caps-decades-long-resistance-to-20th-century-progressive-reform-247176

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gary W. Miller, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Even the air you breathe may influence how effective a drug may be for you. Jorg Greuel/Photodisc via Getty Images

Your genes play a major role in determining your height, hair and eye color, and skin tone, but they don’t tell the entire story of who you are. Your environment is incredibly important in shaping your personality, your likes and dislikes, and your health. In fact, your diet, social interactions, exposure to pollution, physical activity and education often exceed the influence of genetics on many of the features that define you.

Figuring out how your genes and environment increase your likelihood of developing asthma, heart disease, cancer, dementia and other conditions can have life-changing consequences. The field of genomics has made it relatively straightforward to test both in the hospital and at home for a wide range of genetic variations linked to disease risk.

And in recent years, science has been making progress on tracking down the environmental culprits that drive risk for several diseases – and on identifying ways to optimize treatments based on your personal environmental exposures.

Prescribing the most effective treatment from the get-go can reduce harmful drug reactions.
Willie B. Thomas/DigitalVision via Getty Images

My work as a pharmacologist and toxicologist has led me to the emerging science of exposomics – the study of all of the physical, chemical, biological and social factors that affect your biology. While your genome comprises all of the genes that encode your biology, your exposome is a concept that comprises all your environmental exposures. Like how researchers use DNA sequencers to study genomics, scientists in exposomics use chemistry and high-tech sensors to measure the effects of thousands of environmental factors on health.

Medications don’t always work

For many people, standard drug therapies to treat certain conditions simply don’t work. Controlling blood pressure often requires months of trial and error. It can take months or even years to identify an adequate treatment plan for depression.

Adverse events caused by medications account for more than 1 million visits to emergency departments each year in the U.S. What drives these differences in drug effects between patients? Is it their genes? Are they not taking their medication as prescribed due to side effects? Or something else?

As it turns out, your environment can have a major effect on how well specific treatments work for you. Think about the warning labels advising you not to drink grapefruit juice while taking a specific drug, for example. This is because a natural chemical in grapefruit inhibits the enzymes that break down those medications. Some common statins used to control high cholesterol can build up to toxic levels because the chemical in grapefruit juice blocks its normal processing.

Grapefruit isn’t the only environmental factor affecting how you respond to your medications. Over 8,600 chemicals are used in commerce in the U.S., and you are exposed to thousands of these chemicals on a daily basis. It is more likely than not that many of these chemicals can interact with the drugs you take.

Your exposome encompasses a wide range of factors.
Nathalie Ruaux/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Some of the chemicals we use to keep fleas and ticks off pets can actually increase the levels of the same enzyme blocked by grapefruit juice, meaning a statin may be broken down so fast that it doesn’t control elevated cholesterol.

Byproducts from the combustion of organic matter, such as engine exhaust and burning wood, can also interfere with drug-metabolizing enzymes. Some of these chemicals, called polyaromatic hydrocarbons, can inactivate medications used to treat asthma. The environmental factor triggering your asthma could prevent the drugs used to treat it from working.

A chemical solution?

Advances in chemistry are helping researchers figure out what chemicals are getting in the way of treatment.

Your hospital laboratory can already measure dozens of molecules in your blood. Measuring your salt levels can tell doctors how your kidneys are working, cholesterol levels indicate your risk of heart disease, and specific enzymes reveal your liver’s health. These common tests are routine and useful for nearly every patient.

There are many additional tests that can help determine how a specific condition is progressing or responding to therapy. Hemoglobin A1c levels help determine how well glucose levels are being controlled in those with prediabetes or diabetes. And thousands of other human diseases have their own corresponding biomarkers.

In research laboratories, scientists can detect the presence of thousands of molecules at once using instruments called mass spectrometers. Each chemical in a sample has a unique mass, and these devices measure these masses for scientists to categorize. Thus, scientists can identify all of the pesticides, plasticizers, plastics, pollution and other chemicals present in a given sample. They can also measure your own internal biology, such as the compounds involved in processing the food you eat and the hormones influencing how you behave.

Moreover, mass spectrometers can measure drug metabolites. When you take a drug, it is typically broken down or metabolized to several different compounds. Some of these compounds contribute to the drug’s effects, while others are inactive. Analyzing what metabolites are present in your body provides information about how you process drugs and whether the drugs you’re taking will interact with each other.

Taking all these factors together, scientists can study how your environment may be interfering with the effectiveness of your medications.

A better prescription – for you

Together with dozens of scientists across many institutions, my colleagues and I are developing methods to measure all of the chemicals in your body. The project, dubbed IndiPHARM – short for individualized pharmacology – is designing tools to measure a wide range of drugs, drug metabolites and environmental chemicals at the same time.

By combining environmental data with genetic information, we hope to improve how drugs work in people by figuring out whether chemicals in their environment or diet are altering how they process a given drug. This includes whether the administered drugs are at therapeutic levels, how the drugs and chemicals are interacting with each other, and determining whether other variables are affecting intended drug effects. This could lead to changing the amount of drug prescribed, switching to a different medication or even redesigning the medicines themselves.

Our team is starting with identifying the environmental and biological factors associated with metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes, along with common co-occurring conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol and depression. For example, there are significant differences in how well people respond to anti-obesity or anti-diabetes drugs, and we hope to figure out why that is so all patients can benefit through tailored treatment.

Getting the right drug to the right person at the right time requires a better understanding of the environmental factors that influence how they work. We envision a future where a doctor can use your genetic and environmental history to figure out the best drug treatment that would work for you from the start, reducing the need for trial and error.

Gary W. Miller receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, the Department of Defense, Cancer Research UK, and the European Commission. He is co-founder of Exposome Therapeutics.

– ref. Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better – https://theconversation.com/your-environment-affects-how-well-your-medications-work-identifying-exactly-how-could-make-medicine-better-246476

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stephanie Killingsworth, Ph.D. Student in Geological Sciences, University of Florida

A paleontologist holds a megalodon fossil tooth. Kristen Grace/FLMNH, CC BY-SA

The ratios of strontium isotopes in fossil shark teeth can be used to better understand how coastal environments evolved in ancient times, according to our newly published work.

As paleontologists with the Florida Museum of Natural History, we’re interested in understanding ancient Florida environments.

Our study was one of the first to date Florida coastal deposits using fossil shark teeth and a technique that looks at variations in ocean strontium. Strontium is a chemical element that occurs naturally in rock, soil and water.

Ocean strontium values change over time, which makes measuring the levels of the chemical element a unique global system for determining the age of similar coastal sedimentary rock deposits worldwide.

Changes in strontium isotope ratios have multiple causes. Land erosion deposits strontium into oceans, while carbonate-producing marine life produce and release strontium when building their skeletons. Strontium is also released by deep-sea vents.

