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  • MIL-OSI: Runway Growth Finance Corp. Provides Third Quarter 2024 Portfolio Update

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    • Completed Seven Investments in New and Existing Portfolio Companies Representing $75.3 Million in Funded Investments

    MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Runway Growth Finance Corp. (Nasdaq: RWAY) (“Runway Growth” or the “Company”), a leading provider of flexible capital solutions to late- and growth-stage companies seeking an alternative to raising equity, today provided an operational and portfolio update for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

    “Runway Growth added attractive investments with new and existing portfolio companies in the third quarter as we seek to drive measured and strategic growth,” said David Spreng, Founder and CEO of Runway Growth. “We are pleased to announce two new investments during the quarter, which we believe embody our focus on high-quality, late and growth-stage companies in the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Runway Growth is positioned to execute disciplined investments, support our existing borrowers and generate solid risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders in the long term.”

    Originations
    In the third quarter of 2024, Runway Growth funded seven investments: two investments in new portfolio companies and five investments in existing portfolio companies. These include:

    • Completion of a new $23.0 million investment to Snap! Mobile, Inc. (“Snap”), funding $18.0 million at close. Snap offers a software platform designed to help schools, clubs, and teams fundraise, manage their rosters, communicate with parents and fans, and sell merchandise;
    • Completion of a new $45.3 million investment to Zinnia Corporate Holdings, LLC (“Zinnia”), funding $40.0 million at close. Zinnia provides business processing and technology solutions to the life insurance and annuity industry. Zinnia’s range of solutions includes distribution services and new business issuance, administration processing and call center operations, as well as compliance, fulfillment, and quality assurance services;
    • Completion of a new $20 million investment to existing portfolio company Elevate Services, Inc. (“Elevate”), funding $6.0 million during the quarter, which upsized Elevate’s previous $20 million senior secured term loan. Elevate is a global alternative legal services provider and legal process outsourcer that serves members of the Fortune 500 and 60+ global law firms with outsourced consultancy, technology, and managed services. Elevate has a suite of products and services across several different operating business units including contracts, contract lifetime management and insights, ElevateNext, med legal, ElevateFlex, consulting, and software;
    • Completion of follow-on investments with an aggregate amount of $6.3 million to two existing portfolio companies; and
    • During the quarter Runway-Cadma I LLC (the “JV”), our joint venture with Cadma Capital Partners LLC, purchased a portion of our Airship Group, Inc. loan, amounting to a $5.0 million equity investment in the JV subsidiary.

    Liquidity Events
    During the third quarter ended September 30, 2024, Runway Growth experienced the following liquidity events:

    • Full principal repayment of the Company’s senior secured term loan to CloudPay, Inc. of $75.0 million;
    • An assignment of $10.0 million of the Company’s investment in Airship Group, Inc. to the JV; and
    • Other scheduled principal amortization of $0.6 million.

    Portfolio Construction and Management
    Runway Growth is a credit-first organization, carefully structured to focus on what it believes to be the highest quality, late-stage companies in the venture debt market. The Company is committed to upholding what it believes to be industry-leading investment standards combined with disciplined underwriting and diligent monitoring of its portfolio. Runway Growth is positioned as a preferred lender in the venture debt space, supporting and working closely with companies to help them reach their full growth potential. Since inception, the Company has focused on the fastest growing sectors of the economy, including healthcare, technology and select consumer services and products industries.

    As of September 30, 2024, the Runway Growth portfolio included 49 debt investments to 32 portfolio companies and 86 equity investments in 53 portfolio companies, including 28 portfolio companies where Runway Growth holds both a debt and equity investment. Investments were comprised of late and growth-stage businesses in the technology, healthcare and consumer services and products industries. Runway Growth’s normal business operations include frequent communication with portfolio companies.

    About Runway Growth Finance Corp.
    Runway Growth is a growing specialty finance company focused on providing flexible capital solutions to late- and growth-stage companies seeking an alternative to raising equity. Runway Growth is a closed-end investment fund that has elected to be regulated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Runway Growth is externally managed by Runway Growth Capital LLC, an established registered investment advisor that was formed in 2015 and led by industry veteran David Spreng. For more information, please visit http://www.runwaygrowth.com.

    Forward-Looking Statements
    Statements included herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in Runway Growth’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Runway Growth undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

    Important Disclosures
    Strategies described involve special risks that should be evaluated carefully before a decision is made to invest. Not all of the risks and other significant aspects of these strategies are discussed herein. Please see a more detailed discussion of these risk factors and other related risks in the Company’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K in the section entitled “Risk Factors”, which may be obtained on the Company’s website, http://www.runwaygrowth.com, or the SEC’s website, http://www.sec.gov.

    IR Contacts:
    Stefan Norbom, Prosek Partners, snorbom@prosek.com
    Thomas B. Raterman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, tr@runwaygrowth.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the Forum at Newport

    Source: United States Navy

    Introduction

    Good afternoon, everyone!

    It is wonderful to be back here again in beautiful Newport, Rhode Island and a privilege to address this group of future-focused leaders from Salve Regina University and the Naval War College.

    I truly appreciate Salve Regina University’s partnership and commitment to providing educational opportunities for our Navy and Marine Corps Officers.

    And I am honored to be a part of this important conference centered on an issue which affects us all, and critically affects the national security of our great Nation.

    To the faculty and staff of Salve Regina University and the Naval War College, distinguished guests and visitors: welcome, and thank you for joining us today.

    World Today

    As I am certain you are all well aware, we face existential threats and challenges in every corner of the globe.

    Across the Atlantic, Russia is well into the third year of its full-scale and illegal invasion of Ukraine.

    The United States proudly stands by the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom and sovereignty, and defend democracy for all free nations.

    To the South of Ukraine, in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, we are working alongside our NATO allies and Middle East partners to protect innocent, civilian mariners and commercial shipping against Iranian-aligned Houthi attacks.

    Immediately following the October 7th attacks in Israel, our Navy and Marine Corps Team—represented by the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group—was on station, the ready integrated force capable of responding to any threat.

    Today, our personnel onboard the Wasp ARG are on station in the Mediterranean Sea, while the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group are operating in the Middle East.

    In addition to our surface presence, USS Georgia (SSGN 729) provides a powerful deterrence message from below the ocean’s waves.

    And for the first time since World War II, we face a comprehensive maritime power in the Indo-Pacific.

    The People’s Republic of China continues to exert its excessive maritime claims through their navy, coast guard, and maritime militia.

    From the Line of Actual Control high in the Himalayas, to disputed reefs barely peeking above the waves in the South China Sea, recent actions reveal the PRC’s willingness to execute “gray-zone tactics”—types of assault which are below the threshold of armed attack but beyond normal diplomatic actions.

    And the PRC is observing lessons from the ongoing conflicts in Europe and the Red Sea.

    And so, now, more than ever, it is imperative that we have a climate-ready force able to deter aggression and function decisively in every environment so that, if necessary, we will prevail in conflict.

    Three Enduring Priorities

    When I entered office as Secretary of the Navy, I laid out Three Enduring Priorities which are the foundation for all we do in the Department of the Navy.

    They are:

    Strengthening Maritime Dominance,

    Building a Culture of Warfighting Excellence, and

    Enhancing Strategic Partnerships.

    My priority of Strengthening Maritime Dominance centers on ensuring our Sailors and Marines have the best ships, aircraft, and technology available, so that if we are called, we may fight and decisively win our Nation’s wars.

    And to maintain our warfighting edge, we cannot rely simply on maintaining our seapower.

    External threats continue to mount and change.

    To remain the world’s dominant maritime force, the Department of the Navy must rapidly adapt and effectively counter existential threats such as climate change.

    Today, climate change is one of the most destabilizing forces of our time, exacerbating national security concerns and posing serious readiness challenges for our Fleet and Force.

    There exist numerous tangible examples of the impact of climate change on Navy and Marine Corps operations all over the world.

    And the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events has only increased as time has passed. 

    At sea and on shore, changing climate and rising sea levels crucially affect the day-to-day life of our Sailors and Marines.

    Rising temperatures, too, stress and impact the systems within our buildings and installations, greatly decreasing their overall durability.

    Along both our Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, sorties—or, deploying our ships due to threat of extreme weather in port—have become more commonplace.

    And extreme weather events caused by climate change have displaced millions of people, creating climate refugees.

    Our maritime forces have witnessed a substantial rise in the number and scope of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions.

    Simply put, weather impacts normal Navy and Marine Corps operations.

    Weather impacts where our ships can sail, where our amphibious craft can land, and when we can conduct flight operations.

    However, while our world today faces increasingly unpredictable and devasting weather phenomenon, the Department of the Navy is strengthening our climate resilience and reducing our climate impacts to remain the world’s most powerful maritime force.

    Building a Climate-Ready Force

    Computer scientist pioneer, mathematician, visionary, and United States Rear Admiral Grace Hopper once said, “The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’”

    I implore all of you to assume Admiral Hopper’s mindset when approaching the challenge of climate change.

    The Department of the Navy is actively adapting and innovating for the changing landscape of the world and indeed of warfare.

    We refuse stagnation and have set out ambitious climate goals through the Department of the Navy Climate Action 2030 strategy, in line with Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.

    To build a climate-ready force, we must meet two Performance Goals.

    The first goal is building climate resilience.

    We build climate resilience through installation resilience—by ensuring that our forces, systems, and facilities can continue to operate effectively and accomplish our mission in the face of changing climate conditions and worsening climate impacts.

    Many of our military bases, including our Navy’s largest, Naval Station Norfolk, are fighting a constant battle against rising sea levels, often flooding after even light rain.

    Less than two years ago, we broke ground on the first project to safeguard the Naval Academy from rising sea levels.

    And just last week, we held a ribbon-cutting to mark the end of our work on the Farragut Seawall project—the first of many projects to fortify and protect the institution from extreme weather events.

    Our goal, as outlined by our Naval Academy Installation Resiliency Plan, is for the institution to remain resilient through the 21st Century and beyond.

    We are also developing solutions to climate issues through the Center for Energy Security and Infrastructure Resilience, or “CESIR.”

    Established earlier this year, CESIR will equip our future Navy and Marine Corps Officers with the knowledge and skills to address complex climate challenges throughout their naval careers.

    What’s more, the Department of the Navy is investing in climate resiliency through our facilities, including the renovation of Bancroft Hall—the largest academic dormitory in the United States and home to the entire Brigade of forty-four hundred Midshipmen.

    Severe weather events have impacted the longevity of our buildings both inside and out, along with integral systems such as Bancroft Hall’s HVAC.

    Given the criticality of our facilities to the mission of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and in developing our future warfighters, we must continue to invest in maintenance and improvement of our infrastructure.

    And partnerships outside of the Department of the Navy are crucial to creating climate solutions.

    In 2022, the Naval Postgraduate School partnered with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability to address the urgent challenges of climate change, energy security, and sustainability.

    Together, NPS and the Doerr School established an Education Partnership Agreement, combining the expertise of two globally recognized hubs of research and innovation to create practical solutions that our Navy and Nation can implement both now and in the future.

    And the Department of the Navy is preparing for extreme weather events through integrated tabletop exercises and training events.

    Two years ago, the Department of the Navy held our first Climate Action tabletop exercise at Marine Barracks Washington and have since held annual exercises dedicated to drive and share climate best practices.

    In June of this year, we conducted Climate Action III with our Caribbean partners in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

    This two-day event marked the third iteration in a series of exercises designed to validate our Climate Action 2030 strategy and highlight the value of partnerships to build shared resilience in a critical region.

    Our Department, together with the DOD, other federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and our Caribbean partners, shared expertise and solutions to the destabilizing threats which know no borders.

    The second goal of our Climate Action strategy is reducing climate threat.

    This includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions and drawing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, stabilizing ecosystems, and achieving the Nation’s commitment to net-zero emissions.

    And throughout the country, the Department of the Navy is leading Department of Defense efforts in reducing climate threats.

    In 2022, Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany became an electrically “Net Zero” base, crucially becoming the first Department of Defense installation to attain this significant milestone.

    Achieving this “Net Zero” breakthrough not only combats climate change by alleviating energy security concerns, but it also improves the base’s overall resilience and saves taxpayer dollars.

    We cannot tackle the climate threat alone. The Department of the Navy has facilitated strategic partnerships to tackle energy resilience issues.

    Marine Corps Air Station Miramar partnered with the city of San Diego to use biogas generated from an on-base landfill as a renewable energy source.

    This initiative provided over three megawatts of energy to the installation, reducing reliance on the city’s electric grid by a whopping 45% and reducing overall emissions.

    The Department is also leveraging public and private innovation in the climate and energy resilience sectors through NavalX Tech Bridges and business accelerators.

    Tech Bridges attract small and medium businesses using innovation challenges, and recent challenges are supporting maritime supply chain and “blue tech” opportunities.

    These partnerships between the Department of the Navy and outside business foster innovation and encourage the development of new technologies for climate adaptation.

    To remain competitive in today’s age of conflict, we must leverage every advantage available to us—and that especially includes our partners in business and industry.

    Closing

    The future of climate resilience is here.

    We know the future impacts of climate change and it is both within our capabilities and incumbent upon us to act—and we have.

    Climate resilience is force resilience. We must look beyond normal operations and approach solutions to climate change through the lens of innovation.

    As Admiral Hopper said, “Our young people are the future. We must provide for them.”

    To do so, we must continue innovating and modernizing for the threats of today and of tomorrow.

    I thank all of you for being here today, to gather, discuss, and create solutions for a more climate resilient future.

    Although climate change is already impacting our world in significant ways, I am heartened by the discussions today, the important work all of you have begun, and the innovation that will come from our collaboration.

    Thank you for tackling this challenge—we need our best and brightest involved in the search for climate solutions.

    May God bless our service men and women and all who support them. Thank you.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Cole Harbour — RCMP arrests two impaired drivers following a hit and run

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment arrests two impaired drivers following a hit and run in Cole Harbour.

    On September 25, at approximately 11:48 p.m., RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment responded to a hit and run that occurred in a parking lot on Merrimac Dr. While at the scene RCMP officers observed the vehicle of interest return to the scene and collide with a dumpster.

    RCMP officers completed a traffic stop on the Hyundai Elantra. The driver, a 25-year-old Dartmouth woman, exhibited signs of impairment and provided roadside breath samples into an approved screening device (ASD), which resulted in a “fail”. The driver was arrested for impaired driving.

