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Category: Transport

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Ukraine: Switzerland implements further measures in 14th EU sanctions package

    Source: Switzerland – Federal Council in English

    The Federal Council

    Bern, 16.10.2024 – On 16 October, the Federal Council decided to adopt most of the measures in the EU’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia. The new measures will come into force on 17 October. On 8 July, 116 individuals and entities were already added to Switzerland’s sanctions list, and on 21 August the first measures in the 14th sanctions package were adopted.

    The EU adopted its 14th package of sanctions against Russia on 24 June in response to Russia’s continued military aggression against Ukraine and its destabilising actions undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and security. The aim is to strengthen the enforcement of existing sanctions to prevent their circumvention, and to apply new sanctions in order to weaken Russia’s ability to wage war.

    On 8 July, the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) had already imposed sanctions on 116 additional individuals and entities within its jurisdiction. This means that around 2,250 individuals, companies and organisations in Switzerland are currently on the sanctions list in connection with the situation in Ukraine. The list is identical to that of the EU. On 21 August, the Federal Council decided to adopt further measures in the EU’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia. The international harmonisation of bans on Russian diamonds was a particular focus of these sanctions. After a detailed examination, the Federal Council decided on 16 October to adopt the remaining measures in the 14th sanctions package that concern Switzerland, thereby strengthening the impact of the sanctions.

    Measures in the goods sector

    This decision further tightens export restrictions on goods intended to strengthen Russia’s industrial sector and military and technological capabilities. In addition, the list of entities subject to tighter export restrictions will be extended by 61 entities. Around half of these entities are located in third countries and are linked to the Russian military complex. The Federal Council had already decided on 31 January that companies would have to contractually prohibit the re-export to Russia of certain critical goods (common high priority items) when exporting to third countries. An equivalent obligation has now been introduced for the transfer of intellectual property rights and trade secrets, in order to prevent industrial know-how transferred to third countries from being used to produce such goods for use in Russia. In addition, there is now a ban on the purchase and import of Russian helium.

    Measures in the financial sector

    The use of certain specialised financial messaging services for payment transactions (i.e. alternatives to SWIFT) will be prohibited for banks. The Federal Council has also introduced various legal provisions on transaction bans. One of these concerns crypto assets providers that facilitate transactions supporting Russia’s defence industry. These new sanctions will curb the ability of the Kremlin to channel funds to finance its war machine.

    Measures in the energy sector

    The Federal Council has introduced several sanctions targeting liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will now be prohibited to invest in LNG projects under construction in Russia or to supply such projects with the necessary goods. From March 2025, it will also be prohibited to provide services for the transshipment of Russian LNG on EU territory. The new sanctions package also prohibits the purchase, import and transport of Russian LNG via terminals in the EU that are not connected to the gas pipeline network.

    Protection for Swiss individuals and entities

    In order to better protect Swiss companies, the Federal Council has introduced legislation that enables them to sue companies targeted by sanctions in the Swiss courts to claim damages for losses that the Swiss companies have incurred as a result of arbitrary proceedings in Russia or third countries. The same applies to Swiss individuals and companies whose assets have been unlawfully expropriated in Russia.

    The EU has also imposed restrictions on accepting applications for the registration of certain intellectual property rights (brands, patents, etc.) by Russian nationals and companies. This is because the Russian government and courts have taken measures to illegitimately deprive EU intellectual property rights holders of their protection in Russia. The situation for Swiss companies is different, as there have been no intellectual property rights violations committed by Russia against Swiss companies. The Federal Council has therefore decided not to adopt this measure to protect Swiss companies; however, it will continue to monitor the situation.

    Subsidiaries abroad

    With the 14th sanctions package, the EU has introduced a general obligation for businesses to ensure that their subsidiaries in third countries do not undermine the EU’s sanctions. Swiss law typically only covers situations that occur on Swiss territory. However, there may be cases where Swiss law applies, for example where payments are made or instructions issued from Switzerland that are prohibited by the sanctions. This allows Swiss companies that use their subsidiaries to circumvent sanctions to be prosecuted. SECO is currently examining a number of cases in which Swiss companies are suspected of violating sanctions through their subsidiaries abroad. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has taken over one of the cases. Under the current sanctions law, Switzerland already has the means to prosecute companies for circumventing sanctions by using their subsidiaries, and is actively doing so. Against this background, the Federal Council has decided not to adopt this EU measure in its current form. The EAER will monitor the situation and inform the Federal Council in the event of any changes in the position.

    Further measures

    Sanctions have also been imposed in relation to 27 ships involved in Russia’s war against Ukraine, including vessels belonging to Russia’s ‘dark fleet’ (ships that deliver goods with military applications to Russia, circumvent the international oil price cap in defiance of international standards, or carry grain looted from Ukraine). The measures include bans on providing services, including financial services, to such vessels or on acquiring or operating them.

    In order to limit Russia’s influence on democratic processes in Switzerland, the Federal Council has also decided to prohibit political parties, NGOs and media service providers from accepting donations from the Russian government. As in the EU, exceptions are provided for, to ensure the right to freedom of expression, information and the media, for example.

    Address for enquiries

    Enquiries from the media: EAER Communications, info@gs-wbf.admin.ch, +41 (0)58 462 20 07

    Enquiries from businesses: sanctions@seco.admin.ch, +41 (0)58 464 08 12

    Publisher

    The Federal Council
    https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html

    MIL OSI Europe News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Voting Is Social Work: Empowering Social Workers to Empower Voters

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    When people and communities become disenfranchised, they have no say in the policies that govern their lives.

    The policies that impact whether or not their local school systems will be effective.

    The decisions that make affordable housing achievable or untenable.

    The choices about where concentrating economic development might help a neighborhood and create good-paying jobs – or where it won’t.

    For James Jeter, the co-founder and director of the Full Citizens Coalition – a Connecticut-based action group focused on undoing the injustices and harms caused by felony disenfranchisement – a big part of breaking the cycle of disenfranchisement is civic education and political advocacy.

    “If those who are convicted of felonies have their right to vote, then they have a direct say in what’s governing their town,” Jeter says. “They become more active and conscious of town governance. And they’re able to speak directly to something working, which has the ability to completely change the narrative in their communities about what is possible on a local level.”

    It’s both a moral and a personal mission for Jeter, who was incarcerated for nearly 20 years. He came home in 2017, started the coalition in 2018, and has been working on uplifting individuals and communities and enacting legal reforms in Connecticut ever since.

    But the issue of felony disenfranchisement isn’t just a Connecticut problem. The United States has a long history, especially in African American communities, Jeter explains, of restricting ballot access and using the criminal justice system to reduce the political power of communities of color.

    And it’s worked. Removing the right to vote has a generational impact on communities most affected by incarceration.

    “That cycle has to break somewhere, and for us, what we see is that it’s really hard to engage communities – to engage them on something that they’ve never experienced,” Jeter says. “We want to use the same tool that was used to disengage us to reengage us.”

    That tool is voting. And helping disenfranchised voters reengage with the electoral process through understanding and exercising their right to vote on all levels – local, state, and federal – is a goal that Tanya Rhodes Smith, director of the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work at the UConn School of Social Work, wholeheartedly shares.

    “Voting is complicated, and it’s intimidating, especially for vulnerable populations, like the unhoused, the formerly incarcerated, or those living in congregate care,” says Rhodes Smith. “We know that being a non-voter is a very isolating space, because voting is highly relational. Campaigns generally ignore non-voters— you don’t get campaign materials, or someone knocking on your door. Information on candidates in state and local elections in communities with low turnout can be very hard to find or even nonexistent.”

    That’s where social workers, explains Rhodes Smith, can play an important role in helping disenfranchised voters understand their rights – and register to vote.

    Money, Power, and Resources

    As co-founders since 2015, UConn’s Humphreys Institute has been the institutional home for Voting Is Social Work.

    Also known as the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign, Voting Is Social Work supports nonpartisan voter engagement as central to social work’s mission, ethical mandate, and impact.

    “We’ve always believed that social work has the power to transform democracy,” says Rhodes Smith, “and we believe every social worker – and social service agency – should include nonpartisan voter engagement into their practice and work. Because we reach non-voters – those who are least likely to vote.”

    Social work was founded as a political profession, she explains, and has always been committed to not only working with individuals, but also working to solve the complex issues and barriers within the communities they serve.

    “When you think about social determinants of health – the environmental and socio-economic conditions in which people live, work, and play that have a powerful impact on our health and outcomes – these are shaped by money, power, and resources,” Rhodes Smith says. “And money, power, and resources are shaped by public policy and elected officials.”

    And who better to help people understand how to engage with those processes than the people who are already working within impacted communities?

    “From the standpoint of clients, guardians, people who are in foster care, overseeing foster care – the people who don’t have a say, or don’t believe they have a say, in the structures of policies that govern their lives – sometimes the closest person to you helping you navigate whatever hurdles have been presented in your life at the time are social workers,” says Jeter.

    “Having an understanding of the need and the ability to reach community, I think it impacts and benefits the community, especially when you’re training a generation of social workers to be conscious in this manner,” he continues.

    And training social workers is exactly what Voting Is Social Work does.

    De Facto Disenfranchisement

    Voting Is Social Work is active in all 50 states, says Rhodes Smith, and provides training and resources for students, faculty, schools, organizations, and individual social workers.

    Through a recently relaunched and robust website, the campaign provides easily accessible information so that social workers and others can first educate themselves and then work to give that knowledge to the clients and communities they serve.

    One of the challenges, Rhodes Smith explains, is that voter registration regulations and Election Day procedures vary widely from state to state. For individuals with special circumstances, complex rules can cause even more confusion.

    In the case of felony disenfranchisement, for example, many formerly incarcerated people who believe that they are not eligible to vote actually can cast ballots.

    “There are 20 million people in our country with a felony record, and more 4 million of them have lost the right to vote, currently,” says Rhodes Smith. “But there is this de facto disenfranchisement, because people don’t know the rules. They just assume that they can’t vote.

    “So, if social workers don’t know the rules, they can inadvertently suppress the political power of the people that they’re serving. And that goes for those who are in congregate care – that goes for all of the groups that are most vulnerable and most likely to not understand the complicated set of rules that are made state by state,” she says.

    In fact, an entire set of educational materials available through Voting Is Social Work is focused particularly on those individuals with special circumstances, who are more vulnerable to disenfranchisement due to their personal circumstances – including voters with disabilities, individuals who do not speak English, Americans residing outside of the U.S., including Uniformed Service members; survivors of domestic violence; and the unhoused.

    “Many people assume that if you don’t have a home, you can’t vote,” says Rhodes Smith. “We are big proponents of saying that anyone can register to vote. You don’t need a home. You don’t even need a shelter. You can register at a park bench.

    “So, we get that word out because, again – social workers are in these spaces.”

    All Year Long

    Over the last nine years, the reach of Voting Is Social Work has only broadened.

    The campaign has been endorsed by more than 20 national professional organizations, including the National Association of Social Workers; the Council on Social Work Education, which is the accrediting body of social work education; and the Clinical Social Work Organization.

    The campaign has trained thousands of students, faculty, and organizations on incorporating nonpartisan voter engagement into social work practice, according to Rhodes Smith.

    And the importance of the effort has only increased over the last decade – research has linked voting to higher earning and education, better health outcomes, and lower rates of recidivism. Areas of lower voter turnout – often referred to as “voting deserts” – receive less resource investment and have higher rates of arrest and incarceration.

    This year, in the midst of a contentious federal election cycle, and with Election Day fast approaching, the visibility around efforts to engage voters, to register nonvoters, and to address issues of voter disenfranchisement are highly visible.

    But for the organizers of Voting Is Social Work, nonpartisan voter engagement matters regardless of the election cycle, no matter who is on the ballot, and wherever an election is taking place.

    “Our goal is, all year long, are we giving people the information they need to participate in every election,” says Rhodes Smith.

    “Special elections, local elections, primary elections, general elections – are we connecting them to nonpartisan resources so that they can look up the candidates and they can be informed voters in their community? Are we helping them look up who represents them and build their political capital?”

    To learn more about, connect with, or take part in the Voting Is Social Work campaign, visit voting.socialwork.uconn.edu.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Statement by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the Review of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust

    Source: IMF – News in Russian

    October 16, 2024

    Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today completed the Review of Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) Facilities and Financing, the IMF’s vehicle for providing concessional financing to low-income member countries. Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement:

    “Our membership today has adopted a comprehensive reform and financing package for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) to bolster the IMF’s support to low-income countries.”

    “The package includes a framework to deploy IMF net income and/or reserves to generate about US$8 billion in additional subsidy resources for the PRGT over the next five years. Combined with other reform measures and last year’s successful bilateral fundraising, this would increase the PRGT’s long-term annual lending envelope to about US$3.6 billion, more than twice the pre-pandemic level, and help catalyze significant additional flows from public and private sources.”

    “This agreement comes at a critical time as low-income countries have suffered a series of unprecedented shocks and face substantial financing needs. With exceptionally high demand for PRGT financing, the approved package will generate the concessional resources necessary to ensure that the Fund can continue supporting low-income countries to implement sound policies and build strong institutions.”

    “These reforms will help tailor IMF support to country-specific needs, recognizing the increasing economic heterogeneity of low-income countries. To ensure that scarce concessional resources are targeted to those most in need, a new interest rate mechanism will maintain interest-free lending for the poorest countries while ensuring that lending terms for others have a sufficient degree of concessionality. Access policies will allow for flexibility in calibrating Fund support, and safeguards will be strengthened and streamlined.”

    “Our global membership has demonstrated once again its shared commitment to support our low-income members in challenging economic times.”

    Link to FAQs

    IMF Communications Department
    MEDIA RELATIONS

    PRESS OFFICER: Randa Elnagar and Camila Perez

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

    @IMFSpokesperson

    https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2024/10/16/pr24372-statement-imf-md-kristalina-georgieva-rev-poverty-reduction-growth-trust

    MIL OSI

    MIL OSI Russia News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New chair of North Sea Transition Authority appointed

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    The Energy Secretary has appointed Liz Ditchburn to chair the North Sea Transition Authority.

    • the Energy Secretary has appointed Liz Ditchburn to chair the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA)
    • the new chair will head up the NSTA Board, which is responsible for regulating and influencing the UK’s oil, gas, offshore hydrogen and carbon storage industries
    • Ms Ditchburn brings more than 35 years of experience across UK and Scottish Governments to the role

    Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has today appointed Liz Ditchburn as the new chair of the North Sea Transition Authority, (NSTA) the body responsible for overseeing the UK’s offshore energy industries.