Geochemist Donald DePaolo and geologist B. Lynn Ingram discovered variations in ocean strontium by examining strontium isotopes ratios in marine sediments, including fossils. The levels of strontium isotopes in marine sediments provide a “time stamp” that correlates to the strontium value of the seawater at that time.

That data allowed scientists to map out ratios of strontium isotopes in seawater over time. This global strontium seawater curve correlates to the geologic timescale. Scientists use the curve to reconstruct past ocean chemistry and climate conditions, as well as the age of mollusks and other shell-producing marine fossils.

Why it matters

Properly dating ancient sites is key to understanding how Earth and its living creatures evolved over time.

But historically, strontium dating, while reliable, had limitations.

For example, it works best in fully marine environments and is challenging to use in fossil sites along coastlines. That’s because the strontium values might be influenced by land sediments and freshwater rivers.

Additionally, material used for strontium dating must not have undergone considerable physical and chemical change during fossilization, the preservation of once living things from the past. Any major chemical alteration to the fossil can affect the strontium value and give an inaccurate date.

Our study shows that fossil shark teeth are more resistant to these types of changes due to their outer enamel-like surface.

Remarkably, fossil shark teeth are also incredibly abundant. Sharks ruled the earth’s oceans for 400 million years, and every individual grows and sheds thousands of teeth in their lifetime.

How we did our work

Florida fossil sites are unique in that they possess some of the richest fossil sediments for important times in geologic history. These sites can help us understand changing climates, vegetation and sea levels over time.

The Florida Museum of Natural History has a collection of over 115,000 shark tooth specimens from Florida alone.

To do our study, we selected shark tooth specimens from two significant Neogene-period fossil sites in Florida. The Neogene, from 2.6 to 23.5 million years ago, was a time of immense change in biodiversity because of changing climates.

We analyzed the strontium present in powdered samples collected by shaving a thin layer from the surfaces of the teeth. The age of the teeth helped to clarify the age of the fossil sites where they were collected. This data enabled us to calibrate and differentiate the ages of our two sites, Montbrook and Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley, by about 600,000 years.

Before our study, scientists could estimate the age of the sites based only on mammal fossils. The sites were thought to be the same age. Our work provides a more precise date.

These ages offer new insights into what happened in the southeastern region of North America, some 5 million to 6 million years ago. Our revised age calibrations coincide with global events, including major sea-level fluctuations and the Great American Biotic Interchange – the migration of land mammals between North and South America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama 4 million to 5 million years ago.

For example, because certain species of ground sloths are not found at the Montbrook site (5.85 million years old) but are found at the Palmetto Fauna Bone Valley site (5.22 million years old), it suggests the immigration of ground sloths into North America occurred between these two dates.

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

Bruce J. MacFadden receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

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

– ref. Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way – https://theconversation.com/fossil-shark-teeth-are-abundant-and-can-date-the-past-in-a-unique-way-247749

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI USA: SBA Offers Relief to Mississippi Businesses, Nonprofits and Residents Hit by December Storms

Source: United States Small Business Administration

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that low interest federal disaster loans are now available to Mississippi businesses, nonprofit organizations, and residents who sustained physical damages and economic losses from the severe storms and tornadoes that occurred Dec. 28 – 29, 2024. The SBA issued a disaster declaration in response to a request received from Gov. Tate Reeves on Jan. 24.

The disaster declaration covers the counties of Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Greene, Jasper, Jones, Lowndes, Noxubee Oktibbeha, Perry, Wayne and Webster, as well as the counties of Choctaw and Washington in Alabama.

Businesses and nonprofits are eligible to apply for business physical disaster loans and may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster-damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory, and other business assets.

Homeowners and renters are eligible to apply for home and personal property loans and may borrow up to $100,000 to replace or repair personal property, such as clothing, furniture, cars, and appliances. Homeowners may apply for up to $500,000 to replace or repair their primary residence.

Applicants may be eligible for a loan increase of up to 20% of their physical damages, as verified by the SBA, for mitigation purposes. Eligible mitigation improvements include strengthening structures to protect against high wind damage, upgrading to wind rated garage doors, and installing a safe room or storm shelter to help protect property and occupants from future damage.

“SBA disaster loans do more than repair damage, — they may also mitigate against future disasters,” said Randle Logan, acting associate administrator for the SBA’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. “Expanded funding is available to make pro-active property and building upgrades that protect homes and businesses from future storms.”

The SBA also offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) to help meet working capital needs, such as ongoing operating expenses for small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP) organizations. EIDL assistance is available regardless of whether the organization suffered any physical property damage.

Interest rates are as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for nonprofits, and 2.563% for homeowners and renters, with terms up to 30 years. Interest does not begin to accrue, and payments are not due, until 12 months from the date of the first loan disbursement. The SBA sets loan amounts and terms, based on each applicant’s financial condition.

Beginning Thursday, Jan. 30, SBA customer service representatives will be on hand at two Disaster Loan Outreach Centers (DLOC) to answer questions about SBA’s disaster loan program, explain the application process and help individuals complete their application.

At the DLOCs, individuals can connect directly with SBA specialists to apply for disaster loans and learn about the full range of programs available to rebuild and move forward in their recovery journey. Walk-ins are accepted, but you can schedule an in-person appointment in advance at appointment.sba.gov. The DLOCs hour of operations are listed below.

Disaster Loan Outreach Center

Oktibbeha County

Oktibbeha County Community Safe Room

985 Lynn Lane

Starkville, MS 39759

Opening: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, at 11 a.m.

Hours: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Closed: Sunday

Permanently Closes: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at 4 p.m.

Disaster Loan Outreach Center

Wayne County

City 2 Voting Precinct

500 Mississippi Drive

Waynesboro, MS 39367

Opening: Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, at 11 a.m.

Hours: Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Closed: Sunday

Permanently Closes: Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at 4 p.m.

The SBA encourages applicants to submit their loan applications promptly. Applications will be prioritized in the order they are received, and the SBA remains committed to processing them as efficiently as possible.

For more information and to apply online visit SBA.gov/disaster. Applicants may also call SBA’s Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov for information on SBA disaster assistance. For people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

The filing deadline to return applications for physical property damage is March 28, 2025. The deadline to return economic injury applications is Oct. 27, 2025.

###

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

MIL OSI USA News –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Invesco Ltd: Form 8.3 – Aviva PLC; Public dealing disclosure

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

KEY INFORMATION

(a)

Full name of discloser:

Invesco Ltd.

(b)

Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):
The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named.