    From the information and evidence gathered at the scene, it was determined that the rear passenger of the vehicle, a 28-year-old Cole Harbour woman, was the driver at the time of the hit and run. She also showed signs of impairment, and provided a breath sample into an ASD resulting in a “fail”. The woman was arrested for impaired driving.

    Both individuals were transported to the Cole Harbour RCMP Detachment and provided breath samples. The 28-year-old woman provided breath samples of 300 mg% and 280 mg%. and the 25-year-old woman, who struck the dumpster, provided breath samples of 200 mg% and 220 mg%.

    They were both later released and will appear in court at a later date.

    File # 24-132068

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Golden Week attracts 1.38m visitors

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Mainland’s seven-day National Day Golden Week ended yesterday, and the Government today announced that the Immigration Department recorded a total of around 1.38 million visitors coming to Hong Kong through various sea, land and air control points during the week.

    The overall number of inbound visitors aligned with earlier estimates, while the number recorded on October 1 reached a daily record high since the post-pandemic full opening of the borders, the Government added.

    Among all visitors coming to Hong Kong, those from the Mainland accounted for about 1.22 million, representing 88% of the total arrivals.

    The daily average of Mainland visitors was around 170,000, exceeding that of the 2023 National Day Golden Week and the 2024 Labour Day Golden Week at around 27% and 13% respectively.

    Mainland inbound visitor arrivals peaked on October 1 with around 220,000 visitors arriving in Hong Kong, marking a daily record high since the post-pandemic opening of the borders and setting a corresponding record for the overall number of visitors to Hong Kong in a single day.

    During the National Day Golden Week, the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line and the Express Rail Link West Kowloon were the two ports with the highest daily average number of Mainland visitors, and operations at various control points and transport services ran smoothly.

    Regarding large-scale events, the National Day Fireworks Display over Victoria Harbour on October 1 attracted over 330,000 spectators and concluded with effective crowd control arrangements.

    According to the information provided by the hotel industry, the overall hotel occupancy rate during October 1 to 4 reached 90%. 

    Based on the Travel Industry Authority’s information, around 1,050 Mainland inbound tour groups visited Hong Kong during the National Day Golden Week, with around 80% engaged in overnight itineraries.

    These tour groups involved around 36,000 visitors, accounting for around 3% of all Mainland visitors.

    The interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements, led by Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki, is pleased to note that the rich array of National Day special offers from the Government and various sectors of society were well-received by the public.

    Among them, the “1st October Movie Fiesta: Half-Price Spectacular 2024” subsidised by the Government recorded cumulative admissions reaching 189,000, breaking last year’s record of 155,000. 

    Mr Chan said the concerted efforts of relevant government departments, organisations and industries in making preparations and responses enabled smooth arrangements for receiving visitors, and allowed both locals and visitors to celebrate National Day together.

    “The Government will draw on this experience and further enhance various arrangements in future to provide an even better experience for visitors to Hong Kong during festive periods.”

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Ambulance transfer drill carried out

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, in collaboration with the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, completed a drill today for the Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area.

    The Health Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR explained that the drill was aimed at testing the routing of the cross-boundary ambulance between Macau’s Conde S. Januario Hospital (CHCSJ) and Hong Kong’s Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), as well as the immigration arrangements.

    After departure from CHCSJ, the ambulance headed to PMH and returned to CHCSJ by making use of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge for both journeys.

    Further to the successful completion of the drill conducted by the Hong Kong SAR Government with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government on August 23, today’s drill was also carried out smoothly in general, the bureau said.

    It added that relevant departments of the two SAR Governments will review the cross-boundary ambulance arrangement, with a view to launching the pilot scheme within 2024.

    Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau noted that the pilot scheme will start with a direct ambulance transfer of patients from designated hospitals in Shenzhen and Macau to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong.

    He said: “I am glad that the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Macao SAR Government have also made today’s drill a success through concerted efforts, further streamlining the flow of a direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer to get better prepared for the launch of the pilot scheme.”

    In addition to the entry arrangement of vehicles into Hong Kong, the Health Bureau is in discussion with Macau authorities on the implementation details regarding the entry of medical items and personnel on the direct cross-boundary ambulance into Hong Kong.

    In particular, as CHCSJ will deploy healthcare personnel to escort patients with clinical needs on the ambulance, the Hong Kong SAR Government will ensure compliance by the doctors concerned with Hong Kong laws, such that they can continue to carry out the necessary medical procedures on board the ambulance upon entry into Hong Kong.

    In this connection, the Hong Kong Medical Council has issued a promulgation regarding limited registration in accordance with the Medical Registration Ordinance.

    Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority is making limited registration applications for the Macau doctors who will provide support aboard the direct cross-boundary ambulances.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Six ways to holiday like an old-school travel journalist – without using the internet

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Masood Khodadadi, Reader (Associate Professor) in Tourism, Culture and Society, University of the West of Scotland

    The Travelling Companions by Augustus Leopold Egg (1862). Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

    We all want to get the most out of our holidays, which is why we so often turn to online “top things to see” lists, or TikTok recommendations of a destination’s best sights and eateries.

    But as useful as these strategies can be, using the internet to plan every detail of your travel omits the essence of discovery – the very thing that made pre-internet travel journalism so thrilling to read.

    These six tips explain how you can explore a new place like an old-school travel journalist or an explorer from a bygone era. They’ll enable you to look up from your phone, and discover your destination with intuition and curiosity.

    No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

    Read more from Quarter Life:

    1. Discard the itinerary and trust your gut

    Freya Madeline Stark by Herbert Arnould Olivier (1923).
    National Portrait Gallery

    Before smartphones, travel journalists such as Freya Stark and Bruce Chatwin depended on serendipity. They didn’t have TripAdvisor or Google Maps to guide them. Rather, they listened to their instincts and locals’ advice about how to shape their journey.

    A famous example is Chatwin walking through Patagonia after conversations with locals advised him of his next stop.

    Try this on your next adventure: walk without a plan. Follow your instincts towards any of the local cafes, quiet parks, or bustling markets. And if all else fails and you are not quite sure where to start, just stop and ask someone near you what it is that they love about the area. Many times, people’s stories will take you to places you would never have found online.

    2. Use analogue maps and guides

    Before GPS, maps weren’t just functional – they were part of the adventure. Travel writers like Jan Morris and Paul Theroux (father of documentary presenter, Louis) wrote about how their unfolding maps forced them to interact with the landscape in a tactile way.

    Pick up a local map in a bookshop or visitor centre and unfold it in a cafe. Mark where you have been and circle the areas you are curious about.

    In their early editions, guidebooks like The Rough Guide and Lonely Planet didn’t give a thorough list, but instead pushed cultural immersion travel, which is concerned with authentic activities. Think local traditions, history, language and customs of the place you’re visiting. Cultural immersion travel involves mingling with the residents to get an in-depth feel of how they live.

    Although carrying a printed guidebook seems vintage, this act plunges you back to the time when the discovery of hidden corners of a city was about turning pages, not scrolling.

    Chatting with locals is a great way to discover gems in a new place. English Tourists in Campagna by Carl Spitzweg (1845).
    Alte Nationalgalerie

    3. Speak to local people

    Pre-smartphone travellers had one irreplaceable resource at their disposal – people. On his long walks across Europe, for example, travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor relied on the people he met for insight into local customs, history and hidden gems.

    Do exactly the same thing. Go to a typical bar, a bazaar, a local event, or attend a course on the language or the cooking of the place. Engage a bartender, shop owner, or street vendor in a chat. These tips will steer you off the beaten path of algorithms.

    4. Immerse yourself in slow travel

    Travel journalists of the past were in no hurry. Rather than zipping from one attraction to the next, they stayed put for long enough to pull back the layers of a place. Writer Rebecca West’s trek through the Balkans (which she described in her 1941 book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon) took months. Her long stays in villages allowed her to really get to know the place and its complexities.

    You should slow down on your next trip, too. Stay on in a small town or neighbourhood a little longer than you planned to. Stroll its streets and soak in the rhythms of daily life.

    5. Read travel literature

    The writers of travel history books, be it Robert Byron’s travels among the architecture and culture of Persia, or Isabella Bird entering unknown 19th-century Japan, articulate how their predecessors perceived the lands they visited.

    Read books written by local authors to get deeper into the cultural context of the place you’re visiting. You’ll find their reflections on their hometown or region often give you a more insightful, nuanced perspective than any modern day “top ten” list could.

    6. Research the history of every place you visit

    Writers like Colin Thubron included historical and cultural details to make their travel stories richer and more meaningful.

    Whether you find yourself at a local museum, reading up on the past of a place, or simply walking its streets with an eye for historical markers, learning the background of where you are can infuse your visit with added meaning.


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

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

    – ref. Six ways to holiday like an old-school travel journalist – without using the internet – https://theconversation.com/six-ways-to-holiday-like-an-old-school-travel-journalist-without-using-the-internet-240384

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Scottish Greens hail private jet tax review

    Source: Scottish Greens

    08 Oct 2024 Transport Climate Action

    A private jet tax can fund our transition to a greener future.

    More in Transport

    The Scottish Greens have welcomed an announcement that the Scottish Government will be reviewing air departure tax rates, including for private jets specifically.

    Answering a question at the Finance and Public Administration Committee this morning, the Cabinet Secretary said the rates and bands, including the rates on private jet flights, would be reviewed to ensure they align with net zero ambitions.

    There were 12,911 recorded private flights to and from Scotland’s airports in 2023. A recent Oxfam study suggested a tax on these flights could raise up to £21.5 million. Private jets have estimated climate emissions of up to 14 times that of commercial flights.

    The Scottish Greens transport spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP, said: “Private jets have a huge environmental impact, and while their super-rich occupants pinball between their golf courses and yachts, it’s taxpayers who are left paying for the damage.

    “We all know that we urgently need to reduce aviation emissions, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to reduce private jet use. Taxing them fairly would deter such reckless flights, help move people to more sustainable modes of transport, and raise the funds to help us to mitigate the destructive impact they have on the rest of us.

    “We all know Labour cuts at Westminster mean money is tight in Scotland. But it isn’t enough to point this out, we must use every lever at our disposal to raise the funds we need for essential services and climate action. I can think of no better way of raising these funds than taxing super-rich polluters.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: How discovering the power of allusion enabled me to write better rap music

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Stephen Adey, Rap Lyricist and Lecturer in Music Performance at Confetti Institute of Creative Technology, Nottingham Trent University

    For the first half of my music career, I never fully considered the technical aspects of the art form I practised. Up until my mid-30s, I’d been driven to pen lyrics by a compelling sense of advancement and peer recognition – to achieve some form of artistic acclaim in the UK rap genre.

    When thinking back to this earlier time, I imagine myself as being completely immersed in a darkness of my own ignorance, scrabbling around for passages and phrases without any real understanding of how and why these elements of the craft meant so much to me.

    As a mature student – during the final stages of a masters degree in creative writing – a seed of self-discovery began to germinate. I decided to combine my newly acquired passion for creative writing, critical analysis and literary techniques with my 20 years’ plus career as a rapper, music producer and live performer and embark on a PhD.

    On beginning my research, it became apparent that a technical element of my craft I desperately coveted was called “allusion”. Allusion is an implied reference, perhaps to another work of literature, art, person or event that forms a kind of appeal to the reader or listener. It’s a means of reaching out and sharing an experience with them.

    When using allusion, a writer draws upon common knowledge shared with their audience to find links between cultural understandings or traditions. Most importantly for me, some forms of allusion can be more specialised, even deliberately difficult to grasp. Almost immediately, a realisation hit me: I had practised, been inspired by, adapted and searched for, this technique in rap since my earliest memories of the art form.

    Allusion, as with the more contested literary concept of intertextuality (a term coined in the late 1960s by French philosopher and critic Julia Kristeva to recognise the multiplicity of meaning within a text) has been used in rap and hip-hop culture since its beginnings. In fact, as musicologist Justin Williams points out in his book Rhymin’ and Stealin’ (2013), intertextuality serves as an integral part of the culture’s function. To “borrow” from a wide variety of artistic mediums is key to how hip-hop works, and is partly responsible for how it has thrived for half a century.

    I discovered multiple forms of intertextual engagement in rap while researching my PhD, but one technique stuck out to me the most. Rappers would draw on the words of authors to clarify their points, or further emphasise emotional impact in their work.

    For example, Nas and Kendrick Lamar have used the power of novelist Alice Walker’s writing to enhance their lyrics (both have “borrowed” from The Colour Purple). Lamar also employed the writing of Maya Angelou to add depth and complexity to his early conceptual material.

    Even borrowing a mere two words can have huge intellectual implications for a rap song. Just listen to Earl Sweatshirt’s Shattered Dreams (2018), and his use of James Baldwin’s voice from his inspirational 1962 lecture The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity. It’s a prime example of how this technique manifests itself in the genre.

    When thinking about how rappers engage with allusion and intertextuality, activist and rap artist Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, sums it up well:

    Hip Hop is a medium where you can get a lot of information into a very small space. And make it hold fast to people’s memory. It’s just a very radical form of information transferal.

    A ‘sonic-literary journey’

    With a clearer understanding of how deeply allusion and intertextuality runs through hip-hop, I began to craft a new body of work. This material eventually translated (after almost a decade) into a trilogy of LPs, the first of the three being titled S.T.A.R.V.E..

    I wanted to make S.T.A.R.V.E. part of a literary and musical tradition that has long attempted to decipher the feeling of isolation, and its links to mental illness or psychological downfall.

    To do so, I alluded to (and intertextually engaged with) various texts that have historically served as investigations into the sense of disconnectedness, or loneliness within a crowd, that I believe we have all felt at some point in our lives. In my opinion, S.T.A.R.V.E. is more of a novella than an album. It is a narrative as old as the hills, retold in my own image. It just so happens that my preferred medium is music, and my preferred practice is rap.

    Strongbow, the leading track on the author’s album, S.T.A.R.V.E.

    S.T.A.R.V.E. is a highly intertextual project. Poetic quotes on the album span from Charles Bukowski to Robert Frost, while borrowed themes stretch from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) to Knut Hamsun’s Hunger (1890).

    Previously conceived conceptual frameworks are also built upon, such as the nihilistic sentiment captured in Nas’s early work on Illmatic (1994), and Mark Fisher’s ideas on capitalism and “depressive anhedonia” in Ghosts of my Life (2014). This is all set against a backdrop of purgatorial imagery prominent in the work of figurative painter Francis Bacon and depicted by film director Adrian Lyne in his groundbreaking psychological horror film, Jacob’s Ladder (1990).