    As former Director General for Economy for the Scottish Government, Ms Ditchburn has more than 35 years of experience as a public sector leader in UK and Scottish Governments in both domestic and international settings.

    As chair, Liz Ditchburn will now head up the NSTA Board and oversee the organisation’s role in licensing and regulating the UK’s oil, gas, offshore hydrogen and carbon storage industries. The NSTA also continues to play a key role in ensuring the UK maximises the highly skilled expertise of its North Sea industries and workers to deliver the country’s clean energy transition.

    Since coming to office three months ago, the government has already taken rapid steps in accelerating the UK’s clean energy industries – with the launch of Great British Energy, the biggest ever investment in offshore wind and confirming up to £21.7 billion in funding over the next 25 years for carbon capture and storage and hydrogen projects.

    Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, said:

    I would like to thank Tim Eggar for his commitment as chair of the NSTA in such a crucial time for the industry.

    Liz will now continue this legacy, bringing a wealth of experience across government to an important role at the centre of our energy transition.

    Together with the NSTA, we will build on the expertise of our North Sea industries to deliver an orderly and prosperous transition.

    Chair of the North Sea Transition Authority, Liz Ditchburn said:

    Our North Sea industries have a huge potential to lead the way in the UK’s clean energy transition – from new offshore wind developments to the latest in carbon capture and storage.

    I’m looking forward to driving this work at the NSTA to ensure the sector can maximise this opportunity, bringing growth, and investment to Scotland’s North Sea communities and securing the long-term future of highly skilled jobs.

    Ms Ditchburn will take up the post on 22 October 2024, following on from her predecessor Tim Eggar’s term of over 5 years as NSTA chair coming to an end.

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    Published 16 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI China: 6 killed, 43 injured in Israeli airstrike on municipal building in S. Lebanon

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    Six people, including the mayor, were killed, and 43 others wounded on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the buildings of the Nabatieh Municipality in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese medical and military sources.

    The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that an Israeli warplane fired four air-to-ground missiles at the Nabatieh Municipality building and the building of the Union of Municipalities, killing the mayor, Ahmad Kahil, and a number of municipality members, injuring several others, and destroying the infrastructure.

    The Civil Defense teams, the Lebanese Red Cross, and the Islamic Health Authority are working to remove the rubble of the two buildings and search for missing persons, the sources said.

    Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying it deliberately targeted a meeting of the municipal council discussing the city’s service and relief situation.

    The new “aggression” conveys the message that “the international community should act immediately instead of remaining silent about Israeli crimes,” Mikati said.

    Meanwhile, Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants announced on Wednesday that it had filed a new complaint with the UN Security Council regarding the Israeli attacks on Lebanon during the period Oct. 3-14.

    This is part of the periodic complaints submitted by the ministry through the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the UN headquarters in New York to document the Israeli offensive and pressure the international community and the Security Council to act to stop it.

    Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has been conducting intensive airstrikes on Lebanon in a sharp escalation with Hezbollah.

    The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the beginning of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict on Oct. 8, 2023 has reached 2,350, while injuries went up to 10,906, Health Ministry figures showed on Tuesday.

    MIL OSI China News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI China: China reports home appliance sales surge under trade-in program

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    China’s ongoing trade-in program for home appliances has led to a surge in sales revenues which topped 69.09 billion yuan (9.7 billion U.S. dollars) since August, the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed Wednesday.

    As of Oct. 15, around 10.13 million consumers have benefited from the program for which the central government has provided more than 13.17 billion yuan in subsidies for consumers, the MOC said.

    MOC data showed that green and smart home appliances are favored by consumers, with products labeled with top-level energy efficiency accounting for more than 90 percent of the sales revenues during the period.

    Regions such as Hubei Province, Chongqing and Shanghai municipalities, and the city of Shenzhen have expanded the categories of home appliances eligible for subsidies according to local conditions, incorporating green and intelligent products such as sweeping robots, dishwashers, air purifiers, and unmanned aerial vehicles, the ministry said.

    In the next step, the ministry will continue to encourage various regions to speed up the implementation of subsidy policies and guide home appliance manufacturers as well as distribution companies to seize the consumption boom periods such as the Double Eleven online shopping festival to boost consumption under the trade-in program, it said.

    The Double Eleven online shopping festival, also known as the Singles’ Day shopping festival, is a Chinese version of Black Friday when discounts and sales promotions are usually offered for consumers in the month of November.

    In a significant push to stimulate consumer spending, China has rolled out an expansive trade-in policy across multiple sectors since August.

    MIL OSI China News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: FACT SHEET: U.S. Achievements in the Global Fight Against  Corruption

    US Senate News:

    Source: The White House
    Corruption poses a grave and enduring threat to U.S. national interests and those of our partners. When officials abuse their entrusted power for personal or political gain, the interests of authoritarians and corrupt actors win – at the expense of citizens, honest businesses, and healthy societies. As the Biden-Harris Administration took office, this longstanding challenge had metastasized. In some countries, oligarchs were teaming up with foreign kleptocrats to warp policy and procurement decisions in exchange for kickbacks – with no accountability. Corrupt officials were laundering stolen assets through the U.S. and global financial systems, while local investigators were ill-equipped to follow the money. Reformers in countries saddled with corruption had scarce public resources to actually address development needs. The Biden-Harris Administration tacked these challenges starting Day One, to ensure democracy delivers and corrupt actors are held to account.
    The first National Security Study Memorandum of the Biden-Harris Administration established countering corruption as a “core U.S. national security interest,” leading to the issuance in December 2021 of the first United States Strategy on Countering Corruption. Since then, the United States has taken action at home and around the world to curb illicit finance, hold corrupt actors accountable, forge multilateral partnerships, and equip frontline leaders to take on transnational corruption. The result has been historic progress in protecting the U.S. financial system from money-laundering, including in the residential real estate sector, while enhancing corporate transparency. This Administration has mobilized record levels of foreign assistance dedicated to anti-corruption, including $339 million in Fiscal Year 2023 alone – almost double the yearly average during the previous four years. This new assistance has unlocked support for anti-corruption institutions, leveled the playing field for law-abiding businesses, enabled journalists to team up across borders, and more. Expanded law enforcement cooperation and capacity-building have generated convictions of corrupt actors as well as the seizure, forfeiture, and return of criminal proceeds, while new anti-corruption offices at the Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) energized diplomatic and stakeholder engagement. The United States imposed sanctions on more than 500 individuals and entities for corruption and related activities, and established – for the first time in any jurisdiction globally – a new visa restriction for those who enable corrupt activity.
    U.S. progress on anti-corruption has produced concrete benefits for the American people and stakeholders around the world – enhancing prosperity, economic security, safety, and democracy, as outlined below. To bolster and sustain this work, the U.S. government has also modernized its approach to addressing corruption as a cross-cutting priority. Today, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh will highlight the benefits of this work to American businesses and workers at a White House anti-corruption roundtable with leaders from 15 major U.S. companies.
    Advancing economic opportunity abroad
    Improving the business enabling environment: U.S. assistance advanced governments’ capacity to prevent, detect, investigate, and prosecute corruption, while encouraging anti-bribery compliance. State expanded its Fiscal Transparency Innovation Fund – to help willing partners improve budget transparency – while holding countries to account for progress in its Fiscal Transparency Report. In the past two years alone, a newly expanded State-Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) program facilitated U.S. collaboration with foreign counterparts on more than 50 transnational corruption and money laundering cases with a U.S. nexus. In coordination with State, experienced legal advisors from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) assisted foreign justice partners around the world in investigating and prosecuting corruption and money laundering cases, and recovering assets. And DOJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, in partnership with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, has recovered more than $1.7 billion and returned or assisted in returning more than $1.6 billion for the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption.
    Enforcing our bans on foreign bribery and money-laundering – and pressing other countries to do the same: To enable honest companies to compete overseas, the United States upheld its commitments under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention by enforcing its foreign bribery and related laws and working with partners to monitor other countries’ progress in implementing the Convention, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. Since the start of the Administration, DOJ has imposed more than $3.5 billion in total monetary sanctions under the Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) in 16 corporate resolutions, and announced charges against more than 70 individuals. For instance, this April the former Comptroller General of Ecuador was convicted of money laundering relating to his receipt of over $10 million in bribes from, among others, the Brazil-based construction conglomerate Odebrecht S.A. The Securities and Exchange Commission continued civil enforcement of the FCPA, with approximately $1 billion in total monetary sanctions in 22 corporate resolutions, spanning conduct in 24 countries, since the start of the Administration. DOJ is also enforcing the recently enacted Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, which criminalizes demands for bribes by foreign officials from U.S. companies and others. In addition, this August DOJ announced a new Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to uncover and prosecute corporate crime – with a particular focus on foreign and domestic corruption, as well as violations by financial institutions of their obligations to take steps to detect and deter money laundering.
    Seizing windows of opportunity: U.S. assistance has become more agile via the establishment of USAID’s Anti-Corruption Response Fund (providing flexible support to countries experiencing new opportunities or backsliding), the State-DOJ Global Anti-Corruption Rapid Response Fund (providing assistance and case mentoring to foreign partners on short notice), and USAID’s Democracy Delivers initiative (which has marshalled $500 million in funding from the United States and others to help reformers deliver, including on their anti-corruption commitments). These innovations, informed by USAID’s Dekleptification Guide, are enabling the U.S. government to more nimbly pivot toward environments where local momentum can be bolstered by outside assistance.
    Bolstering integrity in high-risk sectors: In April 2024, the United States and its partners launched the Blue Dot Network – a mechanism to certify infrastructure projects that have met global standards for quality and sustainability, including transparency in procurement and provisions to limit opportunities for corruption. The United States also supported the launch of PROTECT, a collective action project to address corruption risk in the supply chain for critical minerals.
    Strengthening corruption safeguards in the Indo-Pacific: In June, the United States and thirteen other partners held a signing ceremony, after concluding eight rounds of negotiations in record time, for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Fair Economy Agreement. The Agreement aims to create a more transparent, predictable trade and investment environment across IPEF partners’ markets, including through binding obligations to prevent and combat corruption. The Department of Commerce (Commerce) and State are accelerating implementation by offering new anti-corruption technical assistance to IPEF partners, including workshops on procurement corruption.
    Dialoguing with the private sector: In 2021, State launched the Galvanizing the Private Sector as Partners in Combatting Corruption initiative, which connects companies and governments to strengthen business integrity and encourage governance reform. Commerce’s International Trade Administration organized the 2024 forum of the Business Ethics for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Small and Medium Enterprises Initiative – the world’s largest public-private partnership on ethical business conduct – at which stakeholders formalized policy recommendations on business integrity in public procurement.
    Protecting the U.S. financial system from abuse
    Expanding corporate transparency: To deter kleptocrats and criminals from laundering money through anonymous shell companies, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) operationalized a new filing system for certain companies operating in the United States to report their beneficial owners – the real people who own or control them – pursuant to the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act. Treasury held hundreds of outreach events across all states and territories, reaching thousands of stakeholders, to enable companies to quickly and easily comply with this reporting requirement.
    Closing loopholes for money-laundering: Treasury finalized rules to close two major loopholes in the U.S. financial system: (1) to increase transparency in the U.S. residential real estate sector, to ensure that law-abiding homebuyers are not disadvantaged by individuals laundering their ill-gotten gains, and (2) to safeguard the investment adviser industry from illicit finance. Treasury also proposed a rule to modernize financial institutions’ anti-money-laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) programs, to make them more effective and risk-based. Together, these rulemakings represent historic advances for the U.S. AML/CFT regime, in line with international standards, that will help the United States urge other countries to undertake similar reforms to curb illicit finance. The Biden-Harris Administration has also called on Congress to close even more loopholes that facilitate money-laundering by passing the ENABLERS Act.
    Blocking assets and denying entry to corrupt actors: Since the start of the Administration, Treasury has designated more than 500 individuals and entities for corruption and related activities, across six continents. That includes blocking the assets of 20 individuals and 48 companies in Fiscal Year 2024 for corruption in Afghanistan, Guatemala, Guyana, Paraguay, Western Balkans, and Zimbabwe. In tandem, State publicly issued corruption-related visa restrictions for 76 foreign officials and family members in Fiscal Year 2024, and 292 over the course of the Administration. These actions have protected the U.S. financial system from corrupt actors and promoted accountability in domestic jurisdictions. For example, just one week after the U.S. issuance of a public visa restriction on former Director of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) Intelligence Services Osman Mehmedagic for significant corruption, he was arrested by BiH authorities for abuse of office.
    Taking aim at enablers of corruption: In December 2023, President Biden issued an historic Presidential Proclamation establishing a visa restriction for those who facilitate and enable significant corruption and their immediate family members. This new visa restriction complements existing commitments to use sanction and law enforcement capabilities to target private enablers of public corruption. Earlier this year, the FBI and DOJ secured a guilty plea and a criminal penalty of $661 million from Gunvor – one of the largest commodities trading firms in the world – for facilitating bribery of Ecuadorian officials and laundering those bribes through U.S. banks. In addition, USAID launched new activities to incentivize integrity within professions that serve as gatekeepers to the international financial system.
    Upholding international standards: The United States has helped lead efforts to expand anti-corruption work at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including improving assessment tools, mitigating risks associated with “golden passport” programs, and highlighting how non-financial sectors can be abused by corrupt actors.
    Keeping America and our partners safe
    Addressing corruption risk in the security sector: Security sector corruption can divert essential supplies, empower malign actors, threaten the safety of U.S. service members, and undermine U.S. military missions writ large. In the past year, the Department of Defense (DOD) incorporated corruption risk into its security cooperation planning – subjecting certain proposals to further scrutiny and identifying risk mitigation measures as needed. State also created new resources to weigh corruption risk as part of security sector assistance decision-making. In addition, State’s Global Defense Reform Program and DOD’s institutional capacity building programs advanced more transparent, accountable, and professional defense institutions. DOD continued running a training course on combatting corruption for partner military commanders and civilian leaders.
    Tackling organized crime and corruption: Transnational criminal organizations often rely on corruption to enable their criminal activities and evade accountability – which fuels narcotrafficking into the United States, human smuggling, cybercrimes, and more. The U.S. government is deploying anti-corruption tools to target criminal networks and their financial enablers, in line with the 2023 White House Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime.
    Standing up to Russia’s aggression: The United States has adapted to address the wartime needs of Ukraine’s anti-corruption stakeholders, as they close off a key vector for Russian dominance and advance Ukraine’s democratic future. In 2023, Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators and prosecutors achieved an 80 percent increase in prosecutions and a 50 percent increase in convictions, plus opened cases against high-ranking officials including the former head of the Ukrainian Supreme Court.  With U.S. support, Ukraine has advanced significant reforms on asset disclosure, launched a whistleblower portal, strengthened the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, and enhanced transparency and integrity in reconstruction.
    Securing a greener future: The United States has integrated an anti-corruption lens across sectors, with particular emphasis on addressing corruption vulnerabilities that threaten a secure, just energy transition for all. This includes USAID support to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), increased mining transparency in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and innovations that address transnational corruption in green energy mineral supply chains across 15 countries.
    Protecting global health: Corruption curtails the ability of states to respond to pandemics and undercuts access to basic healthcare. USAID is tackling this challenge by releasing cutting-edge guidance on anti-corruption in the health sector and launching integrated programming. For example, in Liberia the United States is working with the government to curb theft of pharmaceuticals through civil society monitoring, law enforcement trainings, and public awareness campaigns.
    Addressing the root causes of migration: Combating corruption is a core component of improving conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – so people do not feel compelled to leave their homes, in line with the U.S. Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America. Recent U.S. actions have included training up to 27,000 justice sector stakeholders in those countries to more effectively address corruption.
    Defending democracy by rooting out corruption
    Tackling electoral corruption: When candidates can be bankrolled by foreign adversaries and institutions captured by kleptocrats, citizens lose faith in their governments—or even in democracy itself. In response, USAID has launched new programs to bolster electoral integrity, strengthen independent media, and increase the transparency of political finance in high-risk locations.
    Lifting up civil society and independent media: The U.S. government has substantially expanded support to frontline activists and journalists, including through the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium. In addition, a new State Department initiative is training hundreds of journalists in transnational corruption investigations, while USAID’s new investigative journalist networks in Asia and Southern Africa are building capacity to track corruption across sectors and across borders. The Secretary of State established a new award for Anti-Corruption Champions, which has honored dozens of courageous civil society leaders and embattled reformers. In 2022, the United States also hosted the largest regular gathering of civil society activists fighting corruption – the International Anti-Corruption Conference – in Washington, DC, with keynote remarks from APNSA Jake Sullivan.
    Protecting sovereignty: Authoritarian actors like Russia and the PRC use bribery to interfere in the policy, procurement, debt, and electoral processes of other countries – undermining both sovereignty and democracy. The United States is standing up to this tactic by building the resilience of frontline actors to detect and deflect foreign-backed strategic corruption, educating partners about the kleptocrats’ playbook, harnessing sanction tools to deter threats, and increasing collaboration between practitioners working on anti-corruption and those addressing foreign malign influence – both within the USG and with likeminded partners. For example, in June the United States joined with Canada and the UK to expose Russia’s use of corruption and covert financing, among other tactics, to undermine democratic processes in Moldova.
    Restoring trust in American democracy: The Biden-Harris Administration has established the strongest ethics standards of any U.S. presidency. On his first day in office, the President signed an Executive Order requiring administration officials to take a stringent ethics pledge, which extends lobbying bans, limits shadow lobbying, and makes ethics waivers more transparent. The Administration also restored longstanding democratic norms by protecting DOJ cases from political interference, releasing the President’s and Vice-President’s taxes, and voluntarily disclosing White House visitor logs. And in the last year, the Office of Government Ethics finalized rules updating the standards for ethical conduct and legal expense funds for executive branch employees.
    Protecting American democracy from malign finance: Just as we defend democracy around the world, the U.S. government is working to keep American democracy safe from foreign adversaries. Actions to curb money laundering in the United States can help reduce the ability of foreign and domestic actors to make illegal campaign contributions and evade U.S. election laws. President Biden has called on Congress to go even further by passing the DISCLOSE Act, which would curb the ability of foreign entities and special interests to use dark money loopholes to influence our elections.
    Revitalizing participation in the Open Government Partnership (OGP): The United States rejoined the Steering Committee of OGP – a platform for civil society and governments to forge joint commitments and learn from each other– and provided assistance for OGP’s work on anti-corruption. Domestically, the United States has turbocharged OGP implementation by creating the U.S. Open Government Secretariat at the General Services Administration, an Open Government Federal Advisory Committee, an Interagency Community of Practice – spanning federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and engaged with hundreds of stakeholders to exchange lessons and expand transparency, accountability, and public participation. The United States also launched the first-ever Request for Information to feed into the 6th U.S. OGP National Action Plan and announced development of a toolkit to help federal agencies more meaningfully engage with the public.
    Modernizing and coordinating U.S. government efforts to fight corruption
    Institutionalizing anti-corruption as an enduring priority: Over the past four years, Departments and Agencies have made substantial organizational improvements to elevate corruption concerns. For example:
    The State Department’s new Office of the Coordinator on Global Anti-Corruption leads the integration of anti-corruption priorities into bilateral and other policy processes, conducts targeted diplomatic engagements, and drives strategic planning, including through the Department’s senior-level Anti-Corruption Policy Board. In the past year, the Office jumpstarted implementation of the Combating Global Corruption Act and completed an analysis of anti-corruption assistance to inform future State Department decision-making.
    USAID’s new Anti-Corruption Center, within the newly established Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, serves as a hub of technical expertise and thought leadership – driving the integration of corruption considerations across USAID’s portfolio, supporting USAID Missions in developing localized approaches, managing a suite of programming focused on transnational corruption, and using its convening power and policy insights to forge strategic partnerships. Since 2022, USAID has released its first-ever Anti-Corruption Policy, which outlines a cross-sectoral approach to constraining opportunities for corruption, raising the costs of corruption, and incentivizing integrity – plus a host of tools to drive uptake across USAID.
    FBI’s International Corruption Unit expanded an agreement with the State Department to deploy six regional anti-corruption advisors to strategic locations around the world, where they organize regional working groups with local law enforcement officials, provide case-base mentorship, and facilitate coordination with the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre.