(c)

Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:
Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree

Aviva PLC

(d)

If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:

(e)

Date position held/dealing undertaken:
For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure

31.01.2025

(f)

In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?
If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”

Yes, Direct Line Insurance Group PLC

POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a)

Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:

32 17/19p ordinary GB00BPQY8M80 & ADR US05382A3023

Interests

Short Positions

Number

(1)

Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:

45,415,510*

1.69

(2)

Cash-settled derivatives:

(3)

Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

Total

45,415,510*

1.69

*The change in the holding of 2,340 shares since the last disclosure on 31.01.2025 is due to the transfer out of a discretionary holding at 5.14 GBP.

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b)

Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:

Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a)

Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security

Purchase/sale

Number of securities

Price per unit

32 17/19p ordinary GB00BPQY8M80

Purchase

1,418

5.14 GBP

(b)

Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. CFD

Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position

Number of reference securities

Price per unit

(c)

Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i)

Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.

Number of securities to which option relates

Exercise price per unit

Type e.g. American, European etc.

Expiry date

Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii)

Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d)

Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security

Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion

Details

Price per unit (if applicable)

OTHER INFORMATION

(a)

Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:
Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”

None

(b)

Agreements, arrangements, or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:
(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or
(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:
If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”

None

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure

03.02.2025

Contact name

Philippa Holmes

Telephone number

+441491417447

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Invesco Ltd: Form 8.3 – Direct Line Insurance Group PLC; Public dealing disclosure

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

KEY INFORMATION

(a)

Full name of discloser:

Invesco Ltd.

(b)

(c)

Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:
Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree

Direct Line Insurance Group PLC

(d)

If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:

(e)

Date position held/dealing undertaken:
For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure

31.01.2025

(f)

In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?
If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”

Yes, Aviva PLC

POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a)

Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:

10 10/11p ordinary GB00BY9D0Y18

Interests

Short Positions

Number

(1)

Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:

6,658,827

0.50

(2)

Cash-settled derivatives:

(3)

Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

Total

6,658,827

0.50

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b)

Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:

Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a)

Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security

Purchase/sale

Number of securities

Price per unit

10 10/11p ordinary GB00BY9D0Y18

Purchase

215

2.68 GBP

(b)

Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. CFD

Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position

Number of reference securities

Price per unit

(c)

Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i)

Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.

Number of securities to which option relates

Exercise price per unit

Type e.g. American, European etc.

Expiry date

Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii)

Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d)

Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security

Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion

Details

Price per unit (if applicable)

OTHER INFORMATION

(a)

Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

None

(b)

Agreements, arrangements, or understandings relating to options or derivatives

None

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure

03.02.2025

Contact name

Philippa Holmes

Telephone number

+441491417447

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Latest CarGurus Brand Campaign Celebrates Life’s Big Deal Moments, Like Buying or Selling a Car
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

The “Big Deal” campaign pays tribute to the momentous experience of car shopping, along with the trusted digital tools from CarGurus that help consumers find the best deal on their big deal

BOSTON, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CarGurus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARG), the No. 1 visited site for shopping, buying, and selling new and used cars¹, today announced the launch of its latest national brand campaign, “Big Deal”, recognizing the important role cars play in people’s lives and the significance of making the right decision during a purchase or sale. The new spots empathize with the big decisions drivers make along the buy/sell journey to reach their ideal outcome, underscoring CarGurus’ role in helping consumers find the best deal on their big deal.

“CarGurus has joined drivers along this important journey for nearly two decades, developing the best tools and information to help consumers feel confident in their decisions as a growing share prefer to do more online before going to the dealership,” noted Dafna Sarnoff, CarGurus Chief Marketing Officer. “As a result, CarGurus has earned the trust of tens of millions of monthly users who turn to our site to make sure they find the best deal for their needs.”

CarGurus is the No. 1 most visited car-shopping site¹, connecting buyers to the best deals by providing complete vehicle history and unbiased deal ratings on the largest selection of new and used vehicles in the U.S.² Added tools like price drop alerts and the ability to finance in advance enable confident decision-making in one of the biggest purchases of a person’s life. The platform also supports sellers with car pricing tools and the ability to instantly receive multiple offers to sell their car either completely online or through a local dealer in select markets, empowering them to choose the best deal.

“Although CarGurus makes the process easy with all the tools and information you need to get the best deal, we don’t want to lessen the gravity of the purchase and its significant impact on people’s lives. Buying or selling a car is a huge decision, an emotional experience that we wanted to reflect in this campaign,” said Carter Collins, Partner and Managing Director of Bindery. “Beyond the excitement of working with the No. 1 most visited car shopping site¹, partnering with the CarGurus team has been one of our most rewarding and close-knit experiences to date.”

The “Big Deal” campaign will run across TV networks and connected TV providers. The spots will be supplemented with digital and social executions, including influencer programs throughout the year. View the full campaign video library here: https://cargur.us/19jlLY.

Creative Credits:

CarGurus
- Dafna Sarnoff, Chief Marketing Officer
- Evan Jones, Creative Director
- Allison Conroy, Brand Marketing Director
- Carli Riibner, Sr Brand Marketing Specialist
- Maggie Meluzio, Director of Public Relations
Creative and Production – Bindery
- Carter Collins, Partner, Managing Director
- Kim Devall, Executive Creative Director
- Laura Hockstad, Producer
- Chris Hilk, Editor
Production – Ruffian
- Bubble & Squeak, Director
- Robert Herman, Founder, EP
- Leslie Vaughn, Line Producer
- Paul Meyers, Director of Photography
- Craig Pinckes, 1st Assistant Director
Production Services – Habitant
- Arturo Arroyo, Managing Director
- Montserrat Becerril, Chief of Staff
- Elizabeth Tapia, Head of Production
- Ivan Perez, Executive Producer
- Andrea Fumero, Line Producer
- Rodrigo Sánchez, Production Manager
Color + VFX – Trafik
- Daniel de Vue, Senior Colorist
- Ali Soofi, Assistant Colorist
- Geoff Linville, Color Producer
- Greer Bratschie, Head of Production
- Karena Ajamian, Executive Producer Ciaran Birks, VFX Producer
- Jaime Aguirre, Flame Lead
- Ben Fall, Flame Assist
Animation and Text Graphics – Buff Motion

Sound – Antfood
- Wilson Brown, Partner, Executive Creative Director
- Sue Lee, Executive Producer
- Joshua Heath, Creative Lead
- Dalton Harts, Composer, Mix Engineer
- Linton Smith, Mix Engineer
- Trevor Haimes, Senior Producer
- Charlie Blasberg, Music Supervisor
- Katie Hansen, Production Coordinator
About CarGurus, Inc.

CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG) is a multinational, online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles that is building upon its industry-leading listings marketplace with both digital retail solutions and the CarOffer online wholesale platform. The CarGurus platform gives consumers the confidence to purchase and/or sell a vehicle either online or in-person, and it gives dealerships the power to accurately price, effectively market, instantly acquire, and quickly sell vehicles, all with a nationwide reach. The company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms and data analytics to bring trust, transparency, and competitive pricing to the automotive shopping experience. CarGurus is the most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S.¹

CarGurus also operates online marketplaces under the CarGurus brand in Canada and the United Kingdom. In the United States and the United Kingdom, CarGurus also operates the Autolist and PistonHeads online marketplaces, respectively, as independent brands.