    Of all artistic mediums, I believe music is most open for interpretation. This means that what is taken from the music can often seem a million miles from authorial intentions. But this might be the point.

    When S.T.A.R.V.E. is heard, it will ultimately be down to the ear of the beholder as to which connections and meanings are drawn from the recording. At the end of the day, as Ethan Hawke states on Strongbow, a leading track taken from S.T.A.R.V.E. that quotes Paul Schrader’s 2017 film, First Reformed: “It’s about you.”


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

    I dedicate this article to Mark Fisher, whose writing on themes that run close to S.T.A.R.V.E.’s heart serves as another intertextual source of power for the LP. In 2014, Fisher wrote: “The pandemic of mental anguish that afflicts our time cannot be properly understood, or healed, if viewed as a private problem suffered by damaged individuals.”

    – ref. How discovering the power of allusion enabled me to write better rap music – https://theconversation.com/how-discovering-the-power-of-allusion-enabled-me-to-write-better-rap-music-238286

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magnus Linden, Associate professor of psychology, Lund University

    National memorial to the victims of the Rwandan genocide in Kigali. Oscar Espinosa/Shutterstock

    Each year, people visit museums and memorial sites as part of educational interventions organised around the remembrance of a genocide or an atrocity. Many schools visit a concentration camp as part of Holocaust education, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Others travel to memorial sites associated with other genocides, such as the massacre of Muslim men fleeing Srebrenica in Bosnia or the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Cambodia.

    Two important goals for such education are to foster empathy towards the victims and to increase students’ personal identification with them as a group. In this context, empathy is the ability to feel with the victims and to be able to take their perspective .

    But what does science say about the effect of visiting genocidal memorial sites on empathy and identification with a victim group? Our study, published in Holocaust Studies in July, sheds some light on the question.

    The science of empathy

    While we may justly think of empathy as a personality feature, it is also a capacity that can be activated through social experiences. When we identify with a group of victims we perceive a “we” connecting us with the members of the group.

    We do know that both empathy and identification with another group have been shown to foster positive relations with others.

    They are also important qualities that can protect people threatened by genocide. Empathy was an important factor among those who helped persecuted people to survive during the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, for example.

    Evidence suggests that Israeli high-school students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau may increase their empathy towards Palestinians. That’s if they initially are already somewhat positive towards Palestinians in principle and if they are prepared to see suffering in universal rather than national terms.

    Auschwitz-Birkenau.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    It has also been shown that groups of Polish students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau increased their identification with Jews as a group before and after visiting the concentration camp.

    Clear evidence

    In our recent study, we investigated 143 high-school students from Malmö in Sweden, of which 46 took a short course on the Holocaust, including a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

    We collected data both before and after the trip. We measured two facets of empathy in the students, “empathic concern” (such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”) and “perspective taking” (such as “Before criticising somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place”).

    We also measured to what extent they identified with Jews as a group by ratings of how close they felt.

    The results for this group were then compared with responses from a control group of students who did not participate in the course or trip to Auschwitz.

    We found that the Holocaust education and trip increased the students’ preparedness to identify with and take the perspective of Jews compared to those who didn’t go. However, both groups showed similar amount of empathic concern.

    Looking more closely at the change registered among students after the trip, we also found that a feeling of increased closeness to Jews as a group was related to increased perspective taking.

    Our work suggests a role of genocide education in fostering a broad empathic understanding of a victim group’s life and culture. This can provide important stimulation for students to put themselves in the shoes of an often “otherised” group, whose experience of hate and violence can be appreciated as if it is known from the inside.

    This is clearly important at a time when both Holocaust denial and Islamophobia are rising.

    Remaining mysteries

    There is a great need for more research on moral education interventions that involves a site or museum visit. Evaluating how this education works, and which aspects that have the intended effects, is of key importance. Cutting edge scientific methods, such as virtual reality, are now just beginning to make a difference to education in this area.

    We will next be working to pinpoint how trips to sites of atrocity affect students’ moral values, attitudes or behaviour.

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

    – ref. Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic? – https://theconversation.com/can-visiting-genocide-memorials-make-you-more-empathic-239854

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: UN extends Kenyan policing mission in Haiti in futile attempt to tackle gangs

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amalendu Misra, Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University

    Haiti is being choked to death by its 200 or so violent criminal gangs. The latest figures to be released by the UN suggest that more than 3,600 people have been killed in the country since January, including over 100 children, while more than 500,000 Haitians have been displaced.

    The situation prompted the country’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, to resign in April. And, two months later, a Kenyan-led policing mission tasked with establishing order was deployed to the Caribbean nation. But the operation has so far struggled to rein in the gangs.

    So, the UN security council unanimously adopted a resolution on September 30 to extend the mandate of the mission for another year. There was consensus that the law-and-order situation in Haiti is still deteriorating by the day.

    The move to extend the mission is, in my opinion, hollow and fails to address the real challenges on the ground. It doesn’t tackle the rampant arms trafficking that is fuelling the violence in Haiti, nor does it secure the funding that will allow the mission to operate effectively.



    Read more:
    How Haiti became a failed state

    Haiti has no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities. Yet the country’s gangs are brutalising the masses with all sorts of sophisticated small arms, including sniper rifles, pump-action shotguns and automatic weapons of every kind.

    All of these weapons originate outside of the island, primarily from the US, but also from neighbouring Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Experts say lax firearm laws in the US states of Arizona, Florida and Georgia have created a sophisticated arms peddling racket into Haiti.

    There is no exact number for how many trafficked firearms are currently in Haiti. But Haiti’s disarmament commission estimated in 2020 that there could be as many as 500,000 small arms in Haiti illegally – a number that is now likely to be even higher. This figure dwarfs the 38,000 registered firearms in the country.

    The effectiveness of the Kenyan operation is also being undermined by gross resource limitations. While the mission was approved by the UN security council, it is not a UN operation and relies on voluntary financial contributions. It was originally promised US$600 million (£458 million) by UN member nations, but it has received only a fraction of that fund.

    According to Human Rights Watch, the mission has so far received a mere US$85 million in contributions through a trust fund set up by the UN. Haiti’s former colonial master, France, and several other G7 countries have not been so forthcoming.

    Inadequate funding has hindered the procurement of advanced weaponry, delayed the payment of police officers’ salaries and has prevented the deployment of more forces on the ground.

    Just 400 Kenyan officers and two dozen policemen from Jamaica have arrived in Haiti so far. This is significantly less than the 2,500 officers pledged initially by various countries including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados.

    This financial woe has had a negative impact not only on the morale of Kenyan police officers, but it has also made Haitians despondent. Haitians are increasingly expressing impatience and disappointment with the Kenyan force in the media and online.

    Some critics have accused the officers of being “tourists”, and have pointed out that the gangs have tightened their grip on large swathes of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, since the mission began.

    The pessimism within Haiti was eloquently highlighted by the country’s interim prime minister, Garry Conille, on September 25. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet in New York, he confessed: “We are nowhere near winning this, and the simple reality is that we won’t without your help.”

    Advantage gangs

    Finding the Kenyan-led operation a mere irritant, and not a worthy adversary, the gangs have only stepped up the ante. According to a spokesperson for Volker Türk, the UN’s human rights chief, the country’s armed gangs are now doing “everything they can” to maintain control. This has included using sexual assault to instil fear on local populations and expand their influence.

    Some UN member nations, such as the US and Ecuador, have requested that a formal UN peacekeeping mission takes place. And, despite previous peacekeeping operations in the country being marred in controversy, Haiti has asked the UN to consider turning the current operation into a peacekeeping mission.



    Read more:
    Haiti: first Kenyan police arrive to help tackle gang violence – but the prospects for success are slim

    This mission, which would probably include a larger contingent of troops, should not face the same financial constraints as the current operation. It would have greater visibility on the ground, and more fire power and authority to tackle the gangs.

    Past evidence also demonstrates that UN peackeeping missions significantly reduce civilian casualties, shorten conflicts and help make peace agreements stick.

    However, the recent push for a peacekeeping mission was thwarted because of opposition by China and Russia, two of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN security council.

    Beijing and Moscow have consistently argued that political conditions in Haiti are “not conducive” to a new UN peacekeeping operation. They have maintained that the current operation “should reach its full operational capacity before discussing such a transformation”.

    Meanwhile, the gangs continue tightening their vice-like grip on the country, with accounts emerging of rampant sexual violence against civilians, the closure of humanitarian corridors, the extension of their territorial control and – of course – even more killings.

    Amalendu Misra is a recipient of Nuffield Foundation and British Academy research grants.

    – ref. UN extends Kenyan policing mission in Haiti in futile attempt to tackle gangs – https://theconversation.com/un-extends-kenyan-policing-mission-in-haiti-in-futile-attempt-to-tackle-gangs-240234

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tulin Dzhengiz, Lecturer in Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University

    A waste picker towing his cart through a street in Antalya, Turkey. Evgeny Haritonov/Shutterstock

    Turkey’s 500,000 or so informal waste pickers carry out around 80% of the recycling in the country. These workers, who are also known as çekçekçi, are essential for separating out waste in a country where this is rarely done at source.

    But their lives are precarious. Most of them are unregistered, lack social security, and have no access to basic services such as healthcare. And now they find themselves affected by efforts that formalise Turkey’s waste management system.

    Many of the workers are migrants. But large-scale immigration over recent years, particularly from conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Syria, has contributed to a rise in nationalistic sentiment throughout the country.

    This has seen immigrants – and particularly waste pickers – portrayed in a negative fashion. Waste pickers have, for instance, been labelled “şehir eşkıyası” (urban bandits) by the media. And many people have argued that Turkiye’s informal waste-picking practices should come to an end.

    Yavuz Eroğlu, the president of a non-profit organisation called PAGÇEV that promotes plastic recycling in Turkey, pointed out recently that the country’s “real problem” is its informal waste collection system. In Eroğlu’s view, informal waste picking impedes the effective scaling of recycling initiatives and prevents Turkey from improving its position in the global recycling market.

    Recycling facilities in Turkey require a steady and substantial supply of raw waste materials to function efficiently. But, according to the Turkish Statistics Institution, a mere 12% of the country’s municipal waste was recovered in 2018 – and it is not clear how much of this was actually recycled. This is not nearly enough to keep recycling companies afloat.

    So, in an effort to improve Turkey’s domestic waste management, the Turkish government launched an initiative in 2022 to regulate and formalise waste collection. The legislation requires that local authorities work exclusively with licensed recyclers and registered pickers to sort through and sell waste.

    Resistance movements have subsequently emerged within the çekçekçi community that advocate for the rights and recognition of informal waste pickers in Turkey. These movements have either reinforced the importance of existing waste picker collectives, or led to the creation of new non-profit organisations and cooperatives.

    In Istanbul, for example, the Şişli municipality launched an environmental waste collectors cooperative in 2023 in an attempt to formally integrate informal waste pickers into the municipal waste management system.

    This has involved registering waste pickers, issuing official identification cards, and providing them with access to designated waste collection zones. Similar models have also emerged in different parts of the country. But many of Turkey’s waste pickers remain locked out of the new formal system.

    The framing of informality as the problem is not new, nor is it limited to representatives of Turkey’s plastic recycling industry. In August 2021, the governor of Istanbul’s office ordered a crackdown on informal waste collection activities.

    Police carried out raids on nearly 100 waste collection depots and seized 650 collection carts. More than 200 people were detained in the raids, including 145 Afghan migrants who were sent to a deportation centre.

    The governor’s office justified the action by citing environmental and public health concerns, as well as the unregulated nature of employment in informal waste picking. In a statement, the office argued that unauthorised waste collection leads to unfair profits and announced that inspections would continue.

    Waste workers responded by criticising the governor’s claims and expressed frustration over being labelled as benefiting from unfair profits while living in precarious conditions without social security or a stable income.

    Importing more waste

    In fieldwork carried out between March and April 2024, I spoke with representatives of waste collectors, junk shop owners and waste traders in Istanbul.

    Some reported that there had been a decline in waste-picking rates since the crackdown of 2021. Waste collectors and their representatives expressed concerns that this decline could lead to a further reduction in domestic recycling rates and increase the reliance of recycling facilities on imported waste.

    Turkey is already one of the largest importers of waste from Europe. In 2022, for example, Turkey accounted for 39% of Europe’s waste exports, which included around 400,000 tonnes of plastic.

    Turkiye is a major importer of waste from Europe.
    Sahan Nuhoglu / Shutterstock

    This waste has serious consequences for the environment and human health. A Greenpeace report published in 2022 found that toxins released from Turkey’s plastic waste end up in the fruit and vegetables produced in the Çukurova valley, one of the most fertile valleys in the world.

    A continued decline in domestic waste collection in Turkey would create a vicious cycle. The value of Turkey’s own waste will decrease, further impoverishing informal waste pickers, all while the country’s reliance on imported waste grows to sustain its recycling infrastructure.

    The future of informal waste picking in Turkey remains uncertain. But as the country continues to formalise its waste management system, the challenges facing the sector’s informal workers must not be ignored.

    Tulin Dzhengiz receives funding from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Research Accelarator Grant to carry out this research.

    – ref. Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers – https://theconversation.com/turkeys-plan-to-recycle-more-has-made-life-hard-for-its-informal-waste-pickers-238661

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Mounjaro will soon be available as a weight loss treatment on the NHS – here’s what that means for patients

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Zoe Edwards, Research Lead/Advanced Clinical Practitioner/Senior Research Fellow, University of Bradford

    Mounjaro will soon be available for prescription on the NHS. Cynthia A Jackson/ Shutterstock

    The weight loss jab Mounjaro will soon be made available to nearly a quarter of a million NHS patients, according to proposals made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Previously, it was only available on the NHS for patients with diabetes.

    Under Nice’s proposals, the drug will gradually be rolled out over the next three years. Access to it will first be prioritised to patients who are severely obese and have at least three weight-related health problems – for example, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, high cholesterol and sleep apnoea.

    There are plans to increase NHS access to more patients after the initial three-year period. It will also remain available for patients with diabetes.

    This recent approval provides new treatment options for people with obesity – but how effective it is will depend on whether supplies can keep up with anticipated demand.

    What is Mounjaro?

    Mounjaro is the UK brand name of the drug tirzepatide, which, until now, has only been prescribed on the NHS for patients with diabetes to help control blood sugar and encourage weight loss.

    In the US, Mounjaro is used for diabetes treatment. Another version of tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Zepbound, is used for weight loss treatment. Zepbound is not licensed as a weight loss product in the UK.