    Expanded interagency capacity has been complemented by the National Security Council’s establishment of a dedicated Director for Anti-Corruption position, for the first time, to ensure whole-of-government coordination and advance anti-corruption within key policy processes.
    Leading in multilateral fora: The United States has regained its leadership role in the international bodies that shape anti-corruption norms globally and can sustain momentum across time. In particular, the United States stepped into the presidency of the UN Convention against Corruption Conference of States Parties (UNCAC COSP), proudly hosting in December 2023 thousands of stakeholders in Atlanta, Georgia, led by the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. As part of its commitment to championing the role of non-governmental actors in the fight against corruption, the United States facilitated record civil society participation in UNCAC working group meetings, hosted the first UNCAC Private Sector Forum, and supported inclusive implementation of UNCAC commitments in Latin America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. The United States also participated in several peer reviews of our own anti-corruption practices over the last three years, and proudly made these results public. Alongside these multilateral fora, we convened the Global Forum on Asset Recovery action series to accelerate practitioner cooperation across the United States, Algeria, Honduras, Iraq, Moldova, Nigeria, Seychelles, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Zambia.
    Understanding corruption dynamics: The Intelligence Community developed and disseminated new resources to bolster intelligence prioritization, collection and analysis on corrupt actors and their networks. USAID commissioned research on topics like countering corruption through social and behavioral change and State initiated an interagency anti-corruption learning agenda and a small grants program to support it.
    Deepening external partnerships: The United States convened a series of coordination meetings with other bilateral donors and philanthropies in order to harmonize our anti-corruption approaches and galvanized anti-corruption resources across the donor community through the Integrity for Development campaign. USAID’s Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development brought together technologists, businesses, activists, and others to collaboratively address concrete corruption challenges.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Chicago member bounces his way to gold

    Source: US International Brotherhood of Boilermakers

    Working in the union gives me the freedom of lifestyle. If I was working a regular job, I wouldn’t be able to train the way I did for this competition.

    Earl Pote, Local 1

    Earl Pote, a Local 1 Boilermaker from Chicago, discovered a fascination for pogo sticks at age 12, after seeing one at a local carnival. Decades later, his passion and dedication have secured him the 2024 Tech Pogo Stick World Championship, earned at the Pogo World Championships in Pittsburg last summer. He previously won gold in Tech in 2009 and 2010 and claimed silver in 2011, despite competing with a broken foot. 

    Pote said that from 2009 to 2011, he also competed in the Big Air competition, as well as in the Tech. He had to stop because he joined the military in 2012, and said he couldn’t risk getting severely injured while in the military. 

    Pote’s most recent victory came in the Tech category, which requires participants to use steel spring pogo sticks. The tech style keeps pogoers closer to the ground and focuses on technical skills, unlike other categories, like Big Air, which allow for pneumatic pogo sticks that are lighter and can bounce higher. 

    “Pogoing requires a lot of balance,” Pote explained. “The tech side, especially, requires a lot of balance. There are a lot of tricks that demand precise control. It comes with time and hours of practice.”

    Watch Earl Pote practice pogoing!

    Although his love for pogoing came first, joining the union gave him the freedom to practice the hundreds of hours needed to become a champion. 

    Pote’s journey into the Boilermakers began in February 2019, after serving six years in the United States Air Force. He discovered the union through Helmets to Hardhats, a program that helps military veterans transition into civilian trades. His military experience involved working on aircrew egress systems. Joining the union opened new doors for him and gave him a trade he could use to support himself and his pogo ambitions. 

    Before indenturing into the Boilermaker’s apprenticeship program, Pote had no welding experience. “I hadn’t even struck an arc,” he said. “I put a lot of time into learning how to weld. I’d be at the hall for eight hours a day practicing when I was laid off. I also learned layout, something I didn’t know how to do before becoming a Boilermaker.”

    His new boilermaker skills made it possible for Pote to begin crafting his own brand of pogo stick called The Reaper. He began fabricating them out of his garage after the company that originally produced tech pogo sticks stopped making them. He decided if he couldn’t buy the pogo stick he needed, he’d design one himself. 

    “I’m a Boilermaker at the end of the day, and I can make a pogo stick,” Pote said. 

    The biggest challenge he faced in creating The Reaper was sourcing the right spring. After struggling to find a manufacturer, he finally located one in Chicago. They produced a prototype, which he tested and approved with the help of a friend. 

    Pote used his own creation, The Reaper, to win the 2024 championship, a victory driven by skill, hours of practice, and the benefits of the union way of life.

    “Working in the union gives me the freedom of lifestyle,” Pote said. “If I was working a regular job, I wouldn’t be able to train the way I did for this competition.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Birdton — Have you seen this stolen trailer?

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    The Keswick RCMP Detachment is asking for the public’s help locating a stolen trailer from Birdton, N.B.

    The theft is believed to have occurred on September 30, at an open field on Crow Hill Road, in Birdton.

    The trailer is described as a white 2010 K-Z Cayote, with New Brunswick licence plate TPX 030, and vehicle identification number 4EZTC222XA8041333.

    Anyone with information about the theft, or who has seen the trailer since September 30, is asked to contact the Keswick RCMP at 506-357-4300. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), by downloading the secure P3 Mobile App, or by Secure Web Tips at http://www.crimenb.ca.

    MIL Security OSI –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Castroville Police Chief Convicted of Wire Fraud

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

    SAN ANTONIO – A federal jury convicted former Castroville Police Chief, Christopher Filline, for one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Filline, 58, developed a scheme in 2016 to defraud Farmers Insurance Group by destroying his vehicle that he insured through the company, and claiming it had been stolen. Filline arranged for two co-conspirators to take the vehicle and light it on fire using an accelerant. He subsequently filed a false report with the Lytle Police Department and an insurance claim with Farmers Insurance Group, declaring his vehicle had been stolen. The filing resulted in Filline receiving a $14,388.25 payment.

    Filline was indicted in January 2020. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentence hearing has been set for Jan. 22, 2025.

    U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.

    The FBI, Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Bexar County Fire Marshal’s Office investigated the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Greg Surovic and Christina Playton are prosecuting the case.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: O’Fallon, Missouri, Man Admits Child Sex Charges

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

    ST. LOUIS – A man from O’Fallon, Missouri on Wednesday admitted engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old that he met online and discussing child sex with another 15-year-old victim.

    Andrew Haller, 34, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to all of the charges he faced: two counts of coercion and enticement of a minor, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of receipt of child pornography.

    Haller admitted separately meeting two 15-year-old girls on Tumblr before moving their conversations to the encrypted app Telegram.

    The 15-year-old California victim told the FBI that Haller introduced the topic of “daddy dom,” and told her he was also sexually abusing another teen. Haller listed rules for the victim, including that she would have to ask his permission once a day to urinate, wear a collar at all times, and refer to him only as “Sir,” Dad” or “Daddy.” He also asked her for nude photos and sent her photos and videos of the other victim.

    After identifying Haller and performing a court-approved search of his home in November of 2023, the FBI identified the other victim. She told the FBI that she sent Haller sexually explicit photos at his direction. They met in person twice in 2023 and engaged in sexual activity. Haller struck her during the first visit and took pictures and videos of her, his plea says. He also discussed with her his desire to abuse children too young to talk or remember the abuse.

    Haller possessed 195 images and 92 videos of known or suspected child sexual abuse material, and sent that material to others via Telegram and Signal, another encrypted app, his plea says.

    Haller is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 28, 2025. The coercion charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and the child pornography charges each carry a five-year mandatory minimum sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes has agreed as part of the plea to ask for no more than 25 years in prison.

    The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes is prosecuting the case.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

    MIL Security OSI –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: Paytronix Gift Card Trend Report: Digital Card Sales Surge 7% Year over Year

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Paytronix, the leader in guest engagement for restaurants and convenience stores, today unveiled the much-anticipated 2024 Paytronix Gift Card Trend Report. It’s most robust to date, it finds that while the number of cards sold in 2023 is on par with 2022, overall revenue from gift card sales is up four percent year over year. Among Paytronix clients, the number of digital gift cards sold grew 7% in 2023 to make up 34% of the total gift card market and become the fastest-growing gift card segment

    Download the 2024 Paytronix Gift Card Report for all the numbers and insights.