To learn more about CarGurus, visit www.cargurus.com, and for more information about CarOffer, visit www.caroffer.com.

CarGurus^® is a registered trademark of CarGurus, Inc., and CarOffer^® is a registered trademark of CarOffer, LLC. All other product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

^{¹ Similarweb: Traffic Report [Cars.com, Autotrader, TrueCar, CARFAX Listings (defined as CARFAX Total visits}^{minus Vehicle History Reports traffic)], Q3 2024, U.S.}
^{² Compared to Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com (YipitData as of September 30, 2024), and CarFax (Joreca as of September 30, 2024)}

Media Contact:
Maggie Meluzio
Director, Public Relations & External Communications
pr@cargurus.com

Investor Contact:
Kirndeep Singh
Vice President, Investor Relations
investors@cargurus.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1267674-ed08-44a3-a107-cde3ff19ccdb

The MIL Network –
February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Invesco Ltd: Form 8.3 – International Paper Co; Public dealing disclosure

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

KEY INFORMATION

(a)

Full name of discloser:

Invesco Ltd.

(b)

(c)

Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:
Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree

International Paper Company

(d)

If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:

(e)

Date position held/dealing undertaken:
For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure

31.01.2025

(f)

In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?
If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”

Yes, Smith (DS) PLC

POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a)

Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:

Common stock US4601461035

Interests

Short Positions

Number

(1)

Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:

7,857,564*

2.26

454

0.00

(2)

Cash-settled derivatives:

(3)

Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

Total

7,857,564*

2.26

454

0.00

*The change in the holding of 756 shares since the last disclosure on 31.01.2025 is due to the transfer in of a discretionary holding at 55.63 USD.

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b)

Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:

Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a)

Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security

Purchase/sale

Number of securities

Price per unit

Common stock US4601461035

Sale

104,260

55.63 USD

Common stock US4601461035

Purchase

184,054

55.63 USD

Common stock US4601461035

Sale

308,945

57.05 USD

Common stock US4601461035

Purchase

56.51 USD

(b)

Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. CFD

Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position

Number of reference securities

Price per unit

(c)

Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i)

Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.

Number of securities to which option relates

Exercise price per unit

Type e.g. American, European etc.

Expiry date

Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii)

Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d)

Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security

Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion

Details

Price per unit (if applicable)

OTHER INFORMATION

(a)

Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

None

(b)

Agreements, arrangements, or understandings relating to options or derivatives

None

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure

03.02.2025

Contact name

Philippa Holmes

Telephone number

+441491417447

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI Russia: Rosneft expands contactless fuel payment in Siberia via Yandex Zapravki service

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Rosneft – Rosneft – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

Rosneft continues to develop cooperation with the Yandex Zapravki service and expands the geography of remote payment for fuel. The service has become available to customers at all 70 of the Company’s gas stations in the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic. Today, Rosneft is the largest retail network in Russia with the possibility of contactless payment at almost 2,700 gas stations.

Yandex Gas Stations are integrated into Yandex Go, Maps and Navigator, and are also available in a separate application. The service informs users about the types and cost of fuel at each gas station. Motorists can select the pump number, fuel brand, volume and pay for refueling remotely via a mobile phone.

At Rosneft filling stations in the Altai Territory and the Altai Republic, a special offer will be available to all motorists who fill up their cars before March 1, 2025, using the digital service. Participants in the Family Team loyalty program will also be able to add their card details to Yandex Gas Stations to earn points, and motorists with an active Yandex subscription will be able to accumulate and spend Plus points when filling up at the network’s filling stations.

Developing convenient customer services to increase the speed and improve the quality of customer service is one of the priority goals of Rosneft’s retail business. The Company’s petrol stations provide motorists with the opportunity to use various methods to pay for fuel and related products: by bank card, in cash, by QR code through the Fast Payment System, using the Yandex Zapravki service, as well as accumulated points upon presentation of the Family Team card.

Reference:

Rosneft has one of the largest retail sales networks in Russia, including about 3,000 petrol stations/gas stations. The geography of the Company’s retail business covers 61 regions of Russia. In Altai, the Company’s retail business is the most extensive network in the region. It covers all major highways in the directions from Novosibirsk Region to the Altai Republic, as well as to Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The petrol station network provides wide coverage of the territory and has high social significance.

Department of Information and Advertising of PJSC NK Rosneft February 3, 2025

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Bill McLaughlin Named Thrive’s New CEO

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

BOSTON, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Thrive, a global technology outsourcing provider for cybersecurity, Cloud, and traditional managed service provider (MSP) services, today announced the long-planned leadership transition elevating Bill McLaughlin into the CEO role, effective immediately. McLaughlin succeeds Rob Stephenson, who has led Thrive for nearly a decade. Under Stephenson, Thrive has attained industry prominence, earned a reputation for excellence, and delivered a compounded annual growth rate above 30%. Stephenson will remain onboard as a member of Thrive’s leadership team, particularly focused on supporting McLaughlin and driving the company’s M&A strategy.

“Bill came to Thrive over three and a half years ago with the plan to be my successor,” said Stephenson. “He has been running day-to-day sales and operations, is one of the most highly respected executives in our industry, and is responsible for much of Thrive’s success. It’s been a pleasure of a lifetime leading this company and there is nobody I would feel more confident in succeeding me than Bill McLaughlin. Under his leadership, Thrive will continue to set the pace for MSP and MSSP innovation and achievement.”

With more than 20 years of experience in the managed services industry, McLaughlin brings deep knowledge and understanding of IT, customer success, and go-to-market strategy. Prior to joining Thrive as President in 2021, McLaughlin held senior leadership positions at companies like Kaseya, Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office, and NER Data Products, where he oversaw customer success, sales initiatives, and M&A activity.

Throughout his time at Thrive, McLaughlin has partnered with leading organizations to ensure their digital transformations are secure, cost-effective, and future-ready. As President, he played a pivotal role in growing Thrive through acquisition – including the purchase of 11 companies over the past two years. Through its growth, Thrive has expanded the breadth and quality of its services, as well as its geographical footprint. The organization now has over 1,400 team members across the U.S., UK, Canada, and APAC regions.

In January, the company received a strategic investment from Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners, supporting growth and continued opportunity in the outsourced IT space. As CEO, McLaughlin will continue to invest in Thrive’s team and capabilities as they serve their customers with excellence.