    Tirzepatide works for weight loss by mimicking hormones in the body that tell our brain we feel full. A weekly injection is needed, which may be increased in strength each month, depending on the patient.

    Clinical studies have found tirzepatide is even more effective than semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) for weight loss. In some studies, patients have lost up to 20% of their body weight.

    Supporting weight loss

    Until now, Wegovy was the only weight loss injection authorised for NHS use under the care of specialised weight loss services. These services offer patients clinical treatment, mental health support, access to a dietitian and physiotherapy.

    But the availability of such services is patchy and recently access to many local services has even been paused or stopped. This means many patients who need effective weight loss treatments may not have access to them. Among the reasons for these services being suspended is there was greater demand than availability of services in some areas, as well as attempts to control prescriptions of crucial drugs due to ongoing shortages.

    Mounjaro needs to be injected weekly.
    Mohammed_Al_Ali/ Shutterstock

    Initially, it was thought that Mounjaro, would not need to be prescribed by specialists, but Nice have confirmed it will only be prescribed with specialist weight loss services to maximise its benefits and prevent complications.

    Now that Mounjaro has been authorised for use on the NHS, it will be key that access to specialist weight loss services is improved throughout the country so that people who need weight loss support are able to get it. NHS England are in the process of developing a range of community and digital services to address this.

    Is there enough Mounjaro for everyone?

    The change in guidance may lead to a rush in demand for referrals to weight loss services when the drug becomes available. This could add more pressure to an already challenged system.

    This uptick in demand may also affect access to Mounjaro for patients who use the drug for diabetes. This was the case with Ozempic (semaglutide) in 2023 – despite it only being licensed for the treatment of diabetes. Demand for the drug by those who wanted to use it to lose weight led to a surge in private prescribing of the drug off-label – leading to global stock shortages of semaglutide.



    Read more:
    Ozempic shortages in the UK may last until 2024 – here’s why

    Many patients using the semaglutide for diabetes were unable to source the product. Semaglutide’s manufacturers did not foresee this hike in demand and were not prepared to maintain supplies for people with diabetes.

    Since it was introduced on the market, Mounjaro has proved to be a popular product, with sales making its manufacturer, Eli Lilly, greater profits than expected. Stock shortages have already been experienced in Australia and the US. Due to ongoing demand and previous shortages of similar products (such as semaglutide) one would hope that Eli Lilly has anticipated increased demand for Mounjaro in the UK and will have adequate supplies from the outset.

    But with British pharmacies reportedly planning to reduce the private price of weight loss products (including Wegovy and Mounjaro), this could increase demand further – which may subsequently affect the availability of supplies for NHS patients.

    Given the successes of semaglutide and tirzepatide, it’s expected that further similar drugs will be developed. Many of these alternative products are already showing promise in clinical trials – such as an oral weight loss pill. Having alternative products available will ease strain on the supplies of current weight loss products.

    Will Mounjaro help with the obesity crisis?

    It’s thought that up to 25% of adults in the UK are obese. Obesity is linked to many health problems – including heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. Obesity-related healthcare is estimated to cost the NHS billions of pounds every year. Improvements in diet and lifestyle are recommended to tackle obesity, but, understandably, many patients find sustained change difficult.

    Greater access to weight loss drugs could help patients lose weight and prevent the associated health problems. This could also save the NHS money and improve long-term health. Weight loss drugs, such as Mounjaro, could be an important solution to a growing problem – but only if access to these treatments is available to those who need them most.

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

    – ref. Mounjaro will soon be available as a weight loss treatment on the NHS – here’s what that means for patients – https://theconversation.com/mounjaro-will-soon-be-available-as-a-weight-loss-treatment-on-the-nhs-heres-what-that-means-for-patients-239777

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: Ship and Rail Compensation Canada becomes new hub for compensation

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    OTTAWA, Ontario, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In a forward-thinking move to increase awareness and strengthen access to justice, the Ship-source Oil Pollution Fund and the Fund for Railway Accidents Involving Designated Goods have merged into a single federal office.

    Ship and Rail Compensation Canada is now Canada’s central hub for anyone affected by oil spills from ships or boats or major railway accidents involving crude oil.

    For years, a lack of awareness of available compensation has prevented many from accessing the support they need. Recent outreach efforts, however, were made to address this issue resulting in increased diversity among claimants and a broader geographic reach.

    Building on this progress, Ship and Rail Compensation Canada will aim to ensure that Canadians know where to turn to for help. This includes collaborating with our partners on how to integrate cost-recovery measures into emergency protocols. With greater access to compensation, those responsible for damages will bear more of the financial burden, not the victims.

    A cornerstone of this initiative is the launch of the new website, designed to be the central point of contact and information for claimants and key stakeholders: http://www.ship-rail.gc.ca.

    Quotes

    “With millions of litres of oil used or transported across Canada by ship, boat, and rail, it’s crucial that Canadians are financially protected from the risks of spills and accidents. We are here to help victims, responders, and anyone else affected receive the financial compensation they need.

    “Our new brand will reach more people than ever before and mitigate the impacts of oil pollution on our cities, towns, oceans, lakes, rivers, and livelihoods. It will significantly boost our outreach and awareness efforts, which are essential to fulfilling our mission of providing compensation and improving emergency preparedness.”

    Mark A.M. Gauthier, Administrator of Ship and Rail Compensation Canada

    About Ship and Rail Compensation Canada

    Ship and Rail Compensation Canada is Canada’s compensation hub for anyone affected by oil spills from ships or boats and by major rail accidents involving crude oil. Its mission is to help victims, responders, and anyone else affected get financial compensation and to hold polluters responsible for damages, losses, and response costs. Ship and Rail Compensation Canada is an independent federal office managing two funds: the Ship Fund and the Rail Fund. It is managed by an Administrator, with each Fund also having a Deputy Administrator.

    For more information or to file a claim, visit ship-rail.gc.ca.

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Banking: Apple’s Swift Student Challenge to open in February 2025

    Source: Apple

    Headline: Apple’s Swift Student Challenge to open in February 2025

    QUICK READ October 8, 2024

    Apple’s Swift Student Challenge has given thousands of students around the world the opportunity to showcase their creativity and build real-world skills. The challenge empowers students to join a worldwide community of developers using Swift — the same programming language used by professionals — to create the next wave of groundbreaking apps.
    Submissions for the 2025 Swift Student Challenge will open in February for three weeks. Students, educators, and their advocates can find out how to prepare for the challenge and sign up to be notified when applications open at developer.apple.com. Apple will recognize a total of 350 Swift Student Challenge winners whose submissions demonstrate excellence in innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. From this esteemed group, 50 Distinguished Winners will receive additional recognition and be invited to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino next summer.

    “At Apple, we are committed to supporting and nurturing the next generation of coders. Every year, we’re incredibly impressed by the ingenuity of the apps students are creating, and we’re excited to see what the next round of the challenge will bring,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations.

    Apple is also unveiling updated Swift Coding Club resources to help students prepare for the Swift Student Challenge, while building community and developing skills for a future career. The Swift Coding Club starter kit provides activities to empower students with a passion for app development to further explore Swift and SwiftUI and spread the word among their peers.
    In addition, new Develop in Swift Tutorials offer students a great first step toward a career in app development using Swift, SwiftUI, and Xcode — Apple’s integrated development environment — as they build innovative apps for all Apple platforms.

    MIL OSI Global Banks –

  • MIL-OSI: MoneyHero Enhances Car Insurance Vertical via Strategic Partnership with bolttech

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    MoneyHero to leverage bolttech’s cutting-edge insurance exchange technology to power the Company’s new car insurance platform

    New digital marketplace enhances MoneyHero’s insurance brokerage and conversion expertise, offering a streamlined end-to-end consumer journey across Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines

    SINGAPORE, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MoneyHero Limited (NASDAQ: MNY) (“MoneyHero” or the “Company”), a leading personal finance and digital insurance brokerage platform in Greater Southeast Asia, today announced the launch of its brand-new car insurance platform through a strategic partnership with bolttech, a global leader in insurtech. This collaboration will transform MoneyHero’s consumer experience for car insurance by integrating bolttech’s cutting-edge insurance exchange technology into the MoneyHero platform. The enhanced marketplace is now live in Hong Kong, with rollouts planned for Singapore by Q4 2024 and the Philippines by the end of Q1 2025.

    Through this strategic partnership, MoneyHero is strengthening its position as a digital insurance leader in the region, combining its expertise in financial product comparison and conversion optimization with bolttech’s innovative insurance capabilities. The new car insurance platform will empower consumers with better insights, broader options, and a more seamless purchase process, setting a new standard for the car insurance industry.

    Rohith Murthy, CEO of MoneyHero, said: “This launch marks a significant milestone for MoneyHero as we expand our car insurance offerings and enhance our capabilities as a leading digital insurance brokerage. By partnering with bolttech, we are not only elevating the user experience but also taking full ownership of the entire car insurance purchase journey—from comparison to conversion—within our ecosystem. This enhanced platform is aligned with our strategic pillars of brokerage excellence and conversion expertise, and it further underscores our commitment to making personal finance and insurance decisions easier for consumers across Greater Southeast Asia.

    “With bolttech’s expertise, we are offering an unmatched level of insight and simplicity that will reshape how consumers choose their car insurance. This partnership strengthens our position as a market leader, and together, we’re setting the stage for the future of digital insurance.”

    Enhanced Platform Benefits and Strategic Alignment

    Leveraging bolttech’s cutting-edge insurance exchange technology, MoneyHero’s car insurance platform offers users a best-in-class experience, including comprehensive comparison tools, accurate pricing references, and a streamlined end-to-end user journey. These features will allow consumers to make more informed and confident decisions about their car insurance, all within a seamless, fully integrated platform.

    Philip Weiner, CEO – Asia & Middle East, bolttech said, “We are thrilled to partner with MoneyHero to create an enhanced customer experience for car insurance across Southeast Asia. By digitally integrating with our insurance exchange platform, we are empowering MoneyHero to offer a seamless and transparent user experience, giving customers greater control and clarity in their car insurance decisions. Together, we look forward to delivering more value-added services to MoneyHero’s customers and driving further innovation in the insurtech space.”

    bolttech, with over 230 insurers and 6,000 products on its platform globally, brings unmatched expertise and market access to this partnership, ensuring that MoneyHero’s customers have access to a wide array of insurance options tailored to their needs.

    Revenue Growth and Strategic Expansion

    MoneyHero’s insurance vertical has been a key driver of growth, contributing 7% to total revenue in 2023 and has grown 89% year-over-over in Q2 2024, contributing to 11% of Group revenues in Q2 2024. The launch of the new car insurance platform is expected to significantly accelerate this growth, as it capitalizes on the increasing demand for digital insurance solutions in Greater Southeast Asia.

    Mr. Murthy added: “Our vertically integrated approach to brokerage, combined with this partnership, positions us to capture a larger share of the car insurance market. Insurance will continue to be a key contributor to our bottom line, driving new customer acquisition across our broader personal finance platform.”

    For more information about MoneyHero, including information for investors and learning about career opportunities, please visit http://www.MoneyHeroGroup.com.

    About MoneyHero Group
    MoneyHero Limited (NASDAQ: MNY) is a market leader in the online personal finance and digital insurance aggregation and comparison sector in Greater Southeast Asia. The Company operates in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.  Its brand portfolio includes B2C platforms MoneyHero, SingSaver, Money101, Moneymax and Seedly, as well as the B2B platform Creatory.  The Company also retains an equity stake in Malaysian fintech company, Jirnexu Pte. Ltd., parent company of Jirnexu Sdn. Bhd., the operator of RinggitPlus, Malaysia’s largest operating B2C platform. MoneyHero currently manages 279 commercial partner relationships and services 8.1 million Monthly Unique Users across its platform for the six months ended June 30, 2024. The Company’s backers include Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and the Founders Fund—and Hong Kong businessman, Richard Li, the founder and chairman of Pacific Century Group. To learn more about MoneyHero and how the innovative fintech company is driving Greater Southeast Asia’s digital economy, please visit http://www.MoneyHeroGroup.com.

    About bolttech
    bolttech is a global insurtech with a mission to build the world’s leading, technology-enabled ecosystem for protection and insurance. bolttech serves customers in more than 35+ markets across four continents, North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. With a full suite of digital and data-driven capabilities, bolttech powers connections between insurers, distributors, and customers to make it easier and more efficient to buy and sell insurance and protection products.

    For more information, please visit http://www.bolttech.io.

    For MoneyHero inquiries, please contact:

    Investors:
    MoneyHero IR Team
    IR@MoneyHeroGroup.com

    Media:
    Gaffney Bennett PR
    MoneyHero@gbpr.com

    For bolttech inquiries, please contact:
    bolttech Group Communications
    enquiries@bolttech.io

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Awangarda-Marketing Announces Global Live Lead Generation Solutions for Finance, Real Estate, and More – New Offers until End of 2024

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    PIOTRKOWSKA, POLAND, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Awangarda-Marketing, a global leader in live lead generation, is redefining how businesses acquire high-quality leads across multiple industries, including finance, investments, insurance, real estate, and cosmetics. With an innovative online service that allows advertisers to buy leads directly in CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) and CPL (Cost Per Lead) models, Awangarda-Marketing ensures that every lead meets strict qualification criteria, providing clients with optimal results and a higher conversion rate.

    Their new offer, available until the end of 2024, includes only live leads that have been pre-qualified through direct calls, guaranteeing high engagement and superior answer rates. To further enhance their commitment to quality, the company is offering up to 10% money back for any invalid numbers, making it a risk-free investment for advertisers worldwide.

    “We prioritize quality and transparency. Our team uses AI smart funnels to ensure lead optimization and the highest possible conversion rates,” said a spokesperson for Awangarda-Marketing. “By leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Taboola, Outbrain, MSN, Bing, and Native, we provide advertisers with the best traffic sources, ensuring that all leads are current, engaged, and ready to convert.”

    As part of its expansion plans, Awangarda-Marketing is continually optimizing its AI-driven lead funnels, offering a suite of tools to track and analyze lead engagement. Their approach combines the latest technological advancements with deep industry knowledge, ensuring that every lead is not only captured but also converted into a valuable customer. For more information on their services and new offers, visit their official website.

    Awangarda-Marketing specializes in live lead generation services for multiple industries, with a focus on delivering high-quality, qualified leads that drive business growth. Their global network and expertise in platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and others make them the go-to partner for businesses seeking reliable lead generation solutions for insurance and finance sectors, for instance, they implement advanced programmatic marketing strategies that allow for precise targeting, ensuring that leads are not only plentiful but also aligned with specific demographic and psychographic profiles. This targeted approach significantly boosts conversion rates, turning prospects into loyal customers.