    “Forward-thinking restaurants are embracing digital gift cards, offering seamless purchasing, sending, redemption, and reloading experiences through mobile apps and websites,” said Lee Barnes, the Chief Data Officer of Paytronix. “In our latest report we’re helping brands understand that, by viewing gift cards as more than just a sales channel, they can expand their reach, empower their advocates, drive loyalty, and create personalized experiences that keep guests coming back for more.”

    Adopting a Mobile-First Strategy
    The report explores why a mobile-first approach to digital gift cards is becoming increasingly important for restaurants. Mobile gift cards can easily integrate with a restaurant’s existing app, loyalty program, and online ordering system. This cohesion creates a unified digital ecosystem that deepens a guests’ experiences and keeps their favorite establishment at their fingertips.

    Mobile gift cards seamlessly merge with popular digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, allowing guests to easily store and access their gift cards for online orders and in-store purchases via NFC or QR code scans. A mobile-first approach to gift cards also provides valuable data on customer behaviors and preferences that can be used to create personalized promotions, fine-tune a loyalty program, and guide strategic business decisions.

    Key findings from the report include:

    Digital Cards Redeemed Twice as Fast – While unredeemed gift cards may seem profitable in the short term, encouraging swift redemption can cultivate lifelong customers. Report data reveals that the average online card was redeemed in 16.8 days, while cards purchased in-store took 35.3 days for redemption.

    Increasing Sales – Year-over-year gift card sales continue to increase with 2023 revenue up 6 percent over 2022. Digital gift cards grew the most with sales up 229% between 2019 and 2023. Gift card growth among full-service restaurants (FSRs) also jumped with sales up around 1% (2022, 2,259,621 to 2023 2,342,083).

    Most Popular – By far the most popular denomination are $25 cards, which made up 34% of cards sold in 2023. But $50 cards were the biggest mover with an increase of 17% in sales.

    Holiday Sales – Year-over-year change in holiday gift cards were up five percent, with 80 percent of all physical gift cards, both in-store and third-party, sold in November and December.

    Methodology
    The 2024 Paytronix Gift Card Report draws on data sourced from aggregate gift card sales for 241 merchants continually operating gift card programs between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2023. These merchants all had at least six months of gift card sales data starting in July 2018.

    About Paytronix
    Paytronix is the leader in Digital Customer Engagement for restaurants, convenience stores, and other retailers who seek to build lasting guest relationships. Paytronix continually advances digital guest engagement by developing technologies that uncover new insights about guest attitudes and behaviors that create brand preferences. For more information visit Paytronix.com.

    Media Contact:
    Calen McGee
    Paytronix Systems, Inc.
    cmcgee@paytronix.com
    646-957-7758

    The MIL Network –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI: MELD makes Strategic Investment in AI Wallet for the Future of Finance

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SINGAPORE, Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MELD, a crypto native Neobank has announced a strategic investment in Armor Wallet, an AI powered web3 wallet promising to revolutionize crypto investing for both new users and professional traders. In this strategic investment MELD is committing to a future vision of finance where AI drives the market.

    Today, professional institutions and traders have access to specialized AI tools giving them an edge against your average trader. Armor Wallet is building an AI powered wallet with autonomous agent technology to level the playing field and give the average user powerful AI tools to better compete.

    “This strategic partnership with Armor helps MELD build a future of finance where the average person can invest like a professional without specific knowledge or large budgets. “MELD brings investment products and Neobank technology and Armor brings mind blowing AI tools.”, says Ken Olling, founder of MELD.

    MELD has been building for three years towards a future where normal people can get access to financial tools normally only available to wealthy individuals or large corporations. Bringing these tools to the common investor means they get the most out of their money and see it grow. It’s not about saving the world, it’s about giving the bartender in Brazil the same opportunities that a stock broker in New York city has.

    Armor is a natural fix in the eyes of MELD because they are building a web3 wallet that is powered by a chatGPT style interface where a user can simply type what they want to do and the AI in concert with autonomous agents will execute those trades, no matter how complex or what time of day. A 24/7 trading desk that is always available and always working for you.

    The partnership involves both an investment of capital and also sharing of technology to build a more complete and cohesive set of financial tools. MELD will work to help integrate Armor more tightly into their service offering and Armor will use MELD and its services in the training of their AI as well as product integration.

    AI has a bright future in finance, but it’s not about telling the future price of Bitcoin, it’s about onboarding the next billion users into crypto in a way that’s easy, friendly and intuitive.

    About MELD
    MELD is a crypto native global neobank powered by the blockchain. Bringing fiat currencies like (30+ including USD and EUR) and crypto currencies (2000+ including BTC and ETH) together in one seamless wallet supporting more than 150+ countries. MELD makes it easy to navigate between these two worlds and get the best out of both. From generating a yield on your crypto to debit cards and business accounts, MELD brings fundamental banking services to everyone.

    The MELD blockchain powers more than just the MELD Neobank, with a non-custodial lending and borrowing protocol and more than 30 businesses building on MELD. Users interact with all of this through the MELD web and Mobile apps helping people and businesses take full advantage of both their crypto assets and fiat assets.

    You can follow the project and stay up to date with its development at these links: Website | X (Twitter) | Telegram |

    Contact:
    press@meld.com

    Disclaimer: This content is provided by MELD. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider. The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended you practice due diligence, including consultation with a professional financial advisor, before investing in or trading cryptocurrency and securities. Please conduct your own research and invest at your own risk.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5c1f5937-2055-4aa3-b863-f75e8c79c3c9

    The MIL Network –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Africa: African Development Bank Group Appoints Moono Mupotola as Deputy Director General for Southern Africa

    Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:

    ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, October 16, 2024/APO Group/ —

    The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has appointed Moono Mupotola, as Deputy Director General for the Southern Africa Regional Development, Integration and BusinessDelivery Office, effective 16th October 2024. 

    Mupotola, a Zambian national, brings over 25 years of development experience across Africa to her new role. Her expertise spans infrastructure development, trade and regional integration. Since December 2020, until her appointment, she served as the Bank’s Country Manager for Zimbabwe where she has been instrumental in the Bank’s support for the country’s re-engagement with the international community and in its efforts to address outstanding debt and arrears obligations. 

    Mupotola’s career at the African Development Bank began in 2009, when she was appointed Division Manager for Regional Integration and Trade. She was appointed Director of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Regional Integration and Trade in 2015, and Director of Regional Integration Coordination Office in 2018. 

    Her oversight of the Lusophone Compact, a program supporting the private sector in six Portugues-speaking African countries, demonstrated her commitment to advancing regional integration. She also initiated several vital programs, including the Bank’s Africa Trade Fund, the Visa Openness Index, and the Regional Integration Index with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission. 

    Mupotola managed the African Development Fund’s Regional Operations Envelope and oversaw the Bank’s regional project preparation facility. She led the Bank’s trade and regional integration agenda by supporting research, infrastructure projects, capacity-building programs and the reform of regulations and policies in regional member countries. 

    Before joining the African Development Bank Group, Mupotola held several senior positions. These included Regional Policy Specialist for the Food and Agriculture Organization in Zimbabwe, Trade Specialist at the Southern African Development Community Trade Hub in Botswana and Zimbabwe, and Division Head of Trade and Marketing at the Ministry of Agriculture in Namibia. She also served as a Researcher at the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit and a Banker at Zambia National Commercial Bank. 

    Mupotola holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Bennington College, Vermont, United States of America and an MPhil in Development and Sociology from Cambridge University, United Kingdom.  

    Commenting on her appointment, she said: “I am deeply honored by this opportunity and grateful to President Adesina for his trust and confidence in me. The role of Deputy Director General for the Southern Africa Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Office is challenging and exciting. I look forward to working efficiently with our teams and stakeholders to deliver on the Bank’s vision and High 5 priorities for sustainable development.” 

    Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, stated: “I am delighted to appoint Mrs. Moono Mupotola as Deputy Director General for the Southern Africa Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery Office. Moono has extensive experience in regional operations, having served previously as Director of Regional Operations. She was subsequently assigned to Zimbabwe as Country Manager. Moono has demonstrated exceptional leadership, diplomatic acumen and strong execution capacity in working with the Government of Zimbabwe and all the development partners in advancing the structured dialogues for the arrears clearance for Zimbabwe, as well as major reforms. Her astute leadership and experience and in-depth knowledge of the countries in the Southern Africa region will significantly advance the work and partnerships with the African Development Bank Group in the region.” 

    MIL OSI Africa –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Official Accused of Stealing Nearly $700,000 from St. Louis County Charity

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

    ST. LOUIS – A former official of a charity that houses adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities has been indicted and accused of embezzling about $690,000 over more than a decade.

    Joelle Fouse, 57, was indicted October 9 with three felony counts of wire fraud. She is surrendering Tuesday and will appear in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to plead not guilty.

    The indictment says that Fouse was the manager / director of finance and human resources for the charity from October 2012 through December 2023, when she was terminated. Fouse was responsible for payroll, expense reimbursement and maintaining the charity’s books and records. She stole from the charity in three ways, the indictment says. Fouse provided false information to a third-party payroll processing company that caused the company to make 71 unauthorized payments totaling $139,810 to multiple bank accounts controlled by Fouse, the indictment says. The indictment also accuses Fouse of triggering 181 unauthorized expense payments into bank accounts she controlled, totaling $407,186. Finally, Fouse allegedly used her company credit card to make184 unauthorized purchases totaling $133,210. The charity also overpaid the employer portion of payroll taxes by about $10,694 due to the inflated payroll, the indictment says.

    The indictment says Fouse took cash out of ATMs and used the charity’s funds for travel, clothing, entertainment, restaurant meals, rent payments and day-to-day expenses for herself and relatives. She tried to cover up her crimes by making false entries in financial and accounting records, it says.

    The charity contacted the FBI and cooperated with their investigation.

    Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt.  Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    Each wire fraud charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both prison and a fine.

    The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith is prosecuting the case. 

    MIL Security OSI –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Iranian Cyber Actors’ Brute Force and Credential Access Activity Compromises Critical Infrastructure Organizations

    Source: US Department of Homeland Security

    Summary

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) are releasing this joint Cybersecurity Advisory to warn network defenders of Iranian cyber actors’ use of brute force and other techniques to compromise organizations across multiple critical infrastructure sectors, including the healthcare and public health (HPH), government, information technology, engineering, and energy sectors. The actors likely aim to obtain credentials and information describing the victim’s network that can then be sold to enable access to cybercriminals.

    Since October 2023, Iranian actors have used brute force, such as password spraying, and multifactor authentication (MFA) ‘push bombing’ to compromise user accounts and obtain access to organizations. The actors frequently modified MFA registrations, enabling persistent access. The actors performed discovery on the compromised networks to obtain additional credentials and identify other information that could be used to gain additional points of access. The authoring agencies assess the Iranian actors sell this information on cybercriminal forums to actors who may use the information to conduct additional malicious activity.

    This advisory provides the actors’ tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs). The information is derived from FBI engagements with entities impacted by this malicious activity.

    The authoring agencies recommend critical infrastructure organizations follow the guidance provided in the Mitigations section. At a minimum, organizations should ensure all accounts use strong passwords and register a second form of authentication.

    Download the PDF version of this report:

    For a downloadable list of IOCs, see:

    Technical Details

    Note: This advisory uses the MITRE ATT&CK® for Enterprise framework, version 15. See the MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques section in Appendix A for a table of the actors’ activity mapped to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques.

    Overview of Activity

    The actors likely conduct reconnaissance operations to gather victim identity [T1589] information. Once obtained, the actors gain persistent access to victim networks frequently via brute force [T1110]. After gaining access, the actors use a variety of techniques to further gather credentials, escalate privileges, and gain information about the entity’s systems and network. The actors also move laterally and download information that could assist other actors with access and exploitation.

    Initial Access and Persistence

    The actors use valid user and group email accounts [T1078], frequently obtained via brute force such as password spraying [T1110.003] although other times via unknown methods, to obtain initial access to Microsoft 365, Azure [T1078.004], and Citrix systems [T1133]. In some cases where push notification-based MFA was enabled, the actors send MFA requests to legitimate users seeking acceptance of the request. This technique—bombarding users with mobile phone push notifications until the user either approves the request by accident or stops the notifications— is known as “MFA fatigue” or “push bombing” [T1621].

    Once the threat actors gain access to an account, they frequently register their devices with MFA to protect their access to the environment via the valid account:

    • In two confirmed compromises, the actors leveraged a compromised user’s open registration for MFA [T1556.006] to register the actor’s own device [T1098.005] to access the environment.
    • In another confirmed compromise, the actors used a self-service password reset (SSPR) tool associated with a public facing Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) to reset the accounts with expired passwords [T1484.002] and then registered MFA through Okta for compromised accounts without MFA already enabled [T1556] [T1556.006].

    The actors frequently conduct their activity using a virtual private network (VPN) service [T1572]. Several of the IP addresses in the actors’ malicious activity originate from exit nodes tied to the Private Internet Access VPN service.

    Lateral Movement

    The actors use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for lateral movement [T1021.001]. In one instance, the actors used Microsoft Word to open PowerShell to launch the RDP binary mstsc.exe [T1202].

    Credential Access

    The actors likely use open-source tools and methodologies to gather more credentials. The actors performed Kerberos Service Principal Name (SPN) enumeration of several service accounts and received Kerberos tickets [T1558.003]. In one instance, the actors used the Active Directory (AD) Microsoft Graph Application Program Interface (API) PowerShell application likely to perform a directory dump of all AD accounts. Also, the actors imported the tool [T1105] DomainPasswordSpray.ps1, which is openly available on GitHub [T1588.002], likely to conduct password spraying. The actors also used the command Cmdkey /list, likely to display usernames and credentials [T1555].

    Privilege Escalation

    In one instance, the actors attempted impersonation of the domain controller, likely by exploiting Microsoft’s Netlogon (also known as ”Zerologon”) privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2020-1472) [T1068].

    Discovery

    The actors leverage living off the land (LOTL) to gain knowledge about the target systems and internal networks. The actors used the following Windows command-line tools to gather information about domain controllers [T1018], trusted domains [T1482], lists of domain administrators, and enterprise administrators [T1087.002] [T1069.002] [T1069.003]:

    • Nltest /dclist
    • Nltest /domain_trusts
    • Nltest /domain_trusts/all_trusts
    • Net group “Enterprise admins” /domain
    • Net group “Domain admins” /domain

    Next, the actors used the following Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) query in PowerShell [T1059.001]to search the AD for computer display names, operating systems, descriptions, and distinguished names [T1082].