“Thrive is redefining what it means to be a next-generation service provider – in terms of the solutions we deliver, the markets we serve, the problems we solve, and the way we take care of and upskill our people,” said McLaughlin. “While this is an exciting new chapter, our mission and vision remain the same: we’re going to keep delivering exceptional service and solutions to our customers, solving some of their most critical business problems – and we’re going to do it as a team.”

To learn more about open positions at Thrive, visit the careers page.

About Thrive 

Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn. 

Thrive Contact: 
Amanda Maguire 
thrive@v2comms.com  

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Bel Fuse Schedules Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Results Conference Call

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

WEST ORANGE, N.J., Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq: BELFA and BELFB), a designer, manufacturer, and provider of products that power, protect and connect electronic circuits, today announced plans to release preliminary financial results for the fourth quarter after market close on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. An earnings conference call has been scheduled as follows:

When:	Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. ET

Dial in:	877.407.0784, or international: 201.689.8560

Online:	https://ir.belfuse.com/events-and-presentations

How:	Live over the internet – Simply log on to the web at the address above

Replay:	844.512.2921, or international: 412.317.6671

	Conference ID: 13750153

A replay will be available after 12:30 p.m. ET for 30 days following the call.

About Bel
Bel (www.belfuse.com) designs, manufactures and markets a broad array of products that power, protect and connect electronic circuits. These products are primarily used in the networking, telecommunications, computing, military, aerospace, medical, transportation and broadcasting industries. Bel’s product groups include Power Solutions and Protection (front-end, board-mount and industrial power products, module products and circuit protection), Connectivity Solutions (expanded beam fiber optic, copper-based, RF and RJ connectors and cable assemblies), and Magnetic Solutions (integrated connector modules, power transformers, power inductors and discrete components). The Company operates facilities around the world.

Contacts:

Bel Fuse Inc.

Lynn Hutkin, VP Financial Reporting & Investor Relations
ir@belf.com

Three Part Advisors
Jean Marie Young, Managing Director
Steven Hooser, Partner
jyoung@threepa.com
shooser@threepa.com

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI: Invesco Ltd: Form 8.3 – American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc; Public dealing disclosure

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY
A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE
Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)

KEY INFORMATION

(a)

Full name of discloser:

Invesco Ltd.

(b)

(c)

Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:
Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc.

(d)

If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree:

(e)

Date position held/dealing undertaken:
For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure

31.01.2025

(f)

In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?
If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state “N/A”

Yes, Dowlais Group plc

POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

(a)

Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:

USD 0.01 common US0240611030

Interests

Short Positions

Number

(1)

Relevant securities owned and/or controlled:

1,892,987*

1.60

(2)

Cash-settled derivatives:

(3)

Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

Total

1,892,987*

1.60

*The change in the holding of 2,955 shares since the last disclosure on 30.01.2025 is due to the transfer in of a discretionary holding at 5.23 USD.

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b)

Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors’ and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists:

Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a)

Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security

Purchase/sale

Number of securities

Price per unit

USD 0.01 common US0240611030

Purchase

110

5.23 USD

(b)

Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. CFD

Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position

Number of reference securities

Price per unit

(c)

Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i)

Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc.

Number of securities to which option relates

Exercise price per unit

Type e.g. American, European etc.

Expiry date

Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii)

Exercise

Class of relevant security

Product description e.g. call option

Exercising/ exercised against

Number of securities

Exercise price per unit

(d)

Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security

Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion

Details

Price per unit (if applicable)

OTHER INFORMATION

(a)

Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

None

(b)

Agreements, arrangements, or understandings relating to options or derivatives

None

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?

Date of disclosure

03.02.2025

Contact name

Philippa Holmes

Telephone number

+441491417447

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel’s website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Key takeaways from the Cityforum 2025 Digital Policing Summit
Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

Exploring challenges and opportunities in innovation for delivering safer streets.
In recent months, the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) worked closely with Cityforum to help organise its latest event, the 2025 Digital Policing Summit. Held at BT HQ in London on January 22, the event brought together policymakers, police leaders, government representatives, industry experts and academics.

Following the recent death of Cityforum founder Marc Lee, this was a poignant event that continued his vision of providing a platform for open discussions and collaborative problem-solving on some of the most pressing challenges facing policing today. From tackling complex societal issues to the challenge and opportunity of artificial intelligence (AI), the conversations were thought provoking and mission driven.

Annette Southgate, Head of ACE, joined a panel on sustainable implementation: from research to scalable delivery and mission impact at local, regional, and national levels, while Andy Loukes took to the stage with Stan Gilmour from ACE’s Vivace Community to share our learnings from the work that we have already done on the Safer Streets mission.

Andy’s presentation featured a compelling case study from ACE’s toolbox, which was well received by attendees.

Here are our four key takeaways from the event for delivering the Safer Streets mission:

1. Local innovation is crucial

One of the strongest themes was the importance of local innovation with speakers emphasising that relying on national solutions often slows progress. Local forces are driving change by quickly adopting new technologies and tailoring them to meet their needs, but this too causes challenges as localised technology procurement is neither sustainable nor secure by design.

ACE’s case study shared the need to encourage local innovation, start small and then scale fast, applying innovation to forces across the country.

There was much discussion of how the new National Centre of Policing will support and scale up this local innovation while allowing police forces to continue to deliver their local priorities – and a recurring theme was that:

“Operational independence is not the same thing as organisational independence”

2. Scalability: aligning the enablers

The challenge of how to embed systemic learning and scale capabilities from local successes into broader practice remains. Scaling solutions is a persistent challenge, not because innovation itself lacks scalability, but because the enablers – funding, infrastructure, standards, and decision-making structures – are often disconnected and siloed.

One speaker summarised the issue well:

“The safer streets challenge is how to get enablers at the strategic level coordinated, acting at speed, and with the right level of bureaucracy.”

And we should be better at sharing our knowledge of success. It’s often unclear who is innovating, where, and how effective those efforts are. Some forces adopt new technologies quickly and lead the way, but others lag behind, often due to limited visibility into what works. A common question raised was:

“If we know something works, why aren’t we telling everyone about it?”

Clearer knowledge-sharing mechanisms and centralised platforms are essential to track progress, evaluate outcomes, maximise the impact of innovation, and allow for the coordination of investment in common enablers.

Greater collaboration and accountability structures can address this critical bottleneck – from a shared lexicon to standards that go beyond rigid technical specifications to include principles and flexible frameworks that adapt to various contexts.

3. Artificial intelligence: a balanced approach

AI was a key topic of discussion, with panelists debating its potential to enhance productivity and fill gaps in resource-constrained areas such as policing. AI can automate administrative tasks and free up officers for frontline duties, but public trust and careful implementation remain critical concerns.

The consensus was clear:

“AI shouldn’t replace people – it should empower them.”

The goal of applying AI isn’t zero crime but mitigating and preventing incidents while maintaining public confidence. AI must be implemented thoughtfully as a tool to complement human expertise rather than replace it.