    In the real estate market, Awangarda-Marketing employs long warm-up funnels, nurturing leads through personalized content and engagement strategies over time. This method creates a strong rapport with potential buyers, leading to increased trust and a higher likelihood of conversion. Similarly, in the cosmetics industry, the focus is on engaging with leads through tailored campaigns that resonate with their beauty preferences and lifestyle choices. By utilizing data-driven insights and effective segmentation, Awangarda-Marketing helps businesses connect meaningfully with their audience, driving higher sales and customer loyalty.

    With a commitment to innovation and results, Awangarda-Marketing continues to set the standard for lead generation across various sectors, making it a strategic partner for businesses aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape.

    Media Contact

    Brand: Awangarda-Marketing

    Contact: George Andris

    Email:  georgea@awangarda-marketing.com

    Website: https://awangarda-marketing.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the Navy League Sea Service Award – Rep Calvert

    Source: United States Navy

    Remarks

    Good evening, everyone! It is an honor to be here with you today to celebrate the Congressional Sea Services Award and Representative Calvert’s tremendous contributions to our maritime services.

    Mr. Callender, thank you for that kind introduction and for your work with the National Capital Council of the Navy League of the United States.

    Representative Calvert, thank you for your service as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and for your unwavering support of our men and women who proudly wear our Nation’s uniform.

    And thank you for your service to California’s 41st District—which I must mention includes Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Division and is part of the Inland Empire Tech Bridge!

    Thank you to our Congressional leadership here tonight for your partnership and support of our Navy and Marine Corps.

    Admiral Kilby, Admiral Lunday, and Lieutenant General Adams, thank you for your leadership of our sea services.

    I also thank the Navy League of the United States for all that they do, but especially for their advocacy on the issues we face as a maritime nation.

    From the very origins of our country’s founding, Americans from all walks of life answered the call to service and swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

    And service is, of course, a privilege—a chance to be a part of something much greater than ourselves and to uphold the values which define us as a nation.

    Service to our country and service in the armed forces are not merely jobs or careers—they are fundamental facets of our democracy.

    Our Sailors, Marines, Soldiers, Airmen, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen are deployed and serving around the world every single day.

    In the Red Sea, since October 7th, our ships and aircraft have shot down hundreds of missiles and conducted multiple strikes into Houthi-controlled territory to protect innocent merchant shipping.

    Our service men and women are deterring Iran’s actions and preventing the Israel-Hamas conflict from escalating into a broader regional conflict.

    Our service members form the vanguard of our national defense.

    But our warfighters cannot accomplish their mission without the critical partnership between the Department of Navy and Congress.

    So I thank Representative Calvert for championing the members of our United States Armed Services and especially our Sailors, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen and women who are stationed around the world.

    The work you accomplish every day serves a crucial role in shaping our Nation’s military capabilities and priorities.

    And the investments we make in our uniformed services go beyond just platforms, technology, and weapons systems.

    Our investments also include those in our people—improving quality of service for our service members and their families.

    Our people provide the foundational strength of our armed services, and force resilience and readiness begin and end with them.

    We cannot be the most capable, lethal, and agile warfighting force in the world without recruiting, retaining, and investing in every American who volunteers to serve both in and out of uniform.

    Representative Calvert, thank you for your support of our service members and their families.

    I sincerely congratulate you on this very deserving Congressional Sea Services Award.

    Thank you, to all of you here tonight, for your support of the men and women of our armed forces.

    May God bless our service men and women stationed around the world and in harm’s way.

    Thank you.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: North Battleford  — Battlefords RCMP investigating serious assault

    Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

    On October 6, 2024 at approximately 12:15 p.m., Battlefords RCMP were conducting proactive patrols and observed an adult male who was seriously injured, running on the 900th block of 106th street in North Battleford, SK. The man entered the hospital before officers could approach him. Due to the severity of the man’s injuries, officers followed and ultimately assisted medical staff with initial life-saving efforts. The man remains in hospital.

    As a result of continued investigation, 33-year-old Adam Wright is charged with:

    • one count, aggravated assault, Section 268(2), Criminal Code;
    • two counts, fail to comply with probation order, Section 733.1(1), Criminal Code; and
    • one count, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, Section 88(1), Criminal Code.

    A warrant has been issued for Adam Wright’s arrest. Battlefords RCMP continue work to locate and arrest Adam Wright and ask members of the public to report all sightings and information about his whereabouts.

    Adam Wright is described as 5’11” tall and 192 lbs. He has brown eyes and is believed to have long black and blonde hair. He has a scar on his left elbow. A photo of him is attached (his hair may not be as it appears in the photo).

    Battlefords RCMP continue to investigate.

    If you see Adam Wright, do not approach him. Report all sightings and information about his whereabouts to Battlefords RCMP at 310-RCMP (7267). Information can also be submitted anonymously by contacting Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or http://www.saskcrimestoppers.com.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: SECNAV Del Toro As-Written Remarks at the USS Richard McCool Commissioning

    Source: United States Navy

    Thank You/Introduction

    Good morning, everyone! It is an absolute honor to be here with you today in Pensacola, Florida—“The Cradle of Naval Aviation”—to commission our fleet’s newest warship, the USS Richard M. McCool, Jr. (LPD 29), the first ship named in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Captain Richard M. McCool, Jr, United States Navy.

    Congressman Gaetz, thank you for your partnership and collaboration in supporting the thousands of Sailors, Marines, civilians, and their families who are stationed and train here in Pensacola to defend our nation across all domains in which we operate.

    Mayor Reeves, thank you for joining us today and for your support of our service men and women in this great city.

    Admiral Franchetti and General Mahoney, thank you both for your presence here today, and for your leadership of our Navy-Marine Corps team.

    This warship before us represents the combined power of our two naval services, and so it is fitting to have leaders from both services here today to welcome it into our Fleet and our Force.

    To the crew of USS McCool, the rest of our Navy team, and our partners in industry: thank you for your unwavering support—this commissioning was made possible only by your tireless efforts.

    Multi-Ship Procurement Announcement

    As 78th Secretary of the Navy, my mission is to provide combat ready forces and capabilities to the President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and our Combatant Commanders.

    And it is inherent within my duties as Secretary to identity and rectify delays within our shipbuilding efforts.

    Last fall, I announced my vision for a new National Maritime Statecraft to prevail in an era of intense strategic competition.

    Maritime Statecraft encompasses a national, whole-of-government effort to restore the maritime capabilities of the United States.

    I have forcefully advocated to revive our Nation’s shipbuilding capabilities and capacity.

    And so, today I am proud to publicly announce that the Department of the Navy is pursuing the award of the Amphibious Multi-Ship Procurement Contract for a total of three San Antonio Class amphibious ships—just like USS Richard M. McCool Jr.—along with an America Class amphibious assault ship.

    I meet often with industry leaders to discuss the challenges that prevent us from moving forward faster in shipbuilding.

    They respond that fluctuations in demand make it difficult to maintain a stable production schedule.

    This agreement sends still yet another steady demand signal to our shipbuilding industrial base.

    And this agreement also demonstrates the Navy’s commitment to maintaining 31 Amphibious warfare ships and our prudent measures taken with taxpayer funds.

    I am proud to make this announcement today, as we—just as CNO says—welcome another “player to the field,” manned by an all-volunteer force of Sailors and Marines, who have dedicated their careers and their lives in service to our nation, much like this ship’s namesake.

    Captain Richard M. McCool, Jr.

    Like myself and several in the audience today, Captain McCool began his naval service as a Midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, though he joined in 1941, right at the outset of World War II.

    While his dream was to be a naval aviator, shortly after his graduation from USNA in 1944, he found himself as the commanding officer of USS LCS 122, a landing craft support ship, leading 65 officers and sailors.

    And in the spring of 1945, McCool and his crew found themselves sailing throughout the Pacific Theater, supporting Marines ashore during the Battle of Okinawa.

    LCS 122 and her sister ships were charged with guarding the radar picket destroyers stationed off the coast of Okinawa against Japanese kamikaze attacks, armed with rocket launchers and 40mm guns to repel threats from the sky.

    But on June 10th, 1945, a kamikaze struck LCS 122 below the conning tower where then-Lieutenant McCool was manning his battle station, knocking him unconscious.

    When he came to, he took charge of the situation, coordinating damage control efforts and the evacuation of his crew.

    Despite his severe wounds from the blast, including a collapsed lung, he endeavored to rescue as many of his crew as he could who were trapped in blazing compartments.

    His actions saved LCS 122—which was returned to service after repairs—as well as a majority of his crew.

    For his actions, President Truman presented McCool with the Medal of Honor.

    After World War II, Captain McCool continued to serve in our Navy during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, retiring in 1974 after 30 years of honorable service as both a Surface Warfare Officer and Public Affairs Officer.

    Even after his retirement from the Navy, Captain McCool continued to serve the Seattle community through volunteer work, as well as serving two terms as a Kitsap County Party chairman.

    And while Captain McCool is no longer with us, we take solace in knowing that he is watching over our next generation of naval leaders from his final resting place at the Naval Academy cemetery, and that his strength, his courage—his spirit—lives on through his family present here today.

    Ship Sponsor

    Shana, on behalf of this crew and our Navy, thank you for serving as ship sponsor for the USS Richard M. McCool, Jr.

    In this role, you will forever be the connection between this warship, her crew, and your grandfather’s legacy of service.

    It is my hope that you will continue to share your stories and memories of your grandfather with the crew, giving them a deep appreciation for the man whose name adorns their uniforms.

    Closing

    Captain McCool’s leadership in the face of grave danger and his acts of heroism to save the crew and the ship our nation entrusted to him are indeed an example for all throughout our Navy and Marine Corps to follow.

    To the Sailors and Marines of the USS Richard M. McCool, Jr. and your families, you are about to embark on a great adventure as you bring this ship to life.

    On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you all for the work and sacrifices you have already made, and for everything you will do in the coming days to as you work towards your maiden deployment.

    May God continue to watch over this ship, her crew, and grant them with fair winds and following seas wherever they may sail.

    Thank you.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: $13 million federal investment to improve health services in Driftpile Cree Nation through construction of the Mihtatikaw Sipiy Health and Wellness Facility

    Source: Government of Canada News

    News release

    October 08, 2024 — Driftpile Cree Nation, Treaty 8 Territory, Alberta — Indigenous Services Canada

    When we invest in healthcare, we invest in the prosperity of our communities. On September 26, 2024, Chief Dwayne Laboucan of Driftpile Cree Nation, along with Council, Elders, community members, and representatives from Indigenous Services Canada, celebrated the start of construction of the Mihtatikaw Sipiy Health and Wellness Facility.

    With a total investment of $13 million from Indigenous Services Canada, the health centre will blend modern architecture, Indigenous cultural values and Cree symbolism, reflecting the Nation’s commitment to community health, healing and Cree heritage.

    The project will bring together mental wellness and community health services under one roof, creating a central hub for holistic health support. The construction of the new health centre will replace an aging facility and double the footprint of health services to the community, from 527 square metres to 1,047 square metres. The centre will increase current health programming and offer enhanced mental wellness and community health services that meet the growing needs of the Driftpile Cree Nation.

    Quotes

    “The $13 million federal investment in Driftpile Cree Nation’s new Mihtatikaw Sipiy Health and Wellness Facility will provide community members with the essential health services that they need, incorporating Indigenous cultural values and traditional knowledge.”

    The Honourable Patty Hajdu
    Minister of Indigenous Services

    “We are proud of the new health centre being built for our people as it was needed so that we can take care of our own”

    Chief Dwayne Laboucan
    Driftpile Cree Nation

    Quick facts

    • The project began in 2021 and is expected to be completed in March 2026.

    • Driftpile Cree Nation is located in Treaty 8 Territory, nestled on the southern shore of Lesser Slave Lake in Northern Alberta. It has an on-reserve population of 1,041 and a total population of 3,223.

    • Through the Government of Canada’s Health Facilities Program, Indigenous Services Canada works with First Nations and Inuit communities to provide funding for infrastructure that supports the delivery of health-related programs and services.

    Associated links

    Contacts

    For more information, media may contact:

    Jennifer Kozelj
    Press Secretary
    Office of the Honourable Patty Hajdu
    Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for FedNor
    Jennifer.Kozelj@sac-isc.gc.ca

    Media Relations
    Indigenous Services Canada
    819-953-1160
    media@sac-isc.gc.ca

    Trina Okimaw
    Driftpile Cree Nation, Executive Manager
    exec.mgr@dpcn.ca

    Stay connected

    Join the conversation about Indigenous Peoples in Canada:

    X: @GCIndigenous
    Facebook: @GCIndigenous
    Instagram: @gcindigenous

    Facebook: @GCIndigenousHealth

    You can subscribe to receive our news releases and speeches via RSS feeds. For more information or to subscribe, visit http://www.isc.gc.ca/RSS.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: The Bank of Canada releases the third quarter issues of the Business Outlook Survey and the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations

    Source: Bank of Canada


















  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sellafield Ltd welcomes its largest ever graduate cohort

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    More than 140 graduates have started at Sellafield Ltd.

    Graduate intake event 2024.

    Over 140 graduates have just started their exciting careers with the company in a range of business and technical disciplines, supporting Sellafield Ltd in its mission to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

    Our scheme aims to equip graduates with the skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary for a successful career in the nuclear industry, while offering the opportunity to build valuable professional networks.

    One of the graduates who has just completed the two year scheme is commissioning engineer Anouschka Van Mourik.

    Just before completing the scheme, Anouschka was honoured as Graduate of the Year thanks to her consistent work delivery and enthusiasm for undertaking new opportunities to develop her skills.

    Anouschka Van Mourik, Graduate of the Year

    Anouschka has also been involved in the Gender Balance network, mentoring scheme, and local events supporting the Institute of Engineering and Technology network as well as the Women in Nuclear group.

    She said:

    Being named Graduate of the Year was an incredible honour. The graduate scheme has been an amazing journey, rich with development and personal growth. I’ve not only advanced in my day-to-day job but also nurtured my passion for inspiring others to pursue careers in STEM.

    After earning my degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Sellafield has played a vital role in further developing my skills and supporting my personal and professional growth.

    As we celebrate the successes of our current graduates, we are also excited to look ahead to the future. Applications for the 2025 graduate scheme are now open, with roles available in a variety of areas ranging from engineering to project management and finance.