                                               $i=0
                                               $D= [System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory.Domain]::GetCurrentDomain()
                                               $L='LDAP://' . $D
                                               $D = [ADSI]$L
                                               $Date = $((Get-Date).AddDays(-90).ToFileTime())
                                               $str = '(&(objectcategory=computer)(operatingSystem=*serv*)(|(lastlogon>='+$Date+')(lastlogontimestamp>='+$Date+')))'
                                               $s = [adsisearcher]$str
                                               $s.searchRoot = $L.$D.distinguishedName
                                               $s.PropertiesToLoad.Add('cn') > $Null
                                               $s.PropertiesToLoad.Add('operatingsystem') > $Null
                                               $s.PropertiesToLoad.Add('description') > $Null
                                               $s.PropertiesToLoad.Add('distinguishedName') > $Null
                                               Foreach ($CA in $s.FindAll()) {
                                                             Write-Host $CA.Properties.Item('cn')
                                                             $CA.Properties.Item('operatingsystem')
                                                             $CA. Properties.Item('description')
                                                             $CA.Properties.Item('distinguishedName')
                                                             $i++
                                               }
                                               Write-host Total servers: $i

    Command and Control

    On one occasion, using msedge.exe, the actors likely made outbound connections to Cobalt Strike Beacon command and control (C2) infrastructure [T1071.001].

    Exfiltration and Collection

    In a couple instances, while logged in to victim accounts, the actors downloaded files related to gaining remote access to the organization and to the organization’s inventory [T1005], likely exfiltrating the files to further persist in the victim network or to sell the information online.

    Detection

    To detect brute force activity, the authoring agencies recommend reviewing authentication logs for system and application login failures of valid accounts and looking for multiple, failed authentication attempts across all accounts.

    To detect the use of compromised credentials in combination with virtual infrastructure, the authoring agencies recommend the following steps:

    • Look for “impossible logins,” such as suspicious logins with changing usernames, user agent strings, and IP address combinations or logins where IP addresses do not align to the user’s expected geographic location.
    • Look for one IP used for multiple accounts, excluding expected logins.
    • Look for “impossible travel.” Impossible travel occurs when a user logs in from multiple IP addresses with significant geographic distance (i.e., a person could not realistically travel between the geographic locations of the two IP addresses during the period between the logins). Note: Implementing this detection opportunity can result in false positives if legitimate users apply VPN solutions before connecting into networks.
    • Look for MFA registrations with MFA in unexpected locales or from unfamiliar devices.
    • Look for processes and program execution command-line arguments that may indicate credential dumping, especially attempts to access or copy the ntds.dit file from a domain controller.
    • Look for suspicious privileged account use after resetting passwords or applying user account mitigations.
    • Look for unusual activity in typically dormant accounts.
    • Look for unusual user agent strings, such as strings not typically associated with normal user activity, which may indicate bot activity.

    Mitigations

    The authoring agencies recommend organizations implement the mitigations below to improve organizations’ cybersecurity posture based on the actors’ TTPs described in this advisory. These mitigations align with the Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) developed by CISA. The CPGs, which are organized to align to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, are a subset of cybersecurity practices, aimed at meaningfully reducing risks to both critical infrastructure operations and the American people. These voluntary CPGs strive to help small- and medium-sized organizations kick-start their cybersecurity efforts by prioritizing investment in a limited number of essential actions with high-impact security outcomes. Visit CISA’s Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals for more information on the CPGs, including additional recommended baseline protections.

    • Review IT helpdesk password management related to initial passwords, password resets for user lockouts, and shared accounts. IT helpdesk password procedures may not align to company policy for user verification or password strength, creating a security gap. Avoid common passwords (e.g. “Spring2024” or “Password123!”).
    • Disable user accounts and access to organizational resources for departing staff [CPG 2.D]. Disabling accounts can minimize system exposure, removing options actors can leverage for entry into the system. Similarly, create new user accounts as close as possible to an employee’s start date.
    • Implement phishing-resistant MFA [CPG 2.H]. See CISA’s resources Phishing-Resistant Multifactor Authentication and More than a Password for additional information on strengthening user credentials.
    • Continuously review MFA settings to ensure coverage over all active, internet-facing protocols to ensure no exploitable services are exposed [CPG 2.W].
    • Provide basic cybersecurity training to users [CPG 2.I] covering concepts such as:
      • Detecting unsuccessful login attempts [CPG 2.G].
      • Having users deny MFA requests they have not generated.
      • Ensuring users with MFA-enabled accounts have MFA set up appropriately.
    • Ensure password policies align with the latest NIST Digital Identity Guidelines.
      • Meeting the minimum password strength [CPG 2.B] by creating a password using 8-64 nonstandard characters and long passphrases, when possible.
    • Disable the use of RC4 for Kerberos authentication.

    These mitigations apply to critical infrastructure entities across sectors.

    The authoring agencies also recommend software manufacturers incorporate secure by design principles and tactics into their software development practices to protect their customers against actors using compromised credentials, thereby strengthening the security posture of their customers.  For more information on secure by design, see CISA’s Secure by Design webpage and joint guide.

    Validate Security Controls

    In addition to applying mitigations, the authoring agencies recommend exercising, testing, and validating organization security programs against the threat behaviors mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK for Enterprise framework in this advisory. The authoring agencies recommend testing your existing security controls inventory to assess how they perform against the ATT&CK techniques described in this advisory.

    To get started:

    1. Select an ATT&CK technique described in this advisory (see Table 1 to Table 12).
    2. Align your security technologies against the technique.
    3. Test your technologies against the technique.
    4. Analyze your detection and prevention technologies’ performance.
    5. Repeat the process for all security technologies to obtain a set of comprehensive performance data.
    6. Tune your security program, including people, processes, and technologies, based on the data generated by this process.

    The authoring agencies recommend continually testing your security program, at scale, in a production environment to ensure optimal performance against the MITRE ATT&CK techniques identified in this advisory.

    Contact Information

    Organizations are encouraged to report suspicious or criminal activity related to information in this advisory to:

    • CISA via CISA’s 24/7 Operations Center [report@cisa.gov or 1-844-Say-CISA (1-844-729-2472)] or your local FBI field office. When available, please include the following information regarding the incident: date, time, and location of the incident; type of activity; number of people affected; type of equipment used for the activity; the name of the submitting company or organization; and a designated point of contact.
    • For NSA cybersecurity guidance inquiries, contact CybersecurityReports@nsa.gov.

    Disclaimer

    The information in this report is being provided “as is” for informational purposes only. The authoring agencies do not endorse any commercial entity, product, company, or service, including any entities, products, or services linked within this document. Any reference to specific commercial entities, products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the authoring agencies.

    Intrusion events connected to this Iranian group may also include a different set of cyber actors–likely the third-party actors who purchased access from the Iranian group via cybercriminal forums or other channels. As a result, some TTPs and IOCs noted in this advisory may be tied to these third-party actors, not the Iranian actors. The TTPs and IOCs are in the advisory to provide recipients the most complete picture of malicious activity that may be observed on compromised networks. However, exercise caution if formulating attribution assessments based solely on matching TTPs and IOCs.

    Version History

    October 2, 2024: Initial version.

    Appendix A: MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques

    See Tables 1–12 for all referenced actors’ tactics and techniques in this advisory. For assistance with mapping malicious cyber activity to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, see CISA and MITRE ATT&CK’s Best Practices for MITRE ATT&CK Mapping and CISA’s Decider Tool.

    Table 1: Reconnaissance
    Technique Title  ID Use
    Gather Victim Identity Information T1589 The actors likely gathered victim information.
    Table 2: Resource Development
    Technique Title  ID Use
    Obtain Capabilities: Tool T1588.002 The actors obtained a password spray tool through an open-source repository.
    Table 3: Initial Access
    Technique Title ID Use
    Valid Accounts T1078 The actors used password spraying to obtain valid user and group email account credentials, allowing them access to the network.
    Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts T1078.004 The actors used accounts hosted on Microsoft 365, Azure, and Okta cloud environments as additional methods for initial access.
    External Remote Services T1133 The actors exploited Citrix systems’ external-facing remote services as another method for gaining initial access to the system.
    Table 4: Execution
    Technique Title  ID Use
    Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell T1059.001 The actors used PowerShell commands to maintain and expand access.
    Table 5: Persistence
    Technique Title ID Use
    Account Manipulation: Device Registration T1098.005 The actors used PowerShell commands to maintain and expand access.
    Modify Authentication Process T1556 The actors used a public facing Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) domain to reset the passwords of expired accounts.
    Modify Authentication Process: Multi-Factor Authentication T1556.006 The actors used an MFA bypass method, such as Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation, providing the ability to modify or completely disable MFA defenses.
    Table 6: Privilege Escalation
    Technique Title ID Use
    Exploitation for Privilege Escalation T1068 The actors attempted impersonation of the domain controller likely by exploiting CVE-2020-1472, Microsoft’s Netlogon Privilege Escalation vulnerability.
    Domain or Tenant Policy Modification: Trust Modification T1484.002 The actors leveraged a public-facing ADFS password reset tool to reactivate inactive accounts, allowing the actor to authenticate and enroll their devices as any user in the AD managed by the victim tenant.
    Table 7: Defense Evasion
    Technique Title ID Use
    Indirect Command Execution T1202 The actors attempted impersonation of the Domain Controller likely by exploiting CVE-2020-1472, Microsoft’s Netlogon Privilege Escalation vulnerability.
    Table 8: Credential Access
    Technique Title ID Use
    Brute Force: Password Spraying T1110.003 The actors targeted applications, including Single Sign-on (SSO) Microsoft Office 365, using brute force password sprays and imported the tool DomainPasswordSpray.ps1.
    Credentials from Password Stores T1555 The actors used the command Cmdkey /list likely to display usernames and credentials.
    Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Kerberoasting T1558.003 The actors performed Kerberos Service Principal Name (SPN) enumeration of several service accounts and received Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) tickets.
    Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation T1621 The actors sent MFA requests to legitimate users.
    Table 9: Discovery
    Technique Title ID Use
    Remote System Discovery T1018 The actors used LOTL to return information about domain controllers.
    Permission Groups Discovery: Domain Groups T1069.002 The actors used LOTL to return lists of domain administrators and enterprise administrators.
    Permission Groups Discovery: Cloud Groups T1069.003 The actors used LOTL to return lists of domain administrators and enterprise administrators.
    System Information Discovery  T1082 The actors were able to query the AD to discover display names, operating systems, descriptions, and distinguished names from the computer.
    Account Discovery: Domain Account T1087.002 The actors used LOTL to return lists of domain administrators and enterprise administrators.
    Domain Trust Discovery T1482 The actors used LOTL to return information about trusted domains.
    Table 10: Lateral Movement
    Technique Title  ID Use
    Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol T1021.001 The actors used Microsoft Word to open PowerShell to launch RDP binary mstsc.exe.
    Table 11: Collection
    Technique Title ID Use
    Data from Local System T1005 The actors downloaded files related to remote access methods and the organization’s inventory.
    Table 12: Command and Control
    Technique Title ID Use
    Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols T1071.001 The actors used msedge.exe to make outbound connections likely to Cobalt Strike Beacon C2 infrastructure.
    Ingress Tool Transfer T1105 The actors imported a tool from GitHub and used it to conduct password spraying.
    Protocol Tunneling T1572 The actors frequently conduct targeting using a virtual private network (VPN).

    Appendix B: Indicators of Compromise

    See Tables 13 to 15 for IOCs obtained from FBI investigations.

    Table 13: Malicious Files Associated with Iranian Cyber Actors
    Hash Description
    1F96D15B26416B2C7043EE7172357AF3AFBB002A Associated with malicious activity.
    3D3CDF7CFC881678FEBCAFB26AE423FE5AA4EFEC Associated with malicious activity.

    Disclaimer: The authoring organizations recommend network defenders investigate or vet IP addresses prior to taking action, such as blocking, as many cyber actors are known to change IP addresses, sometimes daily, and some IP addresses may host valid domains. Many of the IP addresses provided below are assessed VPN nodes and as such are not exclusive to the Iranian actors’ use. The authoring organizations do not recommend blocking these IP addresses based solely on their inclusion in this JCSA. The authoring organizations recommend using the below IP addresses to search for previous activity the actors may have conducted against networks. If positive hits for these IP addresses are identified, the authoring organizations recommend making an independent determination if the observed activity aligns with the TTPs outlined in the JCSA. The timeframes included in the table reflect the timeframe the actors likely used the IPs.