4. Broadening the mission beyond policing

A particularly compelling point was the recognition that safer streets aren’t just a policing challenge. Achieving this goal requires collaboration across sectors, including education, probation, community services, and even the private sector.

Policing alone cannot address systemic issues such as serious violence or crime prevention. A coordinated, cross-departmental approach is essential to drive meaningful change. This shift in mindset could transform how resources are allocated and how partnerships are forged across sectors.

What’s ahead?

The Cityforum policing event reinforced the need for collaboration, alignment, and strategic approaches to innovation. From local-level successes to national strategies, the sector holds immense potential to drive change – but this requires breaking down silos and ensuring all enablers work in harmony.

At the heart of these discussions is a clear message: success lies in collaboration, knowledge sharing, and empowering innovation at every level.

ACE looks forward to contributing to these conversations and supporting initiatives that make a tangible difference for communities and policing teams alike. ACE is well placed to support forces with mission-driven innovation, in cross sector projects, to join up, de-risk and innovate, identifying and developing enablers to support the police in the future.

A huge thanks to the Cityforum team for another outstanding event! We look forward to the next one.

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Published 3 February 2025
MIL OSI United Kingdom –
February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Russia: School of Synthetic Biology and Industrial Pharmacy Opens at NSU

Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –

Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –

From February 3 to February 7, 2025, the Novosibirsk State University is hosting the February School of Synthetic Biology and Industrial Pharmacy, organized by NSU Advanced Engineering School, Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies of NSU with the support of JSC Generium and SUNC NSU.

More than 200 students from more than 40 universities across the country applied to participate in the school. 42 participants from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Altai Krais, as well as other regions of the Ural, Volga, Southern, Central and Northwestern Federal Districts were selected to participate in the School. The leading universities by the number of participants were: NSU — 15 people, SFU — 7 people, SSMU — 4 people, Altai State University — 3 people.

The school participants will master competencies in the field of technologies for managing the properties of biological objects, bioinformatics, and will become familiar with modern approaches to the development of drugs. The work will take place in the laboratories of the new educational building of the NSU SUNC, which is one of the first-stage facilities. modern campus of NSU, being built within the framework of the national project “Youth and Children”.

At the opening of the intensive course, Dmitry Kudlai, Director of Innovative Development Programs at NSU and Vice President of Generium JSC, gave a welcoming speech.

— Biotechnology is a trend worldwide, as well as a fundamental component of the life of Novosibirsk State University. NSU is actively developing the construction of a world-class campus. The educational building of the NSU SUNC, where the participants will work, is the first stage of this campus, the second is the building of the flow classrooms, the research center and the educational and scientific center of the Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies of NSU. Perhaps, some of the participants of the School will be able to study in the premises of the flow classrooms building as early as September. To conduct the School, we attracted specialists from the Engineering School of Moscow State University, a team from the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics will come. The Deputy Director of the State Institute of Medicines and Good Practices will also take part. I can say for sure that it will not be boring. It is wonderful that students participate in such events, laying the foundation for a confident future, — noted Dmitry Kudlai.

Director of the Advanced Engineering School Sergey Golovin also welcomed the participants and spoke about the career and educational opportunities that participation in the intensive course opens up:

— One of the areas that was initially developed at the Advanced Engineering School of NSU is biotechnology. Novosibirsk really has the widest range for development. Our task is to make you as competitive as possible and provide you with subject tools, as well as a set of personal qualities. I hope that your stay at the school for a week will be useful. So that you can not only decide on further education in master’s programs, but also take the first serious big step into the world of biotechnology.

On the first day of the event, the participants got acquainted with the program of the event and also listened to a lecture on “Development of laboratory diagnostic systems” by Eduard Agletdinov, Deputy General Director for Scientific Work at Vector-Best JSC.

During the week of intensive work, leading specialists from pharmaceutical companies, experts from universities and scientific organizations will give plenary lectures. An important element of the event will be the educational program, where talented students will be able to get acquainted with the best modern practices in the field of drug development and current technological and regulatory trends.

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

MIL OSI Russia News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Dedicated railway maintenance workers amid Spring Festival travel rush

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

“We have maintained great enthusiasm for work to ensure the safe operation of the trains and guarantee that every passenger can arrive home safely.”

Meet a group of railway maintenance workers, the everyday heroes dedicated to their posts amid the Spring Festival travel rush.

MIL OSI China News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI China: China’s CPC sends congratulatory message over 95th anniversary of Vietnam’s communist party

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

China’s CPC sends congratulatory message over 95th anniversary of Vietnam’s communist party

BEIJING, Feb. 3 — The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Monday sent a congratulatory message to the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) marking the latter’s 95th anniversary of founding. The message is as follows:

In the past 95 years, the CPV has united and led the Vietnamese people in successfully realizing national unification and liberation with remarkable achievements in the cause of the country’s socialist construction and transformation.

Notably since the 13th CPV Central Committee meeting, the CPV stepped up efforts to build and reorganize the party, leading to political and social stability as well as vigorous economic development in the country with a steady rise in its international status.

Currently, under the CPV’s strong leadership led by General Secretary To Lam, the CPV and the Vietnamese people are striving to complete the goals and missions set by the 13th CPV Central Committee meeting, and are marching towards the two centennial goals to welcome the holding of the 14th CPV Central Committee meeting. We believe you will surely realize the goals.

The CPC and the CPV share a long-standing revolutionary friendship and amicable partnership. Under the personal guidance and careful nurturing of the leaders of previous generations including Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, the two peoples have supported each other in revolutionary struggles, marching together in socialist construction, in the drive of reform and opening-up and on the journey of socialist modernization.

The CPC has always viewed the development of relations between the two parties and the two countries from a strategic and long-term perspective. The CPC is willing to work with the CPV to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties, uphold the 16-word guideline of “long-term stability, future orientation, good-neighborly friendship and comprehensive cooperation” and the spirit of “good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners,” and in line with the six major goals of greater political mutual trust, to increase high-level exchanges, strengthen strategic communication, consolidate traditional friendship, expand cooperation across various fields, and deepen exchanges and mutual learning on the theory and practice of party and state governance, jointly explore a socialist development path suited to their respective national conditions, and push for more progress in building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future to bring greater benefits to both peoples and contribute further to the cause of peace and progress for humanity.

MIL OSI China News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI China: Policy bank lends 20.4 bln yuan to support China’s dual-use public infrastructure in 2024

Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

Policy bank lends 20.4 bln yuan to support China’s dual-use public infrastructure in 2024

BEIJING, Feb. 3 — China Development Bank issued loans of 20.4 billion yuan (about 2.85 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024 to support 136 “dual-use public infrastructure” projects in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Fuzhou, said the policy bank.