    To find out more about the Sellafield graduate scheme, visit the Sellafield careers website.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Have your say about new Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Natural England is seeking views on a new Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Yorkshire Wolds

    An image of mist on the Yorkshire Wolds.

    Natural England has today (8th October) launched a statutory and public consultation for proposed plans to designate part of the Yorkshire Wolds as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  

    This will be the formal consultation phase and will remain open for 14 weeks (closing midnight on the 13th January 2025). Local authorities and all interested parties can comment on the proposed AONB and the evidence which supports it.   

    AONBs were recently rebranded as National Landscapes however, in legal terms, Natural England would designate an AONB.

    To avoid confusion, Natural England will use the term AONB throughout the consultation process. If an AONB is subsequently designated, it would then be known as a National Landscape.    

    Plans to designate a Yorkshire Wolds AONB are part of an ambitious programme of landscape designation and is one of four new projects to help deliver on the Government’s commitment to safeguard more of England’s beautiful and iconic landscapes for future generations.  

    The Yorkshire Wolds is a tranquil, beautiful landscape, known for dramatic steep sided dry valleys, high but gentle escarpments, dramatic coastal cliffs, and open, rolling agricultural plateaus.

    Natural and cultural heritage in the area includes ancient woodland, species rich grasslands, chalk streams, Iron Age settlements, abandoned Medieval villages and Georgian manors and parkland. The Wolds also include a prominent chalk cliff and foothills rising from the Vale of York to the west and the Vale of Pickering to the north.  

    Designating this precious landscape as an AONB could bring many benefits including conserving and enhancing the area’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, as well as the magnificent views and tranquillity of the area.

    It could give improved access to nature for the benefit of people’s health and wellbeing, whilst safeguarding an important landscape for future generations. AONBs can also boost economic growth and sustainable local tourism.   

    Paul Duncan, Deputy Director for Natural England, said:  

    The Yorkshire Wolds is a truly special area, and it is important that everyone, including people who live in and around the community, has their say in this national designation project.     

    We’re inviting anyone interested in this fantastic landscape to take the time to examine the proposals and provide their views and comments about the natural beauty of the Yorkshire Wolds, its condition, natural and cultural heritage, and scenic qualities. You can also comment on the desirability of the designation and the proposed boundary. Evidence that you provide could be vital in helping us refine our proposals.  

    Cllr Anne Handley East Riding of Yorkshire Council Leader, said:  

    I’m delighted that the Yorkshire Wolds, a large part of which is situated in East Riding, are being considered for national level designation.

    We are very lucky to have a range of fabulous natural assets from the Wolds to the coast, which attracts millions of visitors each year. It is fantastic to see the area, with its outstanding natural beauty, considered for such a significant status. 

    Shaun Berry Head of Environment & Sustainability of North Yorkshire County Council said:   

    We know how important North Yorkshire’s beautiful natural landscape is, to the people who live and work in and around it, those who visit from across the UK and the world and the businesses that serve those visitors.

    We already see these benefits in the county’s two National Parks and other areas of outstanding natural beauty in Nidderdale, the Howardian Hills and the Forest of Bowland, so I urge local people to have their say about this opportunity.    

    There will be a number of drop-in events and webinars to show the proposals and explain how people can have their say.

    Details of these events, along with copies of the consultation documents, information about the designation process and what an AONB means are available to view and download on the consultation website here.  

    People will also have the chance to view the documents at the drop in events and in a small number of local libraries and local authority offices, details of which are on the website. 

    Paper copies of the consultation pack can be requested by emailing the Natural England designation team on YorksWoldsDesignationProject@naturalengland.org.uk  or telephoning 0300 060 3900.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: MHRA asks patients to report without delay any safety problem with their continuous glucose monitor or insulin pump

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is asking patients who use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) or insulin pump to report any safety problem with their device through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme without delay.

    Over 5.6 million people in the UK live with diabetes, many of whom rely on these devices to manage their condition, and their use can significantly improve the quality of life for patients.

    However, adverse incidents relating to these devices can occur, and while most of these incidents do not result in harm to the patient, they can potentially lead to the incorrect amount of insulin which can lead to abnormal blood sugar levels, with potentially serious health consequences.

    The MHRA utilises the Yellow Card reporting scheme for signal detection and trending activities to identify safety concerns that may require action. As of January 2023, the MHRA has received fewer than 300 Yellow Card reports from healthcare professionals and members of the public relating to these devices, which is significantly fewer than we would expect given their widespread use. The MHRA is therefore reminding users how to report adverse incidents and potential safety issues to us.

    To aid this vital reporting, the MHRA has today, Tuesday 08 October, introduced new step-by-step guidance, giving individuals living with diabetes detailed information on how to report any safety concerns with their device and what information they need to include. This guidance provides examples of the types of issues which should be flagged and images to help guide users in their reporting.

    Dr Alison Cave, MHRA Chief Safety Officer, said:

    Patient safety is our top priority, which is why we urge anyone using devices to manage their diabetes to report to us without delay any safety concerns they may have. We know adverse incidents can occur with the use of these devices. The vast majority of these incidents don’t result in harm but potentially could have serious consequences.

    Every report is valuable to us as it will provide valuable insight and potentially inform future regulatory measures designed to protect patients. We are ready to take whatever action is needed.

    If you are concerned that there is an issue with any of your diabetes devices, please use the guidance [LINK] to complete a Yellow Card report online using the Yellow Card website or via the free Yellow Card app.

     Douglas Twenefour, Head of Care at Diabetes UK, said:

    Diabetes technology can be a life-changing tool, helping people living with the condition improve their quality of life.

    Unfortunately, we know that sometimes this technology doesn’t work as intended, so it is important that users of diabetes tech have a clear and accessible way to report any issues with continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps and pens.

    Diabetes UK welcomes any guidance that gives reassurance for people using diabetes tech to highlight potential problems quickly and easily. We would encourage anyone with a concern about diabetes tech to report it, as this vital information can help improve the quality of devices.

    However, if there is any immediate concern about technology that could affect a person’s safety, advice from an appropriate healthcare professional should be sought first.

    Professor Partha Kar, NHS England Type 1 Diabetes & Technology lead, said:

    We welcome this work and its important role in ensuring safety while we oversee the widespread adoption of diabetes technologies using continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps.

    These devices can be life-changing for people living with diabetes, giving them the confidence to go about their days knowing they are safe and able to enjoy themselves, so their operationally effectiveness is of paramount importance.

    This initiative will help to ensure standards stay at the highest level as the market continues to expand with new developers.

    The MHRA also urges people to speak to a healthcare professional without delay if they have concerns that their health may have been impacted by a potential safety issue relating to their device.

    Examples of the types of issue with continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps that should be reported include:

    • Concerns with accuracy of delivery from the insulin pump (for example, suspected underdose or overdose, unexpected bolus doses, non-delivery of insulin)
    • Concerns with accuracy of results from a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). As part of your report, please tell us what the readings were on both the CGM and the approved blood glucose meter (see page 6) including the time elapsed between the 2 readings

    • Skin reaction to the sensor adhesive. If a patch test was carried out, please let us know.

    • Technology concerns, such as:

      • Connectivity issues between the various parts of the diabetes management system

      • Concerns with the touchscreen, display or buttons

    • Physical failures, including leaks and cracks

    ENDS

    Notes to editors

    1. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe.  All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.
    2. The MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.
    3. More information can be found on the Device Safety Information page.
    4. For media enquiries, please contact the newscentre@mhra.gov.uk

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can Montana’s ‘last rural Democrat’ survive another election?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Lee Banville, Professor and Director of the School of Journalism, University of Montana

    U.S. Sen. Jon Tester speaks to union members at a Labor Day campaign stop on Sept. 2, 2024, in Billings, Mont. William Campbell/Getty Images

    Jon Tester has never had it easy.

    The three-term Democratic senator from Montana has scored more than 50% of the vote only once in his three runs for the U.S. Senate, attracting 50.3% of the vote in 2018 against state auditor and future U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale.

    This year, Tester’s always-perilous path to reelection seems narrower and more harrowing than ever before. And the outcome could determine whether the Senate remains in Democratic control or flips to the Republicans.

    Current polls and political prognosticators are even starting to turn on the moderate from the farming community of Big Sandy with the flattop haircut. FiveThirtyEight has Tester’s opponent, former Navy SEAL and businessman Tim Sheehy, up four percentage points, and the venerable Cook Political Report has gone so far as to say the race “leans Republican.”

    For Montana State University political scientist Jessi Bennion, this election may be the end of an era in rural America.

    “I used to always call Tester the unicorn candidate because there was no one like him,” she told my students a couple of weeks back. “He was a farmer, he was a rural Democrat, the last rural Democrat.”

    Jon Tester, right, first won election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, when he beat Republican incumbent Conrad Burns, left, by a margin of 3,562 votes out of 406,505 cast.
    Win McNamee/Getty Images

    The end of the unicorn?

    I teach political reporting at the University of Montana School of Journalism, and every two years I send students out to interview candidates, profile races and talk with voters. It is true that the state has changed even since Tester won in 2018.

    Despite an influx of outsiders over the past decade, Montana is still a sparsely populated state boasting 1.1 million people in the latest census. Though the state has historically relied on mining and timber for much of its economy, new economic activity in tourism and technology have helped fuel a 10% jump in population in the most recent census.

    But with that influx, housing costs have soared and so have property taxes. It also leaves one of Montana’s political traditions in danger.

    See, Montana has a history of doing something very few people do these days – ticket splitting, when a person votes in an election for candidates from opposing parties. In a time of deep polarization, it is hard to imagine, but out here in the Rocky Mountains and the northern plains, voters would consistently vote for a Republican for president and often for the Legislature, but also for Democrat Jon Tester.

    Tester was able to put together a coalition of voters in the few pockets of liberals – college towns such as Missoula, union strongholds such as Butte and Indigenous voters on the reservation – and carve away enough moderate voters in more rural areas to eke out wins. When I moved here in 2009, it was not just Tester who did this. Back then, Montana had a Democratic governor, attorney general and head of schools. But over time those statewide offices have all gone, often by double digits, to Republicans.

    No Democrat has won statewide since Tester did it back in 2018.

    Migration and the march from purple to red

    Then COVID-19 hit Montana.

    The state saw a surge in population, jumping nearly 5% between 2020 and 2023, and experts such as political scientist Jeremy Johnson told my students earlier this fall that it is important to know who these new residents are.

    “I still think the race, you know, can be competitive,” Johnson said. “I do think that some of my broader themes here – the polarization, the calcification, the reluctance to ticket split – makes it harder for Tester. Plus, I think there is some evidence that more Republican-leaning voters have moved to the state than Democrat-leaning voters in the last few years.”

    One analysis reported on by the Montana Free Press found that for every two Democrats who moved to Montana since 2008, three Republicans did.

    Montana does not have party registration, so when you vote in a primary, they give you a ballot for both parties, and you choose the one you want to participate in. In the highly publicized U.S. Senate primary this year, only 36% of primary voters voted in the Democratic primary, while 64% chose to vote in the Republican primary.

    The one question mark of 2024

    Supporters of an abortion rights initiative at a rally on Sept. 5, 2024, in Bozeman, Mont., with Sen. Jon Tester, whose path to reelection may be helped by a large turnout of abortion rights voters.
    William Campbell/Getty Images

    Ask Sen. Tester, and he will say his campaign is anything but over. He is stressing his independence from his political party, how Republican President Donald Trump signed bills he sponsored and his long-running support of veterans as cornerstones of his campaign.

    But his path to reelection may run right through Roe v. Wade.

    Montana’s constitution was written in 1972, and it has some pretty progressive elements, including a right to a clean environment and an explicit right to privacy, as opposed to the more implied one in the U.S. Constitution. And in 1999, the state Supreme Court said that right to privacy included abortion access.

    Still, in part to ensure that a later court decision could not strip away that right, voters have put CI-128 on the ballot this fall, which would explicitly include protection for abortion access in the state constitution.

    Tester hit the issue hard in his last debate with Sheehy on Sept. 30, 2024.

    “The bottom line is this: Whose decision is it to be made?” Tester said during the debate. “Is it the federal government’s decision, the state government’s decision, Tim Sheehy’s decision, Jon Tester’s decision? No, it’s the woman’s decision. Tim Sheehy’s called abortion ‘terrible’ and ‘murder.’ That doesn’t sound to me like he’s supporting the woman to make that decision.”

    Tester’s supporters hope the initiative could inspire younger voters and moderate women to flock to the polls this fall, and that might make Tester’s path to reelection a bit more doable.

    But it is going to take a bit of unicorn magic, perhaps, for Tester to win a fourth term.

    Back at Montana State University, Bennion said the situation looks pretty dire for the Democrats in rural states.

    “I don’t see, unless our state changes in a lot of different ways, I don’t see a Democrat winning in a long time,” he said. “Just the way our state is growing, the kind of person that is moving here and voting.”

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

    – ref. Can Montana’s ‘last rural Democrat’ survive another election? – https://theconversation.com/can-montanas-last-rural-democrat-survive-another-election-240647

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: No antidote for bad polls: Recalling the New York Times’ 1956 election experiment in shoe-leather reporting

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By W. Joseph Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Communication, American University School of Communication

    President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, left, with Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, greet crowds after Adlai Stevenson conceded defeat on Nov. 7, 1956. Bettmann/Getty Images

    In response to national pollsters’ failure in forecasting election outcomes in 1948 and 1952, The New York Times pursued in 1956 a weekslong, multistate exercise in on-the-ground reporting to assess public opinion about the presidential race.

    The Times’ experiment, which these days would be recognized as “shoe-leather reporting,” included two dozen journalists assigned to four teams that, in all, traveled to 27 battleground states over several weeks before the election – a rematch between President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, and his Democratic rival, Adlai E. Stevenson.

    The reporting teams interviewed scores of Americans from all walks of life in an attempt to gauge voter preferences qualitatively – without relying on the data of preelection polls. One of the participating Times reporters declared afterward that the teams-based campaign coverage represented “a new departure in journalism.”

    In unintended testimony to the challenges of measuring public opinion across a sprawling country, the Times’ coverage was no significant improvement over the polls. The Times’ reporting notably failed to anticipate the magnitude of Eisenhower’s reelection — a lopsided victory in which he carried 41 states.

    In its final report before the election, the Times concluded that Eisenhower would win reelection but would fail to match the sweep of his landslide four years earlier. As it turned out, Eisenhower easily exceeded the dimensions of his victory in 1952, when his winning margin was 10.5 percentage points.