    Table 14: Network Indicators
    IP Address Date Range
    95.181.234.12 01/30/2024 to 02/07/2024
    95.181.234.25 01/30/2024 to 02/07/2024
    173.239.232.20 10/06/2023 to 12/19/2023
    172.98.71.191 10/15/2023 to 11/27/2023
    102.129.235.127 10/21/2023 to 10/22/2023
    188.126.94.60 10/22/2023 to 01/12/2024
    149.40.50.45 10/26/2023
    181.214.166.59 10/26/2023
    212.102.39.212 10/26/2023
    149.57.16.134 10/26/2023 to 10/27/2023
    149.57.16.137 10/26/2023 to 10/27/2023
    102.129.235.186 10/29/2023 to 11/08/2023
    46.246.8.138 10/31/2023 to 01/26/2024
    149.57.16.160 11/08/2023
    149.57.16.37 11/08/2023
    46.246.8.137 11/17/2023 to 01/25/2024
    212.102.57.29 11/19/2023 to 01/17/2024
    46.246.8.82 11/22/2023 to 01/28/2024
    95.181.234.15 11/26/2023 to 02/07/2024
    45.88.97.225 11/27/2023 to 02/11/2024
    84.239.45.17 12/04/2023 to 12/07/2023
    46.246.8.104 12/07/2023 to 02/07/2024
    37.46.113.206 12/07/2023
    46.246.3.186 12/07/2023 to 12/09/2023
    46.246.8.141 12/07/2023 to 02/10/2024
    46.246.8.17 12/09/2023 to 01/09/2024
    37.19.197.182 12/15/2023
    154.16.192.38 12/25/2023 to 01/24/2024
    102.165.16.127 12/27/2023 to 01/28/2024
    46.246.8.47 12/29/2023 to 01/29/2024
    46.246.3.225 12/30/2023 to 02/06/2024
    46.246.3.226 12/31/2023 to 02/03/2024
    46.246.3.240 12/31/2023 to 02/06/2024
    191.101.217.10 01/05/2024
    102.129.153.182 01/08/2024
    46.246.3.196 01/08/2024
    102.129.152.60 01/09/2024
    156.146.60.74 01/10/2024
    191.96.227.113 01/10/2024
    191.96.227.122 01/10/2024
    181.214.166.132 01/11/2024
    188.126.94.57 01/11/2024 to 01/13/2024
    154.6.13.144 01/13/2024 to 01/24/2024
    154.6.13.151 01/13/2024 to 01/28/2024
    188.126.94.166 01/15/2024
    89.149.38.204 01/18/2024
    46.246.8.67 01/20/2024
    46.246.8.53 01/22/2024
    154.16.192.37 01/24/2024
    191.96.150.14 01/24/2024
    191.96.150.96 01/24/2024
    46.246.8.10 01/24/2024
    84.239.25.13 01/24/2024
    154.6.13.139 01/26/2024
    191.96.106.33 01/26/2024
    191.96.227.159 01/26/2024
    149.57.16.150 01/27/2024
    191.96.150.21 01/27/2024
    46.246.8.84 01/27/2024
    95.181.235.8 01/27/2024
    191.96.227.102 01/27/2024 to 01/28/2024
    46.246.122.185 01/28/2024
    146.70.102.3 01/29/2024 to 01/30/2024
    46.246.3.233 01/30/2024 to 02/15/2024
    46.246.3.239 01/30/2024 to 02/15/2024
    188.126.89.35 02/03/2024
    46.246.3.223 02/03/2024
    46.246.3.245 02/05/2024 to 02/06/2024
    191.96.150.50 02/09/2024
    Table 15: Devices
    Device Type Description
    Samsung Galaxy A71 (SM-A715F) Registered with MFA
    Samsung SM-G998B Registered with MFA
    Samsung SM-M205F Registered with MFA

    MIL Security OSI –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: 2025 Medicare Advantage and Part D Star Ratings

    Source: US Department of Health and Human Services

    Note: The information included in this Fact Sheet is based on the 2025 Star Ratings published on the Medicare Plan Finder on October 10, 2024. For details on the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Star Ratings, please refer to the 2025 Part C & D Star Ratings Technical Notes available at http://go.cms.gov/partcanddstarratings.

    Introduction

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Halloween events with Leeds City Council

    Source: City of Leeds

    Halloween Trail at Leeds City Museum

    Dare to explore a Halloween trail with artworks created by local schools, families, and our arts and crafts groups inspired by Halloween themed objects in the museum. Along the way, learn fun Halloween facts about the history of the holiday and how it’s celebrated around the world.

    Friday 25 October to Friday 29 November, cost: free

    Find out more: Halloween Trail https://bit.ly/3U8zXbY
     

    Once Upon a Nightmare: Twisted Tales Unveiled at Lotherton

    Experience a spine-chilling experience for brave souls aged 8 to 15. Step into the pages of twisted fairy tales and witness the serene grounds of Lotherton transform into a haunting world where your favourite fairy tale characters live out their darkest versions of reality.

    Friday 25 to Thursday 31 October, 5pm to 8:30pm, cost: £12.50 (£10 for children with a Breeze Pass/Lotherton members)

    Find out more: Once Upon a Nightmare: Twisted Tales Unveiled https://bit.ly/3Y3xQHr

    Spooky Skeleton Safari at Tropical World

    With Tropical World decorated for Halloween, come and explore the indoor zoo over the October half term. Uncover a host of spooky animal skeletons hidden in their mangroves, rainforest and enclosures, and discover interesting facts as you take part in the trail.

    Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November, cost: adults – £8.40, children 3 to 15 – £4.20, under 3s free

    Find out more: Spooky Skeleton Safari https://bit.ly/3ZZTK0I

    Spooky Skeletons: Scarytales at Lotherton


    This is a daytime event perfect for all ages. As you follow the twisted fairytales trail through the haunting grounds, gardens and house at Lotherton, all is not as it seems. Rattle your bones as you come face-to-face with a series of skeletons – making themselves at home and reimagining classic tales with a Halloween twist.

    Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November, cost: included in admission to Lotherton

    Find out more: Spooky Skeletons: Scarytales https://bit.ly/3ZX7N7v

    Halloween Hauntings at Temple Newsam

    Temple Newsam is infamous for its ghostly residents. Visit over October half term for spooky family fun. Enjoy the themed rooms and creepy crafts.  Staff will be hand to tell you eerie stories of past residents.

    Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November, cost: included in admission to Temple Newsam

    Find out more: Halloween Hauntings at Temple Newsam https://bit.ly/3Yijh49

    Spooky Streets: Halloween at Abbey House Museum

    Wander the museum’s Spooky Streets to encounter scary spiders, wicked witches, wily wolves, beguiling bats and skeletons pulling pints! Come dressed as your favourite Halloween character and pose for petrifying pics. There will be a terrifying trail and creepy competitions as you go around the museum and a monster bag of crafts and activities to take home.

    Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November, cost: included in admission to Abbey House Museum

    Find out more: Spooky Streets: Halloween at Abbey House Museum https://bit.ly/3Yjbumx

    Haunted Halloween Hunt at Kirkstall Abbey

    Join the Abbey’s family trail through the ruins to find creepy creatures, spooky statues and peculiar props. It’s not too scary so suitable for all the family.

    Saturday 26 October to Sunday 3 November, cost: included in admission to Kirkstall Abbey (free for Leeds residents)

    Find out more: Haunted Halloween Hunt https://bit.ly/3Nt4Xzn

    Calacas Crafts at Leeds City Museum

    Celebrate Mexican and Latin American artists by designing your own Day of the Dead mask or assembling your own flower crown. To help celebrate Day of the Dead at Leeds City Museum, your family can also add to one of their giant skull paintings!

    Tuesday 29 to Thursday 31 October, 10am to 12pm and 1pm to 3pm, cost: free

    Find out more: Half Term: Calacas Crafts https://bit.ly/4dDEqu4

    Leeds Zine Library Lates! Hallow’zine at Leeds Central Library

    Join the libraries team on the spookiest month for their Halloween edition of the zine library lates. There will be cats, bats and a monster of a party! On the night you can make a spooky zine, create some monster badges, and sew felt creatures all while enjoying their Halloween playlist.

    Wednesday 30 October, 5:30pm to 7:30pm, cost: free

    Find out more: Leeds Zine Library Lates! Hallow’zine https://bit.ly/4dCQ5Jy


    Spooktacular Family Day at Leeds Central Library

    Join authors and artists for spine-tingling stories, creepy draw-a-longs, and eerie activities.

    A light breakfast and drinks will be available on arrival, bring your own packed lunch and spooky outfits are encouraged. Family friendly and most suitable to children aged 6 years and over. A BSL interpreter will be present at all author talks in the Tiled Hall and at Jack’s Ghastly Masterclass.

    Thursday 31 October, 10:15am to 2:30pm, cost: free

    Find out more: Spooktacular Family Day https://bit.ly/4eBCp2P

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Jobs fair to showcase careers in care

    Source: City of Sunderland

    Those looking for careers in social care can take advantage of a free recruitment fair showcasing opportunities in the sector later this month.

    Sunderland Care and Support (SCAS), one of the largest social care providers in the region, will hold a recruitment fayre on Thursday 24 October at the Leechmere Centre, where attendees will be able to find out more about working in care, meet staff and senior managers, and even get support with applying for roles.

    Councillor Kelly Chequer, Sunderland City Council’s Cabinet member for Health, Wellbeing and Safer Communities, said: “As a leading provider of adult care services for some of the most vulnerable individuals in our community, SCAS operates a diverse range of vital services designed to support those with conditions ranging from autism to mental health challenges to complex needs.

    “The people working in these roles make a huge difference to people’s lives and if you think you could be one of them, I would encourage you to come along to this recruitment event to find out more about a rewarding career in social care.”

    Among the roles being recruited as SCAS are jobs relating to:

    • Supported Living Services
    • Day Services
    • Short Breaks
    • Planned Care and Reablement Services
    • Community Equipment
    • Community and Bed-Based Intermediate Care
    • Digital and Telecare Services
    • Business Relationship Teams

    The Sunderland Care and Support Recruitment Fayre will be held at the Leechmere Centre, Carrmere Road, Sunderland, SR2 9TQ on Thursday 24 October from 4-8pm.

    Anyone interested in finding out more is welcome to drop in during the session.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Inflation, trade uncertainty and labour gaps cloud business outlook, says new global survey of chambers

    Source: International Chamber of Commerce

    Headline: Inflation, trade uncertainty and labour gaps cloud business outlook, says new global survey of chambers

    The findings of the ICC World Chambers Federation (WCF) 2024 Global Economic Survey capture perspectives from businesses on key economic and sustainability issues across economies that collectively account for 90% of global GDP.    

    Commenting at the launch of the survey results in Istanbul, ICC Secretary General John W.H Denton AO said: 

    “As the voice of the real economy worldwide, ICC has leveraged its unique institutional reach to provide a comprehensive global picture of the realities of doing business in today’s increasingly complex environment. We hope this real-time data will help shape the strategic response of governments to the key challenges faced by MSMEs.”  

    Global business environment  

    Rising prices and labour costs were cited as a significant challenge in the majority of countries surveyed, with more than 80% of respondents expressing concern that cost pressures will persist into 2025 — casting doubt on recent claims from prominent economists that inflation is “no longer a thing”.  

    Inflation has translated into significantly higher staffing costs for businesses in some 44 countries— a trend exacerbated in several regions by skills shortages in the local workforce, most notably North America and Europe.   

    The economic environment and tight financial conditions have hindered access to finance where findings show that high interest rates are limiting access to credit particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (80%), Latin America and the Caribbean (63%) and South Asia (60%). 

    Trade uncertainty was cited as a challenge by 50% of chamber respondents — with concerns highest in East Asia and Pacific (69%) the Middle East and North Africa (60%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (50%).   

    Despite these challenges, the respondents in more than 50% of countries covered by the survey expressed cautious optimism for the outlook for business in their respective economies — suggesting a large degree of resilience in the face of economic and operational risk.  

    Mr Denton added:

    “Though headline rates of inflation have generally receded in recent months, the impact of the price surge seen from 2022 is clearly having a sustained impact on the private sector in many countries. We need policymakers to be sensitive to the disconnect between macroeconomic data and the day-to-day experience of local businesses.” 

    Outlook on climate action  

    One month before the United Nations climate summit COP29, the survey also looked at the experience of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in transitioning to climate-friendly business models.  

    In developing economies, chambers pointed to difficulties SMEs face in accessing clean sources of energy — both from national grids or decentralised generation.   

    In advanced economies, SMEs are held back by a perceived lack of access to cutting-edge green technologies and limited in-house capacity to implement emissions reductions programmes.   

    In both developed and developing economies, access to cost-effective finance to enable investments in decarbonisation was cited as a major challenge — pointing to the need for enhanced public support to enable SMEs to adopt green technologies and upgrade existing facilities.  

    Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Chair of the ICC World Chambers Federation added:

    “This survey highlights the crucial role chambers of commerce worldwide play as private sector champions. They are deeply in touch with the grassroots realities of doing business while maintaining a global perspective and remaining connected through our ICC World Chambers Federation.”   

    Read more and download the full report. 

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Two Weeks Later: Action Needed from Governor Whitmer Following CCP Spying

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Moolenaar (4th District of Michigan)

    Headline: Two Weeks Later: Action Needed from Governor Whitmer Following CCP Spying

    Two weeks after five Chinese nationals who were studying at the University of Michigan were charged with spying on Michigan National Guard (MNG) assets at Camp Grayling more action is needed from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the commander-in-chief of the MNG, to secure Camp Grayling and prevent espionage in Michigan.   

    Governor Whitmer needs to:

    • Cancel the millions of dollars in state funding for CCP-affiliated Gotion to bring 20-50 Chinese nationals to build and operate a battery component facility that is less than 100 miles from Camp Grayling. 
    • Issue a statement regarding the CCP espionage incident at Michigan’s largest military base.
    • Answer questions about why the Michigan National Guard failed to stop the espionage from occurring.
    • Call on the University of Michigan to end its partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The U-M students charged with spying were studying at U-M as part of U-M’s partnership with SJTU. SJTU is linked to the cyber-spying unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
    • Call on the legislature to bar U-M from using state funding to support its joint institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

    After federal charges were announced against the U-M students on October 2, Congressman John Moolenaar again called on Whitmer to end state funding for Gotion. He also called for the University of Michigan to shut down its joint institute with SJTU. 

    This is the second time during Whitmer’s governorship that Chinese nationals at U-M have been caught spying on U.S. military installations.  

    Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported the FBI is aware of over 100 incidents of Chinese nationals gate crashing at sensitive sites across the US in the past three years. When asked if the CCP would utilize the Gotion plant for this kind of espionage, Bill Evanina, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center responded, “100%.” 

    Additionally, earlier this year, Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified to Congress that the planned Gotion site would be used for espionage by the CCP. He said, “I don’t think there’s any question that they are going to take advantage of that situation and I think we have to be very vigilant about what the hell is going on.” 

    In January 2024, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to Congress that allowing CCP-affiliated businesses to operate in the United States “can still raise national security concerns because it provides a vehicle for [the CCP] to, if they want to leverage that access, to conduct surveillance or other operations that undermine our national security, and we’ve seen time and time again, where they have used that access, leveraged that access, to do that.”

    Finally, the Department of Defense is prohibited from purchasing products from Gotion because of Gotion High-Tech’s partnerships with China’s People’s Liberation Army.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Governor Lamont and Secretary Thomas Remind Connecticut Voters That 14 Days of Early Voting Begins Monday, October 21

    Source: US State of Connecticut

    (HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont and Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas today are reminding voters in Connecticut that a 14-day period of early voting for the 2024 general election is set to begin on Monday, October 21, 2024.

    Early voting provides all voters with the opportunity to cast their ballots in-person on a day of their choosing in advance of Election Day – including on two separate weekends – creating more convenience for voters and encouraging greater participation in elections.

    This is the first time in history that early voting is being offered in Connecticut for a general election, making the state one of the last in the nation to enact a system of early voting. Connecticut was the 47th state to adopt early voting.