Dual-use public infrastructure refers to public facilities such as stadiums, convention centers and parking facilities that can be easily converted for emergency use.

In recent years, China has proposed strengthening the construction of affordable housing, renewing urban villages, and developing dual-use public infrastructure.

Guan Hongyan, general manager of the bank’s transportation department, said the bank will increase medium- and long-term financing support for relevant projects.

MIL OSI China News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Public urged to get flu jabs early

Source: Hong Kong Information Services

The community should heighten its vigilance and enhance protection measures against influenza, including receiving the seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV), and those who plan to travel should stay alert to the situation of infectious diseases at their destination.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) made the plea today as the seasonal influenza activity in Hong Kong and many other countries and regions in the northern hemisphere remains at a high level.

Noting that Hong Kong entered the influenza season in early January, the CHP said it recorded 199 adult cases of intensive care unit admissions or deaths due to influenza in the first four weeks, as compared with 127 cases in the same period in the previous influenza season.

Among them, there were 122 deaths and over 70% of these severe or death cases did not receive the SIV. For the deaths, nearly 90% involved people aged 65 or above, and nine cases of severe paediatric influenza-associated complications were recorded for children with seven of them unvaccinated.

CHP Controller Edwin Tsui said that with the influenza activity in many parts of the northern hemisphere including the Mainland, Japan, Korea as well as Europe and North America staying at a high level, those planning to travel should monitor the flu situation at their destination before departure and take personal protective measures.

These measures include receiving the SIV as soon as possible and wearing a surgical mask while in crowded places. Whether in Hong Kong or abroad, people who develop respiratory symptoms, even mild ones, should wear surgical masks and seek medical advice, he added.

With reference to previous surveillance data, virus activity will continue to increase for a period of time after the start of the flu season before peaking. Currently, available data indicates that the influenza activity level is still on the rise.

In view of the high levels of flu activity locally and in the northern hemisphere in the coming weeks, Dr Tsui urged people aged six months and above, particularly seniors and children with higher risk of getting infected and developing complications, to act immediately to minimise the risk of serious complications and death after infection.

As of yesterday, about 1,932,000 vaccine doses were administered under the various vaccination programmes, about a 6.4% increase over the same period last year and an all time high, surpassing the 1,873,000 doses administered in 2023-24.

The number of schools participating in the SIV School Outreach has also increased significantly this year. However, the SIV coverage rate for children aged six months to under two years remained relatively low.

The Government has opened the Department of Health’s Maternal & Child Health Centres for children of that age range to receive the jab. Parents can book an appointment for them online.

Visit the CHP’s seasonal influenza and COVID-19 & Flu Express webpages for the relevant information.

MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: Verde Resources to Present at the Small Cap Growth Virtual Investor Conference February 6th

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Verde Resources Inc. (OTCQB: VRDR), a leader in sustainable, next-generation infrastructure materials, today announced that Jack Wong, CEO and Eric Bava, COO, will present live at the Small Cap Growth Virtual Investor Conference hosted by VirtualInvestorConferences.com, on February 6^th, 2025

DATE: February 6^th
TIME: 2:30 – 3:00 pm ET
LINK: https://bit.ly/40GBUPa
Available for 1×1 meetings: February 6^th

This will be a live, interactive online event where investors are invited to ask the company questions in real-time. If attendees are not able to join the event live on the day of the conference, an archived webcast will also be made available after the event.

“We are excited to bring our story to an audience of engaged, self-directed investors and discuss the progress Verde has made in 2024 and the exciting year ahead of us,” said Jack Wong, Verde’s CEO.

“Over the past year, we have forged strategic industry partnerships and integrated groundbreaking low-carbon building materials into the Verde portfolio. Our Blueprint lowers costs, enhances durability, and reduces emissions compared to conventional methods, all while enabling large-scale carbon sequestration and repurposing millions of tons of waste. This pragmatic approach drives economic value, modernizes infrastructure, and promotes environmental sustainability. At Verde, we believe that the road to Net Zero is paved with innovation, strategic partnerships and common-sense economics.”

It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates.

Learn more about the event at www.virtualinvestorconferences.com.

About Verde Resources Inc.

Verde Resources Inc. (OTCQB: VRDR) is leading the development of the world’s first Net Zero road construction blueprint, validated at the highest standards. Through the integration of innovative technologies and sustainable practices, Verde offers a scalable and licensable solution for the infrastructure industry across the U.S. and globally.

About Virtual Investor Conferences^®
Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors.

Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors.

Media and Investors

Crocker Coulson, AUM Media
Crocker.coulson@aummedia.org
(646) 652-7185

Virtual Investor Conferences
John M. Viglotti
SVP Corporate Services, Investor Access
OTC Markets Group
(212) 220-2221
johnv@otcmarkets.com

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025
MIL-OSI: ACNB Corporation Announces Completion of Traditions Bancorp, Inc. Acquisition

Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

GETTYSBURG, Pa., Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ACNB Corporation (NASDAQ: ACNB), the parent financial holding company of ACNB Bank, a Pennsylvania state-chartered, FDIC-insured community bank, headquartered in Gettysburg, PA, announced the completion of the acquisition of Traditions Bancorp, Inc. (“Traditions”) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Traditions Bank, headquartered in York, PA, effective February 1, 2025. Traditions was merged with and into a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACNB Corporation immediately followed by the merger of Traditions Bank with and into ACNB Bank. ACNB Bank will operate the former Traditions Bank branches as “Traditions Bank, A Division of ACNB Bank”. In connection with the close of the acquisition, Traditions stockholders received 0.7300 shares of ACNB Corporation common stock for each share of Traditions common stock that they owned as of the closing date, with cash paid in lieu of fractional shares.

In addition, at the close of the acquisition, three former Traditions directors, Eugene J. Draganosky, Elizabeth F. Carson, and John M. Polli, joined the Boards of Directors of ACNB Corporation and ACNB Bank. Mr. Draganosky has nearly 40 years of banking experience, and is the former CEO and Chair of the Board of Traditions and Traditions Bank, having held those roles since 2017 and 2023, respectively. Ms. Carson, Lead Independent Director of Traditions, joined the Traditions Bank Board in 2015, after over 30 years of banking experience in a variety of leadership roles with community and regional banks. Mr. Polli was a member of the Traditions Bank board of directors since its founding in 2002, and has nearly 40 years of diverse business expertise, from serving as a public accountant to owning, managing, and advising businesses in the transportation, real estate, and insurance industries.

With the combination of the two organizations, and based on financial information for each organization as of December 31, 2024, ACNB Corporation will have approximately $3.26 billion in assets, $2.04 billion in deposits, and $2.36 billion in loans, and will serve its customers throughout 35 community banking offices in south central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.