    The Times’ coverage also failed to foresee Eisenhower’s state victories in 1956 in Virginia, Oklahoma and West Virginia, and markedly underestimated the president’s support in Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas, among other states.

    The Times’ reporting experiment proved an imperfect substitute to election polling, as I discussed in a research paper presented recently to the American Journalism Historians Association. In the paper, I defined “shoe-leather reporting” as the gathering of newsworthy content through in-person interviews, document searches and on-the-scene observations. The idiom presumes that journalists will pursue fieldwork so energetically as to wear out their shoes.

    “Shoe-leather reporting” has been long celebrated in American media; a widely published journalism educator has described the practice as “mythical” and “one of a very few gods an American journalist can officially pray to.”

    New York Times staffer Max Frankel was taken off the rewrite desk in 1956 and sent knocking on doors ‘to gather voter sentiment’ in Wisconsin, Texas, Virginia and Missouri.
    Ban Martin/Archive Photos/Getty Images

    Crises skew projections

    The Times’ experiment in 1956 represents an exceptional case study about both the appeal and limitations of detailed, interview-based reporting as a method for measuring public opinion in a presidential race, especially when dramatic international events occur shortly before the election.

    Such was the case in 1956, when the Egyptian government seized the Suez Canal, prompting military intervention by Israeli, British and French armed forces — a response that Eisenhower deplored. About the same time, Soviet tanks were ordered into Hungary to crush an uprising against communist rule and install a regime compliant to Moscow.

    The international crises may have boosted the margin of victory for Eisenhower, an Army general during World War II, in a rally-round-the-president effect.

    It was, in any event, polling failure that inspired the Times’ campaign coverage experiment.

    Eight years earlier, in 1948, the polls, the press and pundits anticipated that Republican Thomas E. Dewey would oust Democrat Harry S. Truman, who had become president on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

    But on the strength of a vigorous, cross-country campaign, Truman prevailed over Dewey and two minor-party candidates to win.

    The leading national pollsters of the time — George Gallup, Archibald Crossley and Elmo Roper — all predicted Dewey’s easy victory. Roper announced in early September 1948 that Dewey was so far ahead that he would stop releasing survey results. Dewey, said Roper, would win “by a heavy margin.”

    Truman, who predicted that pollsters would be “red-faced” on the day after the election, carried 28 states and 303 electoral votes. His margin of victory over Dewey, who won 16 states and 189 electoral votes, was 4.5 percentage points. J. Strom Thurmond of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party carried four Deep South states and 39 electoral votes.

    Not tied to ‘arithmetic of polls’

    Not surprisingly, Gallup, Crossley and Roper turned exceedingly cautious in evaluating the 1952 presidential race, maintaining as the campaign closed that either candidate could win.

    Eisenhower, they said, seemed to hold a narrow lead but that Stevenson was closing fast. Or as the Times said in reporting about a public gathering of the pollsters shortly before the election: “The poll takers gave a slight edge in the popular vote to … Eisenhower, the Republican candidate, but this was their dilemma: How fast is … Stevenson, the Democratic nominee, catching up?”

    Equivocation did not serve the pollsters well. None of them anticipated Eisenhower’s sweeping victory — a 39-state landslide.

    The Times did not editorially rebuke pollsters for their misfire in 1952, but the newspaper’s editors, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Max Frankel in his memoir, had “lost confidence in polls.”

    To cover the 1956 presidential election, the Times de-emphasized opinion polls in favor of its own intensive, on-the-ground reporting that focused on states where the presidential race was believed to be closely contested.

    The New York Times sent reporters across the country to interview people like these men listening to Democratic Party presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson on his October 1956 whistle-stop tour of the Midwest.
    Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    Frankel, who rose through the ranks to become the Times’ executive editor, recalled being taken off the rewrite desk in 1956 and sent knocking on doors “to gather voter sentiment. I drove through odd precincts of Milwaukee and Austin (Texas), Arlington (Virginia) and St. Joseph (Missouri), feeding notes” to a colleague on one of the reporting teams.

    The teams typically spent three days in a state, conducting interviews “with political scientists and policemen, leading politicians and bartenders, laborers, housewives and farmers,” the newspaper said.

    The Times described its grassroots reporting as “surveys,” although they were not quantitative samples.

    “Team members found value in not being tied to the arithmetic of polls,” one of the participants, Donald D. Janson, wrote in a post-election assessment for the Nieman Reports, a journalism industry publication.

    “The scope and depth of the venture was a new departure in journalism,” Janson declared.

    The process was impressionistic, even idiosyncratic. “Each reporter,” Janson wrote, “was free to judge each response, from politician and voter alike, for reliability.”

    The Times published 36 state-specific preelection reports, including nine based on reporters’ follow-up visits to states where outcomes were expected to be especially close.

    In its wrap-up report two days before the election, the Times said it “seemed doubtful” that Eisenhower’s margin “would be as great as it was in 1952.” In fact, Eisenhower’s victory in 1956 far surpassed that of 1952; in the rematch, he crushed Stevenson by more than 9.5 million votes.

    The Times conceded in an after-election article that its teams-based coverage “did not anticipate the magnitude of the President’s victory,” which it attributed to the Suez crisis and turmoil in Hungary. The crises, the Times said, “apparently gave the final impetus to the Eisenhower landslide.”

    No antidote for bad polls

    The 1956 experiment in shoe-leather reporting was no rousing success. “There was some feeling,” Janson wrote afterward, “that the Times should stick to reporting trends and let the pollsters make the forecasts.”

    Preelection polls by Gallup and Roper in 1956 accurately pointed to Eisenhower’s victory but overstated the president’s popular vote. Eisenhower won by 15 points; Gallup and Roper estimated his margin of victory would be 19 points. By 1956, Crossley had sold his business and retired from preelection polling.

    Roper declared himself “personally pleased” by the outcome but reluctant to take “any bows for perfect accuracy.”

    Given the unreliability of preelection polls in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Times had ample reason to experiment in seeking a more precise understanding of popular opinion. But as results of the 1956 election demonstrated, shoe-leather reporting was no antidote for the wayward polls.

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

    – ref. No antidote for bad polls: Recalling the New York Times’ 1956 election experiment in shoe-leather reporting – https://theconversation.com/no-antidote-for-bad-polls-recalling-the-new-york-times-1956-election-experiment-in-shoe-leather-reporting-237523

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kamala Harris has spoken of her racial backgrounds − but a shared identity isn’t enough to attract supporters

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pawan Dhingra, Associate Provost and Professor of American Studies, Amherst College

    Vice President Kamala Harris greets guests during a reception for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the White House in May 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    In one of the most memorable moments of the current presidential campaign, Donald Trump in July 2024 contended that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris recently stopped identifying as Indian and “happened to turn Black.”

    With these false remarks, Trump implied that Harris emphasized one part of her background to appeal to voters and then changed that to appeal to a different group of voters.

    Lost within this controversy has been the underlying assumption in Trump’s comments, that people tend to vote for someone with a shared identity. But is that true? Are Asian Americans, for example, especially likely to vote for Harris because of their shared identity?

    Asian Americans are a quickly growing political constituency that made a difference in 2020 in swing states such as Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, helping elect President Joe Biden. They are positioned to be influential again this November.

    Taken as a whole, Asian Americans lean Democratic in 2024, with 62% favoring Harris, compared with 38% who support Trump. But for Harris, Asian Americans are not as strong a voting bloc as Black Americans, who poll at 77% supporting Harris, according to the Pew Research Center. Harris cannot take Asian Americans’ votes for granted.

    Kamala Harris takes a photo with guests during a White House reception in May 2022 celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
    Associated Press

    What guides identity politics and voting

    Despite the assumption in Trump’s comments that voters gravitate toward a political candidate who shares parts of their identity, such as race or gender, that is not always the case.

    Voters are more likely to vote for someone with a shared identity when they see a “linked fate.” with the candidate. So, people who have the same ethnicity or race may vote in a similar fashion because they expect to experience the effects of policy changes in the same way. Latinos could be more likely to vote for a Latino candidate because the candidate would prioritize issues that matter to them, such as immigration reform.

    Politicians, for their part, can try to encourage people with whom they share an identity to believe in a linked fate to win their vote. In order to do this, candidates can play up issues that affect their identity group and then make the case that they are best equipped and more motivated to address those problems.

    For instance, women rank abortion rights as a key issue and trust Harris to understand it.

    In order to earn voters’ support, candidates must also come across as likely to act in their supporters’ shared interests. This helps explain why people who care about so-called women’s issues, such as education or health care, are more likely to vote for a Democratic woman than a Republican woman. People generally think that Democrats represent women better than Republicans do – and they would not assume that a Republican female politician would champion women’s issues just because of her gender.

    With this in mind, a candidate wanting to secure the vote of a group must first know what issues matter to them and then demonstrate that they understand the group well enough to earn their vote.

    Asian Americans, like most Americans, list the economy, inflation, health care, crime, Social Security, the price of housing and immigration as their top issues in this election.

    In order to effectively appeal to Asian American voters, Harris could demonstrate first that she identifies as Asian in order to invoke their shared identity. She could also show that she both understands the issues that Asian Americans care about and that she can be trusted to act in ways they favor on those issues.

    To an extent, Harris has already worked to publicly identify with her South Asian heritage. She has referred to her mother’s immigrant background and has talked about her grandfather who lived in Chennai, in southern India. She has made references to her ethnic culture, such as when she mentioned coconut trees and cooked the traditional South Indian dish dosa in a video with fellow Indian American Mindy Kaling.

    New Hampshire delegate Sumathi Madhure attends the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024.
    Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    Connecting to Asian Americans

    Once solidifying that they share an identity with a group of voters, political candidates must demonstrate that they understand how the group experiences the issues that matter to them. The concerns of Asian Americans arise out of specific experiences they have – such as immigration.

    Asian Americans, for example, often complain about the long wait to sponsor family members abroad for visas to the U.S. At the same time, Asian Americans represent 15% of immigrants living in the U.S. without a visa.

    Asian Americans are also concerned about the growing government backlog of visas and smugglers whom immigrants pay to help them illegally cross the border.

    Harris often speaks about immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, but not in personal terms – or about how this issue specifically relates to Asians.

    While all U.S. residents are affected by inflation, small-business owners, in particular, feel the pinch. They must pay higher prices for goods but have limited capital with which to do so. They also must navigate higher interest rates.

    While Asian Americans make up about 7% of the total U.S. population, they represent 10% of business owners and are the largest nonwhite group of small-business owners.

    Harris talks about the economy and inflation, as well as the need to support small-business owners, but not about how these issues specifically affect Asian Americans. Her only ad targeting Asian Americans has focused on hate crimes against them.

    And Asian Americans, like most voters, strongly support Social Security and other federal programs that aim to ensure stability for the elderly. Harris could speak of how Social Security is the sole income source for over a quarter of Asian Americans – and for a third of African Americans – compared with 18% of white Americans.

    Harris seems poised to capture the majority of the Asian American vote, which leans Democratic. But to what extent they vote for her – and with how much enthusiasm – will depend on Harris’ ability to connect with them as Asian Americans and the issues they care about.

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

    – ref. Kamala Harris has spoken of her racial backgrounds − but a shared identity isn’t enough to attract supporters – https://theconversation.com/kamala-harris-has-spoken-of-her-racial-backgrounds-but-a-shared-identity-isnt-enough-to-attract-supporters-237107

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Swing state voters along the Great Lakes love cleaner water and beaches − and candidates from both parties have long fished for support there

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Mike Shriberg, Professor of Practice & Engagement, School for Environment & Sustainability, University of Michigan

    The Great Lakes account for 20% of the world’s freshwater supply.
     Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images

    If history holds true to form, I expect the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to begin touting their support for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as Election Day approaches.

    The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, or GLRI, is a federal program that funds water and habitat protection and restoration for the Great Lakes, which contain over 20% of the world’s surface freshwater. While voters in some parts of the country may have never heard of it, it is a big deal in the eight states that border these inland seas.

    A 2021 poll by the Great Lakes Water Quality Board found that 90% of U.S. and Canadian residents in the region support the lakes’ protection.

    But the popularity of the Great Lakes would not have blossomed into such an ambitious and bipartisan conservation effort without another critical fact. Three of those eight surrounding states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – are critical swing states in 2024. And Ohio, although no longer considered a swing state, had been one until 2016.

    As a scholar of water policy and politics at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment & Sustainability, and a former leader in the Great Lakes advocacy community, I have championed Great Lakes protection and studied the impact of advocacy on policy and funding.

    I have seen how politicians and conservationists deftly use the region’s political battleground status to draw support for Great Lakes restoration from presidential candidates from both major parties. And I believe this is unlikely to change in 2024 and beyond.

    Fighting ‘Everglades envy’

    The Great Lakes are considered a uniting force among residents of the region, thanks to their iconic nature, recreational value and the drinking water they provide to over 40 million people.

    This broad and deep regard, however, was not enough to protect the Great Lakes from extreme degradation throughout the 20th century.

    Time magazine declared Lake Erie “dead” in a 1970 article that included an iconic cover photo of a fire burning on the surface of Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River. This media coverage, following decades of pollution of the Great Lakes, helped to both kick-start the U.S. environmental movement and pave the way for passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972.

    But in 2000, when the Florida Everglades ecosystem – which sits in what was a key swing state at the time – received over US$4 billion in federal funding for a massive cleanup, the Great Lakes still didn’t have the resources for even basic remediation of toxic sites.

    This led many in the region to suffer from what I heard many lawmakers and others describe as “Everglades envy.” They shared maps of how the entire Everglades ecosystem could fit into one corner of the Great Lakes. More importantly, they plotted how to get funding to clean up toxic hot spots, restore degraded habitats, expand recreational access and educate the next generation of Great Lakes leaders.

    George W. Bush’s executive order

    When President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection team wanted to secure the electoral college votes of Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, regional lawmakers and advocates helped them craft an executive order. It declared the lakes a “national treasure” and required federal agencies to work together on a “regional collaboration of national significance for the Great Lakes.”

    That same year, philanthropist Peter Wege gave $2.5 million to launch the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition. The coalition brought together nonprofits in the region to collectively advocate for cleaning up the lakes.

    After Bush’s reelection, his executive order was used to organize over 1,500 diverse stakeholders into eight strategy teams. These teams created a $20 billion plan for restoring the Great Lakes.

    However, the plan existed only on paper – until the presidential campaigns of 2008, when advocates and political leaders leveraged the swing state status of Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin to garner support for funding the cleanup plan.