    “Connecticut is finally joining the rest of the nation by having a system of early voting, and our hope is that the convenience this creates will encourage more people to vote,” Governor Lamont said. “Early voting is nearly identical to voting on Election Day with two main differences. First, instead of going to your normal polling place, every town has at least one designated location where all early voting for that town is held. Most towns are choosing to do their early voting at their town hall, however it may vary, so check for your town’s early voting location before you go. Second, all ballots cast during the early voting period will remain secured and unopened until Election Day, when election officials begin the counting process.”

    “After years of waiting, voters will no longer need to worry that an emergency or unexpected event could prevent them from casting their vote,” Secretary Thomas said. “Early voting provides every type of Connecticut voter, from seniors, parents, and students, to commuters, those who work long hours, and anyone with an unreliable schedule. Together with our office, registrars of voters and town clerks have worked diligently and collaboratively on a nonpartisan basis all year on the roll out of early voting in order to ensure a safe, secure election for all.”

    “Early voting offers convenience and flexibility in voting, ensuring that your voice is heard without the constraints of a single Election Day,” Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz said. “Many people do not have the privilege of flexible work hours, reliable childcare options, or circumstances that allow them to cast their vote on Election Day. That’s why almost every other state in the country offers an early voting option, and now Connecticut residents have the choice too. So, whether you’re busy on Election Day or just prefer to vote at your own pace, early voting empowers you to participate in shaping the future of our democracy.”

    A list containing each town’s designated early voting location can be found online at myvote.ct.gov. Voters can also check the website of their town’s registrar of voters for location information. Voters can only vote in the town in which they are registered.

    The 14 days of early voting and their hours of operation for the 2024 general election are as follows:

    1. Monday, October 21, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    2. Tuesday, October 22, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    3. Wednesday, October 23, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    4. Thursday, October 24, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    5. Friday, October 25, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    6. Saturday, October 26, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    7. Sunday, October 27, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    8. Monday, October 28, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    9. Tuesday, October 29, 2024 – 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
    10. Wednesday, October 30, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    11. Thursday, October 31, 2024 – 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
    12. Friday, November 1, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    13. Saturday, November 2, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
    14. Sunday, November 3, 2024 – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

    Election Day is on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, and all polling places in Connecticut will be open like normal from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

    Election officials in every town keep a record of every voter who has voted early, preventing them from voting early at any other location, submitting an absentee ballot, or voting on Election Day.

    For more information about voting in Connecticut, visit myvote.ct.gov.

     

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA’s Hubble Sees a Stellar Volcano

    Source: NASA

    NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided a dramatic and colorful close-up look at one of the most rambunctious stars in our galaxy, weaving a huge spiral pattern among the stars.

    Located approximately 700 light-years away, a binary star system called R Aquarii undergoes violent eruptions that blast out huge filaments of glowing gas. The twisted stellar outflows make the region look like a lawn sprinkler gone berserk. This dramatically demonstrates how the universe redistributes the products of nuclear energy that form deep inside stars and jet back into space.

    R Aquarii belongs to a class of double stars called symbiotic stars. The primary star is an aging red giant and its companion is a compact burned-out star known as a white dwarf. The red giant primary star is classified as a Mira variable that is over 400 times larger than our Sun. The bloated monster star pulsates, changes temperature, and varies in brightness by a factor of 750 times over a roughly 390-day period. At its peak the star is blinding at nearly 5,000 times our Sun’s brightness.

    When the white dwarf star swings closest to the red giant along its 44-year orbital period, it gravitationally siphons off hydrogen gas. This material accumulates on the dwarf star’s surface until it undergoes spontaneous nuclear fusion, making that surface explode like a gigantic hydrogen bomb. After the outburst, the fueling cycle begins again.

    This outburst ejects geyser-like filaments shooting out from the core, forming weird loops and trails as the plasma emerges in streamers. The plasma is twisted by the force of the explosion and channeled upwards and outwards by strong magnetic fields. The outflow appears to bend back on itself into a spiral pattern. The plasma is shooting into space over 1 million miles per hour – fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 15 minutes! The filaments are glowing in visible light because they are energized by blistering radiation from the stellar duo.

    Hubble first observed the star in 1990. R Aquarii was resolved into two very bright stars separated by about 1.6 billion miles. The ESA/Hubble team now has made a unique timelapse of R Aquarii’s dynamic behavior, from observations spanning from 2014 to 2023. Across the five images, the rapid and dramatic evolution of the binary star and its surrounding nebula can be seen. The binary star dims and brightens due to strong pulsations in the red giant star.

    The scale of the event is extraordinary even in astronomical terms. Space-blasted material can be traced out to at least 248 billion miles from the stars, or 24 times our solar system’s diameter. Images like these and more from Hubble are expected to revolutionize our ideas about such unique stellar “volcanoes” as R Aquarii.

    The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

    Media Contact:

    Claire AndreoliNASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MDclaire.andreoli@nasa.gov

    Ray VillardSpace Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD

    Bethany DownerESA/Hubble

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Manitoba Government is Prepared for Respiratory Virus Season

    Source: Government of Canada regional news

    October 16, 2024

    Manitoba Government is Prepared for Respiratory Virus Season

    The Manitoba Government is prepared for the respiratory virus season with a comprehensive strategy designed to reduce the strain on the health-care system and keep Manitobans healthy, safe and informed, Health Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced today.

    “I encourage every Manitoban to get vaccinated and keep yourself, your loved ones and your broader community safe,” said Asagwara. “The previous government failed to prepare for respiratory virus season, they made cuts to health care and refused to listen to front-line workers. We’ve made significant progress in one year and the system is prepared to meet an increased need for care during this difficult season.”

    Preparation includes:

    • building up intensive care unit (ICU) and acute care beds so that everyone gets the care they need:
    • the Manitoba government has newly funded 18 ICU beds, for a total of 110 adult ICU beds, and eight pediatric ICU (PICU) beds, plus four step-down beds, for a total of 21 PICU beds; and
    • the Manitoba government has opened 112 acute care beds with a plan to open 70 more, 43 transitional care unit beds and 27 more opening in the coming months.  
    • vaccines to protect Manitobans and their loved ones:
    • influenza (flu) and COVID-19 vaccines are available at medical clinics, ACCESS centres, vaccine clinics, pharmacies, nursing stations and through public health;
    • the Manitoba government is providing the RSV vaccine free of charge to seniors over the age of 60, living in a long-term care home, and encouraging residents to get vaccinated through their long-term care facility; and
    • the Manitoba government launched a provincewide ad campaign to inform Manitobans about respiratory virus season and encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as they are able.

    The minister noted the government knows staffing is critical when it comes to beds and the Manitoba government hired 873 net new health-care workers to the system in six months, marking over halfway to its goal of hiring 1,000 healthcare workers this year.

    “Considerable planning has occurred within the health system in an effort to mitigate or minimize service disruptions during respiratory virus season,” said Dr. Jose Francois, chief medical officer, Shared Health. “This planning has been strongly supported by our partners in government, who have worked in collaboration with clinical leaders to ensure Manitoba’s health system is as fully prepared as it possibly can be for the coming respiratory virus season.”

    Information and resources regarding the vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases, including resources for prevention, treatment and care of affected individuals in Manitoba, is provided at http://www.manitoba.ca/vaccine.

    – 30 –

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Tonko, Turner Launch Inquiry to Ensure Access to Addiction Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Paul Tonko (Capital Region New York)

    ALBANY, NY — Representatives Paul D. Tonko (D-NY) and Mike Turner (R-OH) today announced that they have sent inquires to dozens of hospitals, insurance plans, pharmacies, pharmacists, and providers aimed at gathering information on their existing actions and plans to eliminate barriers for accessing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).

    The letters are intended to gain insight into the successes and barriers that have arisen following the implementation of the Congressmembers’ law, the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act. That bill, which was signed into law in early 2023, aims to expand access to the proven addiction treatment buprenorphine by increasing the number of medical professionals who can prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder from 130,000 to 1.8 million. With this barrier eliminated, work continues to implement the MAT Act to the fullest extent and have addiction treatment accessible in every community. This goal will require many communities, providers and interests to step up and lead.

    “For the millions of Americans battling substance use disorder, having access to proven, affordable treatment can mean the difference between life and death,” Congressman Tonko said. “I worked tirelessly to pass the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment (MAT) Act into law to open the doors of access to the proven addiction treatment, buprenorphine. We must use every tool possible to realize the dream of the MAT Act. I look forward to hearing the responses and insights from these healthcare stakeholders about how we can best move forward to ensure that those on the path to recovery have the treatment they need and deserve.”

    “Passing the MAT Act into law last Congress was a crucial step forward in our country’s battle against opioid addiction and substance use disorder,” said Congressman Turner. “Too many Ohio families have been ripped apart by the opioid epidemic that has swept over the nation. The MAT Act offers greater access to life-saving care to those struggling with addiction, and we are already seeing positive results as drug overdose deaths dropped by 10% in 2023. However, our work is not finished. We must ensure this progress continues, and it is my hope that these healthcare providers can offer greater insight for Congress to combat opioid addiction and help save lives.”

    As co-chair of the Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus, Tonko has long spearheaded federal efforts to address the overdose epidemic and expand addiction treatment. He, along with Rep. Turner also champion the Reentry Act, bipartisan legislation that empowers states to restore access to healthcare, including addiction and mental health treatment, through Medicaid for incarcerated individuals up to 30 days before their release.

    Most recently, Tonko introduced the BUPE for Recovery Act, legislation that would require the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to temporarily exempt buprenorphine from the Suspicious Orders Report System (SORS) for the remainder of the opioid public health emergency.

    38 letters have been sent to healthcare providers throughout the nation, including: UnitedHealth Group; The Cigna Group; Kaiser Permanente; Elevance Health; Centene Corporation; Blue Cross and Blue Shield; CVS Health/Aetna; Molina Healthcare; Health Care Services Corporation; Highmark Health; Humana; American Medical Association; American Nurses Association; American College of Emergency Physicians; American Academy of Family Physicians; American Academy of Pediatrics; American Academy of Physician Assistants; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; National Association of Chain Drug Stores; Express Scripts; Blink Health; CVS Health; Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.; Health Mart; Good Neighbor Pharmacy; Rite Aid Corporation; Albertsons Companies, Inc.; Safeway; The Vitamin Shoppe; Kroger; Publix Super Markets, Inc.; Costco; Walmart; American Hospital Association; American Pharmacists Association; National Community Pharmacists Association; ASHP; and National Association of Boards of Pharmacy

    The full list of healthcare providers and attached letters can be found HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Online Public Briefing- National Panel of Assessors Request for Tender (RFT)

    Source: Australian Department for Social Services

    16 October 2024

    The Department of Social Services is hosting a National Panel of Assessors (NPA) Request for Tender (RFT) public briefing which will take place on Monday 21 October at 1pm (AEDT).

    To register for the webinar, visit: National Panel of Assessors (NPA) – Public Briefing Webinar (humanitix.com).

    The RFT is open from Wednesday 16 October 2024 to 12pm (AEDT) on Monday 11 November 2024.

    What is the NPA?

    The Australian Government is committed to ensuring that people with disability have access to a range of Assessment Services to support them in the workplace. The NPA program will bring together a panel of independent Providers under a Deed of Standing Offer arrangement to conduct:

    • Supported Wage System (SWS) assessments
    • Ongoing Support Assessments (OSA), and
    • Workplace Modifications Services (WMS) assessments.  

    Respondents to the RFT may bid to provide either or both of the following combinations of assessments:

    • OSA and SWS assessments together, or
    • WMS assessments, including any specialist WMS assessments nominated by the Respondent.

    What the online public briefing will cover?

    The briefing will outline key elements of the NPA RFT, provide an overview of key changes from the Exposure Draft and provide an overview of the procurement process. The presenters are Pene Futcher, Branch Manager, Disability Employment Programs and Sonya McCarthy, Acting Branch Manager, Disability Employment Implementations.

    Questions and comments will not be open for this briefing. It will be an accessible live streamed event. If you are unable to attend the briefing, it will be recorded and made available on engage.dss.gov.au and dss.gov.au.

    For questions about the briefing registration process, please contact DESCommunications@dss.gov.au.

    Find out more

    The RFT is available on AusTender. Find out more about the NPA program.

    All questions in relation to the RFT must be submitted to the Contact Officer at DE2025Purchasing@dss.gov.au. Publication of responses to questions will be managed in accordance with the process outlined in the RFT.

    Last updated: 16 October 2024 – 4:00pm

    MIL OSI News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Gaetz Exposes Biden-Harris Administration “Border Czar” Cover-up to Help Harris Presidential Campaign

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Matt Gaetz (1st District of Florida)

    Washington, D.C. — This week, U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas exposing a White House cover-up related to Vice President Kamala Harris working as the “border czar,” which was done deliberately to assist candidate Harris in her presidential campaign. 

    Last month, following Vice President Harris’ denial of her involvement with the border crisis, Rep. Gaetz sent a letter to Secretary Mayorkas demanding all correspondence from DHS that refers to Harris as the “border czar” by August 30th. According to documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Heritage’s Oversight Project, the White House’s Ian Sams got involved and apparently blocked the response. At the time he was doing this, Sams knew that within days, he would be moving to the Harris 2024 presidential campaign as a top spokesman. Sams’ actions may have been violations of the Hatch Act, agency ethics rules, and campaign finance laws. Therefore, Rep. Gaetz’s follow-up letter requests unredacted copies of the Sams’ correspondence on this matter.

    Full text of Congressman Gaetz’s letter to Secretary Mayorkas can be found HERE. Additionally, exclusive coverage of the letter by Fox News can be found HERE.

    LETTER TEXT

    Secretary Mayorkas:

    I am concerned that the good government work of your career employees—to respond in a timely fashion to a small but important request of a Member of Congress—was scuttled by a White House cover-up to assist candidate Kamala Harris in her campaign. The very staffer, Ian Sams, who blocked my oversight request is now a senior spokesman for the Harris campaign. At the time he was engaged in a cover-up for her using government resources, he already had lined up his job on her campaign, which he officially started less than two weeks later. This is shady.

    On August 7, 2024, I sent you an oversight request, and that week, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Comer apparently sent you a similar oversight request, requesting similar sets of information in your possession, which are required by law to be released. My letter requested a very simple production of, firstly, “communications Office of the Vice President and any employee (including detailees) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), between March 24, 2021 and March 24, 2022, using the term ‘czar,’ ‘border,’ ‘migration,’ or ‘immigration.’” An IT employee of DHS could collate and produce these documents in a matter of hours, if not minutes, and yet the August 30, 2024, deadline has come and gone without response. I, therefore, reiterate my document request. The American people know that Vice President Harris was appointed the “border czar” and bragged about her role, and I am confident that you have records that would again prove this.

    More troubling, however, is the FOIA response that the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project has provided my office (attached as “Exhibit A” and available at https://oversight.heritage.org/GaetzLetterBorderCzar.pdf). This FOIA production proves that DHS front-office career employees did their job. They forwarded my request and actively worked to get a response out to me on time. In fact, the day before the due date, on August 29, 2024, they raised the issue again to political appointees. Kudos to them. But the reason they did not respond to my request, apparently, is that the White House got involved. Ian Sams was forwarded the oversight request, and his directives to your subordinates are redacted, but he stopped the oversight in its tracks, to protect his boss, possibly in violation of the Hatch Act, agency ethics rules, and campaign finance laws.

    In addition to my outstanding request, please provide my office with unredacted copies of the Ian Sams correspondence on this matter to my office by October 25, 2024. Surely, you can produce one or two emails in two weeks.

    Sincerely,

    Matt Gaetz
    Member of Congress

    ###

    For updates, subscribe to Congressman Gaetz’s newsletter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Canada strengthens protection of freshwater with launch of standalone Canada Water Agency

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, officially announced the establishment of the Canada Water Agency as a standalone federal entity headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

    October 16, 2024 – Winnipeg, Manitoba

    Fresh water is our most precious natural resource, needed for drinking, cleaning and sanitation, recreation, industry, agriculture, and ecosystem health. Water is also sacred to many Indigenous peoples and honoured as a giver of life. Yet, fresh water in Canada is under increasing pressure from climate change, pollution, and other threats. Canadians recognize the importance of fresh water and have called for action.

    Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, officially announced the establishment of the Canada Water Agency as a standalone federal entity headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Previously within Environment and Climate Change Canada for an interim period, the new independent Agency will strengthen freshwater management in Canada by providing leadership and improved coordination and collaboration federally and with provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples. As a standalone entity, the Canada Water Agency will work closely with partners to deliver major elements of the Freshwater Action Plan, build a strong approach to freshwater protection, and help address transboundary freshwater challenges and opportunities.

    The Agency also will provide freshwater policy expertise and lead the development of a national freshwater data strategy, which will make it easier for Canadians to make informed decisions impacting their environment, economy, health, and safety. It will also work closely with Environment and Climate Change Canada and other federal departments and agencies to support and leverage freshwater science.

    The Canada Water Agency will administer freshwater funding programs in eight waterbodies of national significance: the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, Lake Simcoe, the St. Lawrence River, the Mackenzie River, the Fraser River, and the Wolastoq/Saint John River. Over the coming years, the Canada Water Agency will provide grants and contributions to hundreds of projects supporting the restoration and protection of fresh water in Canada funded by the historic $650 million investment outlined in Budget 2023.

    The Agency will be based in Winnipeg, a historical gathering place for Indigenous peoples and home to Lake Winnipeg—one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and a priority Canada Water Agency waterbody. The Agency will also have five regional offices across Canada to ensure responsiveness to local freshwater issues. It is clear that the creation of the Canada Water Agency as a standalone marks an important step for Canada in protecting and restoring freshwater resources. Through its efforts, the Agency will help safeguard freshwater for generations of Canadians, which in turn improves upon the environment, economy, health, and safety of Canada.

    Quotes

    “Canadians value fresh water and understand its importance for health, prosperity, and cultural practices. Given pollution, land-use, and other stressors, we must take action now to safeguard fresh water. The creation of the Canada Water Agency is a key step in strengthening freshwater management, protection, and stewardship in Canada.”

    – The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

    “Tackling today’s freshwater challenges will require strong collaboration among governments, Indigenous partners, non-government organizations, academia, industry, and others. The Canada Water Agency will provide the leadership to foster the partnerships that we need to protect fresh water. I think that it is fitting that Winnipeg, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers which flow into Lake Winnipeg, is home to this important federal agency.”

    – Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Special Advisor for Water

    “Manitoba is so proud to be the home of the new Canada Water Agency. With over 100,000 lakes, Manitobans value our fresh water and care deeply about the health of our waterways. Our government is proud to have recently established Manitoba’s first-ever formal Nutrient Targets Regulation for Lake Winnipeg and its tributaries to reduce nutrient loading and restore the health of this important lake. We look forward to the increased opportunities for collaboration that will come from having the Canada Water Agency here in Manitoba, and our government is pleased to work together with the federal government, Indigenous communities, other freshwater experts, and all stakeholders to ensure the health of our waterways for generations to come.”

    – The Honourable Tracy Schmidt, Manitoba Minister of Environment and Climate Change

    Quick facts

    • In Budget 2023, the Government of Canada provided $650 million over ten years for the Freshwater Ecosystem Initiatives, as well as $85.1 million over five years (and $21 million ongoing thereafter), for the creation of the Canada Water Agency. It also committed to introducing legislation to fully establish the Agency as a standalone entity.

    • Working with Indigenous peoples to seek their perspectives and support their participation is a central part of the mandate of the Canada Water Agency.

    • The Canada Water Agency was first established as a branch of Environment and Climate Change Canada in June 2023.

    • On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59 (which included the Canada Water Agency Act), received Royal Assent, paving the way for the creation of the standalone Canada Water Agency.

    Related products

    Associated links

    Contacts

    Hermine Landry
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
    873-455-3714
    Hermine.Landry@ec.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Environment and Climate Change Canada
    819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free)
    media@ec.gc.ca

    Canada Water Agency’s X (Twitter) page

    Canada Water Agency’s LinkedIn page

    Environment and Natural Resources in Canada Facebook page

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Standalone Canada Water Agency launches

    Source: Government of Canada News

    The Canada Water Agency is a Government of Canada agency under the Minister of Environment and Climate Change portfolio.

    The Canada Water Agency is a Government of Canada agency under the Minister of Environment and Climate Change portfolio. Its mandate is to improve freshwater management in Canada by providing leadership, effective collaboration federally, and improved coordination and collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples to address transboundary freshwater challenges and opportunities.

    The Canada Water Agency (the Agency) is headquartered in Winnipeg and has five regional offices across Canada to ensure responsiveness to regional freshwater issues. Once fully staffed, the Agency will have approximately 220 employees nationwide.

    Creation of the Canada Water Agency

    In 2019, the Prime Minister directed the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to “Create a new Canada Water Agency to work together with the provinces, territories, Indigenous communities, local authorities, scientists, and others to find the best ways to keep our water safe, clean, and well-managed.” Over the following three years, Environment and Climate Change Canada engaged with partners and stakeholders to shape the mandate, activities, and structure of the Agency.

    In Budget 2023, the Government of Canada announced funding for the Canada Water Agency and committed to introducing legislation to make the Agency a standalone entity reporting directly to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Soon thereafter, in June 2023, the Canada Water Agency launched as a branch within Environment and Climate Change Canada, delivering key elements of the Freshwater Action Plan and advancing efforts to establish the standalone entity. Starting in 2024, the Canada Water Agency has committed to providing more than $90 million in grants and contributions to 175 different projects across the country to strengthen freshwater management in Canada. Lastly, several other key accomplishments of the past year have included launching pre-engagement with First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and provincial and territorial governments on the review of the Canada Water Act, convening partners from across Canada to support development of a National Freshwater Data Strategy, and supporting partners to advance protection in several freshwater ecosystems across Canada.

    Later in 2023, the legislation to create the standalone Canada Water Agency (the Canada Water Agency Act) was introduced in Parliament as part of Bill C-59. The legislation received Royal Assent on June 20, 2024, and came into force on October 15, 2024.

    The Canada Water Agency’s current initiatives

    Freshwater ecosystem initiatives

    The Canada Water Agency leads the delivery of Freshwater Ecosystem Initiatives in eight waterbodies of national significance across Canada: the Great Lakes, Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, the St. Lawrence River, the Wolastoq/Saint John River, the Fraser River, the Mackenzie River, and Lake Simcoe.  

    The goals of the Freshwater Ecosystem Initiatives are to:

    • take action to restore and protect water quality and aquatic ecosystem health
    • advance science, monitoring (including community-based monitoring) and the application of Indigenous knowledge in cooperation with Indigenous peoples to support decision-making and effective action 
    • enhance governance to improve collaboration with Indigenous partners, provinces and territories, and stakeholders 
    • mobilize knowledge and reporting to measure progress towards results 
    • improve climate change resiliency through on the-ground-action

    Review of the Canada Water Act

    Proclaimed in 1970, the Canada Water Act is federal legislation administered by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. It provides a legal framework for cooperation among federal, provincial, and territorial governments in the conservation, development, and use of water resources.

    In his 2021 mandate letter, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change was directed to advance the modernization of the Canada Water Act to reflect Canada’s freshwater reality, including climate change and Indigenous rights. This commitment was reaffirmed in the 2023–2028 Action Plan for implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

    As an initial step, the Canada Water Agency led pre-engagement with partners to understand how they would like to be involved in the review of the Canada Water Act. The Canada Water Agency will use this information to develop engagement plans for the subsequent engagement phase, which is expected to begin in 2025.

    National freshwater data strategy

    The Canada Water Agency is developing a National Freshwater Data Strategy with partners and stakeholders. The Strategy will establish guidelines and principles for how freshwater information should be organized, stored, and shared in Canada. The Canada Water Agency published a discussion paper on the creation of a National Freshwater Data Strategy on July 26, 2024, and accepted comments until September 15, 2024. It also hosted a workshop on September 25–26, 2024, to develop an outline and path forward for the Strategy.

    Once implemented, the Strategy will make it easier for Canadians to find and access freshwater data and use and combine data from various sources. This, in turn, will support more informed decision-making and will help keep fresh water safe, clean, and well-managed.

    The Strategy will build on existing data systems, data science, and analytics expertise. It will also align with broader federal data efforts, including the Government of Canada’s Digital Ambition and the 2023–2026 Data Strategy for the Federal Public Service.

    Supporting freshwater science

    Freshwater science is critical to freshwater management and protection.

    For these reasons, Canada’s strengthened Freshwater Action Plan includes significant funding to support freshwater science. Environment and Climate Change Canada will continue to lead on freshwater science, including the National Freshwater Science Agenda, as well as freshwater monitoring. The Canada Water Agency will support and leverage science efforts to inform the Freshwater Ecosystems Initiatives and promote coordination among government and non-government freshwater science partners.

    Partnering with Indigenous peoples

    • The Canada Water Agency Act underscores the centrality of respectful and trusting partnerships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit and strengthens their role in the development and implementation of the Canada Water Agency’s freshwater programs. The Act says that the Canada Water Agency will:
      • respect the rights of Indigenous people and support implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People Act
      • honour existing treaties and agreements
      • recognize Indigenous knowledge systems and data sovereignty
      • work to advance reconciliation

    As part of the pre-engagement phase of the Canada Water Act review, the Canada Water Agency spoke with and supported First Nations, Métis, and Inuit partners to facilitate effective, meaningful and relevant dialogues from the start. As part of the review, the Canada Water Agency piloted an Indigenous Grassroots Water Circle to create an accessible, safe, Indigenous-centered space to engage directly with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit grassroots individuals (for example, Elders, youth, women as water carriers, parents, academics, people with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+).

    Lastly, the Canada Water Agency is working to develop a deeper understanding of the various freshwater data interests of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis to better inform the Canada Water Agency’s work while advancing the conversation to strengthen relationships; honour agreements; and respect Indigenous rights, interests, cultures, and Indigenous knowledge systems.   

    Collaboration with provinces, territories, partners and stakeholders

    The Government of Canada has more than 20 departments and agencies with freshwater-related responsibilities. The Canada Water Agency promotes coordination, collaboration, and information exchange among these entities. In addition, central to its mandate, the Canada Water Agency is committed to working with provinces, territories, and stakeholders to improve freshwater management, protection, and stewardship in Canada.

    The Canada Water Agency is collaborating closely with stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations and academia, to implement the Government of Canada’s freshwater agenda. The Canada Water Agency has also held information sessions with stakeholders in French and English to provide updates on the Canada Water Agency Act and continues to value their input and involvement in the review of the Act.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

    January 23, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Lord Mayor of Oxford continues 600-year-old tradition by inspecting city’s historic walls

    Source: City of Oxford

    Published: Wednesday, 16 October 2024

    The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor Mike Rowley, will uphold a 600 year old tradition by inspecting the city’s historic walls on 23 October; a responsibility dating back to the reign of Richard II.

    This unique ceremony honours a centuries-old agreement between Oxford and New College, which has been preserved since 30 June 1379. 

    The tradition began when King Richard II granted the land for the founding of New College on the condition that the college maintains the city’s defensive walls. To ensure that the walls were kept in good repair, a contract was established, and every three years since then, the Lord Mayor of Oxford has inspected them. 

    This year the Lord Mayor, accompanied by fellow city councillors, will once again undertake the ceremonial walk from Oxford Town Hall to New College. The procession will be led by the City Mace, and as custom dictates, they will stop at New College’s gate on New College Lane. There, the Mace Bearer will knock three times, symbolically requesting permission for the Lord Mayor and councillors to enter. 

    Upon receiving permission, the Warden and Fellows of New College will lead the group through the college garden to inspect the ancient walls that still stand as part of Oxford’s rich history. 

    In accordance with the 14th-century contract, New College features gates on either side of the city walls. These gates were not only constructed to facilitate the Lord Mayor’s inspections but also to provide a passage for the defence of Oxford in times of war. 

    Comments 

    “It is a privilege to continue this long-standing tradition, which connects our modern city to its medieval roots. The walls are a testament to the strength and resilience of Oxford, and it is an honour to carry out this duty on behalf of the city and its people.” 
    The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor Mike Rowley 

    “We are proud to uphold the agreement made over six centuries ago. This tradition is a reflection of our commitment to Oxford and its heritage, and we look forward to welcoming the Lord Mayor and the councillors for this important inspection.” 
    Miles Young, Warden, New College 

    The event is a reminder of Oxford’s deep historical ties and its commitment to preserving the city’s heritage for future generations. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    January 23, 2025
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