“We are pleased to announce the completion of our strategic acquisition of Traditions Bancorp, and excited to unite our teams of dedicated local bankers who are committed to their customers and communities,” stated ACNB Corporation President & Chief Executive Officer James P. Helt. “This combination brings together organizations that are unified by a shared vision, values, and a customer-centric approach to banking, to create an even stronger community bank. Importantly, our customers will benefit from expanded products and services delivered by the familiar faces they have come to know and trust. This merger positions us well to continue to grow in the attractive York and Lancaster County markets, and enhances ACNB Bank’s mortgage operations, which will now serve customers throughout our footprint as ‘Traditions Mortgage, A Division of ACNB Bank.’ Together, we look forward to continuing to deliver on our vision of being the financial services provider of choice in the communities we serve.”

Alan J. Stock, Chair of the Board of ACNB, stated “We welcome Mr. Draganosky, Ms. Carson, and Mr. Polli to the ACNB Boards of Directors, and are confident that their expertise, skills, and strong connections to the York and Lancaster market areas will enhance and complement ACNB’s current Boards of Directors. We are committed to enhancing value for our shareholders and are poised to deliver on that commitment with an experienced and knowledgeable board, a seasoned management group, and a team of bankers and professionals dedicated to a successful integration and customer experience.”

Bybel Rutledge LLP served as legal counsel and Piper Sandler served as financial advisor to ACNB Corporation for the transaction. Pillar + Aught served as legal counsel and Stephens Inc. served as financial advisor to Traditions Bancorp, Inc.

About ACNB Corporation
ACNB Corporation, headquartered in Gettysburg, PA, is the $3.26 billion financial holding company for the wholly-owned subsidiaries of ACNB Bank, Gettysburg, PA, and ACNB Insurance Services, Inc., Westminster, MD. Originally founded in 1857, ACNB Bank serves its marketplace with banking and wealth management services, including trust and retail brokerage, via a network of 35 community banking offices and two loan offices located in the Pennsylvania counties of Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, Lancaster and York and the Maryland counties of Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick. ACNB Insurance Services, Inc. is a full-service insurance agency with licenses in 46 states. The agency offers a broad range of property, casualty, health, life and disability insurance serving personal and commercial clients through office locations in Westminster and Jarrettsville, MD, and Gettysburg, PA. For more information regarding ACNB Corporation and its subsidiaries, please visit investor.acnb.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS – In addition to historical information, this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (a) projections or statements regarding future earnings, expenses, net interest income, other income, earnings or loss per share, asset mix and quality, growth prospects, capital structure, and other financial terms, (b) statements of plans and objectives of Management or the Board of Directors, and (c) statements of assumptions, such as economic conditions in the Corporation’s market areas. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes”, “expects”, “may”, “intends”, “will”, “should”, “anticipates”, or the negative of any of the foregoing or other variations thereon or comparable terminology, or by discussion of strategy. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties such as national, regional and local economic conditions, competitive factors, and regulatory limitations. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results and experience to differ from those projected include, but are not limited to, the following: short-term and long-term effects of inflation and rising costs on the Corporation, customers and economy; banking instability caused by bank failures and financial uncertainty of various banks which may adversely impact the Corporation and its securities and loan values, deposit stability, capital adequacy, financial condition, operations, liquidity, and results of operations; effects of governmental and fiscal policies, as well as legislative and regulatory changes; effects of new laws and regulations (including laws and regulations concerning taxes, banking, securities and insurance) and their application with which the Corporation and its subsidiaries must comply; impacts of the capital and liquidity requirements of the Basel III standards; effects of changes in accounting policies and practices, as may be adopted by the regulatory agencies, as well as the Financial Accounting Standards Board and other accounting standard setters; ineffectiveness of the business strategy due to changes in current or future market conditions; future actions or inactions of the United States government, including the effects of short-term and long-term federal budget and tax negotiations and a failure to increase the government debt limit or a prolonged shutdown of the federal government; effects of economic conditions particularly with regard to the negative impact of any pandemic, epidemic or health-related crisis and the responses thereto on the operations of the Corporation and current customers, specifically the effect of the economy on loan customers’ ability to repay loans; effects of competition, and of changes in laws and regulations on competition, including industry consolidation and development of competing financial products and services; inflation, securities market and monetary fluctuations; risks of changes in interest rates on the level and composition of deposits, loan demand, and the values of loan collateral, securities, and interest rate protection agreements, as well as interest rate risks; difficulties in acquisitions and integrating and operating acquired business operations, including information technology difficulties; challenges in establishing and maintaining operations in new markets; effects of technology changes; effects of general economic conditions and more specifically in the Corporation’s market areas; failure of assumptions underlying the establishment of reserves for credit losses and estimations of values of collateral and various financial assets and liabilities; acts of war or terrorism or geopolitical instability; disruption of credit and equity markets; ability to manage current levels of impaired assets; loss of certain key officers; ability to maintain the value and image of the Corporation’s brand and protect the Corporation’s intellectual property rights; continued relationships with major customers; and, potential impacts to the Corporation from continually evolving cybersecurity and other technological risks and attacks, including additional costs, reputational damage, regulatory penalties, and financial losses; and, the other factors detailed in ACNB’s publicly-filed documents, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2024, June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2024, and its other filings with the SEC. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements only speak as of the date hereof, and ACNB does assume any obligation to revise, update or clarify forward-looking statements to reflect events or conditions after the date of this press release.

ACNB #2025-5
February 3, 2025

Contact: Kevin Hayes
SVP/ General Counsel,
Secretary, and Chief
Governance Officer
717.339.5161
khayes@acnb.com

The MIL Network –

February 4, 2025

Contact:		Kevin Hayes SVP/ General Counsel, Secretary, and Chief Governance Officer 717.339.5161 khayes@acnb.com

Category: Transport

The problem

Our research

What we found

Why the findings matter

Defining life

Something other than carbon

The origins of life on Earth

Chances of life

The problem

Our research

What we found

Why the findings matter

Fuel tax credit rates

Few images exist

Putting faces to the names

Lights of freedom

Lessons from cities that have seen the worst

Planning ahead can reduce the harm

Solutions and strategies for the future

1. Rural health care access

2. Affordable housing is a rural problem too

3. Locally owned land benefits communities

Threats to control migration

Imposing visa restrictions

Migration as diplomatic weapon

Conditional aid from EU

Migration interdependence

Social reforms and FDR

LBJ’s Great Society

Resistance to policy change

Building a conservative infrastructure

Aiming at the ‘deep state’

Medications don’t always work

A chemical solution?

A better prescription – for you

Why it matters

How we did our work

1. Local innovation is crucial

2. Scalability: aligning the enablers

3. Artificial intelligence: a balanced approach

4. Broadening the mission beyond policing

What’s ahead?

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