    As a result, Sen. Barack Obama’s and Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaigns declared their commitment to Great Lakes restoration.

    Obama launches GLRI

    After winning all eight Great Lakes states in 2008, Obama used stimulus funds to launch the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2010.

    With an initial congressional appropriation of $475 million in 2010, and nearly $300 million in each of the following two years, it was one of the rare times Obama’s proposed budget aligned with Republican priorities in Congress.

    In the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, both Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee whose father was a former governor of Michigan, declared their support for Great Lakes restoration. This came after the Healing Our Waters coalition pressed both campaigns to pledge to fund GLRI and to stop invasive species from reaching the Great Lakes via the Chicago River.

    When President Obama proposed cutting Great Lakes funding from $300 million to $250 million per year, Congress rebuffed him.
    Mark Wilson via Getty Images

    After the 2012 election, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative continued to receive approximately $300 million per year and strong support in Congress. When Obama proposed modest cuts to the program during his second term, Republicans and Democrats united to restore the funding. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative inspired “rare bipartisanship,” as The Associated Press reported at the time.

    Trump moves to eliminate funding

    In the 2016 election, representatives for both Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, pledged support for Great Lakes restoration during the annual meeting of the Healing Our Waters coalition in Sandusky, Ohio. The Trump team, however, was ambiguous about the funding level it supported.

    Once in office, Trump reversed course and proposed eliminating all funding for the initiative.

    Congress, led by bipartisan members of the Great Lakes Congressional Task Force – including U.S. Rep. David Joyce and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio Republicans who held powerful appropriations positions – fought back fiercely and restored the funding.

    In 2018 and 2019, Trump’s budgets proposed cutting funding for the initiative by 90%. But again, with strong bipartisan support, it was restored to levels nearing $300 million per year.

    By 2020, concerns tied to his reelection prospects changed Trump’s approach.

    Trump supporters join a boat parade in 2020 on Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio.
    Dustin Franz for The Washington Post via Getty Images

    Trump’s turning point

    The famous turning point allegedly came during a car ride to a West Michigan campaign rally in 2019 when Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga emphasized the importance of the Great Lakes to Michigan politics.

    At the rally, Trump reversed his previous position and announced that he would fully fund the GLRI at $300 million per year.

    He went further: “I support the Great Lakes. Always have. They’re beautiful. They’re big. Very deep. Record deepness, right? … We’re going to make the Great Lakes great again.”

    In response, Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee quipped, “The President claiming to support the Great Lakes is like an arsonist congratulating themselves for putting out a fire they started.”

    Regardless, Trump’s shift helped the restoration initiative reach $320 million in funding in the 2021 budget – the first time it topped $300 million since its first year.

    On the campaign trail in 2020, both Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden highlighted their support for GLRI during swing state stops in the upper Midwest. Biden ultimately won all three of the current Great Lakes swing states and strongly supported the GLRI while in office too.

    In 2021, he signed into law the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included $1 billion in additional GLRI funding over five years. With this boost, funding for the initiative reached nearly $550 million in 2022, its highest ever.

    Bipartisan litmus test

    Since its launch in 2010, the GLRI has funded over 7,500 projects to clean up polluted waterways, restore habitats, control invasive species, reduce polluted runoff, improve recreational access and educate the public.

    Great Lakes pollution remains a complex problem, however, and climate change further complicates cleanup efforts.

    The Biden administration has repeatedly emphasized and implemented its commitment to the Great Lakes specifically and water infrastructure generally.

    And in the current race, both vice presidential candidates are from the region. In 2023, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio became the Republican co-chair of the Great Lakes Congressional Task Force. He has supported legislation to increase funding for the GLRI.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket, briefly referenced the Great Lakes’ freshwater supply during the Oct. 1, 2024, vice presidential debate. He too has strongly supported efforts to restore them during his time in office.

    Although Great Lakes restoration has not yet played a major public role in either Trump’s or Harris’ 2024 campaign, history tells us that the issue plays well politically in key swing states in the upper Midwest. In fact, it has become a rare bipartisan litmus test of allegiance to this politically divided and critically important region.

    Mike Shriberg was previously the Great Lakes Regional Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation, which entailed being a co-chair (and, for part of the time, Director) of the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition that is referenced in the article.

    – ref. Swing state voters along the Great Lakes love cleaner water and beaches − and candidates from both parties have long fished for support there – https://theconversation.com/swing-state-voters-along-the-great-lakes-love-cleaner-water-and-beaches-and-candidates-from-both-parties-have-long-fished-for-support-there-237946

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: European court ruling finds just cause to award soccer players greater freedom of movement

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan

    A ruling that Harry Kane may be happy about? James Gill/Danehouse via Getty Images

    Many of us have quit a job at some point in our lives – but how many have wondered if they had “just cause” to do so? Were you acting on a whim? Did your departure make life difficult for your employer? And did your desire to move on really outweigh the loss this meant for your boss?

    Just cause can be a real problem for professional soccer players who want to change teams. Under the soccer transfer system created and operated by FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, players who quit without showing just cause – that is, who fail to show that their employer treated them in manner that is demonstrably unfair – can be subject to significant financial and disciplinary penalties.

    But that could soon change. On Oct. 4, 2024, the European Court of Justice took a major step toward dismantling an employment system that placed undue burden on employees and, thankfully, was dispensed with for the rest of us long ago.

    As a sports economist, I have written about this subject for several years now, and I know of no system outside of sports that restrains the rights of the employee to a comparable extent.

    An object lesson for FIFA

    The legal case is complicated, but the essence of it is that Lassana Diarra, a star player for Lokomotiv Moscow back in 2014, got into a dispute with the Russian club while under contract and quit. He then got a job offer from a Belgian club but was unable to take it because of the FIFA transfer regulations.

    Europe’s top court ruled in favor of former French international Lassana Diarra.
    Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

    Under the governing body’s rules, not only was Diarra expected to pay damages to Lokomotiv amounting to US$11.5 million plus interest, but he was unable to take a job with any club until the dispute was settled. A formal suspension was not enforced, because Diarra had already been unable to work for 11 months.

    But Diarra countersued, claiming the regulations of FIFA unreasonably restricted his employment rights. The case has passed through many stages, until the highest court in Europe finally delivered its decision.

    The court struck down two specific parts of FIFA’s regulations: the rule that an International Transfer Certificate, required by a player to move from one country to another, cannot be issued until the dispute is settled; and the stipulation that any new employer of the player is jointly and severally liable for any damages against the player due to the old club, regardless of whether that employer played a role in the dispute.

    The court, which has historically been deferential toward sports governing bodies and their regulations, was highly critical of FIFA’s transfer system. It declared the rules anti-competitive “by object” and not just “by effect.” In the view of the court, the rules were not merely aimed at ensuring an orderly market for soccer player services, but amounted to a “non-poaching agreement,” arguing that they were intended to restrain competition for players in order to benefit the clubs.

    An end to transfer fees?

    The decision means that FIFA will have to rewrite its transfer rules in a way that demonstrates that the system has a clear and legal purpose. The regulations will be deemed legitimate, the court said, for the purposes of guaranteeing “contractual stability” and ensuring that clubs have the right to receive compensation when there’s breach of contract.

    A player who quits while under contract will still need to demonstrate just cause – unfair treatment by the club – or else be liable to pay a fine or penalty. But the new system will look very different, and it is hard to see how the payment of transfer fees can survive.

    Last summer alone, clubs in the top five European leagues spent around $5 billion on player transfers. Frequently, there are moves between clubs in each direction, and so cash transfers are smaller than the big money moves that grab the headlines.

    The system deprives some star players of substantial potential earnings.

    Take England national team captain Harry Kane, for example. In 2023, German club Bayern Munich paid London-based Tottenham around $100 million to buy Kane out of the last year of his contract. Kane was being paid about $13 million a year at Tottenham, and he got a four-year contract at Bayern, paying him around $27 million a year.

    While his salary doubled, Kane received only half of what Bayern was prepared to pay to obtain his services, thanks to the FIFA regulations. The rest went to his former club.

    Here is what one might expect to happen from now on: Kane would unilaterally announce that he wanted to leave, and then a club like Bayern could make an offer. Tottenham would no longer have any enforceable claim over Bayern and so no transfer fee would be paid, and Bayern would offer to pay Kane something like $52 million a year.

    Kane would have to pay damages to Tottenham for breach of contract, and the court suggested that these damages might reasonably equal the wages that the club would have paid him for the remainder of the contract – so in the case of Kane, $13 million.

    Clearly Kane would have been much better off if the judgment had arrived a year or two ago.

    Don’t fall for the trickle-down myth

    Soccer fans will be worried that this means financial ruin for their club and increases inequality as the big clubs poach the big stars.

    But I see no reason to think that the sky will fall. As recent research has shown, the transfer system has a negligible effect on the distribution of resources among the clubs. Rather, transfer fee spending is more likely the source of financial instability than its remedy, as some clubs spend extravagantly with unrealistic expectations.

    It is true that club owners hoping to grow rich by developing young players and trading them in the market will believe that they now have fewer opportunities, but for most clubs, this has always been an illusion.

    Big clubs tend to tie up the potential stars in their teens, leaving few opportunities for small clubs to find diamonds in the rough.

    Major League Soccer, the U.S. professional league, for example, has ambitions to one day match the big European leagues and has committed significant resources to developing player talent.

    But recent figures suggest that the league is still a net importer of players – and not just superstars such as Lionel Messi.

    In fact, MLS might actually benefit from the end of the transfer system. There are plenty of talented players who might fancy a year or two in the U.S. if they are not unduly tied down by transfer regulations.

    Blowing the whistle on unfair practices

    But perhaps the biggest impact of the ruling will be on the mass of professional players who do not live in the spotlight.

    FIFA estimates there are around 130,000 professional players worldwide, and most of them earn little in comparison to the super-salaried stars of the world’s biggest clubs.

    Yet, these journeymen and -women players have been bound by the same restrictive system and are often denied the opportunity to change teams – not because they are being offered great riches, but because they want a change of scene, or to be closer to their families.

    FIFPro, the players’ union, has documented numerous cases of onerous employment conditions, which were possible under the repressive transfer system.

    Thanks to the European Court of Justice, those days may soon be over.

    In 2015 I wrote a report for FIFPro on the economic consequences of the transfer system

    – ref. European court ruling finds just cause to award soccer players greater freedom of movement – https://theconversation.com/european-court-ruling-finds-just-cause-to-award-soccer-players-greater-freedom-of-movement-240403

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Crucial topics are missing from teens’ education on sex and reproductive health in England

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rina Biswakarma, PhD researcher in Reproductive Health, UCL

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock

    Comprehensive sex and reproductive health education aims to promote positive attitudes toward sex and reproductive health, and empower young people to make informed decisions.

    But decent sex and reproductive health education is still lacking in many parts of the world. This leaves significant gaps in young peoples’ knowledge and understanding.

    We have carried out research to figure out what young people in England are missing in their sex education lessons. We reviewed the relationships and sex education (RSE) curricula across the UK.

    We found that, in England, much of the focus of sex and reproductive health education is on pregnancy prevention. Much less emphasis is given to reproductive health topics such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, fertility and the menopause.

    We also carried out a survey of 931 students aged 16-18 across England. We found students were missing key aspects of reproductive health knowledge.

    Students are not being adequately informed about fertility, despite the RSE curriculum guidelines stating that students must be taught “the facts about reproductive health, including fertility, and the potential impact of lifestyle on fertility”.

    Lack of knowledge

    For example, despite the fact that students learn about the menstrual cycle in RSE lessons, half of them did not know when women are most fertile during the menstrual cycle.

    Less than 3% of teenagers in our study told us that they had been taught about specific reproductive health conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS. Just over 10% said they had learned about menopause.

    Over 70% of students recognised the decline in egg quality and quantity with age, but only about 50% understood the effects of age on sperm quality and quantity.

    In our survey, we asked students what reproductive health topics they research about outside of school. Students told us that they had sought out knowledge on a variety of reproductive health topics, including PCOS, endometriosis, menopause, miscarriage and abortion – subjects that are seldom covered in detail during RSE lessons.

    Many turned to social media and the internet for answers on sex and reproductive health. While these platforms offer easy access to information, they can also expose students to misinformation from non-credible sources.

    In our survey, 70% of students said that they had “a little” sex education at their school. Only 30% rated their school’s sex education as good or very good. This shows a major gap in the quality of sex education most students are getting at school.

    Knowledge seeking

    Our study shows that students in England want to learn more about these topics in school. When we asked them what could be done to improve sex education at school, they called for a more inclusive and comprehensive curriculum that covers a wider variety of topics – including miscarriage, abortion, masturbation and how to access sexual and reproductive health services. One student said:

    All we’ve done in school is go over and over having safe sex and talked about periods which whilst is important is barely scratching the surface of things people need to know about.

    Students want greater focus on sex positivity because current discussions mostly highlight negative aspects of sexual activity. They believe the importance of sexual wellbeing is often ignored. They want honest, transparent, and non-judgmental education – not teaching methods driven by fear.

    Based on our findings, our research team, as part of the non-profit International Reproductive Health Education Collaboration has developed evidence-based educational resources to enhance reproductive health education. These include an education resource for teachers, information leaflets and a fertility education poster.

    These tools aim to help teachers, health professionals and the public access accurate and comprehensive reproductive health education.

    Teens turn to other sources, such as social media, to get information they’re missing at school.
    Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock

    Under the previous government, the Department of Education proposed an update to the RSE curriculum, which included the addition of topics such as “menstrual and gynaecological health, including endometriosis, PCOS, and heavy menstrual bleeding.”

    The results of a consultation on this and other proposed changes are currently under analysis. But adding these topics to the curriculum would be a crucial advancement in school reproductive health education.

    Reproductive health education must be given equal importance to core academic subjects, and schools need to actively engage with students, addressing their reproductive health needs and concerns. This is crucial, as school is often the only time that students receive formal education on these topics.

    By providing comprehensive and accessible information at this stage, schools can equip students with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health throughout their lives.

    Rina Biswakarma is affiliated with the charity Fertility Network UK.

    Daniel Marcu owns shares in Virilitas Labs and he is the President of the Network for Young Researchers in Andrology (non-profit).

    Joyce Harper gives paid talks on reproductive health education and has written a book called Your Fertile Years.

    – ref. Crucial topics are missing from teens’ education on sex and reproductive health in England – https://theconversation.com/crucial-topics-are-missing-from-teens-education-on-sex-and-reproductive-health-in-england-237281

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –